SEO
Google Business Profile: how to turn the old Google My Business into a revenue channel
Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business, renamed in 2021) is the listing that controls how a company shows up on the map, in the search sidebar panel, on Google Maps, on Waze and in voice answers. Local ranking considers three signals: relevance, distance and prominence. Category, reviews, photos and data consistency with your website determine who shows up when someone searches for a service in town.
Of all local SEO assets, this is the cheapest to maintain and the most neglected in practice. Most companies claimed the profile once, filled in half a dozen fields and never opened the dashboard again.
Meanwhile, the competitor who replies to reviews and picks the right category shows up first on the map, even while delivering less.
In this guide, I show you field by field what to optimize and how to measure whether the profile is actually turning into customers.
What Google Business Profile is
Google Business Profile is the listing that controls how your company appears on the map, in the search sidebar panel, on Google Maps, on Waze and in voice searches. It is managed directly within Search and Maps, with no separate app, and works as the foundation of any local SEO strategy: whoever neglects it becomes invisible at the exact moment a customer is looking nearby.
From Google My Business to Business Profile
If you still call it Google My Business, that is fine, almost everyone does. But the name changed in 2021, and the change went beyond the label.
Google retired the app and moved management into Search and Maps themselves. Today you search for your company name while logged into the account that manages the profile and edit everything right there: hours, photos, posts, review replies.
That says a lot about Google's intention: the profile stopped being a parallel listing and became part of the search result itself.
Where the profile shows up
The reach is bigger than it seems. The same profile feeds:
- The local pack (that block with a map and three companies at the top of search)
- The sidebar panel when someone searches for your brand
- Google Maps and Waze, including directions and "open now"
- Voice searches on Android and Assistant
- AI answers from tools like Gemini and ChatGPT when someone asks for a company "near me"
One listing, six storefronts. That is why it is the cheapest asset in local marketing, and the most poorly maintained.
Why most profiles do not generate customers
A registered profile and an optimized profile are different things. Most companies did the first back in 2019, forgot the password and never came back. The result shows up on the map: the competitor with 340 reviews on top, you in eighth place.
Signs your profile has been abandoned
- Generic primary category (like "company" or "service")
- Old photos or photos uploaded by customers, none of your own
- Reviews left unanswered for months
- Outdated hours (holidays, schedule changes)
- User questions answered by other users, not by you
- No posts published in the last quarter
Two or more items from this list and Google already understands the profile is dead. And a dead profile loses calls, directions requests and website clicks every single day.
What Google uses to rank in the local pack
Three criteria, documented by Google itself:
- Relevance: how well your profile matches the search. Well filled category, services and description solve this.
- Distance: proximity between the searcher and your address. You do not control it, but you mitigate it with city pages on your website.
- Prominence: your reputation in the real world. Reviews, press mentions and links pointing to your brand.
Distance you cannot change. The other two take work, and that is where most companies stop.
How to optimize the profile field by field
Set aside an hour and follow the order below. All of it can be done today, directly in Search or Maps.
Name, category and service area
The name must be exactly what is on the storefront. Stuffing a keyword in there ("SP Accounting Best Price") violates the guidelines and can take the profile down.
Choose the most specific primary category possible. "Accounting firm" ranks better than "company." Google allows up to 9 secondary categories: use every one that genuinely makes sense.
Address identical to the one on your website, letter by letter. If you serve customers at their location, define a service area instead of displaying an address. Keep hours updated, including holidays: a profile that says "open" with the door closed generates negative reviews.
Services, description and photos
Register each service as a separate item, with its own description. The general description allows 750 characters: spend the first 250 saying what you do, for whom and where, because that is the part that shows without a click.
Upload your own photos of the storefront, the team and delivered work. Profiles with recent photos get more directions requests and more website clicks.
Posts and questions
Publish one post per week, even if it is just a completed project. And answer the frequently asked questions in the Q&A tab yourself before a stranger answers them wrong.
Reviews, external authority and citations
Local ranking rests on three signals: relevance, distance and prominence. You solved the first two in the previous section. Prominence comes from outside the profile.
Reviews are the main engine. Google reads volume, rating, recency and whether the owner replies. A profile with 40 reviews from this year beats a profile with 200 that have been sitting still since 2022.
Ask for reviews the right way: a direct link over WhatsApp right after the service is delivered, to every customer, without filtering who is likely to leave a good rating. Buying reviews or offering a gift in exchange violates the guidelines and can get the profile suspended.
And reply to everything, including the negatives. The person reading your reply is not the angry customer, it is the next customer deciding whether to call you.
Outside of Google, what matters is NAP consistency: name, address and phone identical on your website, in directories and in any public mention. Divergence there confuses the algorithm and the AIs that cite local businesses.
