If you run a local business and you haven’t properly set up your Google Business Profile, you could be missing one of the easiest free opportunities to get found online.
Google Business Profile allows you to control how your business appears across Google Search and Google Maps, including your opening hours, website, telephone number, location or service area, photos, reviews and business updates. Yet I still regularly see businesses putting far more time into social media than they do into the profile sitting directly in front of someone who is actively searching for their service.
That distinction matters. Someone searching “dentist Belfast”, “solicitor Omagh” or “hair salon near me” is showing much stronger intent than someone casually scrolling through Instagram. They already know what they need, they are simply deciding who to choose.
That is why Google Business Profile is one of the most important free tools local businesses can use, and the good news is that you can get the foundations in place very quickly.
1. Search for your business before creating anything
Before you create a brand new profile, search for your business on Google first. You may find that a listing already exists, particularly if your business has been operating for a while.
If a profile is already there, it is usually better to claim and verify it rather than create a duplicate. Duplicate listings can cause unnecessary confusion, both for potential customers and for Google.
Once you have confirmed whether your profile already exists, you can either claim it or create a new one and begin adding your core business information.
2. Get the basic business information right
The first part of your setup should be about accuracy. Make sure you add:
Your correct business name
Telephone number
Website
Address, where relevant
Service area, if you travel to customers
Opening hours
Primary business category
This might sound basic, but outdated information is still one of the most common issues I see. If Google says you are open and somebody arrives to find you closed, that is a poor customer experience before they have even spoken to you. I most recently experienced it and I was fuming.
The same applies if your website, Facebook page and Google Business Profile all show slightly different details. Your business information should be consistent wherever customers find you.
3. Spend time choosing your category
Your business category is one of the most important parts of the setup because it helps Google understand what your business actually does.
Choose the most specific category that accurately describes your main service. If you run a nail salon, for example, choosing “Nail Salon” is far more useful than selecting something broad that does not properly represent the business. Last year I audited an aesthetics business who kept getting leads from people looking beauty and when I dug deeper their categories was beauty salon.
If you cannot find the category you expected, I would also look at competitors in your space. Search for businesses offering similar services and look at the category Google is showing for them. That does not mean blindly copying competitors, but it can help you understand how businesses in your market are being classified.
Your primary category should reflect the main thing you do. You can then add relevant secondary categories where appropriate, but I would not select every vaguely related option simply because it is available. Relevance is more important than quantity.
4. Write a useful business description
Your business description should clearly explain:
Who you are
What you do
Where you operate
Who you help
What makes you different
This is also an opportunity to naturally include some of the terms people are likely to search for. For example, a Belfast solicitor might describe themselves as a firm specialising in employment law, family law and conveyancing, while a web developer could mention web design and development for businesses across Belfast and Northern Ireland.
Keywords are useful, but they need to be used naturally. Your description still needs to read well for a person. It should not look like a list of search terms forced into a paragraph.
Think of it as a quick introduction to the business. If someone found your profile without ever visiting your website, would they immediately understand what you do and whether you can help them?
5. Add your services
One of the most underused parts of Google Business Profile is the services section. If Google gives you the option to list individual services, use it. A digital agency, for example, could include:
Google Ads management
Meta Ads management
SEO
Email marketing
Social media management
Digital strategy
The same applies to almost every local business. A solicitor can list specific areas of law, a salon can list individual treatments, a tradesperson can list the types of jobs they carry out and a dentist can list the treatments available.
This gives potential customers much more useful information and helps make your profile far more complete.
6. Add good photographs
Photos make a much bigger difference than many businesses realise. I would always recommend starting with:
Your logo
A strong cover image
Exterior of your premises, where relevant
Interior images
Team photographs
Products
Examples of your work
Behind-the-scenes photographs
The type of imagery will vary depending on the business. A Belfast restaurant should show the food, the atmosphere and the venue. A salon should show treatments and results. A tradesperson should show completed jobs. A professional services business should show the team and working environment.
