Your GBP is free. Use it.

Doing an SEO audit recently, I pulled up the Google Business Profile for a local services business. Seven years operating. Zero reviews. Primary category set to something generic that didn’t match what they actually did. Hours not filled in. No photos except the auto-generated one Google pulls from Maps. The profile had been claimed once, probably around the time they set up the business, and then left.

Meanwhile, they were running Google Ads.

The google business profile optimisation work needed to get that listing to a reasonable standard took about forty-five minutes. It cost nothing. The ads were costing them every month.

What actually gets looked at

When someone searches for a local business, the profile is often what they see before the website. The photo. The hours. The star rating. Whether there’s been a recent review. Whether the business looks like it’s open and operating.

A profile that’s half-filled or stale signals something, even if the business is fine. It creates a question the person didn’t need to have.

The category matters more than most people realise. Google uses it to decide when to show your profile in relevant searches. Primary category especially. If it was set to whatever felt right in 2018, it’s worth revisiting.

The reviews situation

This is the part most businesses know about and don’t want to deal with. Asking for reviews feels awkward. Most people don’t do it consistently, so the count stays low and the most recent one is from eighteen months ago.

That date shows. People check it. A business with fifteen reviews and the newest from two years ago looks different to one with fifteen reviews and three from last month. Same total. Very different impression.

The actual process of asking isn’t complicated. The follow-through is what most businesses skip. I went into the patterns behind this when I audited 10 Aussie websites and the review gaps showed up on almost every single one.

What happens after someone finds you

A complete profile isn’t just about being found. It’s about what happens in the thirty seconds after someone lands on it.

Do the photos show the actual work, the actual space, the actual people? Or is it a logo and a stock image? Does the business description say what the business does and who it’s for? Are the service areas set correctly?

Someone who finds a business through Search or Maps is already interested. They’ve done the search. They’re looking for a reason to call or message. The profile is where that decision gets made, before they’ve ever seen the website.

The local SEO piece is bigger than just the profile, and I covered more of it here. But the profile is the part that’s free, already indexed, and showing up whether you’ve touched it or not. Might as well make it work for you.