Google Business Profile optimisation, done properly
Your profile is the listing Google shows in Maps and in the local pack, usually before anyone reaches your website. Most profiles are half-finished: one category, no services, hours that were right two years ago. We fill in every field Google gives you, and then keep it maintained.
What optimising a Google Business Profile means
It means filling in every field Google offers and keeping them current: primary and secondary categories, the services you actually offer, opening hours and bank-holiday exceptions, the description, attributes, photos, products, the Q&A, and a reply on every review. A complete, maintained profile gives Google more to match a search against than an abandoned one does.
Signs your profile is costing you calls
None of these are exotic. They are what almost every profile we audit looks like before we start.
Someone else owns it
A previous agency, the person who built your website, or nobody you can identify. There is a formal ownership request process for exactly this, and it works more often than people expect.
Your primary category is a guess
Category is the strongest relevance lever on the whole profile. "Business" or something generic where you are a cosmetic dentist, an emergency plumber or an MOT centre is a wasted one.
The services list is empty
Every service you offer is a separate thing a customer might search for. If they are not listed, Google is inferring them from your name and your website, if at all.
Suggested edits keep changing your hours
Anyone can suggest an edit to your listing, and Google sometimes accepts them. Unmonitored profiles drift, and nobody tells you when they do.
No photos since the refit
The photos on your listing are the ones customers uploaded, taken on a bad day, in the wrong light, of the wrong part of the building.
The Q&A has answers you did not write
Anyone can ask a question on your profile, and anyone can answer it. On a lot of profiles, somebody already has.
What's included
Setup is a fortnight of work. What keeps it ranking is the part that happens every week afterwards.
Claimed, verified and secured
We take ownership back if it sits with someone else, get you verified, and set your Google account as primary owner with us added as a manager — never the other way round.
Categories chosen against the map pack
We check which primary category the businesses currently ranking for your terms are using, then choose from evidence rather than instinct. Secondary categories follow, and they get revisited when the pack moves.
Services, products and description
Every service listed as its own entry, with descriptions. The 750-character business description written so the first 200 characters carry what you do and where, because that is the part shown before anyone taps "more".
Hours, special hours and attributes
Regular hours, bank holidays and Christmas set in advance rather than corrected afterwards, plus the attributes customers filter on — appointment only, wheelchair access, parking, payment methods.
Weekly posts and real photographs
Offers, updates and fresh imagery posted weekly, because Google favours a maintained profile over a stale one. Photos are named sensibly and uploaded properly — geotagging them does nothing, whatever you have been told, because Google strips the location data on upload.
Replies, Q&A and edit monitoring
Every review answered within 24 hours, the Q&A seeded with the questions you actually get asked on the phone, and suggested edits watched so a wrong set of hours does not sit live for a month.
How it runs
Your involvement is one call and one login handover. After that it is a monthly report.
Audit on a 15-minute call
We go through the profile live, field by field, and tell you what is missing, what is wrong and what is costing you the most. Yours to keep either way.
Claim, verify, fill
Ownership sorted, verification started, then every field completed: categories, services, description, hours, attributes, photos, links.
Maintained weekly
Posts, photos, review replies within 24 hours, Q&A answered, suggested edits reverted. This is the part almost nobody keeps up in-house.
One report
What changed on the profile, what arrived in reviews, and from Growth up, where you rank on your local terms and how many calls came from Google.
What we won't do
Every one of these is common, and every one of them risks the profile you depend on.
The full list of what we refuse to do, and the law behind each one, is published.
Read the full compliance policy →What it costs
Profile work is in every plan, because nothing else works without it.
Proof that reviews come in — cheaply, and with no risk.
- Google Business Profile set up & optimised
- Automated review requests, with photo mechanic
- Every review replied to within 24 hours
- Customer Feedback System
- Monthly report
Where "trust us" becomes "here are the calls you got."
Priced on your market, your ad spend and how fast you want to move.
Foundation covers setup, optimisation and review replies. Growth adds weekly posts and photos, rank tracking, call tracking and citation clean-up. Per location, ex VAT, no contract. No contract — cancel any month. Compare all three plans in full.
Questions we get asked
NamingIs Google Business Profile the same as Google My Business?
Yes. Google renamed it in 2021 and retired the separate app and dashboard, so the profile is now managed directly from Google Search and Maps while signed in as the owner. Anyone still selling you "Google My Business optimisation" is describing the same product under an old name.
VerificationHow does verification work now?
Most businesses are asked for video verification: one continuous, unedited recording showing the location, your equipment or stock, and evidence you manage the business — signage, keys, branded paperwork. Some still get a postcard. We tell you exactly what to film before you start, because a failed attempt is slow to retry.
RankingDoes keeping the profile updated actually help us rank?
Google's own guidance is that complete, accurate information helps it match your business to a search, and that reviews and prominence feed the ranking. Weekly posts are not a documented ranking factor on their own; they keep the profile useful to the person reading it and keep the listing active. We will not claim more than that.
OwnershipWho owns the profile if we stop working together?
You do, throughout. Your Google account stays the primary owner and we operate as a manager, so ending the arrangement is a two-click removal and nothing about your listing changes.
SuspensionWhat if our profile is suspended?
We work out the likely cause first — a keyword-stuffed name, an ineligible address, a category that does not match the trade, a recent edit — fix it, then appeal with evidence of the business at that address. Reinstatement is Google’s decision, and nobody can promise it. What we can promise is that we will not have caused it.
Multi-siteCan you manage more than one location?
Yes. Pricing is per location, and multi-location businesses get one consistent NAP record across every profile, which is where most chains quietly leak trust.
Related services
Let's look at your profile together
Fifteen minutes on a call, your profile open in front of us, and a plain list of what we would fix first — the free version of the work, whether or not you hire us.