How to Optimize Your Google Business Profile

With a Google Business profile, any business can control how they appear on the web across all Google products. This is especially important for local searches, which is where small and local businesses can really edge out competitors in their area.

But to ensure you actually appear in the results for relevant searches (and look good), you’ll need to take a few steps to optimize your profile. Read on, and I’ll show you how.

First, Claim Your Google Business Profile

You can’t optimize your Google Business profile until you’ve officially claimed it. This is super easy, and takes just a few minutes.

From your computer, simply search for your business on Google Maps. Then click, “Claim This Business.”

Alternatively, you can add your business to Google Maps by opening it up, entering your address in the search bar, and then clicking “Add Your Business.”

You’ll be promoted to go through some verification steps to ensure the business is actually yours. Once this is set up, you can start to optimize your listing.

5 Elements to Optimize in Your Google Business Profile

The following five things should be a priority, whether you’re just claiming your Google Business profile for the first time or if it’s been active for a while. Once you nail these elements, you’ll climb the rankings for local searches and get more traffic to your website.

#1 – Contact Information and Hours

You need to make sure all of this stuff is accurate. If you’re relying on Google or third-parties to populate this information for you, then it could be wrong or outdated.

• Actual business name
• Website
• Address
• Phone number
• Business hours
• Menu (if applicable)

Take the time to fill out your info, and always update it if things are changing (such as closing early on a holiday).

#2 – Description and Category

This should be pretty self-explanatory for most businesses. However, I’ve seen plenty of instances where Google gets the category wrong because of the business name.

For example, you might run a restaurant in a location that used to be an old mechanic shop. If you kept the name, “The Garage” or “The Body Shop” but you sell burgers, Google might put you in the wrong category.

In addition to your category, write a brief description of who you are and what you do.

#3 – Photos

Customers can leave reviews of your business with their own photos. However, they likely won’t be very professional and you won’t have control over them.

So it’s better to take some high-quality, professional images yourself and upload them to your profile.

This will give potential customers a betters sense of your products and services.

#4 – Reviews

Ok, technically you can’t optimize reviews. But you can definitely encourage people to leave reviews on your Google Business Profile.

From there, you can request to have fake reviews removed if you spot them (which I encourage).

I go deeper into this in my post about Google Business Updates For Local SEO and Reviews.

#5 – Questions and Answers

Google lets you add FAQs to your profile, which can be really helpful for people searching for information. Don’t just do this for the sake of doing it, make sure you actually think about what people need to know.

Examples include:

• Are pets allowed?
• Do you accept Apple Pay?
• Do you take reservations?
• What is your return policy?
• Is there free parking?

You get the idea.

Final Thoughts

Taking the time to optimize your Google Business profile is crucial for local searches. You can definitely go deeper and update your profile regularly. But at a minimum, focus on these five elements to set yourself up for success.