Google Business Profile Checklist for Local Businesses

For many local businesses, the Google Business Profile is seen by more people than the website. It is what appears when someone searches your name, looks for “dentist near me” or opens Google Maps to find a café. Customers decide to call, visit or skip you from that panel, often without clicking anything else.

This is a checklist you can go through in an hour. Print it, open your profile next to it, and tick the boxes.

The basics: get these exactly right

These fields decide whether Google shows you for the right searches and whether customers can reach you.

Business name. Use your real-world name, as it appears on your sign, receipts and website. Don’t add keywords or locations (“Studio Bella Hair Salon Best Prices Vienna”). Google’s guidelines don’t allow it, competitors can report it, and it can lead to a suspension.
Primary category. This is the single most important choice on the profile. Pick the most specific one that describes what you are: “Dental clinic” or “Cosmetic dentist”, not just “Health”. Look at which primary category your best-ranking competitors use.
Additional categories. Add the ones that describe real services you offer. Don’t add categories just to appear in more searches.
Address or service area. If customers visit you, show the address. If you visit them (a mobile hairdresser, a cleaning company), set a service area and hide the address.
Phone number. A local number that someone answers during opening hours.
Website link. Point it to the most useful page. A clinic with several locations should link each profile to that location’s page, not the homepage.
Name, address and phone the same everywhere. Check your website footer, Facebook page, Instagram bio and any directories. Small differences confuse both customers and Google.

Hours: the field that causes the most bad reviews

Few things annoy a customer more than arriving at a closed door that Google said was open.

Regular hours for every day, including the days you are closed.
Special hours for public holidays, summer closures and the days between Christmas and New Year. Set them weeks ahead.
More hours, if your profile supports them for your category: kitchen hours, delivery hours, happy hour, the hours of a pharmacy counter.
Temporary closure if you close for renovation. Don’t mark yourself as permanently closed by mistake.

Put a reminder in your calendar a month before every public holiday to update special hours.

Photos and video

Photos are often the first thing a customer looks at. You want them to answer “what will it be like when I get there?”.

Logo and cover photo that look sharp on a phone.
The outside, taken in daylight, so people recognise the entrance.
The inside: the dining room, the treatment room, the gym floor, the shop.
The work: dishes, before-and-after results where allowed and with consent, finished haircuts, products on the shelf.
The team, if they are comfortable with it. People like to see who will treat them.
Short videos of the space or the work, if you have them.

Add new photos every month or two, so your own pictures stay ahead of old customer uploads. Remove nothing customers posted unless it breaks Google’s rules; you can report those.

These sections help Google match you to specific searches and help customers decide without calling.

Services with a short, plain description each: “Teeth whitening: in-clinic whitening in one visit, consultation included.” Add prices if you are comfortable showing them.
Products, for shops and pharmacies: your main product groups, with photos.
Menu, for restaurants and cafés: upload it or link to it, and update it when prices or dishes change. An old menu with old prices leads to “it said €12 on Google” reviews.
Booking or ordering links, if your booking or delivery partner supports them.

Attributes and description

Attributes are the small facts Google lists: wheelchair access, outdoor seating, free Wi-Fi, card payments, women-led, languages spoken. Tick every one that is true. Customers filter by them.
Description: a few plain sentences about who you are, what you do and who you serve. Mention the area. No links, no prices that change, no capital letters for effect.

Reviews and questions

Reply to reviews. All of them, ideally within a few days. It shows customers that someone is listening. See our guides on getting more Google reviews and replying to negative ones.
Questions from customers. If your profile shows a questions section, check it. Anyone can answer a question on your profile, including people who don’t know your business, so answer them yourself.
Your review link, saved somewhere your team can find it, and printed where customers can scan it.

Posts and updates

Profile posts let you share offers, events and news. They don’t replace a website, but they show customers the profile is alive.

A new post when something changes: a new seasonal menu, a new treatment, a holiday schedule, an event.
One clear photo and one call to action per post.
No posts at all is fine; a post from two years ago announcing a “new” service is worse.

Access and safety

The boring part that saves trouble later:

Two owners or managers on the profile, so you never lose access when one person leaves.
Your own Google account as owner, not only your agency’s or a former employee’s.
Check the profile monthly for changes you didn’t make. Google and the public can suggest edits, and sometimes they are applied. Hours, phone numbers and categories are the usual ones.

Compare with your competitors

A checklist tells you whether your profile is complete. It doesn’t tell you whether it is better than the three profiles customers see next to yours. Open your main competitors’ profiles and note their categories, photo count and freshness, attributes, how they reply to reviews and how recent their newest reviews are. For a full routine, see our guide to local competitor analysis.

Our free competitor check puts your rating, reviews and the main themes in them next to your local competitors’, so you can see where your profile stands in a few minutes.