Local SEO
Google Business Profile : a practical guide
Published 19 August 2026 · Updated 26 August 2026 · 7 min read
It is free, it takes an afternoon, and for most local businesses it produces more enquiries than the website does.
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This guide assumes you have a profile and want it working harder. If you are starting from nothing, claim and verify first, then come back. It sits under the local SEO guide, which covers the wider picture.
Categories, the most important setting
Your primary category does more to determine which searches you appear for than anything else on the profile. Choose the most specific one that describes your main business, not the broadest. A practice that sets its primary category to a general one and its specialism to secondary is competing in the wrong race.
Add secondary categories for everything else you genuinely do, but do not pad the list. Irrelevant categories dilute relevance and occasionally trigger a review.
Services and description
- List each service as its own entry, using the phrase a customer would search rather than your internal name for it.
- Write a short description for each, rather than leaving the default.
- Keep the business description factual and specific. It carries little ranking weight but it is read by people deciding whether to call.
- Add prices where you are comfortable doing so. Profiles with pricing tend to convert better even when the price is a range.
Photos and posts
Recency counts. A profile with photographs added this month looks active to both Google and the person deciding whether you are still trading. Real photographs of your premises, your team and your work outperform stock images noticeably.
Posts are worth using if you have something to say: an offer, an event, a seasonal service. They are not a ranking lever on their own, but they occupy space on your listing and they signal activity.
The Q&A section
Anyone can ask a question on your profile, and anyone can answer it, including a competitor or somebody guessing. Post your own common questions and answer them yourself. It is entirely permitted and it is the only way to control what appears there.
Reviews and replies
Reply to every review, positive and negative, briefly and without defensiveness. Replies are public and prospective customers read them more carefully than the reviews themselves. Reviews and SEO covers how to earn them consistently and what the rules forbid.
Mistakes that suppress a listing
If a listing has been suspended, reinstatement is possible but slow, and the cause is almost always one of the first three above. It is one of the few local problems genuinely worth paying a specialist for: see local SEO Bristol or compare Bristol SEO agencies.
Good to know
Frequently asked questions
How often should I update my profile?
Photos monthly, hours whenever they change, services whenever your offering does. Beyond that, the profile does not need weekly attention, whatever a package selling "GBP management" implies.
Can I have more than one listing?
One per distinct physical location with distinct staff. Two listings for one office, or a listing per service, is against the guidelines and splits your ranking signals.
Should I hide my address?
If customers do not come to you, yes. Service area businesses should hide the address and set a realistic service area. Leaving a home address visible is both a privacy issue and rarely helpful.
Do posts affect ranking?
Not measurably on their own. They contribute to an active, complete profile and they occupy space in your listing, which affects clicks more than position.
Written by the CompareSEO Bristol editorial team. We are an independent directory and we do not sell SEO services, so nothing here is written to win your business. Read our methodology for how we compile and check what we publish.
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