Google Business Profile audit: how well is your profile set up?

Read the business name and address returned by the lookup. Similar names, an old address or another branch can produce a match that needs a closer look. If the details are wrong, do not start changing your profile to match the report. Search again with the name customers see on Google and a more precise town or area. Keep a note of any duplicate or outdated listing you discover.

A result that says the profile could not be checked is different from a result with missing information. The lookup may be unavailable, may time out or may fail to find a clear match. None of those outcomes proves that customers cannot find your business. Open the public listing yourself and save its link. That gives you and anyone helping with the audit a shared starting point.

The tool reads public information. Some checklist items are marked as inferred because public data cannot confirm them directly. In particular, ownership or verification and posting activity need care. An inference is a prompt to check the owner account, not proof of what appears there. Ask the profile manager for confirmation before presenting an inferred item as a fault.

Open the listing as a customer. Check that the telephone number reaches the right business and that the website link opens the intended page. Read the hours, including any special hours you have set. A customer asking about planned maintenance and a customer seeking an urgent repair need an accurate account of when someone is available. Do not add emergency availability just because a competitor advertises it.

Check the business category and service descriptions against the work you actually accept. Google's guidance asks businesses to represent themselves accurately, including their real-world name. Adding a list of towns and services to the business name can misrepresent the business. Keep the name truthful and use the appropriate profile fields to explain the services and coverage instead. The official guidelines are linked below.

If you visit customers rather than receiving them at a shop or office, review the service-area rules. A home address is not automatically a customer-facing premises. Check the settings with the person who controls the account, and follow Google's guidance on when the address should be hidden. Adding more place names is not evidence that a business has an office or a team in each location.

Google describes local results in terms of relevance, distance and prominence. Complete and accurate information helps Google understand what the business does. Distance depends on the search location, so a tidy profile does not make a local business equally visible from everywhere. Prominence concerns how well known the business is. The official local-ranking guidance below explains those factors and says there is no way to pay Google for a better local ranking.

Use that distinction when someone offers a guaranteed map position. A checklist can identify details to review, but it cannot establish where the business appears for different searchers. If you commission a separate ranking check, agree the phrase, search location, device and date. Keep that evidence alongside the audit rather than treating the checklist score as a substitute for it.

A useful profile also needs to make sense to a person. Read the description without assuming the reader knows your trade. Can a property manager tell whether you handle commercial maintenance? Can a homeowner see whether the service fits their problem? If the answer needs more detail than the profile supports, link to the relevant service page on your website and make the enquiry route clear there.

Imagine an electrical firm whose public listing still shows the hours from an earlier arrangement. The example is a checklist exercise, not a customer result. First, check the hours with the business and update the owner-controlled profile. The firm then checks that the telephone number and website link reach the current office and service page.

Suppose the report also marks posting activity as inferred. That goes on a separate line for the account owner to inspect. It does not justify claiming that the business has stopped posting. The handover might say: 'Hours corrected after confirmation by the owner. Website link tested on a phone. Posting activity still needs an account check.' Each statement describes its evidence and leaves the unknown visible.

The owner can then choose a useful next task, such as adding accurate service descriptions or replacing an unrepresentative photograph. There is no need to change several unrelated things to chase the score. Keep the date and reason for each edit so the next person managing the profile knows what changed and why.

Read the reviews for questions or recurring misunderstandings about the service. Respond with the customer's privacy in mind. Do not publish a private address, job detail or dispute history in a public reply. If you ask customers for reviews, follow the platform's policies and use an approach the business has approved. Never write a customer review yourself or present a draft as their words.

Use photographs that show the business and work you have permission to share. Check for house numbers, vehicle registrations and people who have not agreed to appear. A clear image of the relevant work is more useful to a prospective customer than an unrelated stock photograph presented as a completed job. Record who supplied the image and any limits on how it can be used.

For each finding, record the public detail, the evidence, the proposed correction and the person who can make it. Separate what you saw from what you inferred. A wrong telephone number can be checked directly; ownership status may require the account holder. Mark an item complete only after someone has made the change and checked what is now visible. Some edits may need processing before they appear publicly.

Run the audit with your business name and area to create the starting list. If you want help choosing the first correction, request a call and bring the public profile link and the result. Tell us which account you control and what you have already checked. You do not need to share your password, transfer ownership or promise to buy anything to explain the issue.