Google Business Profile optimisation

Why this comes before the website

If someone searches for your trade plus a town on a phone, the map pack — three businesses with a star rating, a distance and a call button — takes up most of the screen before they scroll. Your Business Profile is what puts you there. Your website isn't.

Which leads to an awkward truth we tell people regularly: if your profile is half-finished, spending two thousand pounds on a new website is the wrong order of operations. Fix the free thing first, then build the site that supports it.

What's usually wrong

We've yet to look at a trade profile that had all of this right. Not because owners are careless — because the setup wizard doesn't tell you any of it matters.

• The primary category is wrong. This is the single biggest lever in the whole profile. "Contractor" instead of "Roofing contractor" can cost you the map pack outright.
• Service areas are unset or absurd. Either blank, or a 60-mile radius that dilutes you everywhere. Neither helps.
• No services listed. The services list is a free, structured description of everything you do, and it's almost always empty.
• Three photos, all from 2019. Photo recency and volume correlate with engagement. Recent job photos, uploaded regularly, do real work.
• Reviews unanswered. Every review deserves a reply. It's a ranking signal and it's read by everyone considering calling you.
• Nobody owns the login. Often it's in an old marketing company's account, or a Gmail address the previous office manager set up.

What we do

1. Claim and verify. Including recovering profiles stuck in accounts you no longer control, which is more common than you'd think.
2. Category and service-area strategy. Primary plus secondary categories, chosen against what actually ranks in your towns.
3. Full population. Services, description, hours, attributes, and the details that quietly build trust — insurance, registrations, payment methods.
4. Review system. A direct review link, a script that doesn't feel pushy, and a routine for asking at the right moment.
5. Website connection. Profile links pointed at the right pages, with matching details and the wider local SEO work lined up behind it.
6. Handover. You keep ownership, we show you the monthly routine, and you can call us if it goes sideways.

Doing it yourself

Genuinely worth considering. The steps are all in our local SEO guide, in the order we'd do them, and none of it requires technical skill — just an afternoon and some honesty about which towns you actually cover. Come to us if you'd rather it was done right the first time, or if the profile is suspended and you need it back.