Google Business Profile: The Free Tool Most Local Businesses Ignore
Search for your own service and your city on Google. Before the normal website results, you will see a map and three businesses. That block, called the local pack, takes a huge share of the clicks, and appearing in it costs nothing. It is controlled by your Google Business Profile, a free listing that an surprising number of good businesses have never claimed.
Setting it up properly (about one hour)
- Claim or create the profile at google.com/business and verify it (usually by video or postcard)
- Choose the most specific primary category: 'Wedding venue', not just 'Venue'
- Add every service you offer, each with a short description and price where possible
- Set accurate opening hours, including holiday hours, and keep them updated
- Upload at least ten real photos: exterior, interior, team, work in progress, finished results
- Write a description that says what you do, who for, and where, in natural language
Reviews are the ranking factor you can influence
Two businesses with similar profiles separate quickly on reviews: count, rating and freshness all matter. Ask happy customers directly, make it effortless with a short link or QR code at your counter, and reply to every review, good or bad, like a person. A calm, helpful reply to a bad review often impresses future customers more than the review damages you.
Never buy reviews or have staff write them. Google detects patterns, removes them, and can suspend the profile entirely, which for a local business is close to going invisible.
Keep it alive
Add new photos monthly, post offers and updates using the free posts feature, and check the insights tab to see how people found you. Then connect the dots: your website should link to the profile, use the same business name, address and phone number everywhere, and carry pages for each service the profile lists. This local consistency is a core part of the SEO work we do for clients, and it is something you can genuinely start yourself this week.
Photos that actually get clicks
Profiles with real photos get far more calls and direction requests than profiles with none, and the type of photo matters as much as the count. Customers want to see what they will actually find: the outside of your premises so they recognise it, the inside so they know what to expect, your team at work, and finished results. A restaurant with photos of its food, a salon with photos of its chairs and its work, a clinic with a clean waiting room — these remove doubt before a customer ever contacts you.
Avoid stock photos. Visitors recognise them instantly, and a generic smiling handshake tells them nothing about your business. Add new photos every month, even just two or three from your phone, and remove anything blurry or years out of date. A profile whose newest photo is from 2022 quietly tells customers the business may have moved on.