Make your business profile useful and accurate.

Confirm eligibility and ownership

First establish whether the business meets Google's requirements and whether the right people can manage the profile. The official guidelines cover customer-facing locations and businesses that travel to customers, with additional requirements and exceptions.

Keep a record of who owns the profile and who has management access. Resolve duplicate or outdated information through the appropriate process before creating another listing.

Check the information a customer relies on

Open the profile as a prospective customer and compare it with the real business and website.

• The business name matches how the business is represented in the real world.
• Categories describe the actual core activity.
• Address or service-area information reflects the operation.
• Regular and special hours are current.
• The phone number and website lead to the right destination.

Improve the decision, not just the completeness score

Useful descriptions and current photographs should help people understand what to expect. Plan a repeatable way to update changes in services, appearance or contact information.

Review the linked website page too. Someone arriving from the profile should find the relevant service, coverage and next step without having to search the whole site.

Create a sensible review process

Decide who asks customers for feedback and who responds. A consistent process is easier to maintain than an occasional campaign. Responses should be helpful and avoid exposing private customer details. Use Google's current review policies when designing the process.

Review activity with the business outcome

Profile interactions are useful signals, but they do not all represent customers. Pair available profile data with website enquiries and the information your team receives.

Schedule a review when opening hours, services or coverage change. Keeping the profile useful is an operating responsibility, not a one-time SEO task.