The phone rings in every town you serve.
What actually matters on our Google Business Profile?
Five things: the exact name, address and phone matching your site and everywhere else; the right primary category; real photos, added regularly; reviews arriving steadily and answered; and accurate hours including holidays. Posts, Q&A and the rest help a little. Those five decide whether you appear in the map results at all.
For a business people visit or call, the Google Business Profile is often found before the website. It deserves more care than it gets, and less fiddling.
The five that matter
Name, address, phone. Exactly as on your site, your invoices and every directory. Not the name with a keyword added; Google suspends profiles for that. One profile per real location.
Primary category. The single most important setting. “Portable toilet supplier” and “Sanitation service” produce different results. Pick the category your best customers would search for, add secondary ones for the rest.
Photos. Real ones of the premises, the trucks, the team, the work. Added every month or two, not once at setup. Profiles with current photos get more calls and directions; Google says so and the numbers bear it out.
Reviews. Steady beats sudden. Ten a month for a year beats a hundred in one week, which looks bought. Every review answered, briefly and personally, including the bad ones.
Hours. Correct, including holiday hours set ahead. A profile showing “open” for a closed yard produces angry reviews.
Worth doing, lower return
Services listed with short descriptions. The business description written as a plain paragraph about what you do and where. Q&A seeded with the questions you’re actually asked. Posts, if you have something to say.
Not worth it
Keyword-stuffing the name or description. Posting daily for the sake of it. Chasing the “profile strength” meter. Paying anyone who promises to “rank your profile”.
For several locations
One profile each, managed from one account, with the same five things done consistently. The branch’s reviews land on the branch’s profile. This is most of what separates a chain that shows up everywhere from one that shows up at head office.