If you run a local business and you’re only going to do one thing for your SEO, optimising your Google Business Profile should be it.
Your GBP is what appears in the Map Pack — the block of local business listings that shows up near the top of Google when someone searches for a service in your area. It’s where your phone number, reviews, photos, opening hours and location all appear at a glance. For most local businesses, it drives more enquiries than the website does.
And yet most GBPs are half-finished, out of date or missing obvious opportunities. This guide walks through every step of getting yours right.
What Is a Google Business Profile?
Google Business Profile (previously called Google My Business) is a free tool that lets you manage how your business appears in Google Search and Google Maps. When someone searches for “plumber in Coventry” or “cafe near Warwick”, the Map Pack results that appear are all being served from optimised GBPs.
A fully optimised profile helps Google understand exactly what you do, where you’re based and who you serve — and gives it the confidence to show you to relevant searchers.
Step 1: Claim and Verify Your Listing
Before you can optimise anything, you need to own your listing. Go to business.google.com and search for your business name. If a listing already exists (Google often auto-generates them from public data), claim it. If it doesn’t exist, create one.
Verification is typically done by postcard. Google sends a code to your registered address, which you then enter in your profile dashboard to confirm ownership. Other options — phone, text or email verification — are available for some businesses.
Don’t skip this step. An unverified profile has limited functionality and may not show in the Map Pack at all.
Step 2: Complete Every Section
The quickest and most impactful thing most businesses can do is simply complete their profile properly. Google rewards completeness — it tells the algorithm you’re an active, legitimate business.
Work through every section:
Business Name
Use your real trading name exactly as it appears on your signage, invoices and website. Don’t add keywords to your business name — “Warwick Plumbers — Best Boiler Service” is against Google’s guidelines and can get your listing suspended.
Business Categories
Your primary category is the most important. It needs to match your core service as closely as possible. If you’re a roofer, “Roofing Contractor” is better than the generic “Contractor”. If you’re a café, “Café” is better than “Restaurant”.
You can add secondary categories for additional services. A Warwickshire electrician might have “Electrician” as primary and “Electrical Installation Service” and “Security System Installer” as secondary, for example.
Service Area
If you’re a service-area business (you go to the customer rather than them coming to you), set your service area by town or county rather than showing a physical address. If you have a premises customers visit, show your address.
For businesses covering the Coventry and Warwickshire area, add the specific towns you serve — Google uses this to understand where you’re geographically relevant.
Phone Number
Use a local or regional number rather than an 0800 or 0845 number. Local numbers are a trust signal and they associate you with a specific geographical area.
Website
Link to the most relevant page, not just your homepage. If you’re running a GBP for a specific service, link to that service page. If it’s your main business profile, the homepage is fine.
Opening Hours
Keep these accurate and up to date. Set special hours for bank holidays. Google prominently shows whether a business is open or closed right now — if your hours are wrong, you’ll lose enquiries.
Description
You have 750 characters to describe your business. Use them well. Write in plain English, mention your main services and the areas you cover, and include your primary keywords naturally. Don’t stuff keywords in or copy the same text from elsewhere on your website.
A good description for a Leamington Spa-based SEO consultant might be: “I help small businesses across Coventry and Warwickshire get found on Google. Specialising in local SEO, Google Business Profile optimisation and no-contract SEO support for businesses that want real results without the agency overhead.”
Step 3: Add Products and Services
The Products and Services section is consistently underused. It lets you list what you actually offer, with descriptions and prices. Each entry gets indexed by Google and can appear in your profile when relevant searches are made.
For services, add individual entries for each of your main service lines. Don’t just put one entry for “SEO” — break it down into “Local SEO”, “Google Business Profile Optimisation”, “Technical SEO Audit” and so on. Each one gives Google more information about what you do and increases the chances of your profile appearing for more specific searches.
For products, include descriptions that include natural keywords and prices where you’re comfortable sharing them. Even a rough price range (“from £150”) helps customers self-qualify and reduces time-wasting enquiries.
Step 4: Upload Quality Photos
Profiles with photos receive significantly more clicks and direction requests than those without. Photos do two things: they signal to Google that your profile is active, and they reassure customers that your business is real and professional.
What to upload:
- Cover photo — a high-quality image that represents your business well
- Logo — appears in your profile and helps with brand recognition
- Interior and exterior photos of your premises (if customers visit you)
- Team photos
- Photos of your work, products or services in action
- Vehicle photos if you’re a trades business (branded vans are a strong trust signal)
Aim for at least ten photos to start with. Keep adding them over time. Freshness matters — a profile with recent photos looks more active than one where everything was uploaded three years ago.
