Google Business Profile Optimisation: How to Turn Your Listing Into a Lead Source

Your Google Business Profile is viewed more often than your website. It sits right there in Maps and the local pack, showing people your phone number, reviews, and opening hours before they’ve clicked anything.

So why do most businesses set it up once, in 2019, and never touch it again?

This guide fixes that. We’ll walk you through Google Business Profile optimisation in four stages, each one moving you closer to an enquiry:

1. Get found: Show up for the searches that matter
2. Get chosen: Be the business people pick from the map pack
3. Get contacted: Make it ridiculously easy to call, click or book
4. Get measured: Know which of those actions turned into leads.

Block out an afternoon, open your profile in another tab, and work through it section by section.

(Quick note: if you still call it Google My Business, you’re not alone. Google renamed it a few years ago. Same tool, new name.)

Why Your Google Business Profile Is Your Best Local Lead Source

When someone searches “emergency plumber” or “dentist near me”, Google shows a map and a handful of businesses before the normal results. Those businesses come straight from Google Business Profiles.

Google says local results are “mainly based on relevance, distance and popularity”:

• Relevance: how well your profile matches what someone searched for
• Distance: how far you are from the searcher
• Prominence: how well known your business is, based on things like reviews and links to your website

You can’t move your premises closer to every customer. But relevance and prominence? Those are yours to win. And Google is clear that there’s no way to pay for a better local ranking, so the work is the only route in.

We’ve seen what this looks like in practice. For a personal injury law firm with offices in two Texas cities, we optimised the firm’s Google Business Profile, kept it regularly updated, tightened up its categories and built an ethical review process. The result: the firm regained and held top three map pack positions in both cities for its core personal injury terms. The firm’s director reported “approximately 50% increase in calls”.

To be clear, the profile work ran alongside a website rebuild and a content campaign, so it wasn’t the only thing driving those calls. But the map pack is where local searchers found them first.

Before You Start: Verify and Lock Down Access

Claim or Verify Your Profile

If your business has been trading for a while, there’s a good chance a profile already exists. Search for your business name on Google Maps. If it’s there, claim it. If not, create one at business.google.com.

Verification is the gate to everything else. Unverified profiles don’t receive performance data, and Google says verified businesses are more likely to appear in search results. Google offers different verification methods depending on your business, so follow whichever one it gives you.

Add a Second Owner (And Keep Agencies as Managers)

This one saves a lot of pain. Add a second owner, ideally a director or partner, so you don’t lose control of the profile if someone leaves.

Staff and agencies (yes, including us) should be managers, not owners. Managers can do almost everything day-to-day. Owners control who else has access. Keep ownership in the business.

Get Found: The Fields That Decide Which Searches You Show up For

This is where relevance is won or lost. Google can only match you to a search if your profile tells it clearly what you do and where.

Primary Category: The Single Biggest Lever

Your primary category tells Google what your business is. Pick the one that describes your core, most profitable service as precisely as possible. A plumber who also fits bathrooms should choose “Plumber” as the primary category, not a bathroom category. A clinic that mainly does physiotherapy should pick “Physiotherapist”, not something vaguer.

Categories come from a fixed list, so you can’t type your own. Search the list, find the closest match, and don’t overthink it.

Secondary Categories

Add secondary categories for other services you genuinely offer. Only add ones that are true. Ticking every vaguely related box won’t make Google trust you more; it just muddies what you’re relevant for.

Services: The Most Underused Section on the Whole Profile

Here’s a secret: this is the section most profiles skip, and it’s the easiest win on the page.

List each service individually, with a short description and a price where applicable. Don’t write “plumbing”. Write:

• Boiler installation
• Boiler repair
• Power flush
• Leak detection
• Emergency call-out.

Each service is another signal telling Google which searches you’re relevant for. It’s tedious. Do it anyway.

Service Areas vs a Visible Address

Three simple rules:

• Customers come to you? Show your full address.
• You go to them? Hide your address and set service areas (towns, cities or postcode areas).
• Both? Show the address and add service areas.

Don’t list an address that customers can’t visit. That’s how profiles get suspended.

Business Name: No Keyword Stuffing

Your profile name should match your real business name, as it appears on your signage, invoices and van.

“Smith Plumbing” is fine. “Smith Plumbing Boiler Repair Leeds Best Price” is a policy breach waiting to happen. It might look like a clever shortcut, but it can get your profile suspended, and a suspended profile generates precisely zero leads.

Business Description

Write a plain-English summary of what you do, who you do it for and where. Front-load the important stuff, because only the start shows before people have to tap “more”. Mention your main services and areas naturally. No links, no ALL CAPS, no “best in town”.

Hours and Special Hours

If your profile says you’re open and you don’t answer, that customer is gone. Keep regular hours accurate and add special hours for bank holidays and Christmas.

Set a calendar reminder a week before every bank holiday. Future you will be grateful.

Attributes

Attributes are the extra details: wheelchair access, free parking, online appointments and so on. Which ones you see depends on your category. Fill in every one that applies. They help Google match you to more specific searches, and they answer questions customers would otherwise have to ring up about.