The important thing is that the images feel real. Customers want to get a sense of the business they are considering, and genuine photographs usually do a much better job of this than generic stock imagery.
7. Ask for reviews
Do not be afraid to ask customers for reviews.
If someone has had a genuinely positive experience, there is absolutely nothing wrong with making it easy for them to share it. In fact, I would build this into your normal customer journey rather than treating it as something you only remember occasionally.
Good times to ask include:
After a project has been completed
Following a successful appointment
After a customer emails positive feedback
Once a problem has been successfully resolved
After a repeat customer has used you again
The key is to make it easy. Rather than asking someone to search for your business and work out where to leave a review, send them your direct Google review link.
I would also recommend responding to your reviews. It shows that there is a real person behind the business and gives potential customers another reason to trust you.
8. Use posts, updates and events
This is where a lot of businesses stop using Google Business Profile properly.
They create the profile, fill in the basic information, and then never touch it again.
Use the free options Google gives you. For example:
Add business updates
Promote new services
Share offers
Add events
Publish seasonal information
Share important opening-hour changes
Highlight new products or services
If you are launching a new service, running an event, publishing a new blog, introducing a seasonal offer or changing your opening hours, your Google Business Profile should reflect that.
This is free space on Google that many businesses simply ignore.
For me, this is one of the biggest mistakes businesses make with Google Business Profile. It should not be treated as a one-off setup task. It should be part of your ongoing digital activity.
9. Keep the profile updated
The initial setup might only take around 10 minutes, but that does not mean the job is finished.
You should regularly:
Add new photographs
Publish updates
Add events
Update your services
Check opening hours
Ask for reviews
Respond to reviews
Check your business information
Keep an eye on what competitors are doing
One of the simplest ways to outperform competitors locally is often just to be more active and more complete than they are.
If a competitor has an outdated profile with old photos, no recent reviews and incorrect opening hours, while yours is current and well maintained, you are already giving a potential customer a much better experience.
10. What difference can optimisation actually make?
I recently worked with a web developer who had an amazing website but no presence on Google locally.
They had no Google Business Profile and thus no reviews, no photographs and no information about the services they offer.
Together we worked on properly setting up his profile:
We chose the most relevant category
Added detailed services
Added a business description
Added real images
Asked 20 clients for reviews
Started posting regular updates
Kept the information current
Within around six weeks, that business started appearing at the top of the local results for one of its key searches.
That is not because simply creating a profile guarantees a number one position. It does not. Google considers a range of factors when determining local rankings, and competition varies significantly by sector and location.
The important point is that there is a major difference between simply having a Google Business Profile and actively optimising it.
Think about how your customers actually search
This is why local search matters so much.
A Belfast restaurant wants to appear when someone searches for somewhere to eat nearby. An Omagh solicitor wants to be visible when someone searches for local legal support. A dentist wants to appear when somebody searches for a dentist close to them, while a tradesperson wants to be found when someone suddenly needs an electrician, plumber or heating engineer.
These are high intent searches. The customer already knows what they need.
Your job is to make sure they can find you, understand what you offer and feel confident enough to make contact.
The biggest Google Business Profile mistake
The biggest mistake is simply creating the profile and then forgetting about it.
Google Business Profile gives businesses an incredible amount of free visibility, yet so many listings are incomplete, outdated or inactive.
At a minimum, keep on top of:
Services
Photos
Reviews
Posts
Events
Opening hours
Business details
You would not build a website and then leave half the pages empty. Your Google Business Profile should be treated with the same level of attention.
Ten minutes will get the foundations in place, but consistent optimisation is what gives the profile the opportunity to become a genuinely valuable part of your digital presence.
At Digital 24, we help businesses across Northern Ireland improve their digital visibility and make sure the different parts of their online presence work together. If your Google Business Profile has been sitting untouched for the past six months, this is your reminder to go and look at it.
