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5 min read

Maximize Your Google Business Profile

The settings most owners never open — and how to fix all of them in one sitting.

A shop owner in an apron checking their phone while working in their store
Photo by Amina Filkins on Pexels

Your Google Business Profile is the first thing a stranger sees when they look you up, and for most local businesses it is doing about half of what it could. Not because anything is broken — because the settings that matter are buried, and nobody ever told you they were there. This walks you through them in the order that matters most.

What you need

  • About 20 minutes
  • Your phone or a laptop
  • The Google account your profile is on
  1. Step 1 of 6

    Fix your primary category first

    This single setting has more influence over which searches you appear in than anything else on your profile. Google uses it to decide what you fundamentally are. Most owners pick something close-enough on day one and never revisit it.

    • Search what you do in Google and look at who shows up in the map results — those businesses are ranking under a specific category.
    • Pick the category that describes what you do most, not the broadest one available. "Italian restaurant" beats "restaurant", and "emergency plumber" beats "contractor".
    • Add secondary categories for things you genuinely offer. Do not stack unrelated ones hoping for extra reach — it dilutes what Google thinks you are.

    Tip: Change one thing at a time and give it a couple of weeks. If you rewrite your whole profile in one afternoon you will never know which change did the work.

  2. Step 2 of 6

    Fill out the Services section properly

    This is the most under-used part of the entire profile. Each service you list is a separate thing Google can match a search against, and each one gets its own description field that almost nobody fills in.

    • List everything you do as its own service, in the words a customer would use rather than the shorthand you use internally — "water heater replacement", not "WH swap"; "gel manicure", not "GM-30".
    • Write a sentence or two on each. Say what it includes and roughly when someone needs it.
    • Include the small stuff. The cheap, quick, unglamorous work is often what brings you a customer for the first time.
  3. Step 3 of 6

    Get your location settings right

    Google needs to know whether customers come to you, you go to them, or both. This decides which searches you turn up in, and owners tend to get it wrong in one of two directions: leaving it at a single default town, or claiming half the state.

    • If customers visit you, keep your address visible and make sure it is exactly right — including the suite, unit or floor. A missing unit number sends people to the wrong door.
    • If you travel to customers, hide the address and list the towns you genuinely serve. A hidden address is the correct setting here, not a penalty.
    • If you do both, show the address and set a service area. Pick one and hope, and you lose half your searches.
    • Either way, do not pad the area. A wide, unfocused one makes you less competitive in every town in it, including your own.

    Tip: If you travel to customers: a decent rule of thumb is that if you would grumble about the drive, it does not belong in your service area.

  4. Step 4 of 6

    Make your hours true, including the special ones

    Wrong hours are the quietest way to lose a customer, because you never find out it happened. Someone drives over and finds you closed, or calls at ten past six because your listing said you were open.

    • Set your regular hours to when someone can actually reach you, not when you are technically awake.
    • Add holiday hours ahead of time — Google prompts you, and an unanswered prompt shows visitors a warning on your listing.
    • If you have late nights, weekend availability, or emergency call-out, add them as separate hours so they show up as a real capability.
  5. Step 5 of 6

    Answer the Questions section yourself

    Anyone can post a question on your profile, and anyone can answer it — including people who do not work for you. Most profiles have this section sitting empty or, worse, answered wrong by a stranger.

    • Read what is already there. Correct anything inaccurate with your own answer.
    • Post the questions you get asked on the phone every week, and answer them. This is allowed and expected — it is a FAQ, not a trick.
    • Cover the awkward ones: do you charge for estimates or consultations, do you take card, how quickly can you usually fit someone in.

    Tip: Every question you answer here is a phone call you do not have to take.

  6. Step 6 of 6

    Finish the boring fields

    The last ten percent is a handful of small toggles that take two minutes each and quietly make your listing look more complete than the profile next to yours.

    • Business description — a short, plain paragraph about what you do and who you do it for.
    • Year opened. Longevity reads as trustworthy and it is one number.
    • Attributes: appointment required, wheelchair accessible, parking, payment types, whether you are locally owned.
    • Link your actual website. If you do not have one, link the best page you do have rather than leaving it blank.

Common mistakes

  • Stuffing your business name with keywords. "Riverside Dental — Emergency Same-Day Implants & Whitening" is against Google's rules and gets listings suspended. Use the name on your paperwork.
  • Setting a huge service area to catch more work. It works against you in every town, including the ones you actually want.
  • Hiding your address when customers actually come to you, or showing it when they never do. Both quietly cost you searches.
  • Leaving the Services section empty because the category is already set. They do different jobs and Google uses both.
  • Editing everything in one sitting and never checking what happened afterwards.
  • Letting a stranger's answer stand in the Questions section because you did not know you could reply.

Do this today

If you only do one thing from this guide, start at the top of this list.

  • Open your profile and look at your primary category. Change it if it is not what you actually do most.
  • Add three services with real descriptions.
  • Check your address or service area is set the way customers actually reach you.
  • Check your hours against this week — fix anything wrong and add the next holiday.
  • Read the Questions section. Answer anything unanswered, correct anything wrong.

Last updated August 7, 2026

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