Google Business Profile: The Free Tool Most Businesses Ignore

Google Business Profile is free. It takes less than an hour to set up properly. It directly influences whether your business appears when someone nearby searches for what you offer. And yet most UK businesses either have not claimed theirs, or have filled it in half-heartedly and forgotten about it.

That is a missed opportunity. Here is how to set up and use your Google Business Profile to actually attract customers.

What Is Google Business Profile?

Google Business Profile (GBP) is Google's free tool that lets you manage how your business appears in Google Search and Google Maps. When someone searches "coffee shop near me" or "solicitor in Leeds," the businesses that appear in the map section at the top of the results are all powered by their Google Business Profiles.

If you are not showing up there, you are invisible to a significant chunk of potential customers.

Setting Up Your Profile: Step by Step

Claim or Create Your Listing

Go to business.google.com and search for your business. If it already exists (Google often creates basic listings automatically), claim it. If not, create a new one.

You will need to verify your business. Google typically does this by sending a postcard to your business address with a verification code, though phone and email verification are sometimes available.

Choose Your Categories Carefully

Your primary category is one of the most important ranking factors for local search. Be as specific as possible.

If you are a plumber, choose "Plumber", not "Home Improvement."
If you run a Thai restaurant, choose "Thai Restaurant", not just "Restaurant."
If you are a family solicitor, choose "Family Law Solicitor", not "Legal Services."

You can add up to nine secondary categories. Use these to cover the full range of what you do, but only add categories that genuinely apply.

Complete Every Section

Google rewards completeness. Fill in:

Business name — use your real business name, not a keyword-stuffed version
Address — exactly as it appears on your website and other directories
Phone number — a local number performs better than an 0800 number for local search
Website URL
Opening hours — keep these accurate, including bank holidays
Business description — you have 750 characters. Explain what you do, who you serve, and what sets you apart. Write for humans, not algorithms.
Services or products — list them with descriptions and prices where applicable

Adding Photos That Work

Businesses with photos receive 42% more requests for directions and 35% more clicks to their website than those without. This is not optional.

Upload:

Your logo and a cover photo
Interior and exterior photos of your premises
Photos of your team — people trust businesses with real faces
Photos of your work — completed projects, products, food if you are a restaurant
Photos of your products or services in action

Aim for at least 10 photos to start, and add new ones regularly. Google favours profiles that are actively updated.

Using Google Posts

Google Posts let you publish updates directly on your Business Profile. They appear in your listing and can include text, images, and calls to action.

Use them for:

Offers and promotions — seasonal deals, limited-time discounts
Events — open days, workshops, sales
News and updates — new services, team changes, awards
Blog posts — share your latest content with a link back to your site

Posts expire after seven days (except event posts, which stay until the event date), so post regularly. Once a week is a good rhythm.

Managing Questions and Answers

Your GBP has a Q&A section where anyone can ask and answer questions about your business. Most businesses ignore this entirely, which means strangers might be answering questions about your business incorrectly.

Take control of this section:

Check it regularly for new questions and answer them promptly.
Seed it with common questions yourself. You can ask and answer your own questions. Add the five or ten questions your customers ask most frequently.
Keep answers concise, helpful, and professional.

Reviews: The Most Powerful Feature

Reviews are arguably the most important element of your Google Business Profile. They influence rankings, they influence click-through rates, and they influence purchasing decisions.

How to Get More Reviews

Ask directly. After a positive interaction, ask the customer if they would be willing to leave a Google review.
Send a link. Generate a direct review link from your GBP dashboard and send it via email or text. The fewer clicks required, the more likely someone is to follow through.
Time it right. Ask when satisfaction is highest — right after delivery, right after a successful project, right after a great meal.
Make it part of your process. Build the review request into your standard workflow. An automated follow-up email a day after service works well.

What Not to Do

Do not buy reviews. Google is increasingly good at detecting fake reviews and will penalise you.
Do not offer incentives. "Leave a review and get 10% off" violates Google's guidelines.
Do not review-gate. Sending happy customers to Google and unhappy ones to a private feedback form is against the rules.

How to Respond to Reviews

Respond to every single review. Every one.

For positive reviews: Thank the reviewer by name, mention something specific about their experience, and keep it genuine.

For negative reviews: Stay calm. Acknowledge the issue, apologise where appropriate, and offer to resolve it offline. Something like: "We're sorry to hear about your experience, [Name]. We'd like to make this right — please contact us at [email/phone] so we can look into this for you."

Your responses are public. Future customers will judge your business by how you handle criticism as much as by the praise you receive.

Using Insights to Improve

Google Business Profile provides valuable data about how people find and interact with your listing:

How customers search for you — direct searches (your business name) versus discovery searches (a category or service)
Where they find you — Search versus Maps
What actions they take — website visits, direction requests, phone calls
Photo views — compared to similar businesses in your area

Review these insights monthly. If direction requests are high but website clicks are low, your website link or description might need work. If photo views are low, you need better images.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Keyword stuffing your business name. Your name should be your actual business name. Adding "Best Plumber in Manchester" to your name violates guidelines and risks suspension.
Inconsistent information. Your name, address, and phone number must match exactly across your website, GBP, and all other directories.
Setting and forgetting. An inactive profile signals to Google that the business may not be active. Update regularly.
Ignoring negative reviews. Unanswered negative reviews look worse than the review itself.

Start Today

Your Google Business Profile is one of the most powerful free marketing tools available to any UK business. Setting it up properly takes less than an hour. Maintaining it takes minutes per week. The return — in visibility, trust, and new customers — is disproportionately high.

If you want help optimising your Google Business Profile as part of a wider local SEO strategy, get in touch with our team. We help UK businesses get found by the right customers in the right places.