Why your Business Profile matters
When someone searches for a local service, Google often shows a map with a short list of businesses before any regular results. People call it the “map pack” or “local pack”, and it comes from Google Business Profiles. If your profile is missing, incomplete or inactive, you are much less likely to appear there.
Your profile is also often the first thing customers see. Your hours, photos, reviews and phone number are right there, and many people call straight from it without ever visiting your website.
What Google looks at
Google says local results are based mainly on three things:
- Relevance: how well your profile matches what someone searched for. Accurate categories, services and a clear description help here.
- Distance: how far you are from the person searching, or from the place they named.
- Prominence: how well known your business is, including reviews, links and mentions across the web.
You can’t change your distance. You can improve relevance and prominence, and that’s what we work on every month.
Common mistakes we fix
- Wrong or missing categories. Your primary category has a big effect on which searches you appear for.
- Keyword-stuffed business names. Adding “Best Plumber Springfield” to your name breaks Google’s guidelines and can get a profile suspended. We use your real business name.
- Out-of-date hours. Showing as open when you’re closed loses customers and trust.
- No photos, or only a logo. Real photos of your work, team and location help people choose you.
- Unanswered reviews. Replying to every review, good or bad, shows customers you care.
What you see each month
Your monthly report shows how people found and used your profile: views, calls, website clicks and direction requests, plus what we posted and changed. It’s short and written in plain English.