Google Business Profile: your most important free sign
Often the first thing a customer sees about you. How to set up your Google Business Profile, why reviews connected to the profile win jobs, and common mistakes.
Search for a company name, or for "roofing [your town]", and often a box appears on the right or a pin on the map with a name, rating, opening hours and photos. That's a Google Business Profile, and for many local businesses it's actually the very first thing a customer sees. It's free, but it's anything but unimportant.
What a Business Profile is
A Business Profile (formerly "Google My Business") is your place in Google Search and on Google Maps. It shows:
- Company name, category and the area you work in
- Phone number, website and directions
- Opening hours
- Photos of you, the team and your work
- Customer reviews and ratings
You fill it in yourself, free of charge, and connect it to your business. Then Google handles the display.
Why it's often decisive
Here's the point many people miss: a large share of customers call straight from the profile without even clicking through to the website. They see a good rating, a few sensible photos and a phone number, and dial. If your profile is empty, or missing entirely, they move on to the next firm that looks more serious.
The profile and the website work together: the profile catches the quick customer, the website convinces the one who wants to know more.
Customer reviews: what builds trust
The reviews on the profile are gold. They're social proof that you deliver, and fresh reviews carry weight both for the customer and for Google. My advice:
- Ask for them. Happy customers are glad to leave a review if you ask. Send a link when the job is done.
- Reply to all of them, both criticism and praise. A measured reply to a sour review often impresses more than five stars.
- Keep it going. A couple of new reviews a month say more than twenty from 2022.
Common mistakes
What I see most often:
- The wrong category, or none at all, which makes Google match you to the wrong searches.
- An empty profile without photos, which feels abandoned.
- No reviews, or old ones.
- Reviews that are ignored entirely.
All of them can be fixed in an afternoon, and after that, keep it alive.
The cheapest route to more calls. The profile costs zero kronor and a quarter of an hour a week to maintain. Few other things bring in as many calls per hour invested. This is low-hanging fruit. Pick it.
A well-kept Business Profile and a page that is actually indexed on Google are two sides of the same coin. If you want to see how it all fits together, read How to get your company found on Google.
Would you rather not do it yourself? I look after your profile and site on an ongoing basis from 1 295 kr/month (indexing, posts and minor changes), run Google Ads that drive more traffic to the site for 4 000 kr/month plus your own ad budget, or all of it in one package for 4 500 kr/month. You always own the profile and the ad account yourself. See the packages.
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