What should go in your Google Business Profile?

What Google says it ranks on

Google’s page on local ranking explains each factor briefly. It calls the third one popularity in its summary, then explains it under the heading Prominence.

Relevance

Google defines it as “how well a Business Profile matches what someone is searching for”. You improve it by filling in the profile completely, starting with the category.

Distance

This is “how far each business is from the customer who’s searching”. Past keeping your address or service area accurate, there’s little you can do about it.

Prominence

This means “how well-known a business is”, and Google says it’s partly based on how many websites link to you and how many reviews you have.

Verify it first

Google says verifying makes a business more likely to show up in search results, so do that before anything else. The same page recommends replying to reviews and keeping your details complete and accurate.

Photos and videos are on Google’s list too. Its editing page adds that an exterior photo helps customers recognise the business when they arrive. If you’d like them taken properly, C4 Lens does that kind of shoot.

Use the name on your sign

Google’s guidelines say: “Your name should reflect your business’s real-world name, as used consistently on your storefront, website, stationery, and as known to customers.” Its editing page puts it more plainly: enter the name exactly as it appears on your signage.

Google’s examples of unnecessary information include marketing taglines, phone numbers, opening hours and descriptions of the service. By its own example, “Midas Auto Service Experts” should be listed as “Midas”.

So if the sign on your van says “Your Business”, so does the profile. “Your Business – Electrician Joondalup” adds exactly the kind of detail those examples rule out. If a trade or a suburb really is part of your name, on the sign and on the invoices, it can stay. Google’s acceptable examples include “Advance Auto Parts”.

Legal terms follow the same rule. Google only allows terms such as LLC and INC when your signage or invoices show them as part of the name. Google’s examples don’t mention Pty Ltd, but the same test would seem to apply.

Where the keywords go instead

The words people search for still belong on the profile, in the parts built for them. Put the work you do in the services list. For some service businesses, Google draws on that list when it asks a reviewer which job you did, and you can add a job type that’s missing.

The description is for what you offer and how long you’ve been doing it, in up to 750 characters. Google’s editing page says to leave out links, and to write about the business more than its prices or specials.

Pick the narrowest category that’s true

Google’s page on categories puts it in one line: “The categories you select affect your local ranking on Google.” Choose one primary category from Google’s list, as specific as the list allows. Google’s example is picking “Nail salon” over “Salon”.

The guidelines give a test for it. A category should “complete the statement: ‘This business IS a’ rather than ‘this business HAS a.’” You can add up to nine more, but Google asks for the fewest it takes to describe the core business, and none used as keywords. Its own example is a grocery store with a bakery and a deli: “Grocery store” goes first, with “Bakery” and “Deli” added after it.

You can’t make up a category. If yours isn’t listed, Google says to choose a more general one. Changing a category later can mean verifying the business again, so it’s worth getting right first time.

If customers don’t come to you, hide the address

Google’s guidelines are direct about this: “If you’re a service-area business, you should hide your business address from customers.” Their example is a plumber who runs the business from home, who should clear the address from the profile.

You list the areas you cover instead. Google allows up to 20 service areas, by place name or postcode. You can’t draw a radius, and the whole area shouldn’t stretch more than about two hours’ drive from where you’re based, though Google says larger areas may suit some businesses.

A business that serves customers at its premises and also travels can show both. Google’s example is a mechanic with a workshop who also does roadside call-outs. The premises should be staffed, and able to take customers during the hours on the profile.

A rented address you don’t work from, which Google calls a virtual office, isn’t eligible at all. A desk in a co-working space only counts if it has your signage and your staff. It also has to take customers during business hours.

Hours and phone numbers

List the hours you’re open to customers, and set special hours for public holidays. Google’s guidelines say some businesses shouldn’t list hours at all, including ones that only work by appointment.

The phone number has to be under the business’s direct control. Google prefers a local number to a call centre line where possible. Neither the number nor the website should redirect people somewhere other than the business itself.

Ask every customer for a review, and offer nothing for it

Reviews count toward prominence. Google’s ranking page says more reviews and positive ratings can help your local ranking, and its rules on how you get them are strict.

