Most customers see
your Google listing
before your website.
Someone searches your trade and your suburb. Before a single website loads, three businesses appear on a map with their hours, their photos and their star rating. That panel is your Google Business Profile, and for a local business it is usually the busiest thing you own.
It is free. Google has probably already made one for you. The question is whether anybody is looking after it.
Three things to check right now
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Search your own name on your phone
If you see “Own this business?” nobody has claimed it, and anyone could.
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Check the hours and the pin
Wrong hours turn a customer away at the door, and a pin in the wrong street turns them away before they even set off.
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Look at the last review you answered
If the answer is “never”, that is the cheapest thing on this page to fix.
What I actually do, every month.
Real work on your listing every month, and a report that tells you what was done and what it changed, in language you can read.
Claimed and verified
If it has never been claimed, I claim it in your name and get it verified, so the listing is registered to you and stays yours.
Corrected and completed
Hours, categories, services, service areas, the pin, the phone number and the description. Google rewards a complete profile and most are half empty.
Posted to every month
A dormant profile slips down the results. A monthly post keeps it active and gives a customer something current to read instead of a photo from three years ago.
Reviews chased and answered
I ask your happy customers properly, and I answer every review in your voice, including the unhappy ones. Never a fake review, and I will never ask you for one.
The numbers, in your report
How many people saw your listing, what they searched to find you, how many called and how many clicked through to your site. Google measures all of it and almost nobody puts it in front of the business owner.
Photos that are actually yours
Real pictures of your work, your team and your premises, sized properly and added as they come. Google shows photos before it shows words, and a listing without any looks abandoned.
It runs with the site, or on its own.
The listing brings people to you. The website turns them into an enquiry. They work better together, which is why Google Business Profile management is part of the care plan rather than a bolt-on nobody remembers to buy.
If you have no website, or a website someone else looks after, this still runs on its own.
See the care planNo website yet?
Start with the listing. It is free to own and it is faster to fix than a site, so it is the quickest way to be findable while a site is still being built.
Someone else built your site?
Fine. I do not need to touch it. The profile is separate and I can look after that side without going near their work.
Frequently asked
It is the panel that appears on the right of Google when someone searches your business by name, and the map listing that comes up when someone searches your trade and your town. It holds your hours, your phone number, your photos and your reviews. It is free, Google creates one for most businesses whether you asked or not, and for a local business it is often seen by more people than the website is.
Search your own business name on Google from a phone. If you see an Own this business? or Claim this business link, nobody has claimed it and anyone could. If the hours are wrong, the pin drops in the wrong street or the photos are years old, it is claimed but neglected. Send me the business name and I will tell you which of the two you are looking at.
No. Plenty of businesses get real work from the map listing alone, and this runs as its own service. It works better alongside a site, because the listing sends people somewhere and a good page turns that visit into a call, but the listing is worth fixing either way.
No, and be careful of anyone who says they can. Three things mostly decide it: your distance from the person searching, how complete and active your profile is and how many reviews you have. I can fix the profile and I can help you build reviews. Distance I cannot change, and if that is the thing holding you back I will say so rather than take your money every month.
Every review gets answered, including the bad one, because a calm public reply to a complaint reads better to the next customer than a wall of five stars with nothing said. I draft the replies in your voice and you approve them. I will never write a fake review or ask you to.
Yes, and this is the most common thing people get wrong about it. Google calls it a service-area business. You hide the address, list up to 20 areas you cover by town or postal code, and you come up in those areas without ever showing a street address. Trades, mobile services, consultants and anyone working from home all do it this way. My own listing is set up exactly like that.
Send me your business name. I will look it up.
I will tell you whether it is claimed, what is wrong with it and whether local search is even worth your money. That part costs nothing.
What the lookup tells you
- Whether the profile is claimed at all, and whether the person holding it is you.
- What is missing or wrong on it, measured against what Google actually ranks on.
- How your listing compares to the ones you are competing against on the same search.