SEO · Google Business Profile
A checklist for every section of the profile, what Google’s rules forbid, and how to turn profile views into calls.
The primary category matters most
Fresh photos and posts each month
Q&A is now Ask Maps
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Google Business Profile optimization means filling in and keeping up your profile so Google can match it to more local searches, and so more of the people who see it call you. To do it, pick the most specific primary category and only true secondary ones, list every service in customers’ words, write a factual description, add real photos regularly, fill in every relevant attribute, post updates and offers, keep hours exact, and earn and reply to reviews. Google says local ranking depends on relevance, distance and prominence, and that complete, accurate information helps it match your profile to searches. Optimization is mostly about relevance and prominence, plus turning profile views into calls.
This guide assumes your profile is already claimed and verified. If it isn’t, start with our Google Business Profile setup guide.
If you only have half an hour, go down this list and fix anything that is wrong or empty.
Whitespark’s 2026 Local Search Ranking Factors survey rated the primary category as the top factor for map pack rankings. Google lets you choose one primary category and up to nine additional ones.
Google lists adding photos and videos among its tips to improve local ranking, and photos are often what a searcher looks at first.
Book a free 30-minute call. We open your Google Business Profile with you, compare it with the businesses ranking above you, and tell you what we would change first. No obligation. Pick a time that works for you.
Posts appear on your profile and give searchers a reason to choose you today. Google offers three types:
News, a recent project, a seasonal tip. Add a photo and a button such as Call or Learn more.
A promotion with a title and dates. Google adds a View offer button automatically.
Workshops, open houses or seminars, with start and end dates and times.
Google archives posts older than six months unless they have a date range, so post at least monthly. Posts are a conversion tool more than a ranking factor, so write them to get calls, not to repeat keywords.
As of 2026, the old Questions and Answers section is no longer part of Business Profiles. Google retired the Q&A API on November 3, 2025, and according to BrightLocal’s tracking, replaced the public feature with Ask Maps, a Gemini-powered tool that answers questions from your profile, reviews, website and other sources. You can’t edit those answers directly. The only fix for a wrong answer is better source information: complete profile fields, accurate services and an FAQ on your website that answers the questions customers ask.
Our guide on getting more Google reviews covers scripts and timing, and how to respond to negative reviews covers the hard ones.
A Business Profile can have several owners but only one primary owner. Managers can edit nearly everything, but they can’t add or remove users or remove the profile. That split is useful. Keep the primary owner on an account the business controls (not the personal Gmail of someone who might leave), add a second owner as a backup, and give your agency or marketing contractor manager access rather than ownership. Google won’t let you make a user the primary owner during their first seven days on the profile, so set up the backup owner before you need one.
In my experience, the profile that causes the most trouble is the one set up years ago by someone who has since left, and nobody can get in when something goes wrong. If your profile is suspended or stuck, see what to do when a Google Business Profile is suspended and how verification works.
If the profile has been left alone for a year or more, work in this order so each fix builds on the last:
Most of this is work an owner or office manager can do in an afternoon, then keep up in an hour or so a month. Hiring help makes sense when you have several locations, when the profile is suspended or stuck in verification, or when the map results in your area are full of competitors who already do everything on the checklist. If you hire someone, check that:
Profile work is part of our SEO services. For the rest of local search, see the local SEO checklist and local SEO vs organic SEO.
Check the profile’s performance view monthly for calls, direction requests, bookings and website clicks. Add UTM parameters to your website link so profile visits show separately in analytics.
Then test what happens after the click. A local contractor came to us convinced the website needed more traffic. When we tested the full route from search result to submitted inquiry, the bigger problem was the contact form: submissions were going to a former employee’s mailbox. We pointed them at a shared company inbox, added delivery monitoring, and set tracking to count confirmed submissions rather than button clicks. A well-kept profile that sends people to a broken form is wasted work.
JLB USA has done web design and marketing for growing businesses for more than 15 years. Our SEO services are billed month to month, and you can cancel after any month.
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The primary category. Whitespark’s 2026 survey rated it the top factor for map pack rankings. Choose the most specific category that describes your core business.
One primary category and up to nine additional categories. Use only categories that truly describe your business, not keywords or features.
At least monthly. Google archives posts older than six months unless they have a date range.
No. Google’s guidelines require your real-world business name. Adding cities or keywords breaks the rules and can lead to suspension.
Google retired the Q&A API in November 2025 and replaced the public feature with Ask Maps, which answers questions using your profile, reviews and website.
It helps with two of the three things Google says it uses. Google bases local results on relevance, distance and prominence, and says businesses with complete and accurate information are more likely to show up. You can’t change how far you are from the searcher, and Google says there is no way to pay for a better local ranking.
No. Keep the primary owner on an account your business controls and add the agency as a manager. Managers can edit the profile but can’t add or remove users or remove the profile.
There is no fixed timeline. Google may review some edits before they appear, and changes to key details can prompt re-verification. Change one thing at a time and give it a few weeks before judging it.