Get Chosen: What Makes Someone Pick You from the Map Pack

Getting into the local pack is half the job. Now three businesses are sitting side by side, and the customer picks one in a couple of seconds. Here’s how to be that one.

Reviews: Volume, Recency and Replies

Reviews do double duty. Google says “more reviews and positive ratings can help your business’s local ranking”, and they’re the first thing customers compare.

Three things matter:

• Volume: a 4.8 from 200 reviews is more convincing than a 5.0 from six.
• Recency: a steady trickle every month looks like a busy, healthy business. A burst of 20 in one week, followed by silence, looks odd.
• Replies: reply to every review, good and bad. Thank people properly. For negative reviews, stay calm, apologise for the experience and offer to put it right offline. You’re writing for every future customer who reads that reply, not just the reviewer.

The easiest way to get more reviews? Ask. Grab your review link from your profile and send it via text or email within a day of finishing the job, while the customer is still thinking about how great you were.

Offline works too. For the law firm above, we set up review landing pages and gave the team printed cards to hand to clients. Review count at one office doubled, with no shortcuts.

More on getting reviews the right way (and the legal bit) further down.

Real Photos and Video

Upload real photos of your premises, your team, your vans and your work. Before-and-after shots are gold for trades.

No stock photos. And please don’t pass AI-generated images off as real work. Customers can tell, and it undermines every genuine review you’ve earned. Add fresh photos regularly so the newest ones people see are good ones.

Posts and Offers

Posts let you publish updates, offers and events straight to your profile. They’re a chance to show you’re active and give people a reason to get in touch now.

Good post ideas for a local service business:

• A job you’ve just finished (with photos)
• A seasonal offer (“Book your boiler service before winter”)
• A new service
• A customer win or award.

Every post should have a clear call to action and link to the relevant page on your website. Aim for consistency over volume. One good post a week beats five in January and nothing until June.

Get Contacted: Remove the Friction Between a View and an Enquiry

This is the bit almost every guide skips. You’ve been found. You’ve been chosen. Now, can the customer actually get hold of you?

A Phone Number Someone Actually Answers

Sounds obvious. It isn’t. Ring your own number from your profile during your listed hours. Does someone pick up? Does it go to a full voicemail box? Does it ring out?

If calls are your main lead source, set up a plan for missed calls: a call-back process, a diverted line, or an answering service. A missed call from a Maps search usually means that the customer tries the next business in the pack.

Use your real business number, the same one that’s on your website and directory listings. Keeping it identical everywhere helps Google trust that all those mentions belong to the same business.

Link to the Right Page, Not Your Homepage

Your profile’s website link is prime real estate. If you’re a single-service business, the homepage is fine. If your profile is built around one main service, point the link at that service page instead, so people land exactly where they expected to.

Wherever it points, check that the page loads fast on mobile, has your phone number at the top, and makes the next step obvious. There’s no point winning the click and losing the lead on a slow, confusing page. (If that’s the problem, our CRO team would like a word.)

Booking Links and Messaging

If you take bookings, add a booking link through a supported booking provider so people can book without leaving Google. Verified profiles can also add a WhatsApp or text message option, so customers can message directly from your profile. It’s only available in select regions, so check under Edit profile, then Contact. If you have the option, switch it on and make sure someone is actually checking it.

Every extra way to get in touch is one less reason for someone to go elsewhere. But only turn on channels you’ll respond to. An unanswered message is worse than no message button at all.

What’s Changed in 2025 and 2026 (And Why Most Guides Are Out of Date)

Google Business Profile changes a lot. Here’s what’s moved recently, so you don’t waste time on features that no longer exist.

Q&A Has Gone, and AI Answers Have Replaced It

For years, the standard advice was to add your own questions and answers to your profile. You can’t do that anymore.

Google discontinued the Business Profile Q&A API on 3 November 2025 and public Q&A has since been phased out of profiles. In its place, Google uses AI to answer people’s questions, drawing on profile details, reviews, photos, and websites.

What to do about it: you can’t write those answers directly anymore, but you control the ingredients. A complete profile, a detailed services list and a website that clearly answers common questions all feed what Google’s AI says about you.

If a guide still tells you to “seed your Q&A section”, it’s out of date. Move on.

Chat and Call History Were Switched off in 2024

Google turned off Business Profile chat and call history on 31 July 2024. If you relied on either, you’ll need another way to track and respond to enquiries. More on measurement below.

Google’s AI Can Now Phone Businesses (In the US, for Now)

At Google I/O in May 2026, Google announced that for “select categories like home repair, beauty or pet care”, people can ask Google to call local businesses on their behalf to check things like pricing and availability. It’s rolling out in the US. There’s no confirmed UK date yet.

So UK businesses aren’t getting these calls today. But the direction is clear: Google wants accurate, detailed profile data it can act on. Accurate hours, clear services and pricing, and a phone that gets answered are good practices now, and they’ll matter even more if this reaches the UK. Here’s our rundown of everything Google announced at I/O 2026.

