Google Business Profile

What it is

A Google Business Profile is a structured record of a business held by Google and surfaced in Maps, the local pack and the knowledge panel for branded searches. Owners claim and verify the listing, then edit the details, publish posts and respond to reviews. Anything not supplied by the owner may be filled from other sources, including user suggestions and third party data.

Why it matters

For most location based and service area businesses the profile, not the website, is the first thing a searcher sees and often the thing they act on. Calls, direction requests, messages and bookings can all happen inside the profile without a site visit. It also feeds the entity data that AI assistants and answer engines reuse when they summarise local options, so accuracy here shapes how a business is described elsewhere.

How it works

Practitioners verify the listing, choose the most specific primary category, complete every relevant field, add real photos and keep hours current including holidays. They then work the ongoing tasks: replying to reviews, answering questions, publishing updates and monitoring the profile for unauthorised edits or duplicate listings. Performance data is reviewed in the profile's own reporting and cross checked against calls, forms and store visits.

When it applies

It applies to any business with a physical premises customers visit or a defined service area it travels to. Purely online businesses with no address and no service area are not eligible.

Examples

• A dental practice in Leeds sets its primary category to Dental clinic, adds separate categories for cosmetic dentistry, and lists appointment booking as the main action link.
• A plumber with no shopfront configures a service area profile covering three postcode districts and hides the home address.
• A restaurant group creates one verified profile per site, each with its own hours, menu link and photos, rather than a single profile for the brand.

How it is measured

• Profile interactions split by type: calls, website clicks, direction requests and messages
• Searches that surfaced the profile, separated into branded and non branded queries
• Review volume, average rating and owner response rate within a set number of days
• Share of profiles in a multi location estate that are verified, complete and free of duplicates