Editorial mentions in portals and press round out the package. They feed the profile's prominence and are the foundation of a solid Link Building strategy, the same authority ChatGPT and Gemini read when recommending a company in your city.
How to measure whether the profile is bringing revenue
An optimized profile without measurement becomes an act of faith. The performance dashboard, inside the profile itself, shows what matters.
Dashboard metrics that matter
Separate branded searches (people who already knew you) from discovery searches (people who searched "accounting near me" and found you). Growing discovery is a sign the optimization worked. Also track website clicks, directions requests and calls, month over month.
UTM on the website link
Clicks from the profile land in GA4 as generic organic traffic, mixed with everything else. Solve this with a UTM in the website field: ?utmsource=google&utmmedium=perfil-empresa. From there, you can cross profile visits with submitted forms and attribute revenue to the channel. For calls, a dedicated tracking number on the profile closes the loop.
Suspensions and sabotage
Profiles suspended out of nowhere, competitors suggesting malicious edits or third parties trying to claim your listing: all of this happens and can silence your phone overnight. Monitor weekly and dispute through official support.
If you have multiple locations or heavy competition in your city, an SEO agency for businesses takes over this work with a process and live reporting. Want a no strings attached diagnosis? Talk to an Expert.
What to do with your profile this week
Remember the scenario from the beginning? Competitor with 340 reviews at the top of the map, you in eighth place, profile untouched since 2019. Now you know that was not bad luck: it was an abandoned asset competing against a managed one.
If you keep three things from this guide, make them these:
- The profile is the foundation of local SEO. Storefront name, specific category, consistent NAP and a link with UTM pointing to the right page on your website.
- Prominence comes from outside. Recent reviews with replies, consistent citations and one page per city are worth more than any trick inside the dashboard.
- Without measurement, there is no optimization. Growing discovery in the performance dashboard is the sign the work paid off.
The next step fits into tomorrow's schedule: open the profile, check the primary category and reply to the five most recent reviews. That alone already puts you ahead of most of your map.
Now, be honest about the size of the game. One location, weak competition, you can handle it internally with an hour a week. Multiple locations, or a city where three competitors fight over every search, is a continuous operation, and that is when it makes sense to have an SEO agency for businesses managing profile, pages and reviews as a single system.
Google Business Profile is not a project with an end date, it is a routine for anyone who wants to be found.
If you want to know where your profile is leaving customers on the table, Talk to an Expert and get a diagnosis of your case, with no strings attached.
Frequently asked questions
Is Google Business Profile paid?
No. Creating and managing the profile carries no charge from Google. You claim the business, go through verification (usually by video, phone or postcard) and get access to every field: category, photos, hours, posts and review replies. What costs is the work of optimizing and maintaining it, whether that is internal time or a specialized agency.
What is the difference between Google My Business and Google Business Profile?
None in practice. Google My Business was the old name, used until 2021, when Google renamed the product to Google Business Profile. The separate app was discontinued and today everything is managed directly in Search and Google Maps, logged into the account that administers the profile.
Can I put a keyword in the profile name?
You should not. The name must be exactly what is on the storefront or in the company registration. Adding a city, service or commercial term ("SP Accounting Best Price") violates Google's guidelines and can lead to profile suspension. If a competitor does this and ranks, you can suggest the correction through Maps itself.
How long does it take for the profile to show up on the map?
Verification takes from a few days to two weeks, depending on the method. Once verified, the profile shows up in branded searches almost immediately. Ranking in discovery searches ("near me," "in city X") depends on relevance, distance and prominence, which usually takes 2 to 6 months of optimization and consistent reviews.
I have several locations, should I create one profile or one per address?
One profile per location, always. Every physical address with its own operation should have its own listing, with the phone, hours and photos of that location. On the website, the ideal setup is one page per city, linked in the website field of the corresponding profile, with name, address and phone identical in both places. Duplicate profiles for the same location should be removed or merged.
Does buying Google reviews work?
It works until Google notices, and it does notice. Reviews that are bought or traded for a gift violate the policies, can be removed en masse and take the profile down with them. The safe path is to ask for a real review right after the service, with a direct link, and reply to all of them, including the negatives. Recency and owner replies weigh as much as volume.
Does a virtual address or coworking space work for the profile?
Generally, no. Google requires a real presence at the address: staff, service or signage. A virtual address used only to receive mail is usually suspended when detected. If the company serves customers at their location, the correct approach is to register as a service provider with a coverage area and hide the address, instead of faking a physical location.
How do I know if the profile is generating customers?
Open the performance dashboard inside the profile itself. Separate branded searches from discovery searches: growing discovery indicates the optimization is bringing in new people. Track website clicks, calls and directions requests. To close the loop, use a UTM in the website link and cross it with the funnel in GA4 or your CRM.