Google understands that when we search, especially on a mobile device, there is often an element of locational intent. As a result, Google uses its extensive database of businesses in Google Maps to populate the search engine results pages.

To have the highest chance of showing up in Google’s algorithm and converting potential customers, you always want to be putting your best foot forward. This is where your Google Business Profile comes in. Whether you have a business that has a bricks and mortar location, or one that offers services to people in a specific geographical area, you’ll want to make sure your Google Business Profile is top notch to increase your visibility.

What is Google Business Profile and what does it do?

Google Business Profile was launched in 2014 as a one-stop shop to help local businesses shine. In its official announcement, Google said it was created for businesses as “a free and easy way to find and connect with your people, wherever you are.”

Put simply, Google Business Profile is a listing on Google’s database that you can claim and control. It was formerly known as Google My Business, and you may still hear many refer to it as such.

This is what Google tells us about Google Business Profile:

“With a Business Profile on Google, you can manage how your local business shows up across Google products, like Maps and Search. If you run a business that serves customers at a particular location, or you serve customers within a designated service area, your Business Profile can help people find you.”

Google Business profile offers an easy way to create, manage, and optimize the information that appears for their business in Google search results and on Google Maps.

When someone searches for local services or businesses, your details—such as your name, address, business hours, and website—will be shown to an interested audience.

What is the purpose of Google Business Profile? 

Google Business Profile helps to connect local searchers in need of specific products and services with appropriate local businesses. It plays a vital role in local search, with information from Google Business Profiles used to inform search results. Listing information also makes it easier for local consumers to find your business and contact you.

Why do I need a Google Business Profile?

Google Business Profile is a free tool, so you can set it up yourself without eating into any marketing budget. In return, it offers a range of benefits that will increase your business revenue by helping you make more sales.

The Benefits of a Google Business Profile

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It Increases Visibility in Google Searches and in Google Maps

Google tells us that four in five people use search to find a local business, and local search ranking factors studies prove that listings information directly influences how visible your business is in Google’s Local Pack, the Knowledge Panel, and Google Maps results.

Your Google Business Profile is your opportunity to win over both Google and local consumers by sharing everything that makes your business unique, like: 

• Who are you? The basics, such as your name, location, and opening hours.
• What do you do? Business categories, both primary and secondary.
• Why should I choose you? Add a compelling description, great images, and show off your online reviews.

This data tells Google what you do, where you’re located, and, once you start getting those reviews flowing in, what people think of you (more on that below). All of this information helps it decide when and where your business should be shown to users.

It Helps You Win More Business

As a local business, the chances are that someone else sells the same items or has the same expertise within your town or city.

Google business listings offer people an easy way to compare similar service providers and retailers. Listings are standardized, so searchers can quickly narrow their selection down and decide who best fits their needs.

This makes a Google business listing an invaluable SEO tool to get seen by people who are new to the area, or a local who needs a product or service for the first time.

Not only that, but according to BrightLocal’s Trust and Discovery report, Google is by far the most trusted local business discovery platform—more so than a business’s own website.

It Will Show Off Your Reviews

It’s no secret that online reviews are a powerful sales tool. They’re the digital age’s word-of-mouth recommendation, giving people valuable intel about where to spend their money.

Feedback from other customers is highly valued when assessing an unfamiliar business and can turn a not-so-sure consumer into a confirmed customer.

A Google business listing makes it quick and easy to reply to reviews and easily monitor what’s being said about your business. You can further streamline the process of managing reviews using third-party tools like BrightLocal’s Reputation Manager. 

It Offers Useful Information About Your Audience

Your ‘performance’ data offers you useful information about your audience’s behavior and your business performance in search.

This data can tell you whether users are looking specifically for your business name or finding you through other search terms. Insights also make it possible to keep tabs on what action consumers take after seeing your profile, such as requesting directions, sending a message, making a booking, or making a call.

