A Google Business Profile is the free listing that puts a business in Google Maps and the local map pack. For most local service businesses it drives more enquiries than the website itself.
- Highest-impact fields: primary category, services list, service areas, business hours, and photos
- Reviews: volume and recency both matter. A steady trickle beats a burst
- Consistency: name, address and phone must match your website and directory listings exactly
- Common error: pointing the profile website field at a page that redirects, rather than the final URL
- Cost: free. Only time
Here’s something that surprises people: for a lot of local searches, the thing that gets you seen isn’t your website at all. It’s that box of businesses with a map and star ratings that appears near the top — the “map pack.” And what feeds that box is your Google Business Profile, which is free, and which a startling number of businesses have never properly claimed or filled out.
What actually moves the needle
- Claim it and complete it fully. Every field. Hours, services, service areas, categories, photos. An abandoned or half-empty profile is a missed opportunity sitting in plain sight.
- Pick your categories carefully. Google leans heavily on these to decide what searches you belong in. The right primary category matters more than most people realize.
- Keep it current. Holiday hours, new services, fresh photos. Google favours profiles that look actively tended over ones frozen in time.
- Reviews, steadily. Both the number and the pattern over time feed how much Google trusts you for local searches.
What doesn’t matter (despite the myths)
You’ll hear a lot of noise. Posting daily updates to your profile, stuffing keywords into your business name, paying for shady review bursts — these range from useless to actively dangerous (faking your name or reviews can get you suspended). Ignore the tricks. The boring fundamentals win.
Search your own business name on Google. Is the profile on the right claimed, complete, and accurate? If not, that’s free ground you’re giving away — and you can start fixing it in the next ten minutes.
Where it connects to everything else
Your Google profile and your website aren’t separate projects — they work best when they reinforce each other, saying the same things consistently so Google (and now AI) sees one clear, trustworthy business. Getting the profile right is genuinely something you can do yourself. Getting it and your site pulling in the same direction, deliberately, is where a build strategy earns its keep.
Ready to put this to work?
New site or fixing the one you have — start the conversation. If you already have a website, I’ll include a free, plain-English audit with my reply: rankings, local search, and whether AI can find you.
Start your project →Already have a site? Ask for the free plain-English audit — or just email jamie@foundwork.ca.