Google Business Profile: How to Actually Crank It Up

There is something important to understand about Google before you start trying to improve your visibility on it: Google does not care about your business. I don’t mean that in a negative way. Google isn’t your competitor, it isn’t your customer, and it isn’t sitting around hoping you succeed or fail. Google doesn’t have an opinion about your company. It doesn’t know that you’ve been in business for 20 years. It doesn’t know that you’ve built a great reputation in your community, that your customers love you, or that you personally answered the phone at 7:00 this morning. Google is a machine trying to interpret an enormous amount of information and return what it believes is the best answer to a person’s search. That distinction is important because business owners tend to think about Google in very human terms. We say things like, “Google doesn’t like my business,” or “Google dropped me,” or “Google isn’t showing me anymore.” What is really happening is considerably less personal. Google is processing information about your business and comparing it with information about thousands or millions of other businesses, while also considering what the person searching appears to want, where that person is located and how strong the available evidence is that your business is a good answer.

That’s where your Google Business Profile comes into the picture. The name used to be Google My Business, which is what I called it when this article was originally published. Google has since changed the name to Google Business Profile, but the basic concept remains the same: this is the business information Google uses to represent your company across Google Search and Google Maps. You can control a significant portion of that information, but you don’t control all of it. Google also gathers information from your website, customers, other websites, third-party sources and people using Google. In other words, your Business Profile is not an isolated little form sitting inside Google’s ecosystem. It is one part of the larger collection of information Google uses to understand what your business is, what it does and whether it is relevant to a particular search.

And that leads to the first big misconception about local SEO: your Google Business Profile is not your local SEO strategy. It is one piece of it. You can have a beautifully optimized profile and a terrible website. You can have a great website and a neglected profile. You can have 500 reviews and a website that doesn’t explain what you actually do. You can have a fantastic website and almost no legitimate mentions of your company anywhere else. The goal isn’t to make one little Google property perfect. The goal is to make the entire online footprint of your business make sense. That’s increasingly important as Google becomes better at connecting information across websites, profiles, reviews, links, locations and other signals. If you want to understand the larger picture, our Denver SEO services are built around exactly that idea: search visibility isn’t one trick or one page, but a collection of signals that need to reinforce one another.

Google Needs to Understand What You Are

Let’s say you own a plumbing company in Denver. You know what you do. Your customers know what you do. Your employees know what you do. But Google doesn’t know in the same way a human being does. Google has to infer it from information. It sees the category attached to your Business Profile. It sees the services you list. It sees the words on your website. It sees your address and service area. It sees reviews. It sees other websites mentioning you. It sees links. It sees photographs and other user-generated information. Google says information in Business Profiles can come from multiple sources, including information supplied by the business, publicly available web content such as the business’s official website, third-party information and contributions from users.

That’s actually a pretty powerful idea because Google isn’t relying entirely on what you say about yourself. It’s trying to construct a picture. If your Business Profile says you’re a Denver web design company, your website says you’re a Denver web design company, your customers talk about your web design work, legitimate websites mention you as a web design company, and your service pages explain web design in considerable detail, Google has a lot of consistent information pointing in the same direction. That’s good. If your Business Profile says you’re a marketing company, your homepage says you’re a software developer, your services page talks mostly about SEO, your social profiles say you’re a branding agency and your directory listings use five different descriptions, you’ve made Google’s job considerably harder. This is why I keep coming back to consistency. You don’t necessarily want to give Google more information. You want to give Google better information.

Start With the Boring Stuff

The first step is still the boring stuff, and I mean that as a compliment. Make sure the Business Profile is claimed and verified. Make sure the business name is correct. Make sure the address is correct if you have a physical location. Make sure the phone number is correct. Make sure the website points to the right place. Make sure your hours are accurate, including special hours when appropriate. Make sure the business category actually describes what you are. Google recommends keeping Business Profile information complete and accurate because that helps it understand what the business does, where it is and when customers can interact with it. None of this is particularly exciting, which is probably why so many businesses don’t do it properly. I’ve looked at plenty of business profiles over the years that are essentially abandoned digital postcards. The business owner created the listing, put in the address and phone number, uploaded a logo five years ago and then never looked at it again. Meanwhile the business has changed, the hours are wrong, the website changed, the company now offers additional services, the photographs are ancient and the profile doesn’t really explain what the company does. Then the owner wonders why the competitor down the street seems to be getting all the attention. Google isn’t necessarily punishing the business. The business simply isn’t giving Google much to work with.

