Google Business Profile: Your Business Card on Google

Before anyone opens your website, Google has long since put out a business card for you: the Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business), on the right in Search, prominently in Maps. This card decides between a call, a route, or scrolling on. And unlike your website, it does not design itself.

What belongs in a complete Business Profile?

The essentials: the correct category (the most important relevance signal), opening hours including public holidays, phone number, website, and address or service area. The extras that make the difference: your own photos instead of a random Street View shot (interior, team, products), the services and product lists, attributes such as accessibility or appointment booking, and regular posts for offers and news. Profiles with well-maintained fields give Google more material to show you for relevant searches, and give searchers more reasons to choose you.

Why are reviews the most visible element of this business card?

Rating and review count sit directly under your name, before any photo, before any opening hours. They are also ranking substance: Google names reviews as part of "prominence", one of the three factors of local ranking. A perfectly maintained business card with four reviews therefore stays below its potential: the card lives on social proof. What measurable difference that makes is covered in the guide on the influence of Google reviews.

How do I keep the profile alive?

Three routines are enough: reply (to every review: owner responses get read), update (opening hours, photos, posts on a monthly rhythm) and keep reviews flowing, via the direct review link in everyday touchpoints (the guide on actively generating Google reviews shows the ways) and, where a base is missing, via a campaign with real guests and verified proof of visit. That turns the business card into what it should be: your best sales argument before you even say a word.