A Thirty-Minute Google Business Profile Audit

For most local businesses the Google Business Profile produces more enquiries than the website, and it is usually the least maintained thing they own. This audit takes about half an hour and needs no tools.

Check the primary category

Open your profile and look at the primary category. Then search for what your customers actually search for and look at which category the businesses appearing are using. These frequently differ, and the primary category has a large effect on which searches you appear in.

A business listed under a broad category often loses to competitors listed under the specific one. Secondary categories help but carry less weight, so the primary choice matters most.

This single field is the most commonly mis-set thing we find, and changing it costs nothing.

Check hours, including holidays

Wrong hours produce a specific and expensive failure: someone travels to a closed business, or does not call one that is open. Both damage the listing through behaviour signals and through reviews.

Set special hours for public holidays in advance. Most businesses never do this, and the platform prompts for it precisely because it matters.

Check services and attributes

List your services individually rather than relying on the category to imply them. These are used to match searches and they are frequently left empty.

Attributes — parking, accessibility, payment methods, appointment requirements — answer practical questions that determine whether someone chooses you, and they take a few minutes to complete.

Check photographs

Look at the date of your most recent photograph. If it is more than a year old, the listing reads as inactive next to competitors with current images.

Photographs should show the actual premises, team and work — not stock imagery, which is recognised immediately and undermines trust. Exterior shots help people find you, which has direct practical value.

Check reviews and, more importantly, responses

Count reviews from the last three months. Recency matters as much as the average score. Then check whether they have been responded to, including the critical ones.

Responding calmly and specifically to criticism persuades readers more than positive reviews do, because it demonstrates how you handle problems. An unanswered complaint sitting at the top of a listing is doing real damage.

If review volume is low, the problem is almost always that nobody asks. A consistent routine — asking at the point of satisfaction with a direct link — outperforms occasional campaigns.

Check consistency with your website

Business name, address, phone number and hours should match exactly between the listing, your website and major directories. Inconsistency confuses both customers and the systems assembling information about you.

Search your business name and look at what appears — old listings, wrong numbers, outdated addresses. Each one is a source that needs correcting.