Your primary category deserves particular attention because it helps establish what the business actually is. This is another area where people sometimes try to get clever, and my advice is don’t. If you’re a web design company, select the category that most accurately describes the business. If you’re a dentist, select the appropriate dental category. If you’re a roofing contractor, use the category that accurately represents the roofing business. The temptation is to select whatever category you think will produce the most traffic, but that’s backwards. Google is trying to determine relevance — how closely your business matches the thing somebody is searching for. Google identifies relevance as one of the primary factors in local search and says complete and detailed business information helps it understand a business and match it to relevant searches. So don’t try to tell Google that you’re everything. Tell Google what you actually are.

Reviews Are Where Things Get Interesting

This was the point I emphasized in the original article, and I still believe it is one of the most important parts of the whole equation: get real customers to review you. Not your brother. Not your employee. Not somebody who has never actually done business with you. Not a review farm in another country. Real customers. Google says review count and positive ratings can contribute to local ranking, and its guidance recommends responding to reviews as well. But there is something even more important than the ranking factor: people read reviews. When someone searches for your company and sees 47 reviews with a 4.8 rating, that immediately communicates something. When they click through and discover that the reviews actually contain detailed descriptions of the work you performed, the credibility increases. When they see that you respond professionally to customers, even when the review isn’t perfect, that tells them something about the company as well. Your reviews aren’t just an SEO signal. They’re part of your sales presentation. You’ve probably spent thousands of dollars on your website, logo, advertising, photography and other marketing, and then a prospective customer finds you on Google and one of the first things they see is what your existing customers say about you. That’s powerful.

I also wouldn’t get completely obsessed with the number itself. Businesses become fixated on getting from 4.7 to 4.8 or from 4.8 to 4.9 as though that tiny decimal is the entire story. A profile with hundreds of legitimate reviews and a 4.8 rating can be much more convincing than a profile with 11 reviews and a perfect 5.0. And a review that says “Great company!” isn’t necessarily as useful to a prospective customer as a detailed review explaining what the company actually did. Imagine someone looking for a web design company. One review says, “Great service. Five stars.” Another says, “We hired Big Orange Planet to rebuild our website after our previous site had become impossible to manage. They reorganized the content, rebuilt the site and helped us clean up the SEO problems that had accumulated over the years.” Which one tells the prospective customer more? Obviously the second one. It provides context. It tells somebody what happened. That’s what people actually use when making decisions. And there is an important distinction here from the old article: don’t manufacture those reviews. Ask legitimate customers, make the process easy, send them the review link and ask at an appropriate point after you’ve successfully completed the project. Most happy customers aren’t opposed to leaving a review. They simply forget.

Negative reviews are a different animal, but they’re part of running a business. Eventually you’re probably going to get one. Sometimes the customer is right. Sometimes you screwed up. Sometimes there was a misunderstanding. Sometimes the customer has unrealistic expectations. And sometimes the review is completely bogus. The important thing is not to lose your mind. If the review is legitimate, respond professionally. If you made a mistake, own it. If there is a misunderstanding, explain it without turning the response into a public argument. If the review appears to violate Google’s policies, use Google’s reporting and appeal processes rather than getting into a shouting match with the reviewer. And remember that your response isn’t really for the person who left the review. It’s for everybody else. A prospective customer may read that review six months from now, and they’re going to judge the reviewer, but they’re also going to judge you by the way you respond. A calm response can build confidence. A three-paragraph rant about how stupid the customer is will do the opposite.

