Guide

Google Business Profile checklist

Last updated 23 October 2026

For a local business, your Google Business Profile is often the first thing a customer sees, before your website. It decides whether you show up when someone nearby searches, and AI assistants read it too. Here is the checklist we use.

Set it up right

  • Claim and verify the profile. Search for your business on Google Maps. If a listing exists, claim it; if not, create one. Verify by the method Google offers.
  • Use your real business name. No keywords stuffed into the name (“Ember Kitchen Best Meal Prep Lahore”). It breaks Google’s guidelines and can get the listing suspended.
  • Pick the right primary category. This matters more than almost anything else. Choose the most specific one that fits, then add a few accurate secondary categories.
  • Address or service area. If customers visit you, show your address. If you go to them, set a service area and hide the address.
  • Phone, website and hours. Add holiday hours too, so customers do not arrive at a closed door.
  • Description. One or two plain paragraphs: what you do, for whom, where. Use the same core sentence as your website.
  • Services or products with prices. Fill these in. They are cheap to add and help you match more searches.

Keep it active

  • Photos. Add real photos of your place, products and team, and add new ones every month. Listings with recent photos look alive.
  • Posts. Share an update, offer or event every week or two.
  • Questions and answers. Add the questions customers ask most, and answer them yourself.
  • Reviews. Ask every customer for a review with a short link, then reply to every review, good or bad, within a few days.

Keep details consistent

Your name, address, phone and hours should match exactly on your website, Facebook, Instagram and every directory you are listed in. Mismatched details confuse Google and AI assistants, and both trust you less for it.

Mistakes that get profiles restricted

  • Buying reviews or offering discounts for reviews.
  • Only asking happy customers to review (called review gating).
  • Keywords in the business name.
  • A virtual office or a PO box as the address.
  • Creating more than one listing for the same location.

Measure it

Google shows you calls, direction requests, website clicks and the searches people used to find you. Check them every month. If calls and directions are not growing, revisit the category, photos and reviews first.

Not sure where you stand? The Site X-ray checks your website’s local signals, and our local SEO service takes the whole checklist off your hands.

Want it done for you? Our local SEO service sets up your profile properly and keeps it active every month. Run the X-ray · Contact Zung Labs