Five things to check on your Google listing, on your phone, in five minutes
When someone needs a plumber, a vet or an attorney, most never get as far as a website. They search, and Google shows a few businesses on a map with their stars, their hours and a button to call. That panel is your Google Business Profile. Google often creates one for a business without asking, and plenty of them have nobody looking after them.
This week I checked the listings of two businesses I build websites for. Neither had ever been claimed by its owner.
Grab your phone and search your own business name.
1. Does it say “Claim this business”?
If it does, the listing has never been claimed. Anyone can suggest changes to it, and you cannot answer a review or correct a thing yourself. Claiming it is free, and it is the first job on this list for a reason.
2. Is the phone number and address still right?
If you moved, changed numbers or now work from a different office, the listing does not know unless someone tells it. A wrong number on Google is a customer ringing somebody else.
3. Is there a category under your name?
Google shows what you are right under the name: “Legal services”, “Auto repair shop”, “Electrician”. One of the listings I checked had no category at all, so it could not show up for a single search for its trade. It only appeared when someone already knew its name.
4. Is there a website button?
Neither listing I checked linked to a website. A customer who liked what they saw and wanted to know more had nowhere to go.
5. When did you last answer a review?
People read the replies as closely as the reviews. A business that answers every review, the unhappy ones too, looks like somebody is home.
One more: try Apple Maps and Bing
Plenty of iPhones search with Apple Maps, and some AI assistants draw on Bing. One of the businesses I checked was not on Bing at all.