15 Google Business Profile Tips to Get More Calls
Categories, photos, posts and review tactics that move you up the map pack.
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Key takeaways
- Google ranks local results on relevance, distance and prominence.
- Your Google Business Profile is the single most important local SEO asset.
- Steady, genuine reviews help rankings and win the click. Never fake them.
- Useful service and location pages and local links build long-term visibility.
What is local SEO?
Local SEO is the work of making your business show up when people nearby search for what you offer, such as "dentist near me", "emergency plumber Salford" or "accountants in Manchester". It covers two places on Google:
- The map pack: the map and the three business listings that appear for most local searches.
- The local organic results: the normal website listings underneath, which also change depending on where the searcher is.
For most local businesses, these two places bring in more calls and enquiries than any other marketing channel, because the people searching are ready to buy.
How Google ranks local businesses
Google says local results are based mainly on three things. Everything in this guide improves one or more of them.
| Factor | What it means | What you can do |
|---|---|---|
| Relevance | How well your profile matches what someone searched for. | Choose the right categories, list your services and describe them clearly. |
| Distance | How far your business is from the searcher or the place they searched for. | You can't move, but you can make sure your location and service areas are accurate. |
| Prominence | How well known and trusted your business is, online and offline. | Earn reviews, links, mentions and citations, and keep your website strong. |
Quick win: relevance is the factor you control most directly. A wrong primary category is one of the most common reasons good businesses don't appear in the map pack.
Set up and optimise your Google Business Profile
Your Google Business Profile (GBP) is the listing that appears in the map pack and on Google Maps. If you only do one thing from this guide, do this.
The essentials checklist
- Claim and verify your profile, and make sure you, not a former supplier, own it.
- Pick the most specific primary category (for example "Family law attorney" rather than "Lawyer"), then add relevant secondary categories.
- Use your real business name. Adding keywords to it breaks Google's guidelines and can get your profile suspended.
- Set your service areas if you visit customers, and hide your address if customers don't come to you.
- Add accurate opening hours, including bank holidays and any special hours.
- List every service with a short description and, where it helps, a price.
- Upload real photos of your team, premises, vehicles and work, and keep adding them.
- Write a clear description of what you do, who you help and where.
- Post updates about offers, news and recent work.
Not sure how your profile compares?We'll review your Google Business Profile and local rankings for free, by hand.
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Reviews affect both your ranking and whether people choose you once they see you. Steady, recent, genuine reviews beat a burst of reviews followed by silence.
- Ask every happy customer, ideally just after the job is done.
- Make it easy with a short review link or QR code in your emails, invoices and texts.
- Reply to every review, positive or negative, politely and within a few days.
- Never buy, swap or fake reviews, or offer rewards for them.
"Responding to a bad review well can win you more trust than another five-star review. Future customers read how you handle problems."
Yasir Latif, Founder, AY Experts
UK law: the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 bans fake reviews and concealed incentivised reviews. Breaking these rules can lead to significant fines, as well as your profile being penalised by Google.
Build consistent citations
A citation is any mention of your business name, address and phone number (often called NAP) on another website. Consistent citations help Google trust that your details are correct.
- Use exactly the same name, address and phone number everywhere, matching your Google Business Profile.
- Start with the big platforms: Bing Places, Apple Business Connect, Facebook, Yell and Thomson Local.
- Add industry directories that your customers actually use, such as trade, legal or healthcare directories.
- Fix old listings with an out-of-date address or phone number, especially after a move.
Create location and service pages
Your website still matters for local SEO. Google looks at your site to understand what you do and where, and your pages can rank in the normal results below the map pack.
- One page per core service, explaining what it is, who it's for, pricing guidance and proof.
- Location pages for areas you genuinely serve, each with useful, unique content: local projects, area-specific details, reviews from local customers and how you work there.
- LocalBusiness schema on your contact page or homepage, matching your Google Business Profile.
- Clear contact details and a map on every page.
Avoid doorway pages: dozens of near-identical pages that only swap the town name can do more harm than good. Build fewer pages with real local detail instead.
Earn local links and mentions
Links from other local websites show Google that your business is known in the area. The best local links usually come from real-world activity:
- Sponsoring a local sports team, charity or event.
- Membership of your local chamber of commerce or trade association.
- Stories, data or expert comment for local news sites.
- Partner and supplier pages that list the businesses they work with.
- Case studies with other local businesses you've worked with.
Track what actually matters
Rankings are useful, but enquiries pay the bills. Track these instead of just watching positions:
- Google Business Profile performance: calls, website clicks, direction requests and bookings.
- Google Search Console: the searches your website appears for and how often people click.
- UTM tags on your profile's website link, so you can see map pack visits in Google Analytics 4.
- Call tracking and form tracking, so you know which enquiries came from local search.
Common local SEO mistakes
- Adding keywords or locations to your business name on Google.
- Choosing a broad primary category instead of the most specific one.
- Different phone numbers or addresses across directories.
- Using a virtual office or PO box address that Google doesn't allow.
- Ignoring negative reviews, or arguing with reviewers.
- Publishing copy-and-paste location pages for towns you don't serve.
Local SEO FAQs
How long does local SEO take to work?
Quick fixes to your Google Business Profile can make a difference within weeks. For competitive searches, most businesses see steady progress over three to six months, depending on competition, your current visibility and how consistently the work is done.
Do I need a physical address to rank in the map pack?
You need a real business location that you can verify with Google, but it does not have to be shown publicly. Service-area businesses, such as plumbers or mobile services, can hide their address and set the areas they serve instead.
Can I rank in towns where I do not have an office?
It is much harder to appear in the map pack for a town far from your verified location, because distance is one of Google's main local ranking factors. You can still rank in normal search results there with genuinely useful location pages and local links.
Is it OK to offer customers a discount for a review?
No. Google's policies do not allow incentivised reviews, and in the UK the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 bans fake reviews and certain incentivised reviews. Ask every customer for honest feedback instead.
The bottom line
Local SEO isn't a one-off task. The businesses that win the map pack get the basics right, then keep going: a complete profile, a steady flow of genuine reviews, consistent details across the web, genuinely useful pages and real local connections. Start with your Google Business Profile this week, and build from there.