The 13-point Google Business Profile fix most local businesses skip
A claimed Google Business Profile and a complete one are different things. Most local businesses claim theirs, fill in the obvious fields, and stop. The profile works, sort of. It also leaks customers every day in ways the owner never sees.
The fix isn't a secret. Google publishes it. Its Best Practices Playbook walks through thirteen parts of your profile, and the businesses that work through all thirteen are the ones that get found. Google Business Profile optimisation isn't a secret tactic, it's completing all thirteen parts, then keeping reviews and posts current. Here's the full list, in plain English, with what each one actually does for you.
1. Business information
Your name, address, and contact details, accurate and current. This is the foundation, get it wrong and everything above it wobbles. Google notes that 29% of customers are more likely to consider a business with a detailed, complete profile.
2. Business category
The single biggest relevance signal you control. Your primary category tells Google your core business; you can add up to nine secondary categories for the other things you do. Pick the most specific primary category that fits. It decides which searches you appear in.
3. Business description
A concise overview of what you do and what makes you worth choosing. It won't make or break ranking, but it's what a hesitating customer reads before deciding.
4. Business hours
Including holiday and special hours. This sounds trivial. It isn't: Google's data shows 96% of customers are more likely to visit a business that displays its hours. Wrong hours over a bank holiday is a customer turned away at a locked door, and a small dent in trust.
5. Photos and videos
Businesses that add photos receive 42% more direction requests on Google Maps, and 90% of people say they're more likely to visit a business with photos. Add real ones, the space, the product, the team, not stock images. Refresh them now and then.
6. Chat links
Add WhatsApp or SMS chat so customers can reach you directly from your profile. Most people now prefer messaging a business to calling it, and a direct channel catches the ones who'd otherwise drift to a competitor who answers faster.
7. Google Posts
Timely updates, offers, and events published straight to your profile. They keep the profile active and give returning searchers something fresh. A profile that's posted this week looks alive; one last updated months ago looks abandoned.
8. Social links
Link your Facebook, Instagram, X, and YouTube so customers can follow you and your posts can surface in search. Small effort, free reach.
9. Service area
For businesses that go to the customer, define where you operate so you appear in the right local searches and not the wrong ones.
10. Attributes
The specifics, "free Wi-Fi," "wheelchair accessible," "outdoor seating," "pet friendly." These show directly in Search and Maps and help customers filter straight to you when they need exactly what you offer.
11. Offerings
Your services, menu, or inventory, with descriptions and prices. One in three customers checks a business's offerings before visiting. Complete profiles get notably more clicks through to the website.
12. Bookings and orders
Make it easy to transact, a booking link or button so customers can reserve or order without leaving your profile. Removing that one click removes a reason to abandon.
13. Reviews and replies
This is the one most businesses neglect, and it's the one that compounds. Reviews are social proof and a ranking factor. Google's playbook is direct: respond to reviews, positive and negative, because it "shows you value customer feedback and builds stronger loyalty." It notes 65% of consumers are more likely to choose a business that responds. Yet most owners get a steady drip of reviews, reply to almost none, and never systematically ask for more.
Where to start
Work top to bottom and you'll fix points 1 to 12 in an afternoon. They're mostly one-time setup. Point 13 is the one that never finishes, reviews keep arriving, replies keep being owed, new requests keep needing to go out. It's ongoing work, which is exactly why it's the point that quietly falls apart.
That's the part RealGoodWords takes off your plate. It asks your customers for reviews automatically by SMS, email, and QR code, and drafts a reply to every review within minutes, in your own tone, with anything three stars or below held for your approval.
Want to see how complete your profile is against the shops near you? The free Local Standings tool at realgoodwords.app lays it out side by side. No signup, no card.