Google’s Maps content policy bans offering “payment, discounts, free goods and/or services” in exchange for a review. It also bans discouraging negative reviews, or asking “selectively” for positive ones, so you can’t ask only the customers you think were happy. You also can’t pressure anyone to review while they’re on your premises, or tell them what to write.

Breaking the incentive rule can cost more than the reviews themselves. For profiles caught with fake engagement, Google’s listed restrictions include stopping new reviews for a set period, and showing customers a warning that fake reviews were removed.

Asking the right way is easy. Your profile has a review link and a QR code, under Read reviews, then Get more reviews. Google suggests putting the link on receipts and in thank-you emails. The QR code can only be made on a computer. Whoever leaves the review needs a Google Account, and they can open one with an email address that isn’t Gmail.

Then reply, to the bad reviews as well as the good. Google’s tips say to keep replies short and to leave deals and promotions out of them. The reviewer is notified when you reply, and can still change their review after reading it.

Google is stricter than the ACCC

Australia’s consumer regulator draws the line somewhere else. The ACCC’s guidance on online reviews says incentives offered for reviews must be “applied regardless of whether the reviewer leaves a positive or negative review” and “clearly disclosed so consumers know the review was incentivised”.

Google doesn’t allow an incentive at all, and says reviews prompted by one will be removed. So an offer that meets both of the ACCC’s conditions still breaks Google’s policy. That’s a summary of what each has published. It isn’t legal advice.

Advice that’s out of date here

Some of what you’ll read about Business Profiles refers to features that have gone, or that Australian businesses don’t get.

Chat

Google’s built-in chat ended on 31 July 2024, and customers can no longer request quotes through the profile.

Questions and answers

Google says this is “available only for select business categories and regions”, so your profile may not have it.

In-store products

Only for retailers in the US, Canada, the UK and Ireland.

Posts

You can still post updates, but Google’s list of ways to improve local ranking doesn’t mention them.

If someone else manages it for you

Google has rules for anyone who manages a profile for a business they don’t own, and its first example is an SEO company. They must never claim a profile without the owner’s express consent. Wherever possible, they’re meant to encourage you to own the profile yourself and add them as a manager, and they have to transfer ownership to you immediately when you ask.

If we’re building your website, setting up a profile from scratch is a $200 add-on. Our SEO and copywriting page shows what a complete one looks like. Dominate, our biggest SEO plan at $1,000 a month with a six-month minimum, includes managing it.

What we couldn’t establish

Google doesn’t say how much each factor weighs. Its ranking page says it keeps the details confidential “to make the ranking system as fair as possible for everyone”.

It also doesn’t say whether your website’s own ranking still feeds into local results. In June 2025 the same page said: “Your position in web results is also a factor, so search engine optimization (SEO) best practices apply.” That sentence isn’t on the page now, and we found nothing from Google saying whether its ranking changed along with it. If you’re weighing up SEO for the website as well, we’ve written about whether small businesses need it.

We found no figure from Google for how many reviews is enough, or for how much a complete profile adds to calls or visits, so this article doesn’t give one.

Common questions

Can I put my suburb in my business name?

Only if it’s already part of your real name, on your sign and your stationery. Google’s guidelines don’t permit adding location details to the name, and they say extra information there could get the profile suspended. If you travel to customers, the suburbs you cover go in your service areas.

Can I offer a discount for a Google review?

No. Google’s policy doesn’t allow any incentive for a review, discounts included, and it says incentivised reviews will be removed. The ACCC’s guidance sets conditions an incentive has to meet, but Google’s own rule is stricter, and it’s the one that decides which reviews stay up.

Someone is threatening bad reviews unless we pay. What do we do?

Don’t pay them or engage with them. Google’s help page on review extortion says paying “doesn’t guarantee the removal of reviews” and can encourage further attempts. Keep screenshots of the demands and links to the reviews, then report it through Google’s merchant extortion form.

Can an online-only business have a profile?

No. Google’s eligibility rules say a business “must make in-person contact with customers during its stated hours”, and they list online-only businesses among those that aren’t eligible.