How to Fill Out Every Section of Your Google Business Profile

Why does a complete profile help you rank?

Completeness is one of the few ranking factors you fully control. You cannot easily change your address or how close you are to the person searching. You can give Google every piece of information it asks for, and that is about the fourth most important thing you can act on to get into the map pack.

Earlier parts of this series cover the two fields that matter most: the primary category, and having your main keyword in your business name. This part is everything else. The goal in each section is the same: tell Google where you are, who you are and what you do, and show that someone is looking after the profile.

What to put in the basic profile fields

Click Edit profile and work down the list.

• Categories. Confirm the primary category, then click Add category and add three to five more that describe services you provide. Do not go overboard.
• Description. Write it in plain English. Listings that repeat their main keyword over and over in the description gain nothing from it. Cover your value propositions, how long you have been in business and anything that builds authority. If you are stuck, ask ChatGPT something like “I’m a window cleaning company in [your city]. Please write a short description of my business for my Google Business Profile.”
• Opening date. Add one, such as the first time you were paid for a job. Backdating it to the 1950s will not help: the age Google cares about is how long the profile has been up.
• Phone and website. A local area code is a small plus. The website matters more, because Google takes much of what it knows about your services from the content on your site.
• Social profiles. Copy the link to your Facebook and Instagram profiles and paste them in. The more the better. Google is trying to weed out spam listings, and spam listings rarely bother with social accounts.

How to set location, service area and hours

If you are a service area business, leave the location empty. If you add an address to a profile that does not have one, expect a video or phone verification, and be ready for the profile to be unverified or suspended until you get through it.

For service areas, add everywhere you are willing to drive. This does not decide where you rank. Putting Los Angeles in the list will not rank you in Los Angeles. It draws the outline a customer sees on the map, and you do not want someone to look at that outline and decide they are too far away to call. If customers come to your location, the service area does not apply.

Hours do affect who shows up. If your profile says open and a competitor’s says closed when someone searches, you have the better chance of appearing. That does not mean listing 24/7. A window cleaning company that claims to be open around the clock will probably have its hours changed by Google, or get an email about policy concerns and another round of verification. Go with broad hours seven days a week. It is better to get the lead and respond later, even on Monday, than not to get it at all. If you run a storefront, your real hours matter much more, so keep them exact.

Then add special hours for holidays, online service hours under More hours if they apply, and the attributes under More: the identity attributes that fit your business, plus the Crowd and Planning options.

How many photos to add, and whether to turn on messaging

Add 50 to 100 photos. You may have to upload them 20 or 30 at a time. Do not spend time geotagging them.

Google likes to keep conversations on Google, so you can turn on messaging from the profile. Only do it if you know how those messages reach you.

How to use services and custom services

Services is the section where you can add a lot. Customers do not always use the name Google has for what you do. A garage floor coating company, for example, hears its work called concrete coating, floor polishing, epoxy coating and floor marbling, and several of those are not in Google’s list.

1. Click Services and add every suggestion from Google that is relevant.
2. Click to add more services and type in a custom service for each name your customers use.
3. Consider putting an emoji in the custom service name so it stands out.

The reason is justifications. When someone searches a specific phrase, such as a water heater replacement in their town, Google may pull a line into the map pack result that lists the matching services from a profile. A service with an emoji in it catches the eye there and can raise your click-through rate. Google also adds services on its own, based on what people searched before clicking your profile.

Keep it relevant. A restaurant should not list plumbing.

Do you need to keep adding Q&A?

No. Add your frequently asked questions and answer them yourself one time. There are services that charge hundreds of dollars a month to add posts and new questions to your profile. That will not move your ranking, or only by a tiny amount, and it is not something you need to repeat every month.

Products are a separate section with a decent amount to do with ranking, covered later in the series.