The Google Business Profile checklist for local businesses

How does Google decide which local businesses to show?

Google’s own help page on local ranking names three factors:

• Relevance: how well your profile matches what the person searched for.
• Distance: how far your business is from the person searching, or from the place they named.
• Prominence: how well known the business is, which includes links to your website and the number of reviews and your rating.

Google also states that there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking. Anyone who sells a guaranteed spot on the map is selling something Google says does not exist.

Step 1: Is your profile claimed and verified?

• Search for your business name on Google Maps. If a profile exists, claim it; don’t create a second one.
• Complete verification. Google treats it as the confirmation that you are allowed to represent the business.
• Make sure the owner account belongs to the business, not to a former employee or an agency.

Step 2: Is every core detail complete and correct?

• Name: the real name on your sign and paperwork, with no added keywords or city names.
• Category: the primary category that best describes the business as a whole, plus any secondary categories that truly apply.
• Address or service area: a full address if customers visit you. If you travel to customers, set the areas you serve.
• Hours: regular hours, and special hours for holidays. Wrong hours cost visits and earn bad reviews.
• Phone and website: a number that is answered, and a link to the most useful page on your site.
• Attributes: details such as parking, wheelchair access or Wi-Fi, which Google lists as part of a complete profile.
• Description: two or three plain sentences on what you do, for whom and where.

Step 3: Have you listed what you sell?

• Add each service with a short description, and prices or price ranges if you publish them.
• Add products if you sell from a shop. Google lets eligible retailers show in-store products.
• Use the words your customers use. This is where relevance is decided.

Step 4: Do your photos show the real business?

• Upload your logo and a cover photo.
• Add photos of the outside, so people recognise the place when they arrive, and of the inside.
• Add photos of finished work, the team and the products. Use real photos, not stock images.
• Add a few new ones every month, so the profile never looks abandoned.

Step 5: Are you asking for reviews and answering them?

• Ask every satisfied customer, soon after the job, with a direct link to your review form.
• Reply to every review, good and bad. Google lists responding to reviews among its tips, because it shows that you value feedback.
• Never buy reviews or offer a reward for them. It breaks Google’s rules and can get reviews or the profile removed.

Step 6: Does the profile match your website?

Your name, address, phone number and hours should be identical on the profile, on your website and on every directory that lists you. Mismatched details make a business harder to trust, for people and for search engines.

The match matters more now. Google has been retiring the old Questions and answers section on profiles in favour of an AI “Ask” feature in Maps, as Search Engine Roundtable reported in December 2025. Those answers are written from your profile, your reviews and your website, so answer common customer questions on your website and in your profile’s description and services. I cover how these tools read a business in how ChatGPT and AI search tools understand your business.

What should you do every month?

• Check hours, phone number and services, and set special hours before each holiday.
• Add new photos.
• Ask recent customers for reviews and reply to the new ones.
• Publish an update when you have real news: an offer, an event or a new service.
• Look at the profile’s performance report to see which searches and actions bring customers.

Frequently asked questions