A short guide to a Google Business Profile

We end up explaining this on discovery calls often enough that it deserved writing down. Everything we would tell a client about a Google Business Profile in the time it takes to drink a coffee.

Technical fixes remove obstacles; content earns the position. Both are needed and they are not interchangeable. Most teams find the first pass takes an afternoon and the maintenance takes minutes a month.

What it costs to ignore

For many local businesses it outperforms the website itself. It is worth being explicit about, because assumptions differ quietly. The failure mode is not doing it wrong, it is doing it once and assuming it stays done.

How to approach it

Photos and hours need keeping current. That sounds obvious written down. It is still the thing most often skipped. Assume whoever inherits this will have half your context and none of your patience.

Where it usually goes wrong

Answering reviews publicly signals an active business. Where this goes wrong is almost never a lack of knowledge. Budget a little time for it every quarter and it never becomes a project of its own.

What this looks like day to day

Search work compounds slowly, which is why it gets abandoned about two months before it would have paid off. Three things worth confirming about a Google Business Profile before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• Photos and hours need keeping current — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

None of this needs a rewrite. Most of it is a morning's work once someone decides to do it.