Local SEO
Google Business Profile optimisation: a field guide
17 August 2026 · 8 min read · Coselli, Bournemouth
Your Google listing outranks your website for most local searches. Here is how to configure every field that matters, and the weekly habit that keeps it there.
For a local business, Google Business Profile is usually the highest-traffic asset you own — and the one most likely to be half-finished. It takes about two hours to set up properly and fifteen minutes a week to maintain.
Categories: the highest-leverage field
Your primary category determines which searches you are eligible for. Choose the most specific category that describes your main revenue service. Check what the current top three in your area use — if all of them use a category you have not selected, that is your answer.
Add secondary categories only for services you genuinely deliver. Padding the list dilutes relevance and can surface you for searches you cannot serve, which produces bad reviews.
Services, products and the business description
- List every service as its own entry, named the way customers search for it, each with a short description.
- Use the Products section even for service businesses — packages, inspections, callouts all work and take visual space in the listing.
- Write the 750-character description as plain factual copy: what you do, where, since when, what makes the offer concrete. It is not a strong ranking factor but it is read by people and by AI assistants.
Service areas versus a physical address
If customers come to you, show the address. If you travel to them, hide it and set service areas. Do not list twenty towns — Google gives diminishing weight to sprawling areas and it makes your relevance vaguer. Pick the areas you genuinely serve most.
Photos and video
- Real photos of real work, staff and premises — stock imagery is visibly stock and undermines trust.
- Add a few every month; recency is visible to customers browsing the listing.
- Geotagging does nothing. Ignore anyone selling it.
Reviews and Q&A
Reply to every review. For negative ones, reply once, factually, without arguing — the reply is written for the next reader, not for the complainant.
Seed the Q&A section yourself with the questions customers genuinely ask: pricing ranges, call-out fees, coverage, guarantees, lead times. Answer them plainly. This section is heavily read and frequently used by AI assistants summarising a business.
Posts, offers and attributes
Post weekly — a completed job, a seasonal offer, an update. Posts are short-lived, but a listing that is actively maintained converts better and gives Google fresher content to display.
Set every applicable attribute: wheelchair access, women-led, free quotes, appointment required, languages spoken. Attributes power filtered searches many competitors are not eligible for.
The weekly fifteen minutes
- 01Reply to new reviews.
- 02Post once.
- 03Add two photos.
- 04Check for user-suggested edits to your hours, category or address, and revert anything wrong.
That last one matters more than people expect. Competitors and well-meaning strangers can suggest edits, and an unnoticed category change can cost you the map pack for months.
Frequently asked
- Should I hide my address if I work from home?
- Yes. Set yourself up as a service-area business and hide the address. Displaying a residential address adds no ranking benefit and can be removed by Google anyway.
- Do Google Posts affect ranking?
- Not directly in any measurable way, but they improve conversion from the listing and signal an actively managed profile. Weekly posting is a cheap habit with compounding returns.