Optimizing Your Google Business Profile: The No-Agency Guide

Why a half-filled profile costs you customers

Tuesday evening, 9:10 pm. Someone in Haarlem types 'tiler Haarlem' into their phone. Three businesses come up. The first profile shows photos of a freshly tiled bathroom, tomorrow's opening hours, and a review from last week. The other two show a name and an address. The first one gets the call.

That's how you lose customers without ever noticing. No email arrives from the person who picked the competitor instead. Every empty field on your profile is a question the customer has to answer for themselves, and when in doubt, they tap the profile that already answered it.

Try it yourself: search your trade plus your town and look at the first three profiles. Odds are some fields are empty, photos are missing, or the last review never got a reply. Standing out from that takes an afternoon of work you can do yourself.

Claim and verify first

Start by searching your own business name on Google Maps. There's a real chance a profile already exists that nobody ever set up, and Google has a claim flow built for exactly that case: tap 'Claim this business,' then 'Manage now.' If nothing comes up, create a new profile at google.com/business. Claiming and managing it is free, and that comes straight from Google's own help pages.

After that, Google needs to confirm you're really the owner. Google decides which method you get: a phone call or text, email, a live video call, a postcard, or in some cases a video recording. Postcard codes usually arrive within 14 days, and once you submit the code, review can take up to 5 more business days. Start this today, even if the rest of your profile isn't finished yet.

Name, category, and opening hours

Use exactly the name that's on your storefront and your invoices. It's tempting to stuff in extra keywords ('Jansen Plumbing Best Plumber Haarlem 24/7'). Google's business profile guidelines forbid that and can suspend your profile for it, and then you're nowhere at all.

For category, pick what your business actually is, and keep the list as short as possible. A bike shop with a coffee corner is a bike shop. Google uses that category to match you to searches, so a vague choice costs you exactly the customers you were trying to reach.

Fill in your opening hours and don't forget the exceptions around holidays, especially King's Day. Someone who shows up on December 26 to a locked door while your profile still says 'open' won't come back, and sometimes writes a review about it too.

• The name exactly as it appears on your storefront and your invoices
• One category that says what your business actually is, extra categories only if you truly need them
• Address or service area, including the unit or floor number if you share a building
• Opening hours plus the exceptions around holidays
• The extra attributes Google offers, like wifi or outdoor seating

Photos that show what a customer gets

Google's own help pages recommend adding photos and videos. Do it with your phone and keep it real: a job you just finished, your work van, you mid-task. Everyone recognizes a stock photo of a smiling model, and it doesn't answer a single question a customer actually has.

One photo people often skip: the storefront, shot from the sidewalk. It's how a first-time visitor spots your door between the hairdresser and the bakery, and Google's help pages name that exterior shot as a way to help customers recognize your business. If you work at people's homes, show the work instead: the bathroom before and after, the hedge before and after.

Asking for reviews without breaking Google's rules

Reviews factor into your visibility, and they're often the first thing an undecided customer reads. Google says outright that you're allowed to remind customers to leave one, and gives you a dedicated link and QR code to share from your profile. Send that link the day after a job, while the customer's still happy about it.

Offering a discount or a free product in exchange for a review is off-limits. Google's review rules file that under fake and misleading content and prohibit it outright. So just ask, with nothing dangled in return.

Reply to every review too, briefly and calmly, including the unfair ones. That reply is really for the next customer, who's watching how you handle criticism. If reviews also come in through other channels, managing reviews across multiple platforms covers how to stay on top of it.

How Google decides who ranks first

Google names three factors for local results: relevance, distance, and prominence. There's not much you can do about distance beyond entering your address and service area correctly. Relevance comes from a complete profile and the right category. Prominence grows with reviews and with other websites linking to yours.

The same help page states plainly that you can't request or buy a better position. Everything that moves the needle sits in fields that are just as open to you as they are to any agency.

AI search engines use this same data

People now also ask ChatGPT, or a similar assistant, for 'a good painter nearby.' The details that make your profile complete (name, city, services, reviews) are the same details those assistants draw on when they answer. How that works, and what else you can do about it, is covered in findable in ChatGPT.

The upkeep: 15 minutes a month

A profile is never really finished, and at the same time the upkeep is genuinely light. Put a recurring 15 minutes in your calendar, once a month, and work through this list.

When the profile works, your phone rings more. If you're with a client when it does, that caller disappears just as fast as if the profile had been empty. How to catch calls you can't get to, without hiring a call center, is what the guide on missed calls is for.

• Check your opening hours and set exceptions for upcoming holidays
• Add one or two new photos of recent work
• Reply to every review that's come in since last month
• Look over your services list so it matches what you actually do now