Before your website, there's your Profile
When someone searches for your company's name, or for what you sell near where they are, Google usually shows a box with your address, hours, phone number, photos and reviews. That box is your Google Business Profile. It's free, and it's often the first thing a customer sees, even before your website.
In practice, it works like a shop window on the busiest street on the internet. If it's out of date, the window goes dark: wrong hours, an old phone number, a photo from three years ago, a review nobody answered.
What to look after in your Profile
- Correct details. Name, address, phone number, website and hours, including holidays.
- The right category. It decides which searches you show up in.
- Real, recent photos. Storefront, space, team and products.
- Replies to reviews. To the good ones and the bad ones, politely and quickly.
- Posts. News, offers and events, so the Profile doesn't look abandoned.
How Google picks who shows up first
Google itself explains that local ranking looks at three things: relevance (how well your Profile matches what the person searched for), distance (how close you are) and prominence (how well known your business is, which includes reviews and your presence online). You can't pay to move up in the free Maps results, but you can do your homework on each of these points.
Answered reviews sell
Replying to reviews shows there are people looking after the business. A polite reply to a complaint often convinces more than ten unanswered compliments. Google also advises businesses to reply to customer reviews.
Where to start
Check today that your hours and phone number are right, upload five new photos and reply to the reviews from the last few months. If you'd like us to handle this along with the rest of your marketing, just reach out.