Photos Make the Business Real

Another area businesses tend to underestimate is photography. Google recommends adding photos and videos because they help customers understand what a business offers and what the business looks like. That’s not just a technical recommendation. It’s common sense. If I’m looking for a restaurant, I want to see the restaurant. If I’m looking for a contractor, I want to see the work. If I’m looking for a dentist, I want to see the office. If I’m considering hiring a professional services company, I want some indication that there are actual human beings behind the logo. Your photographs should reinforce reality: show the office, show your team, show projects, show finished work, show the process, show the products and show the things that make the business real. Don’t upload 100 photographs that all look like they were taken from exactly the same spot, either. Give people some variety. A profile with good, authentic photography feels like an active business. A profile with one blurry logo from 2019 feels like nobody is home.

The same general principle applies to updates and other activity. There is a temptation in SEO to confuse activity with progress, and I see this all the time. Businesses think they need to constantly post something because somebody told them Google rewards “freshness.” That’s not a good reason to publish junk. If you have something useful to announce, publish it. If you’ve completed an interesting project, talk about it. If you’ve launched a service, explain it. If you’ve written a genuinely useful article, share it. If there is something your customers should know, tell them. The goal isn’t to create a stream of meaningless “Happy Friday!” updates simply so the profile looks busy. The goal is to give people useful information and reinforce what the business actually does. BOP’s related Google Business Profile advanced optimization article goes further into the practical side of photos and updates, so I would treat these two articles as complementary rather than repeating the same material on both pages.

Your Website Is Part of the Profile

This is where a lot of local SEO discussions go wrong. People treat Google Business Profile as though it exists in a vacuum. It doesn’t. Google says information from a business’s official website can be among the sources used to construct information about a business profile and local search results. So your website matters — a lot. Let’s say your Business Profile says you’re a Denver SEO company, but somebody clicks through and finds a homepage that says almost nothing about SEO. That’s a problem. Maybe you have one giant “Services” page containing 2,000 words about everything you’ve ever done. That’s not ideal either. If SEO is an important service, build a useful page about SEO. If web design is important, build a useful page about web design. If you serve a specific market, explain that. If you have genuine expertise in a particular area, demonstrate it. This is where the website begins reinforcing the Business Profile rather than merely linking to it.

For example, Big Orange Planet has a dedicated Denver web design page because web design is a major part of what we actually do. We also have a dedicated Denver SEO page because SEO is another major part of the business. Those aren’t pages created simply because somebody told us to put a city name in a URL. They’re pages about actual services. That’s the distinction. A useful local page should explain the service, demonstrate competence, answer questions, establish relevance and give the visitor a reason to contact you. The website then becomes another piece of evidence supporting the same story that your Business Profile is telling Google.

This is also where site structure and internal linking become important. If you have a page about local SEO, an article about Google Business Profile, a page about web design and another article about how proximity affects local rankings, those pieces shouldn’t exist as isolated islands. Connect them where the relationship is genuinely useful. BOP has written extensively about site structure and SEO performance because the organization of a site helps both people and search engines understand how the pieces fit together. A Google Business Profile article can naturally point to a local SEO service page. A proximity article can point back to the Business Profile discussion. A web design article can explain why website structure matters to local search. That’s how a site starts becoming a system rather than a pile of disconnected posts.

Local SEO Is About the Whole Picture

Google says local ranking is primarily based on relevance, distance and prominence. Prominence can be influenced by information Google has about the business across the web, including links and reviews, while a business’s position in regular web search also matters. That should change the way you think about local SEO. It isn’t Google Business Profile + keyword + magic = number one. It’s much closer to business + website + reviews + reputation + local relevance + links + information + proximity + time. And even that isn’t a complete formula because Google isn’t publishing the formula. That’s intentional. Google doesn’t want everyone to know exactly how to manipulate the system, and frankly that’s probably a good thing. If there were a 17-step recipe that guaranteed a number-one local ranking, every business in the country would simply follow the recipe and the search results would become meaningless.