Google Business Profile Insights and Performance

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The Business Profile dashboard is currently limited to six months’ worth of data. If you’d like to look further back, BrightLocal’s Google Business Profile audit tool offers access to 18 months’ worth of Insights data.

What are the features of Google Business Profile?

Once you have claimed and verified your Google Business listing, you’ll be able to actively manage a whole host of features. Features include: 

• A business description to tell local search users more about your business and what you do.
• Question and Answers section 
• Reviews 
• Posts to share updates, events, and offers 
• Photos and videos, both from yourself as the business owner and consumers 
• Useful information such as opening times and contact information
• Business attributes
• Bookings, reservations, and appointment making

What should I put on Google Business Profile? 

Your Google Business Profile should include helpful local information about your business, including an accurate address, telephone number, website URL, and opening hours. It should also provide details about your products and services, along with helpful imagery and videos. 

With your basic information updated, you should then aim to answer any questions that consumers submit and share regular updates from your business via Posts. These could include any new product or service launches, changes to your opening hours, the addition of new members of the team, company milestones, and special offers or promotions you’re running. 

Where does a Google Business Profile show up online?    

Google Business information appears in a number of search properties, depending on the type of search being performed.

Google Knowledge Panel

If your business name is used as the search term, information taken from your Google Business Profile (and sometimes other sources, including third-party sites and the business website) is presented in a box that sits to the right of the search results. This gives the local search user helpful information about your business, such as your physical address, contact telephone number, and opening hours. 

Google Local Pack

Search users turning to Google for a specific type of local business will see information from Google Business Profiles presented in a list below a map in the search results. This area is known as the Google Local Pack. Most of the information shown for each business is pulled from their Google Business Profile.

Local Finder

Clicking ‘More places’ under the Local Pack brings the user to the Local Finder, which features more businesses in the area that match the query, alongside a map. The Local Finder, however, is not the same as Google Maps.

Local Service Finder

The local service finder is a variation of the local finder. Google has been rolling out the feature according to the type of service that the searcher is looking for.

If you’re served the local service finder it’ll look like this:

The top spots will likely be filled with ads, which are labeled as ‘sponsored’ in the SERP.

Google Maps

Searching through Google Maps will bring the user to a list of businesses similar to the Local Finder, with the key difference being a greater geographical area. 

How do I use Google Business Profile?

As a business owner, you can use Google Business Profile to share helpful information, news, updates and offers about your business with local consumers. After claiming your free listing, you’ll fill out your listing information providing details such as your opening hours, your contact information, photos of your business, and a description of what your business does, its services, or products. 

How do consumers use Google Business Profile?

Consumers use Google Business Profile to find local businesses, compare them and access helpful information such as opening hours, reviews from other clients, directions to bricks-and-mortar locations, and contact details.

Consumers can also share their feedback about your listing in the form of reviews and suggested edits and upload their own images and videos showcasing their experience of your business, products, or services.  

Who qualifies for a Google Business Profile?

Not all businesses are eligible, so before you rush to get started, you’ll need to confirm that you qualify for a Google Business Profile.

You don’t need to have your own business website to claim your Google business listing. In fact, with Google Business Profile, you can create a basic, mobile-optimized website using purely the details and contents from your Google Business Profile.

But you do need to be a business that has face-to-face contact with customers—either at your place of business or somewhere else, such as in their homes or at another location.

Online-only businesses can not apply for a Google business listing.

Is Google Business Profile totally free?

Yes, it’s totally free to use Google Business Profile. There is no cost to claim your business listing nor is there any fee to use any of the Google Business Profile features including reviews, Posts, photos, and Insights. 

Is Google Business Profile necessary?

Google Business Profile is hugely beneficial for eligible local businesses. Your listing can help you to appear more prominently in local searches and be more visible to local consumers. If you’re aiming to grow your business and get more local consumers or traffic to your bricks-and-mortar location, Google Business Profile is an absolute must. 

