You can improve your Google Business Profile ranking by making your profile complete and accurate, choosing the right categories, collecting genuine reviews, adding photos and keeping your details consistent with your website. Google says local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and prominence, so the aim is to strengthen the factors you can influence.
You cannot pay Google for a better local ranking, so good practice is what counts. The steps below are practical changes most business owners can start on straight away.
Make Your Profile Complete and Accurate
Fill in every relevant section. That includes your business name, address or service area, phone number, website, opening hours, special hours for bank holidays, services and a clear description of what you do.
Your business name should match your real-world name. Adding extra keywords, such as “Smith Plumbing Best Plumber Kent”, goes against Google’s guidelines and can lead to suspension.
Accurate information helps Google match your profile to relevant searches, which supports the relevance part of local ranking.
Choose the Right Categories
Your primary category is one of the most important choices on your profile. It should describe what your business is, not every service you offer. A business that mainly installs kitchens might choose a kitchen-related category rather than a general builder category.
You can add secondary categories for other main activities, as long as they genuinely apply. Choosing too many loosely related categories rarely helps.
Build Reviews and Engagement
Reviews influence both customers and prominence. Google’s guidance on local ranking notes that review count and review score are factors in local ranking, and that more reviews and positive ratings can help.
Ask happy customers to leave an honest review, and make it easy by sharing a direct link. Reply to every review politely, including negative ones. Never buy reviews, write fake ones or offer incentives for positive feedback, as these break Google’s policies.
Adding fresh photos and occasional posts can also keep your profile active and give customers a better idea of what you offer.
Strengthen Your Wider Local Presence
Prominence also reflects how well known your business is across the web. Links to your website, mentions in local news or directories and consistent business details everywhere can all support this.
Your website should match your profile, with the same name, address and phone number, and clear pages describing your services and the areas you cover.
Distance is the one factor you cannot change. A customer searching from across the county may see different results from someone just down the road.
If you would like help improving your profile, our Google Business Profile optimisation service looks at every part of it. For a broader approach that includes your website and citations, our local SEO services may also help. Feel free to get in touch.
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