A Google Business Profile is the free listing that puts your business on Google Maps and in the local Maps pack, the three businesses with a map that appear when someone searches “plumber near me” or “electrician Hassocks”. If you do one free thing for a local firm this year, make it this. It costs nothing, it is run by Google, and for most trades and shopfronts it is the highest-impact marketing you can do without paying for ads.
This is the walkthrough: set-up, categories, photos, Q&A, how to reply to reviews, and what the pack actually is. No ranking fairy tales.
What is a Google Business Profile, and why does it matter more than a Facebook page?
The profile is the panel Google shows with your hours, photos, rating, phone number and map pin. It is also the record Maps uses. When someone searches on a phone, they can call you from that panel without ever opening your website.
That is why it outranks almost every other free listing. Facebook is useful for people who already know you. The profile is useful for people who do not. For a local search, Google often puts the Maps pack above the ordinary website results. If you are not in that picture, you are invisible to a lot of ready-to-call customers.
The profile and the website should agree. Think of the listing as the shopfront on Google and the website as the place that finishes the sale: qualifications, photos of real work, a bit of proof. Matching name, address and phone on both is not optional. The wider local picture sits in our local SEO guide.
I am based in Hassocks. The businesses this is written for look like BW Electrical (a local electrician), Oilfire in Uckfield (heating), Ruby’s Bakery in Burgess Hill (a shopfront), Sindall in Haywards Heath (a builder), Phoenix Piling, The Vests, C4C Group. Different trades, same listing job. I will not invent how any of them rank. The method is the same either way.
How do I set one up and verify it?
- Go to google.com/business (Google now also routes this through business.google.com) and sign in with a Google account. Prefer a business email you will still have in two years, not a personal Gmail you share with nobody and might lose.
- Search for your business name. If a listing exists, claim it. Duplicates are a mess. If nothing exists, create one.
- Enter the business name exactly as customers know it. Do not cram keywords into the name (“Hassocks Electrician Cheap Emergency”). That is against Google’s rules and a good way to get the listing suspended.
- Choose the primary category with care. More on that below.
- Add the phone number and website. Type them as they appear everywhere else.
- Set the address or the service area. Shopfront: real address. Mobile trade working from home: hide the address and list the towns you cover.
- Verify. Google needs to confirm you are real. That is often a postcard with a code, sometimes a phone call, sometimes an email or a video. Postcards take several days. Do not create a second listing while you wait.
Until it is verified, treat the listing as unfinished. You can still fill fields, but you do not have full control and you should not expect the pack to take you seriously.
After verification, complete every section you can: services, opening hours including bank holidays, a short description, photos, and the booking or enquiry link if you use one. A finished profile beats a half-empty one almost every time.
If you want the short version, our step-by-step Google Business Profile setup guide walks through it in plain steps. For a tick-list, use the free local SEO checklist. It covers the profile and the jobs that sit around it.
Which categories should I pick?
The primary category is one of the strongest levers on the whole listing. It tells Google what kind of business you are. Get it wrong and you will be compared with the wrong firms, or not shown at all.
Pick the closest official match to the work that pays the bills. An electrician should be “Electrician”, not “General contractor”. A heating engineer who does oil boilers should use the heating category that fits, not a vague “Home improvement service”. A bakery is “Bakery”. A builder is a builder, not a “Construction company” unless that is actually what you are.
Secondary categories are for real extra work, not a wish list. If you also do EV chargers, add that if Google offers it. If you once fitted a kitchen, that is not a category. Too many categories make the listing look unfocused.
Do not pick a category because it looks less competitive. Google will still show you to the wrong searcher, and the right searcher will not see you. Distance, reviews and relevance then get applied to a listing that is already in the wrong bucket.
Revisit categories when the business changes. If you dropped a service, remove it. Stale categories are how you attract calls you no longer want.
What photos actually help, and how many do I need?
Real photos outperform stock. Google’s own guidance has said this for years, and it matches what people click.
Useful shots: the shopfront or the van, the team (if you are happy to be recognised), a finished job, a detail that proves the trade (a consumer unit, a boiler, a loaf, a brick return), and the inside of the premises if people visit. Less useful: a grey stock handshake, a stock “engineer” who is not you, and twenty near-identical photos from the same angle.
You do not need a photographer on day one. A recent phone photo in daylight is better than nothing. Upload a few to start, then add more as jobs finish. Fresh photos are a cheap activity signal. A profile whose latest picture is from 2021 looks abandoned.
Skip filters that make the job look unlike the real thing. Customers who arrive and feel misled write the reviews you did not want. Logo files are fine as the profile image. They are a poor substitute for work photos in the gallery.