You might remember Google Urchin (the forebear of Google Analytics), Google Insights for Search (now merged with Google Trends), or Google Reader (the original and best RSS feed aggregator). Dead and buried. If you’ve been working in local marketing for a while, you might remember the Google My Business app, Google My Maps, CallJoy, and Google Hotpot… may they all rest in peace.

One product that has stood the test of time is what Google is currently calling Google Business Profile—or what I affectionately refer to as ‘the artist formerly known as Google My Business, Google Places, Google+ Local, and Google Local’.

Despite the assortment of names, the product has fundamentally remained the same. It’s a local business management product that allows business owners to manage (to some extent) the ways that their business shows up across Google products like Maps and Search.

Without a local business listing, you can’t rank in the Local Pack or appear on Google Maps

Think of Google Business Profiles as existing in a Google database of businesses with a brick-and-mortar location or existing to serve customers in a specific geographic region.  

This database is used to power results in the map pack in search, in the local finder, on Google Maps. 

With the way that Google currently works, to appear in these results, a Google local business listing has to exist, as these listings are essentially what it uses to populate them.

You’ll also need to have a Google Business Profile if you want to get the full benefits associated with running Local Service Ads.

It’s often the first (or only) source of information that a potential customer will use 

As SEOs, we are very familiar with the concept of zero-click search—the idea that, in many cases, the searcher’s intent is met within the search engine results page itself without the need to click away to a website. In fact, according to BrightLocal’s 2023 Local Business Discovery & Trust Report, the top three most trusted platforms for researching local businesses are Google (66%), Google Maps (45%), and then, finally, a business’s own website (36%)… meaning that the information on your GBP will be the first thing that most people look at when deciding where to custom. It also highlights that there is no guarantee they’ll click through to learn more.

As Local SEOs, we’ve been living in this zero-click world for some time. After all, it’s been years now that Google has been pushing more and more features and functionality into our Google Business Profiles as they display in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

• Want to look at photos of a business? Do this from the profile.
• Want to see if a business is open right now? Do this from the profile.
• Want to ask a question about the business? Do this from the profile.
• Want to message a business? Do this from the profile.
• Want to look at a menu or see how busy a location is right now? You guessed it—do these things from the profile.

Because of all the things that a customer or potential customer can do via a profile, it’s a no-brainer that you need to have a listing that’s kept up to date.

Your potential customers can take actions that lead to a conversion right from the SERP

The previous point illustrates the amount of information that a potential customer can access via the business profile without clicking through to the website… the type of content that will help them in their early stages of decision-making when they’re trying to decide which business to choose.

We must also remember that customers who are a little bit further down their path in terms of being ready to make a conversion also have options in the SERP. Google Business Profile offers various functionalities and features that could be considered actual business conversions.  

For example, the ‘order online’ link allows a customer to order ahead of time for collection or delivery:

The ‘book online’ link allows you to schedule and book an appointment directly from the SERP.

It brings a variety of user-generated content (UGC) into one place

There was a time when ‘user-generated content’ was kind of a big deal—back in the day when we all became ‘creators’, and ‘web 2.0’ marked a shift in the general ease of creating content online.

Google Business Profile is an excellent example of where business-created content and user-generated content merge. Although a well-established and trustworthy business has the chance to manage its listing carefully in terms of the information that it chooses to share, it can never truly ‘control the message.’ As user-generated content merges seamlessly with business-generated content in most Google Business Profiles, the various messages become one… one that’s at least partially out of the hands of the business.

Examples of user-generated content in the business profile:

• Reviews
• Q&A
• Photos
• User updates—‘updates from customers’

User-generated content can be great for businesses. It can also be… not so great:

We all know that the various iterations of our ‘GBP content’ across Google’s assorted surfaces are the first (and sometimes only) content related to our business that our potential customers will consume. 

So, now we know that GBP also combines our business-produced, carefully curated content with UGC (both good and not-so-great). With this in mind, we must be sure that we’re consistently monitoring, responding, and encouraging UGC (the good kind). We also need to be careful to try to suppress the UCG that breaches Google’s guidelines by reporting it accordingly.

