How to set up your Google Business Profile (and why it matters more than your website)

Why the map pack matters more than your website

Search for almost any local service on your phone and the results come in a fixed order: a few ads, then a map with three businesses under it, then the regular website links. That three-business block is the map pack, and for "near me" searches it's what most people tap. Plenty of customers never scroll past it.

Every listing in it is a Google Business Profile, not a website. A business with no website can sit in the map pack. A business with a beautiful website and no profile can't. Google says it ranks these results on relevance, distance and how well known the business seems. You control the first completely and the third over time.

The profile is free, it takes an afternoon, and for local searches it does more than most websites. Set it up before you spend a dollar on anything else.

Setting it up, step by step

1. Claim or create the profile

Go to business.google.com and sign in with a Google account you'll keep for years: yours, not an employee's. Search for your business first. Google often creates listings on its own from public data, and if one exists you claim it instead of making a second. Duplicates can get both listings suspended.

2. Pick the right primary category

The primary category is the biggest signal on the profile. Pick the one thing you most want to be found for, as specifically as Google allows: "Tree service," not "Contractor." Add more categories afterward, one per real line of work, but the primary carries the weight.

3. Storefront or service-area business

Google asks whether you have a location customers can visit. If people walk into your shop, say yes and show the address. If you go to them, like a tree crew, a plumber or a cleaner, say no. That makes you a service-area business: Google still asks for your real address to verify you exist, but hides it from the public.

Two rules with no exceptions. Never use a P.O. box. Never use a virtual office or a coworking address you don't actually work from. Google suspends profiles for both.

4. Service areas

A service-area business lists the towns it serves, up to 20. List the ones you actually drive to, and keep the list identical to the one on your website. If you'll take a job in Foley but not in Pensacola, say so here.

5. Hours and phone

Set the hours you actually answer the phone. If Google says you're closed at 4 p.m. and you're open, the customer calls somebody else. Only mark "open 24 hours" if you truly pick up at two in the morning.

Use the same phone number that's on your website, written the same way, on a line a human answers. A mismatch between the profile and the site makes Google trust both a little less.

6. Your name and business description

Your name on the profile is your real business name, exactly as it appears on your truck and your invoices. Not "Mobile AL Tree Removal Experts" if the company is Smith Tree Service. Stuffing keywords or town names into the name is the fastest way to get suspended, and competitors do report it.

The business description gives you 750 characters. Say what you do, where, and for how long, in plain words. Google doesn't allow links, phone numbers or promotions in it, so no web addresses and no "10% off." Write it the way you'd explain the business to a neighbor.

7. Services with prices

Under Services, add each thing you sell as its own line with a short blurb and a price or a "from" price. A homeowner comparing three listings picks the one that says what stump grinding costs over the one that says "call for pricing." These lines should match the service pages on your website.

8. Photos

Upload at least five to start: your logo, a wide cover photo, you or your crew, your truck or storefront, and a finished job. Real photos only. Name each file for what it shows before uploading, like stump-grinding-fairhope-al.jpg instead of IMG_4471.jpg. Then add a couple every month.

9. Verification

Before the profile goes public, Google confirms you're real. These days that's most often a video: one continuous clip on your phone showing where you are (a street sign or storefront), proof of the business (a license, an invoice, the lettering on your truck) and the tools of your trade. Google sometimes offers a postcard, phone call or email instead. It can take a few days. Don't edit your name, address or category while it's pending.

Getting reviews the right way

Reviews are the part of the profile customers read hardest and Google watches hardest. Done wrong, Google deletes them, or the whole profile.

One link, sent after every job

Open your profile and look for "Ask for reviews." Google gives you a short link that drops the customer straight onto the review box. Save it in your phone. After every finished job, text it with two sentences: thanks for the work, and here's the link if you have a minute. Businesses with hundreds of reviews aren't doing anything cleverer than asking every time.

The rules Google enforces

• No gating. Don't ask "Were you happy?" first and send the link only to the happy ones. Ask everyone.
• No incentives. No discount, no gift card, no drawing. Anything of value for a review can get every review pulled.
• No writing your own. Not you, not your spouse, not a cousin who never hired you.
• No buying them. Ever.

Reply to every one

Answer every review within a few days. For the good ones, two sentences and a thank you. For a bad one, stay calm, keep it short, don't argue in public, and offer to make it right by phone. Future customers read your reply more closely than the complaint.

Keeping it alive

A finished profile isn't a finished job. Google favors profiles that look active, and so do customers.

• Post about once a week. A finished job with a photo, a seasonal reminder, a new service. Two sentences and a button.
• Check the questions. Anyone can ask a question on your profile and anyone can answer it, including a stranger guessing. Answer them yourself.
• Keep the facts current. The profile should match your website and your truck at all times.

Ten minutes a week keeps a profile alive. Most of your competitors won't spend it.

Connect your website and Search Console

Put your website address in the profile's Website field. That button is where the profile sends people who want to know more, and Google reads your site to confirm what the profile claims: the categories, the services, the towns. Your business name, address and phone should appear on the site exactly as they appear on the profile.

Then verify your site in Google Search Console. It's free and shows you which searches your site appears for and whether anything is broken. Whoever builds your site should do both on launch day. I do, and it's on the list on the local SEO page.

Common mistakes

• Keywords or town names stuffed into the business name.
• A P.O. box, a mailbox store or a virtual office as the address.
• Two listings for the same business, usually one old and forgotten.
• A vague primary category like "Contractor" when "Roofing contractor" was available.
• Hours that don't match reality, so Google shows you closed while you're by the phone.
• A phone number that doesn't match the website.
• A profile owned by a former employee's or web designer's account, so nobody can log in.
• No new photos since the day it was created, and reviews with no replies.

Why the website still matters

If the map pack does so much, why have a website at all? Three reasons.

First, the profile sends people there. When a homeowner taps Website, that's their next impression of you. A slow site with no photos, or no site at all, undoes the trust the profile built.

Second, Google uses the site to understand the business. The profile has a category list and 750 characters. The site has a page for every service, with photos, the towns you cover and the words your customers use. That depth backs up the profile.

Third, the profile isn't yours. Google can change it, suspend it or redesign it tomorrow. The website is the one place online you control. If you're a contractor or a crew, what that site should include is on the websites for contractors page.

Common questions

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