Google Business Profile: The Settings Most Businesses Get Wrong

For a lot of local businesses, the Google Business Profile gets more views than the website does. It is where people check your hours, read reviews, look at photos and tap to call — often without ever visiting your site.

Despite that, most profiles are half-finished. Here is what to fix.

Categories

Your primary category is the strongest single ranking signal on the profile. Be as specific as the list allows — "Electrician" rather than "Contractor" if that is what you are. Then add secondary categories for your other genuine services, but do not stuff it with things you do not actually do.

Services and products

Most profiles leave these blank. Adding your individual services with short descriptions gives Google more to match searches against, and gives prospects a clearer picture before they call.

Service areas versus address

If you go to customers rather than them coming to you, set service areas and hide your street address. If you have premises people visit, show the address. Getting this wrong — a mobile business showing a residential address, for instance — creates problems.

Photos

Profiles with photos get substantially more clicks for directions and calls. Add real ones: the team, the vehicles, completed work, the shopfront. Keep adding them over time — recency matters. Avoid stock imagery; it is obvious and it undercuts trust.

Attributes

Wheelchair access, free quotes, online appointments, LGBTQ+ friendly, women-owned — these appear as filters in search and few competitors bother filling them in. Cheap differentiation.

Q&A

Anyone can ask a question on your profile, and anyone can answer — including competitors and confused strangers. Seed it yourself with the ten questions you get asked most, and answer them properly. Monitor it for new ones.

Posts

Google Posts appear on your profile and signal an active business. A short weekly post about a completed job, a seasonal offer or a common question is enough. It takes ten minutes.

Reviews

Ask consistently, respond to all of them, and reply to negative ones calmly and specifically. Prospects read the response more carefully than the complaint. A defensive reply does more damage than the original review.

Hours

Keep them accurate, and set special hours for public holidays — including state-specific ones, which differ between South Australia and Victoria. Nothing erodes trust faster than a customer driving to a closed shop.

A simple maintenance routine

Fifteen minutes a week: add a photo, publish a post, answer any new questions, respond to new reviews. That habit alone puts you ahead of most competitors in your suburb.

Want us to handle it? Our local SEO service includes ongoing profile management.