Your Google Business Profile: a 15-minute checklist

Your Google Business Profile is the listing people see on Google Maps and in the map results when they search for your trade nearby. It is often the first thing a customer sees, before your website. Here is what to check.

Name and category

• Use your real business name, the one on your truck and your paperwork. Adding words like "best" or your city to the name is against Google's guidelines.
• Pick the main category that matches the work you most want. You can add other categories for the rest.

Where you work and when

• If customers come to you, show your address. If you go to them, set a service area with the towns you cover and hide the address.
• Set your regular hours, and add holiday hours before each holiday.

Phone and website

• Use the same phone number that is on your website.
• Link your website, and check the link opens the right page on a phone.

Services and description

• List each service you offer in plain words.
• Write a short description of what you do and where. Skip slogans.

Photos

• Add real photos of your work, your team and your trucks.
• Skip stock photos. Customers can tell.
• Add new ones as you finish jobs.

Reviews

Reply to every review, good and bad. See our post on replying to Google reviews for what to say.

Check it every month

Anyone can suggest an edit to your listing, and Google sometimes accepts changes you did not make. Once a month, look over your name, hours, phone and website, and fix anything that changed.

Root's free check looks at this on your own business.