Avoid heavily filtered or stock images. Google users want to see what your business actually looks like.
Step 5: Collect and Respond to Google Reviews
Reviews are one of the strongest ranking signals in local search. Businesses with more recent, higher-quality reviews consistently outperform those without in the Map Pack.
How to get more reviews:
The most effective method is simply to ask. After completing a job or delivering a service, send a follow-up message (text, WhatsApp or email) with a direct link to your review page.
Generate your review link from your GBP dashboard — it’s under the “Get more reviews” section. Share it as a short URL or via Google’s built-in sharing tools.
Set a target for yourself. If you’re aiming to grow your visibility in Warwickshire this year, committing to getting one new review per week is a realistic and achievable goal.
How to respond to reviews:
Respond to every review, positive or negative.
For positive reviews, a brief, genuine thank-you is enough. Mention the job or service where appropriate, and occasionally include a local reference — it adds a small additional keyword signal.
For negative reviews, stay professional. Acknowledge the concern, offer to resolve it offline and provide a contact number or email address. A well-handled negative review often does more for trust than a wall of five-star responses.
Do not offer incentives in exchange for reviews. It’s against Google’s guidelines.
Step 6: Use Google Posts
Google Posts are short updates that appear directly on your GBP listing. They’re similar to social media posts but show up in Google Search and Maps. Most businesses ignore them. That’s an opportunity.
You can use posts to:
- Promote a current offer or seasonal service
- Announce news about your business
- Share a recent project or case study
- Direct people to a specific service page
Posts stay visible for a week by default (offer posts stay up until the end date you set). Posting once a week or every fortnight keeps your profile looking active and engaged.
Think of Posts as free advertising space directly in Google Search. Use them.
Step 7: Set Up the Q&A Section
The Q&A section on your GBP allows anyone to ask questions that appear publicly on your listing. This is something most business owners don’t know about — and don’t monitor.
The risk is that questions can sit unanswered for weeks, or get answered by random Google users who may not give accurate information.
The fix is to proactively add your own Q&As. Think about the questions you get asked most frequently and post them yourself, then answer them. “Do you cover Stratford-upon-Avon?” “Are you VAT registered?” “Do you offer free quotes?” — these are all good examples.
Check your Q&A section regularly and respond to any new questions promptly.
Step 8: Add Attributes
Attributes are factual details about your business that Google shows on your profile. Some are self-declared (“Locally owned”, “Free Wi-Fi”) and some are confirmed by customers through reviews (“Usually has quick service”, “Good for working on laptop”).
Go through your available attributes and tick everything that’s accurate. They add depth to your listing and help Google understand your business better. They’re also genuinely useful to customers making a quick decision.
Step 9: Enable Messaging
Google allows customers to send you a message directly from your GBP listing. If messaging is enabled and you respond promptly, it can be a useful additional channel for enquiries.
The key requirement is a fast response time. Google tracks how quickly you respond to messages and will disable the feature if your response rate drops. If you can realistically respond within a few hours during business hours, enable it. If not, leave it off — a slow response time looks worse than no messaging at all.
Step 10: Keep Your Profile Active
The biggest mistake I see from businesses in Warwickshire and across the Midlands is treating their GBP as a one-time setup job. They claim it, fill in the basics, and then never touch it again.
Google’s algorithm rewards active, regularly updated profiles. A business that adds photos, publishes posts, collects fresh reviews and keeps its opening hours accurate is signalling ongoing legitimacy. One that hasn’t been touched in two years is signalling the opposite.
You don’t need to spend hours on it every week. Fifteen minutes a fortnight — a new post, a response to a recent review, an updated photo — is enough to keep things ticking over.
How Long Before You See Results?
Most businesses see meaningful movement within four to eight weeks of properly optimising their GBP. Some see results faster, particularly if their previous profile was incomplete or inaccurate.
The Map Pack is competitive in some areas and relatively easy to crack in others. In a smaller Warwickshire town, getting into the top three for your main service category might take a few weeks of consistent effort. In Coventry city centre for a highly competitive sector, it’ll take longer and will need to be supported by broader local SEO work.
Either way, a fully optimised GBP is the foundation. Nothing else you do in local SEO will be as effective if this isn’t right first.
Need Help Getting Your GBP Right?
I’m Rob, and I run Peak SEO from Warwick. Google Business Profile optimisation is one of the core things I do for small businesses across Coventry, Warwickshire and the Midlands — as part of a broader local SEO service or as a standalone project.
If you’d like me to audit your current profile and tell you exactly what needs doing, get in touch. There’s no obligation and no hard sell.
