For a business with a catchment area, the Google Business Profile does more work than the website, and it is usually half-finished. It is also, in most cases, half-finished. Here are the ten fixes worth an hour of your time, in order of impact.
1. Get the primary category exactly right
This is the strongest single ranking factor in the map pack. Interior designer, interior architect and furniture store compete in different pools. Look at what the businesses already ranking in your area use, and match the one that genuinely describes you.
2. Add every secondary category that applies
Each is an additional matching opportunity. Add the ones you truly serve; adding irrelevant ones dilutes relevance and can trigger a review.
3. List services individually, with descriptions
Not one line saying "all interior work". Each service as its own entry with a sentence describing it. This is free text real estate that most competitors leave blank.
4. Add real photos, and keep adding them
Not stock. Interiors, team, work in progress, finished jobs. Profiles with recent photos get more engagement, and engagement feeds visibility. Ten photos once is worth less than two photos a week.
5. Fix your hours, including holidays
Wrong hours produce one-star reviews about something that has nothing to do with your work. Set special hours for festivals before they arrive.
6. Ask for reviews the right way
In person, at the moment the customer is happiest. And ask what problem did we solve rather than asking for a review — you get a sentence containing your service and your city, written by someone who is not you. Those sentences are what machines now read to decide what you are.
7. Reply to every review
All of them, including the bad ones, without arguing. Replies are public, they signal an active business, and the way you answer a complaint is read by everyone deciding whether to call you.
8. Use the Q&A section yourself
You are allowed to post questions and answer them. Seed the five questions customers actually ask — price range, service area, timeline, process, guarantees. Otherwise someone else answers them for you, possibly wrongly.
9. Post regularly, briefly
Posts are low effort and signal activity. A completed project, an offer, a seasonal note. It does not need to be polished; it needs to exist.
10. Fix name, address and phone everywhere else
Your profile details must match your website, your social profiles and every directory listing exactly. Inconsistency is the most common quiet killer of local visibility, and correcting old listings is free.
Nine of these ten are free and take minutes. That is usually why nobody has done them.
Two things not to do with a Google Business Profile
- Do not stuff keywords into your business name. It is against guidelines and gets profiles suspended. A suspended profile costs more than the ranking was worth.
- Do not buy reviews. Detectable, and the same outcome.
How to check whether it worked
Do not check rankings from your office — the map pack varies with the searcher's location, so your own view is the least representative one available. Use the profile's own performance data: searches, calls, direction requests and website clicks. Those are the numbers that translate into enquiries.
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Questions people ask
What matters most on a Google Business Profile?
The primary category, chosen exactly rather than approximately. It decides which searches you are eligible for, and no amount of photos, posts or descriptions compensates for picking the wrong one.
How do I get more reviews?
Ask every satisfied customer, in person or by message, with a direct link. Recency matters as much as count, and reviews that describe the specific service influence which searches you appear for.
Should I post on my profile?
Briefly and regularly. Posts are a small signal and a decent shop window, but they are far down the list. A profile with perfect posts and the wrong category still will not appear.
What should I not do?
Do not keyword-stuff the business name, and do not use a virtual office address for a location you do not staff. Both are common, both are against the guidelines, and both risk the listing being suspended.