Getting More Reviews Without Breaking UK Law

This part matters more than it used to.

Since April 2025, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 has banned fake and incentivised reviews in the UK when the incentive is hidden. The Competition and Markets Authority can now fine businesses directly, up to 10% of global turnover or £300,000, whichever is greater.

Google’s own review policy goes further, prohibiting incentives for reviews altogether. So on your Google Business Profile, keep it simple:

Do:

• Ask every customer for an honest review
• Make it easy with a direct link
• Reply to every review, positive or negative

Don’t:

• Offer discounts, freebies or prize draws in exchange for reviews
• Ask only your happiest customers (that’s cherry-picking)
• Write reviews yourself, or get staff, friends or family to write them
• Buy reviews. Ever.

Honest reviews from real customers take longer. They’re also the only kind that won’t blow up in your face.

For more on building reviews, see how to improve your local ranking with Google reviews.

How to Measure Leads from Your Google Business Profile

Views are nice. Leads pay the bills. Here’s how to tell the difference.

The Performance Metrics That Matter

Open your profile and click Performance. Google shows you (Google Business Profile Help):

• Searches: The terms people used to find you (updated monthly)
• Views: How many people saw your profile
• Calls: How many times people tapped your call button
• Website clicks: How many people clicked through to your site
• Directions: How many people asked for directions
• Bookings and messages: If you’ve set them up

Focus on calls, website clicks, directions and bookings. Those are the actions closest to a lead.

Then read them together. Lots of views but few calls? Your reviews, photos or services aren’t convincing people. Few views at all? Your categories and services aren’t matching the right searches. Check the Searches report to see which terms you’re actually showing up for.

Link Your Profile to GA4

You can now link your Business Profile to Google Analytics 4. In GA4, go to Admin> Product links> Google Business Profile links, then follow the prompts. You’ll need editor or admin access in GA4 and owner or manager access on the profile.

Once linked, your profile data (calls, website clicks, directions, messages, bookings) sits alongside your website data, so you can see the whole journey from Maps to enquiry in one place.

UTM-tag Your Website Link

Add UTM parameters to your profile’s website link, for example:

https://yourwebsite.co.uk/boiler-repair/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=gbp

Now visits from your profile show up separately in GA4 instead of blending into general Google traffic. Pair that with tracking on your contact form and phone clicks and you’ll know exactly how many enquiries your profile is generating.

If your tracking isn’t set up properly, that’s worth fixing first. Our analytics team can help.

Common Google Business Profile Mistakes That Cost You Enquiries

We see these all the time. Each one is a quick fix.

• • Wrong primary category. You’re competing for the wrong searches.
  • Empty services section. Free relevance, left on the table.
  • Keyword-stuffed business name. A suspension risk for a small (if any) gain.
  • Out-of-date hours, especially around bank holidays.
  • Ignoring reviews. Unanswered negative reviews do more damage than the review itself.
  • Stock or AI photos passed off as your real work.

• Website link pointing to a slow or irrelevant page.
• A phone that nobody answers during the listed hours.
• No tracking, so you’ve no idea if any of this is working.

Google Business Profile Optimisation FAQs

What does Google Business Profile optimisation do?

It makes your profile more relevant to your customers’ searches, more convincing when they compare you with competitors, and easier to contact. Done well, it means you show up in the local pack more often and turn more of those views into calls, clicks and bookings.

How much does it cost to optimise a Google Business Profile?

Nothing. Google Business Profile is free, and you can do everything in this guide yourself for the price of an afternoon. If you’d rather hand it over, most agencies include profile optimisation as part of a wider local SEO campaign, so the cost depends on how many locations you have and what else needs to be done. The profile rarely works in isolation: your website, reviews and listings elsewhere all affect how well it performs.

How often should I post on my Google Business Profile?

Consistency beats volume. One useful post a week, with a photo and a clear call to action, is a solid target for most local businesses.

Can I still add questions and answers to my profile?

No. Google has removed the Q&A feature from Business Profiles. Instead, Google’s AI answers questions using your profile details, reviews, photos and website, so keep all of those complete and accurate.

How long does it take to see results?

Once your profile is verified and live, you can start appearing in local results straight away. How high you appear is a different question, and there’s no set timeline. It depends on how close you are to the person searching, how many competitors are nearby, how strong their profiles and reviews are, and how well your profile and website match what people are searching for. That’s why optimisation isn’t a one-off job: keep your profile accurate, keep the reviews coming and keep an eye on your Performance report.

Turn Your Profile Into a Lead Machine

Your Google Business Profile is probably already the first thing local customers see. The only question is whether it’s working for you or just sitting there.

Work through this guide once, then set a monthly reminder to check your hours, reply to reviews, add photos and post an update. Keep an eye on calls and website clicks, not just views.

If you’d rather someone handled it for you as part of a wider local SEO campaign, request a free marketing review and we’ll show you where your profile (and website) are losing you leads.

Want to go further? Read our ultimate guide to local SEO, or if you have more than one branch, how to do local SEO for multiple locations.