Name the files something sensible before you upload if you can. hassocks-electrician-consumer-unit.jpg beats IMG_3847.jpg.
How do Q&A, posts and messages work?
Google lets anyone ask a question on your profile. If you ignore the thread, someone else can answer it, including a competitor or a guesser. Check Q&A. Answer plainly. If a question is wrong (“Are you open at 2am?” when you are not), say so. You can also seed a few genuine questions you are asked all the time: “Do you cover Ditchling?”, “Are you NICEIC registered?”, “Do you take card payments?”. Write the answers as you would on the phone.
Posts expire. Use them for a real offer, a bank holiday hour change, or a seasonal note, not as a fake blog. Messages are optional. Turn them on only if you will reply. Many trades are better with a phone number and a simple website form.
All of this is also what an assistant will scrape when someone asks ChatGPT who to use. If you want a read on how that looks from your own pages and listing, try how AI sees your business. The profile still comes first. Assistants quote what they can find.
How should I reply to reviews?
Reply to every review. That is the whole policy.
A good review gets a short thank you and, if it fits, a mention of the town or the job type. Do not copy-paste the same sentence forty times. Do not offer a discount for another star.
A bad or mixed review gets a calm reply. Thank them for the feedback, say what you can about the facts, and take the detail off-thread if it is a dispute. People reading the thread are judging you, not only the reviewer. A defensive essay makes you look worse than the original complaint.
Never buy reviews. Never pay a mate to write five. Never review yourself from another account. Google suspends listings for this, and getting a listing back is slower than building honest reviews in the first place.
Ask at the end of a job, once. Text the review link. Shopfronts can put a QR code by the till. Trades can put it on the invoice. Then leave people alone. A chase sequence is how you annoy someone who would have said yes.
Reviews also help the Maps pack. Recency matters. A listing that picks up genuine comments through the year will usually look healthier than one that had a burst in 2023 and then went quiet. I will not quote fake targets. There is no official “you need 17 reviews” rule, however many agencies print one.
How do I get into the Maps pack, and how long does it take?
The Maps pack is the map-plus-three Google shows for many local searches. Getting a listing live is not the same as getting into those three slots.
What helps, in practice: the right primary category, a verified and complete profile, a pin or service area that matches where you actually work, genuine recent reviews, photos, and a website whose details match. Distance still matters. If the searcher is in Brighton and you are a Hassocks firm with a honest Mid Sussex service area, you may not win that pack, and you should not build the whole plan on winning it.
What does not help: keyword-stuffed names, fake reviews, a service area set to the United Kingdom, or a second listing “just in case”.
Timeline: verification can take a few days. The listing often appears on Maps shortly after that. Climbing into the pack takes weeks to months. Competitive Brighton is slower than Hassocks. One listing will not cover a whole county. Anyone who guarantees the pack in seven days is selling you a story.
Keep the profile alive after the first week. Hours change. Photos age. Questions arrive. A listing is not a one-off job you finish and forget.
If you want the profile done as part of a wider SEO pass, SEO in Sussex starts at £99 as a one-off and includes Google Business Profile setup. A website to sit next to it is £99 plus £29 a month, or £299 a year.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a website if I have a Google Business Profile?
You want both. The profile gets you found on Maps and in the pack. The website is where people check you are real, qualified and worth ringing. Matching name, address and phone across both is part of the job.
How long does it take to show up on Google Maps?
After verification, the listing usually appears within a day or two. Verification itself can take several days if Google sends a postcard. Climbing into the three-pack takes weeks to months and depends on reviews, category fit, distance and how complete the profile is.
Should I hide my address on Google Business Profile?
Yes, if you are a service-area business working from home and you do not take visitors. List the towns you cover instead. Shopfronts should show the real address. Do not drop a pin in a city you do not work from.
What is the most important category to pick?
The primary category should match the work that pays the bills, using Google’s closest official label. Secondary categories are for real extra services only. A vague or trendy category will show you for the wrong searches.
How should I reply to a bad Google review?
Briefly and calmly. Thank them, address any fact you can, and take the argument off the public thread. People reading the reply are deciding whether to call you. Never buy reviews or offer money for a change of rating.
Can I add keywords to my business name?
No. Use the name customers know. Stuffing “Best Electrician Hassocks” into the title breaks Google’s guidelines and can get the listing suspended. Put the town and trade in the description, the services and the website instead.
How much does Google Business Profile setup cost?
The listing itself is free. If you want it done as part of our SEO work, that starts at £99 as a one-off. GEO, if you also want assistants to be able to read the site, is from £99. The website is a separate product.