Is Your Google Business Profile Costing You Calls?

For most local businesses, the Google Business Profile is the first thing a customer sees, before the website and often instead of it. When someone nearby searches for what you do, Google shows a map and three businesses. If your profile is incomplete, inaccurate or quiet, the call goes to one of the other two.

Google says local results are ranked on three things: how relevant your profile is to the search, how close you are to the person searching, and how prominent your business is, which includes your reviews and how well known you are across the web. You can't move your address. The other two are where profiles win or lose.

What a strong profile has

• The right primary category. It is the most important choice on the profile, and many businesses pick one that is close but wrong.
• Facts that match everywhere: the same name, address, phone and hours on the profile, the website and every directory. Mismatches make Google, and AI assistants, less sure the business is real.
• Services and a description written for the customer, not stuffed with keywords. Google's guidelines limit what the business name and description may contain.
• Real photos, kept current, of the work, the team and the location.
• Reviews, and replies to them. Reviews feed prominence, and every future customer reads how you answer them.
• Regular activity: posts, holiday hours, answers to questions.

Signs yours needs attention

• You get fewer calls from Google than you used to, or never did.
• A competitor appears above you for searches you should own.
• The hours, phone or website on the profile are out of date.
• There is a duplicate listing, or a listing you never created.
• The profile was suspended, or you were never able to verify it.
• You have not posted, added photos or replied to a review in months.

Each of these has a fix, and some, like duplicates and suspensions, are easy to make worse by trying the obvious thing. Google has strict rules about addresses, names and service areas, and a profile that breaks them can disappear from Maps entirely.

No one can guarantee a top position on Google, and you should be wary of anyone who promises one. What a checkup gives you is a clear list of what is in your way.