Google Business Profile: the settings that decide whether you show up

Google sorts local results on relevance, distance and prominence

Your Google Business Profile is not a dial you can turn up. Google's own help page says local results are ranked on relevance, which is how well your profile matches what someone searched for ¹, on distance, which is how far your business is from the person searching ², and on prominence, which is how well known your business is ³.

Two of those are mostly out of your hands on any given day. You cannot move your shop closer to the person holding the phone, and prominence builds slowly. Relevance is the one you can work on this afternoon, and Google says plainly that businesses with complete and accurate info are more likely to show up in local search results ⁴.

So the checklist below is mostly about filling in fields truthfully and completely. None of it is a trick. The fields that get owners in trouble are the ones they try to game.

Get control of the profile before you change anything

Verification is the gate. Google says that when you verify your business, you gain ownership of your Business Profile and can make sure your business information is right ⁵. Until that is done, the name, hours and categories your customers see are not yours to edit.

If someone else set the profile up years ago, like a former partner or a web company you no longer deal with, sort that out first. Everything below assumes you can sign in and change things yourself ⁵.

Your business name must be your real-world name

Google says your name should reflect your real-world name, the one used on your storefront, website and stationery, and the one customers know you by ⁶. That rules out adding a city, a list of services or a phrase like best in town ⁶.

Stuffing keywords into the name feels free, and it is the most common reason a profile disappears. Google says including unnecessary information in your business name is not permitted and could result in the suspension of your Business Profile ⁷. A suspended profile ranks nowhere while you appeal, which costs more than the keywords were ever worth.

If a competitor across town has a stuffed name and sits above you, that is not proof it works, and it is not permission ⁷.

Pick the fewest categories that are true

Categories tell Google which searches you belong in. Google says to use as few categories as possible to describe your main business, chosen from the list it provides ⁸.

Google's test for a category is whether it completes the sentence 'this business IS a', rather than 'this business HAS a' ⁸. A plumbing company is a plumber. It is not a hardware store because it carries parts in the van.

Your primary category does the most work, so spend real time choosing it. Then add only the extra categories for work you actually do and would be happy to get calls for.

Set a service area you actually drive to

If you work at the customer's place rather than your own, you set a service area instead of showing an address. Google says your service area should not extend farther than about 2 hours of driving time from where your business is based, and that a service-area business should hide its address from customers ⁹.

In Alberta it is tempting to claim the whole corridor and both big cities. Padding the area does not beat distance, which Google measures from your business to the person searching ².

Set it to where you will genuinely go on a Tuesday afternoon, counting the drive home. Then keep your hours current, because hours are part of the complete and accurate information Google asks for ⁴.

Reviews are the slow part that actually moves

Google says more reviews and positive ratings can help your local ranking ¹⁰. It gives no number and no score for how much they matter, and that is still the clearest instruction on the page.

The habit that works is to ask right when the job is finished and the customer is happy, face to face, with the link ready to send. A week later, by email, almost nobody does it.

Reply to the reviews you get, including the unhappy ones, in plain language and without arguing. The next customer reads your replies more carefully than the reviews.

Keep reviews honest, good and bad

Google's content policy says merchants may not discourage or prohibit negative reviews, or selectively solicit positive reviews from customers ¹¹. Offering payment, discounts or free work in exchange for a review is on the same banned list ¹¹. So trading a discount for a star rating is a policy problem, even a small discount.

There is a Canadian layer as well. The Competition Bureau can seek administrative monetary penalties for representations that are false or misleading in a material respect, up to $750,000 for an individual and up to $10,000,000 for a corporation on a first occurrence, in Canadian dollars ¹². Those ceilings are aimed at large cases, not at a small shop, but fake reviews are not a grey area in this country.

For most local businesses in Alberta the free profile and an honest review habit are enough, and no tool beats filling in the fields properly and checking them each quarter. A ready-made review request app only starts to earn its keep when you serve so many customers each week that asking by hand gets forgotten. Custom work only makes sense when the request should send itself from your own booking or invoicing system, because nothing off the shelf can see inside it.