Google Business Profile optimisation
The three-result map above the ordinary search results is fed almost entirely by your profile, not by your website. This is the work that decides whether you are in it.
in the order they move the map, which is not the order the setup wizard asks them in.
For a business that serves an area, the profile does more work than the website. Somebody searching for what you sell sees a map with three results before they see a single blue link, and a large share of them never scroll past it. A business with a finished profile and a mediocre website beats a business with a beautiful website and a half-filled profile, most days, in most trades.
It is also the part almost nobody finishes, because the fields that matter are not the ones the setup flow asks for.
The work, in the order it moves the map
- 1
The primary category, which decides everything after it
Before a single review is read, Google filters the map by category. Pick the one thing you most want to be found for rather than the broadest option on the list, because broad makes you slightly relevant everywhere and strongly relevant nowhere. It is also the field most often set by whoever built the website rather than by the business.
- 2
Secondary categories and the services list
Secondary categories widen the pool you are drawn from. The services list is matched against the words people actually type and it is blank on most profiles, which is free ground nobody is standing on.
- 3
The address decision: visible or hidden
Visible if customers come to you, hidden with a declared service area if you go to them. Get it wrong in one direction and you are invisible outside your own street; get it wrong in the other and a home address with no signage risks suspension of the whole listing.
- 4
Hours that are true, including the ones you are closed
Google filters heavily on open now, so for any trade with urgent demand this decides whether you appear at all. Holiday hours set before the holiday, not after somebody drives to a closed door.
- 5
The website link pointing at the right page
Not the home page. The page about the thing the profile is for, per location if there is more than one. This is the most valuable click a profile produces and most businesses waste it.
- 6
Photographs of the actual premises
Reception, the team, the work, the parking. Stock photography signals nothing and reads as a business with nothing to show. This is one of the few fields where more genuinely is better.
- 7
Reviews arriving steadily, replied to properly
Volume and recency feed the ranking; what they say decides which of the three listings gets the call. A burst of twenty is worth less than a trickle of two a week and looks worse to a person reading the dates.
- 8
Name, address and phone identical everywhere
Across the profile, the website and every directory that holds a listing. Every inconsistency is a small vote against the business being real, and most businesses have listings they have never seen.
- 9
The edits somebody else made
Members of the public can suggest changes to your hours, your category and your address, and Google accepts some of them silently. Nobody checks this and it is where a correct profile quietly stops being correct.
The profile stays yours
We take manager access rather than ownership. If we stop working together, nothing has to be handed back because nothing changed hands, and you are never in the position of asking a former supplier to release your own listing. That happens more often than it should and it is a genuinely difficult thing to unwind.
Or do it yourself
The whole checklist is published, free, with nothing to fill in to read it. The profile is section one of it and it is the section worth doing whoever you eventually hire.
Results from real clients
Every number below is from the client’s own Google Search Console, for the period shown. Impressions are how often the site appeared; clicks are people who arrived.
- 52,993clicksUp and Running Physical TherapyPhysical therapy · 1 Mar 2023 to 14 Mar 2024
- Impressions
- 2,238,155
- CTR
- 2.4%
- Avg. position
- 13.49
+139,355% clicks against the previous period of the same length.
- 12,285clicksBackcountry Physical TherapyPhysical therapy · 6 Jul 2023 to 31 May 2024
- Impressions
- 601,822
- CTR
- 2.0%
- Avg. position
- 19.3
+2,059% clicks against the previous period of the same length.
- 7,630clicksYour Place Physical TherapyPhysical therapy · 1 Sep 2023 to 31 May 2024
- Impressions
- 284,589
- CTR
- 2.7%
- Avg. position
- 15.66
+1,184% clicks against the previous period of the same length.
- 6,816clicksPeak EndurancePerformance and physical therapy · 1 Sep 2023 to 31 May 2024
- Impressions
- 482,378
- CTR
- 1.4%
- Avg. position
- 16.16
+1,174% clicks against the previous period of the same length.
How the engagement works
There is no package to pick from. What the site needs is decided on a call and written down before any work starts, because a business with one location and a clean site needs a different month to an agency reselling to twelve clients.
-
01
A call, before anything is quoted
Thirty minutes on what you sell, where you sell it, and what the site looks like today. No scope is written before that conversation, because the right work depends on all three.
-
02
A written scope and quote
What will be done, in what order, and what it costs, in writing. Nothing starts until you have agreed to it.
-
03
Month to month from there
The work runs monthly and the scope changes as the site does. Cancel with 30 days’ notice.
True of every engagement
- Search Console and Analytics set up in your name, so the data is yours
- No lock-in: month to month, cancel with 30 days’ notice
- One person you can email, in your working hours
- Every change listed in the monthly report
Questions about Google Business Profile
What is Google Business Profile optimisation?
Filling in and maintaining the profile so it appears for the searches you want: the right primary category, a complete services list, correct hours, the address or service area decision made properly, real photographs, and a steady flow of reviews that get replied to. It is what decides the three-result map above the ordinary search results.
Is Google Business Profile the same as Google My Business?
Yes. Google renamed it in 2021 and retired the separate app; people still search for the old name and for GMB. Nothing about the work changed with the name.
How long until the profile moves?
Faster than anything else in search. Category and services changes can show within days, and a complete profile usually settles within a few weeks. Reviews compound over months. Anyone promising the map pack in a week is describing something other than this.
Should I hide my address?
If customers do not come to you, yes, and declare a service area instead. A visible address for a business that works at the customer’s property suppresses you outside the immediate area, and a home address with no signage can get the listing suspended.
Can I do this myself?
Most of it, and it is worth doing whoever you hire afterwards. The categories, the services list, the hours and the photographs need nothing but an afternoon. The parts that take longer are the listings audit and keeping the review process running when nobody is chasing it.
What gets a profile suspended?
Keywords stuffed into the business name, an address that is not a real place of business, a virtual office, and incentivised or bought reviews. All four move a listing for a while and then remove it, and reinstatement is a different and much harder job.
Book a call with us
A 30-minute call in your working hours. Tell us what you sell and where, and we will tell you what we would do first and what it involves. Prefer email? Send your website through the form and the Passieon Team will reply within two working days.