Distance is particularly important because it explains one of the most confusing aspects of local search: your ranking may change depending on where the searcher is located. Google specifically identifies distance as one of the primary local ranking factors. A company in downtown Denver might be extremely visible to somebody searching from downtown and considerably less visible to somebody searching from 25 miles away. That doesn’t necessarily mean the profile is broken. It means geography exists. BOP has covered this in much greater detail in How Proximity Impacts Local Rankings in Google Search, and it’s worth understanding because it changes the way you interpret ranking reports. There may not be one universal “Google Maps ranking” for your business. What matters is the broader pattern of visibility across the area you actually serve.

That’s why I don’t like obsessing over a single local search result as though it were a permanent stock price. Look for patterns. Look at visibility across areas. Look at relevant searches. Look at website traffic. Look at calls. Look at leads. Look at reviews. Look at actual business results. The ranking position is useful, but it isn’t the entire story. Search results can move, and BOP has also documented why Google rankings can move daily. The point isn’t to pretend rankings don’t matter. They obviously matter. The point is to understand what you’re actually measuring.

Don’t Turn Your Business Name Into a Keyword

Here’s another mistake that continues to show up: a company called “ABC Plumbing” decides to change its Google Business Profile name to “ABC Plumbing Denver Emergency Plumber Best Plumber 24 Hour Plumbing Services.” No. Your business name should represent the actual business name. Don’t turn it into a keyword dump because you think Google will reward you. The same principle applies elsewhere. Don’t invent locations you don’t actually serve. Don’t create fake offices. Don’t manufacture reviews. Don’t fill every available field with variations of the same keyword. If the underlying business isn’t legitimate, no amount of profile optimization turns it into one.

The same goes for location pages. If you genuinely serve Denver, say so. If you genuinely serve Boulder, say so. If you have a real office in Colorado Springs, that’s relevant. But creating dozens of pages for every suburb in Colorado simply because you discovered a keyword tool isn’t the same thing as building local relevance. Search engines are getting better at understanding context, and customers aren’t stupid either. If your page says you are “the leading web design company in Lakewood, Golden, Aurora, Boulder, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, Littleton, Highlands Ranch, Arvada, Westminster and every city in Colorado,” you’ve probably told me absolutely nothing about why I should hire you.

Citations, Links and Reputation

There was a time when local SEO companies sold citation packages like they were selling lottery tickets: 500 directories, 1,000 citations, 10,000 local listings. I don’t think that’s the game. If a legitimate organization, industry association, local business group or relevant directory lists your business accurately, that’s useful. If you have wildly inconsistent business information scattered across hundreds of useless websites, that’s not something I’d celebrate. The objective isn’t to have your company name appear on as many pages as possible. The objective is to build a consistent, credible presence. Your company should be recognizable across the web. The name should make sense, the website should make sense, the location should make sense, the services should make sense and the references should make sense.

Links are part of that larger reputation picture too. Google specifically mentions links and information across the web when discussing prominence. That doesn’t mean you should go buy 500 links from websites you’ve never heard of. It means legitimate recognition matters. If a local organization links to your business, that’s useful. If an industry publication discusses your company, that’s useful. If a respected organization lists you as a member, that’s useful. If a relevant website references your work, that’s useful. If customers naturally mention you, that’s useful. This is what authority looks like when you strip away the SEO jargon: other people and organizations have enough confidence in what you do to associate their name with yours. That’s valuable, and it’s much harder to manufacture convincingly than a pile of directory links.

Give Google Evidence, Not Noise

This is probably the simplest way I can explain the direction I think local SEO is heading. Don’t just ask, “What keyword should I put on this page?” Ask, “What evidence can I provide that demonstrates what this business actually does?” If you’re a contractor, show the projects. If you’re a photographer, show the photographs. If you’re a law firm, demonstrate expertise through useful information. If you’re a web design company, show the websites. If you’re an SEO company, demonstrate that you understand search. If you’re a medical construction company, talk intelligently about medical construction. This is where content becomes more than a pile of SEO articles. Content becomes evidence of expertise. Your website becomes evidence. Your reviews become evidence. Your portfolio becomes evidence. Your photographs become evidence. Your links become evidence. Your Business Profile becomes evidence.

