Local visibility
Google Business Profile management that keeps your listing true, active and safe.
For most local businesses the Google listing is the first thing a customer sees, before the website and often instead of it. I set it up to Google's rules, match it to your site, keep it current every week, and leave alone what is already working.
Why the listing matters so much
When someone searches for a local service, Google usually shows a map with three businesses before any ordinary results. Those three get a large share of the calls, directions and clicks. The listing behind each one is a Google Business Profile, and how it is set up decides much of whether you appear there.
Google says local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and prominence. The profile is where relevance starts: the category you choose, the services you list, and how complete your information is. Google adds that businesses with complete and accurate information are more likely to show up. Management is the work of making that true and keeping it true.
What management covers
The name, exactly as your business uses it
Google's guidelines say your name should reflect your real-world name, as used on your storefront, website and stationery, and that adding unnecessary information could result in suspension. I make sure the name field carries your name and nothing else.
The primary and secondary categories
Google advises using as few categories as possible, as specific as possible, while representing the main business. The primary category is chosen for where most of your revenue comes from. Secondary categories only for real lines of business.
Services, written the way customers search
Every service you sell, in plain words, each with a short description. Each one matched to a page on your website that says the same thing.
Address or service area
If customers come to you, the address is shown. If you go to them, Google says to hide it, and to keep the service area within about two hours of driving from where you are based.
Hours, attributes and contact details
Correct normal hours, special hours for holidays, the attributes that apply to you, and a phone number and website link that work.
Photos
Real photographs of your work, team, vehicles and premises, added regularly. Stock images add nothing and are easy to spot.
Posts
Weekly updates pointing at the pages that take bookings: recent jobs, seasonal services, offers you are actually running.
Questions and reviews
Questions answered accurately, and every review replied to. The review routine itself is covered on its own page.
Audit first, and leave a healthy listing alone
The first job is always an audit against Google's guidelines and against your actual business. Is the category right? Is the name clean? Is the service area honest? Is there a duplicate listing splitting your reviews? Do the services match the website?
Sometimes the answer is that the listing is sound. For a Manchester cleaning firm I worked with, the listing was healthy, so I audited it, changed nothing that did not need changing, and kept it posting weekly at the pages that earn bookings. The work that moved that business went into the website. Across June to August 2026 it averaged position 6 for "house cleaner manchester" in Search Console. Changing a good listing to look busy would only have added risk.
Matching the listing to the website
The listing and the website should tell Google the same story. For a Las Vegas injury firm, I matched the nineteen services on its Google listing one to one with nineteen live pages on its site. When Google sees a service on the listing and a detailed page about that service on the linked website, it has two sources agreeing, instead of a listing making a claim the website does not support.
The same goes for the details. The name, address and phone number on the listing should appear exactly the same way in the website's footer and in the structured data on the site.
Problems I fix most often
Suspensions
Usually a name with a town or service added, a virtual office address, or a service area that breaks the rules. The cause is fixed first, then the reinstatement is requested with the evidence Google asks for.
Duplicate listings
Two profiles for one business, often created years apart. Found by searching the phone number on Maps, then merged or removed so everything builds on one.
Wrong primary category
A listing whose category describes what the business has rather than what it is. Often the single change with the biggest effect on which searches you appear for.
Edits you did not make
Google and members of the public can suggest changes to listings, and some get applied. Hours, categories and even phone numbers can change without you noticing. Weekly checks catch these.
Spam listings in your market
Rivals with fake addresses or keyword-stuffed names. These can be reported to Google through its own tools, with evidence, and sometimes removed.
Choosing the primary category, worked through
List what the business is
Google's test is what the business is, not what it has. A cleaning company is a cleaning service; it is not a carpet store because it cleans carpets, and not a laundry because it washes curtains.
Rank those by revenue
The category that names where most of the money comes from becomes primary. If end of tenancy work pays the bills, the primary category should be the one on Google's list that comes closest to that work, even if the business does ten other things.
Check what the leaders use
Look at the businesses that appear in the map for your main search and note their primary categories. They are not always right, but a very different choice deserves a reason.
Add secondary categories sparingly
Only for real lines of business you actively sell and want to be found for. Each extra category makes the listing a little less clearly about one thing.
Change it rarely
A primary category change can shift which searches you appear for, so it is made once, deliberately, and its effect is watched over the following weeks.
Businesses with more than one location
Each real location where staff serve customers during stated hours can have its own profile. Each should link to its own page on the website rather than the homepage, and carry the same business name as every other location, with no town added. Reviews, photos and posts are managed per location, and the monthly report shows each one separately, because a strong branch can hide a weak one in a combined number.
What I will not do with your listing
I will not add keywords or towns to your business name. I will not set a service area bigger than Google allows. I will not create listings at addresses where you do not operate. I will not buy reviews, offer incentives for them or ask only happy customers, all of which break Google's review policy. And I will not take ownership of your profile: you stay the owner, and I work as a manager you can remove at any time.
What you get each month
Weekly posts and photo updates. A check that nothing changed without you. Replies to reviews and answers to questions, in your voice, with anything sensitive sent to you first. And a monthly line in your report: calls, direction requests and website visits from the listing, the searches that showed it, and what was done that month, all dated and read from your own profile.
Questions about Google Business Profile management
Do I need to give you my Google password
No. You add me as a manager from inside the profile, and you remain the owner. You can remove my access at any time.
How often should my listing be updated
Posts and photos weekly keep it current. The core settings, name, category and services, should change rarely, and only for a reason.
Can you get my suspended listing back
Often, if the cause can be fixed. The reinstatement request needs the problem corrected and evidence that the business is real and operating as described.
Will posting every day help me rank
Not on its own. Posts help customers choose you and keep the listing current. Category, services, reviews and the website carry more weight in where you appear.
Can I have listings in towns where I have no office
Only where you have a real location that serves customers. For other towns, the answer is a good service area and genuine town pages on your website.
Want your listing checked?
Send me the business name. I will audit the listing against Google's rules and tell you what to change, and what to leave alone.