Your Google Business Profile is the other half of your website

When someone searches for a local service, the first thing they often see is not a website at all. It is the map and the short list of businesses beneath it, each with a star rating, opening hours and a call button. Those listings come from Google Business Profile, and they are free.

A good website and a well-kept profile support each other. The profile gets you seen; the website is where people go to decide.

Make the details match

Google compares the name, address and phone number on your profile with the ones on your website and on other directories. When they disagree — an old phone number here, a different spelling of the business name there — it has less confidence about which is right. Pick one version and use it everywhere.

Choose the right categories

Your primary category has more influence on which searches you appear in than almost anything else on the profile. Choose the most specific one that fits, such as "Electrician" rather than "Contractor", then add secondary categories for the other work you do.

Link to the right page

The website link on your profile does not have to point at your homepage. If most of your work comes from one service, linking to a page about that service can send visitors straight to what they were looking for.

Keep it alive

A profile that was set up once and never touched looks abandoned next to one that is active. The habits that help most are small:

1. Ask happy customers for a review, and reply to every review you get.
2. Add photos of real jobs as you finish them.
3. Keep opening hours accurate, including over bank holidays.
4. Answer questions people post on the listing.

Where the website comes in

The profile can only hold so much. The website is where you show the full range of what you do, the areas you cover, your prices and your proof. Every site we build includes local SEO foundations and Google Maps setup, so the two point at each other from the start.