That idea also explains why I don’t recommend publishing junk simply because somebody told you that Google likes “fresh content.” A business can publish 100 articles that say essentially the same thing and still fail to establish much authority. Another company can publish 20 genuinely useful pieces that demonstrate a deep understanding of its customers, services and market. The second company may have considerably more to work with. That’s why BOP’s own content strategy has moved toward deeper topical coverage rather than simply pumping out generic SEO articles. A useful piece about why some website content never ranks is much more valuable when it is part of a larger body of related material about search, websites, structure, authority and local visibility.

Don’t Confuse Activity With Progress

There’s a tendency in SEO to believe that if you’re constantly doing something, you’re making progress. Sometimes you’re just making noise. Posting meaningless updates every day doesn’t necessarily build a better business presence. Adding hundreds of useless photos doesn’t necessarily make a profile stronger. Creating dozens of nearly identical location pages doesn’t necessarily make a site more relevant. Publishing articles nobody needs doesn’t necessarily build authority. Buying links from random websites doesn’t necessarily make you prominent. The better question isn’t “How much SEO activity are we doing?” It’s “Are we making the business easier to understand and easier to trust?”

That’s a much better metric, and it connects directly to what makes a good website in the first place. A successful website isn’t simply an attractive collection of pages. It needs to communicate value, establish trust, make navigation straightforward, perform well and give visitors a clear path toward becoming customers. BOP’s article What Small Businesses Really Need From a Website makes essentially the same argument from the website side. Your Business Profile and your website aren’t separate marketing universes. They’re two ways of presenting the same business.

So How Do You Actually Crank It Up?

If I were sitting down with a business owner whose Google Business Profile was basically neglected, I wouldn’t start with some complicated secret technique. I’d start by making the business information correct. Then I’d make sure the primary category accurately represented the company and that the profile contained useful, complete information. I’d make sure the website matched the same positioning. I’d look at the service pages and make sure the important services were actually explained. I’d clean up obvious inconsistencies elsewhere on the web. I’d start building a legitimate review process. I’d respond to existing reviews. I’d add good photographs. I’d make sure the business was producing useful content rather than generic SEO filler. Then I’d look at what the business actually does well, because that’s the part that is often overlooked.

If the company has 20 years of experience in a particular industry, talk about it. If the company has completed 300 projects, show them. If customers consistently praise a particular service, explain it. If there’s a recurring customer problem that the business solves exceptionally well, write about it. Don’t manufacture authority. Expose the authority that already exists. That’s a much better SEO strategy. And when the Business Profile, website, reviews, content, links and real-world reputation all tell roughly the same story, you’ve done something far more valuable than stuffing another keyword into a field. You’ve created a coherent digital identity for the business.

The Real Secret Is That There Isn’t a Secret

Google says there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking, and it says local results are primarily based on relevance, distance and prominence. That may be less exciting than somebody promising you a secret Maps trick, but I actually think it’s good news. It means the long-term strategy is pretty straightforward: build a legitimate business, make it easy to understand, give Google accurate information, build a good website, create useful content, get real customers, earn real reviews, respond to those customers, show your work, build legitimate relationships and mentions, keep your information consistent and keep doing the things that make the business more credible in the real world.

Google is going to keep changing. The interface will change. The local pack will change. AI will change how people discover businesses. Search results will change. The way people ask questions will change. But the underlying problem Google is trying to solve isn’t particularly mysterious. Someone wants something, and Google wants to give them a good answer. Your job is to make it obvious that your business is a good answer. That’s what cranking up your Google Business Profile is really about. Not stuffing keywords into every field. Not buying fake reviews. Not creating fake locations. Not obsessing over whether you’re number two or number three from one particular parking lot. It’s about building a business presence that makes sense from every direction.

Your profile says what you do. Your website explains what you do. Your customers talk about what you do. Your portfolio demonstrates what you do. Your photographs show what you do. Other websites reference what you do. Your content demonstrates that you know what you do. And the business itself delivers what you say it does. When all of that starts pointing in the same direction, you’ve given Google something much more valuable than another keyword.

You’ve given it evidence.

And evidence is a lot harder to fake — and a lot more valuable — than SEO tricks.