For local searches, your Google Business Profile usually appears above your website. It shows up first, it shows the map, it shows your reviews, and it takes the call before anyone clicks through.
Most profiles are half-finished. That's rankings and revenue left on the table.
Here is the complete checklist, in order.
Categories
Google says local results are mainly based on relevance, distance, and prominence (the page also calls it popularity), and publishes no weights. Practitioner surveys consistently put the primary category at or near the top of local ranking factors. Pick the most specific one that describes what you do — "Personal Injury Attorney," not "Lawyer." "Pediatric Dentist," not "Dentist."
Add every secondary category that legitimately applies. Skip the ones that don't. Wrong categories confuse Google about when to show you.
Business Name
Use your exact legal or storefront name. Nothing else.
Adding keywords to your name — "Smith Dental | Best Dentist in Phoenix" — violates Google's guidelines. It works until a competitor reports it. Then your profile gets suspended, and suspensions take weeks to resolve. Not worth it.
Services
List every service individually, each with a description. These feed the "services" justifications Google shows under your listing when someone searches for that specific service.
Ten listed services means ten more ways to match a search.
Description
750 characters. Use them. Say what you do, who you serve, and what area you cover. First 250 characters matter most — they show before the cutoff.
No promotional language. Google filters it, and customers ignore it.
Photos
Profiles with photos tend to get more clicks and direction requests than profiles without them; Google does not publish a current figure, but the effect is visible in any market. Use real photos: Google's current guidance is that an image should "represent reality," and stock photography reads as exactly what it is.
Minimum set:
- Exterior — front of building, from the street, daytime
- Interior — waiting area, workspace
- Team — real people, real names
- Work — before/after, completed jobs, your product
Add new photos quarterly. Stale profiles read as closed businesses.
Posts
Post at least monthly. Offers, updates, new services, completed projects.
Posts expire from view after seven days, so cadence beats effort. A two-sentence post every week outperforms a polished one every quarter.
Reviews
Covered fully in the Local SEO guide. The short version:
- Ask every customer the same way, same-day, with a direct review link
- Respond to everything within 48 hours
- Recent and steady beats old and many
Q&A
Anyone can ask a question on your profile. Anyone can answer — including competitors and bots.
Seed it yourself: post the ten questions customers actually ask, and answer them from your business account. Monitor weekly. An unanswered question on your own profile is a lead you handed away.
Attributes and Details
Fill in everything that applies: wheelchair accessible, parking, insurance accepted, languages spoken, appointment links, online care. Each attribute is a filter someone can search by. Missing attributes remove you from those filtered results.
The Maintenance Schedule
- Weekly: check Q&A, respond to reviews
- Monthly: one post minimum
- Quarterly: new photos, verify hours and services
- Immediately: any change to hours, address, or phone
Total time: under an hour a month. Most competitors won't spend it. That's the edge.
Related reading: The Complete Guide to Local SEO · SEO Basics · SEO for Medical Practices
GBP setup and optimization are built into the program.
We handle the checklist, you take the calls.