It also reminds us that businesses need to be consistent with putting their best foot forward in all aspects, hoping that the UCG garnered in response paints them in a good light. 

It gives you plenty of opportunities to signpost content on your website

The ‘website’ link in GBP will indeed drive the lion’s share of the traffic to your website—after all, it’s usually the most obvious link through to a website from any iteration of GBP across surfaces:

But it’s also a great opportunity to drive your potential customers to other spots on your site.

There are a bunch of other places where you can add a link to your website. This might sound obvious, but make sure that you’re linking to a page on your website that suits the intent of that feature and the potential customer that is likely to click.

Bonus points for adding UTM tagging to your GBP links so you can measure their impact in GA4.

Getting Started with GA4

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It’s a useful source for customer insight for your own business (and your competitors’ businesses)

Sometimes we get so fixated on ‘managing’ or responding to UGC that we forget that monitoring and analyzing that content can give us terrific insight into how our customers and potential customers perceive or experience our products and services.

Reviews

Did you know that 98% of people read online reviews for local businesses, according to BrightLocal’s Local Consumer Review Survey? That’s a lot of eyes on the reviews you get and a lot of minds that could be swayed based on what they say.

But it’s not just about what potential customers see in your reviews; it’s about what you can see. 

By analyzing the textual content of our reviews, we can surface themes and topics that can indicate our business’s strengths and weaknesses. If you’re a multi-location business, you can group that content in any number of ways (by geography, service offering type, size, etc) for insight.

Make sure to look at the review topics for your business(es)—that’s where Google offers up their take on the commonly occurring themes within your reviews:

Are your reviews highlighting issues with your product or service delivery? Go ahead and fix them.

Are your reviews uncovering unseen strengths or facets of your product or service that are important to customers and that you were unaware of? Go ahead and highlight this feedback and those strengths in your marketing materials!

Q&A

Take a look at the questions that are asked in the questions & answers (Q&A) section. Although Q&A can be full of guff, there is also the occasional insight: are there questions here that you should be answering on your website, in your other content, or across various channels?

It’s used by potential customers to get directions to your business

This might seem like an obvious one, but Google Maps is the mapping application that is going to inform your potential customers as to where you are located. Furthermore, it’s likely the app that will guide them on their journey to you.

That might be using the app on their phone, via the navigation system in their car, or via a third-party app that uses Google mapping technology at its core (such as Lyft). No matter how the customers find those directions, they must lead to the right place! 

Its Insights section gives you important information about how people are finding you

We’re used to Google obfuscating our search query data (anyone remember the good old days when keyword data flowed freely into GA?), so we shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

When you have a Google Business Profile, Google offers up a range of data points—one of which is related to the search terms that searchers use when they trigger a Google SERP that shows your business profile:

It influences Google’s understanding of your business as an ‘entity’

This might sound a bit fluffy, but on a very basic level, your Google Business Profile is one way for you to use a Google Product to feed into Google’s Knowledge Graphs directly.

If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of ‘things, not strings’, read this.

By making sure that all of your details are correct in GBP—including your name, address, phone number, and details of your products and services—and making clear to Google the connection between your GBP, your websites, and your social media channels, you’ll be making a good start in terms of ensuring that Google has a clear idea of who you are, what your business is, and who you serve.

Time to Get Started

It should be clear by now that GBP offers a wide range of benefits to businesses and search users alike. In addition to being the top local SEO ranking factor for the Local Pack, it also makes it easy to showcase useful information about your business, ultimately making the process of searching for, comparing, and selecting a relevant local business much easier for local consumers. 

With bottom-line boosting benefits such as booking and reservation buttons plus the ability to share offers, news, and imagery, it can also make a notable difference to your local business. Getting your GBP up and optimized can have a vital impact on the success of your business, so be sure to stay on top of it.