Originally published June 2024. Updated in June 2026.
Many businesses focus on their website, social media, or advertising and forget one of the most important places customers find them online: Google Business Profile.
A complete profile helps your business appear in local search results, Google Maps, and the business listings people see when searching for services in their area.
Boost Your Local Visibility
When people search for a business or service near them, Google often displays a map and a list of local businesses before the regular search results. A complete Google Business Profile gives your business a better chance of appearing in those results.
The easier you are to find, the more opportunities you have to attract clicks, calls, website visits, and customers.
Connect with Customers
Your Google Business Profile gives potential customers another way to learn about your business before they decide to contact you. Since people rarely choose a business because of a single marketing effort, it helps reinforce the information they may already have seen on your website, social media, reviews, and elsewhere online.
Customers can leave reviews, ask questions, view photos, check your hours, and learn more about your services. Taking the time to respond to reviews shows that you pay attention to your customers and care about their experience. Their feedback can also help you better understand what your customers want and how to better serve them.
Reviews have become one of the most important ways businesses build credibility online. Positive reviews help build trust before a customer ever contacts your business. A business with recent, positive reviews often has an advantage over a similar business with little activity or outdated information.
Showcase Your Business
Good photos are so important (truly they are). Photos help people understand who you are and what you do before they ever visit your website or contact you.
Google allows you to upload photos of your products, services, team, and location. You can also publish updates, promotions, events, and announcements directly through your profile to keep your listing active and up to date.
Google Business Profile and AI Search
As AI Search continues to change how people find businesses online, accurate business information matters more than ever.
Google Business Profile helps provide search engines and AI systems with important details about your business, including your services, location, hours, reviews, and website. Keeping your profile complete and current helps ensure potential customers are seeing accurate information wherever they are searching.
Top Benefits of Google Business Profile Optimization
- Appear more prominently in Google Search and Google Maps
- Improve visibility for local searches
- Build trust through customer reviews
- Display accurate business information
- Share updates, promotions, and events
- Give potential customers another way to learn about your business
How to Set Up Your Google Business Profile
- Sign in to your Google account or create one.
- Access Google Business Profile through your Google account and follow the prompts to add or claim your business.
- Enter your business name and address.
- Choose your business category and add your phone number and website.
- Complete the verification process.
- Add photos, business hours, a description, and information about your services.
You can also add attributes, accessibility information, and appointment booking links where applicable.
