Your Google Business Profile is often the first impression customers have. Make it count.
Your Google Business Profile is the most valuable free marketing tool available to local businesses — and most service businesses are barely using it. When someone searches for your services, your GBP listing can show up in the map pack above every organic result on the page. It displays your reviews, photos, hours, and a direct link to call or get directions.
But here's the problem: Google won't give you that visibility just for having a profile. An incomplete, unmanaged GBP tells Google you're either not active or not worth featuring. A fully optimized profile with regular posts, fresh photos, and a strong review profile tells Google you're a legitimate, active business that deserves to be shown to searchers.
Your GBP is free real estate on Google. When optimized correctly, it drives calls, directions, and website visits without spending a dime on ads.
of consumers have used Google Business Profile to find contact details
more views on complete profiles compared to incomplete ones
of local clicks go to the top 3 map pack results
We audit dozens of Google Business Profiles every month. Here's what we find over and over:
Google uses your business categories to determine which searches trigger your listing. Most businesses pick one generic category and miss the specific ones that drive visibility for their highest-value services.
Businesses with photos receive 42% more direction requests and 35% more website clicks than those without. Yet most profiles have zero photos or a handful of blurry images from three years ago.
Google rewards active profiles. If you haven't posted in months, Google interprets that as a less relevant business. Weekly posts about your services, completed projects, or promotions signal that you're active and engaged.
Reviews are both a ranking factor and a conversion factor. A business with 15 reviews and a 4.2 rating will lose to a competitor with 150 reviews and a 4.7 rating — in both rankings and customer trust. And negative reviews that go unanswered make you look like you don't care.
If your name, address, or phone number is different on your GBP than it is on your website or directory listings, Google loses confidence in your information and may suppress your listing.
Every one of these problems is fixable. That's what our GBP optimization service does — systematically.
Getting the basics right matters more than most people think. We verify your listing, set your precise service areas, select every relevant business category (not just the primary one), configure your hours including special hours for holidays, and write a keyword-optimized business description. If you're a service-area business without a storefront, we configure your listing to hide your address while still showing up for local searches.
We develop a photo strategy that makes your listing stand out and builds customer confidence. This includes professional-quality images of your team, your work, your location (if applicable), and before/after project photos. We geotag images with your service area coordinates and maintain a regular upload schedule to keep your listing fresh. Listings with 100+ photos get 520% more calls than the average listing — the visual proof matters.
We build a system for generating consistent reviews from happy customers — follow-up email sequences, text message templates, and QR codes you can hand out on job sites. We draft professional response templates for both positive and negative reviews, and monitor your review activity so nothing goes unaddressed. The goal isn't just more stars — it's building a review profile that makes calling you an easy decision.
We create and publish weekly Google Posts that highlight your services, showcase completed work, promote offers, and answer common customer questions. Each post includes relevant keywords and a call-to-action. We also manage your Q&A section, proactively adding and answering common questions before customers have to ask.
GBP isn't set-it-and-forget-it. We keep your profile active and optimized month after month.
One of our clients went from barely appearing in local search to dominating their service area's map pack results after we optimized their GBP alongside their website and local SEO strategy. The combined approach drove +1,024% traffic growth and +417% more qualified leads.
You may see improvements in visibility within 2-4 weeks. However, climbing the map pack rankings typically takes 2-3 months of consistent optimization and activity.
Not necessarily. Service-area businesses (like plumbers or contractors who travel to customers) can set up a GBP without displaying an address. We'll help you choose the right configuration.
We set up a systematic review request process — follow-up emails, text messages, and QR codes. Happy customers are usually willing to leave reviews; they just need to be asked at the right time.
Only if they violate Google's policies (spam, fake reviews, inappropriate content). We can help flag those. For legitimate negative reviews, we focus on professional responses and generating more positive reviews to balance them out.
GBP optimization is one part of local SEO. Local SEO also includes your website optimization, local citations, directory listings, and content strategy. For best results, we recommend combining both. Learn more about our local SEO services →
We recommend at least one post per week. Google Posts expire after 7 days, so consistency matters. Posts don't need to be long — a photo of a completed project with a brief description and a call-to-action is enough. Our management service handles this for you, but if you're doing it yourself, weekly is the minimum frequency to signal activity to Google.
Get a free SEO audit to see how your Google Business Profile and local visibility stack up.
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