What to put on your Google Business Profile: the checklist

The fields that matter most on a Google Business Profile are the ones a customer sees before they ring you: your name, your category, your hours and your phone number. Get those four right and the profile is already earning its keep. The rest (photos, services, the description, posts) helps the customer who wants a closer look. We have put the list in that order, roughly how often a customer sees each field, which is our judgement from how the profile is laid out rather than a figure from Google. If your listing is not claimed yet, start with our guide on how to claim your Google Business Profile and come back to this once it is verified.

1. Your business name

Your name heads the profile in Search and labels your pin on Maps, so it is the field seen most. Put the name you actually trade under: the one on the van, the invoices and the website. Nothing else.

It is tempting to write “Smith Electrical, Electrician Wigan, 24hr Emergency” to catch more searches. Do not. Google’s guidelines for representing your business say that including unnecessary information in your business name isn’t permitted and could get the profile suspended. That covers services, locations and marketing taglines. The category and the service area do that job properly, so leave the name alone and let them.

2. Your primary category

The category sits right under your name, and it decides which searches you turn up in. Google’s help page on categories says the categories you select affect your local ranking, and that you should pick a primary category that best describes your business, choosing a specific one from the list rather than a general option.

So a plumber picks “Plumber”, an electrician picks “Electrician”. Then add a few extra categories only if they are genuinely separate parts of the work, say a joiner in Bury who also fits kitchens. Google’s own line is not to pick a category for every product or service, and its guidelines ask for the fewest categories it takes to describe your core business. One sharp category beats six vague ones.

3. Your hours

“Open” or “Closed” shows up against your name the moment someone searches, so a customer reads your hours before they read anything else about you. Put the hours you actually answer the phone, not the hours you would like to.

Google gives you three kinds: main hours, special hours for bank holidays and other temporary changes, and more hours if different parts of the business keep different times. Use special hours for Christmas and for the week you are away. A profile that says open while you are on holiday sends the customer to the next name on the list.

If you work by appointment only, Google’s guidelines say businesses that operate only by appointment shouldn’t provide hours at all. Most tradespeople take calls in set hours, though, so for most the answer is to fill them in.

4. Your phone number

On a phone, this is the call button. For a one-van firm it is the single most valuable thing on the profile, because a tap turns into a job.

Use the number you answer. Google’s guidelines ask for a number that connects to your business and a local one rather than a central call centre where possible. The edit page lets you add up to two more numbers alongside the main one, handy if a partner answers when you are up a ladder.

Then test it. Ring your own profile from a mate’s phone. If it goes to a full voicemail, the profile is costing you work.

5. Your service area

If customers do not come to you, Google’s guidelines say a service-area business should hide its address. Clear it, and list the places you cover instead.

Google’s service area page allows up to 20 areas and says the overall area shouldn’t be more than about two hours’ driving from where you are based. Pick the towns you really work in. A plasterer in Oldham who lists Chester because one job came from there once will get calls for Chester, and have to turn them down.

This field does not show as prominently as the ones above, but it quietly decides who sees you at all, so it earns its place on the list.

6. Photos

Photos are what a customer scrolls through while deciding whether to ring. Google’s photo page splits them into three: a logo, a cover photo and business photos. It asks for pictures that are in focus, well lit and not heavily filtered, and says the image should represent reality.

For a trade that means the van with the sign-writing on, you or the team at work, and finished jobs. A before and after of a bathroom does more than any sentence you could write. Google’s technical line is JPG or PNG, between 10 KB and 5 MB, with 720 pixels by 720 recommended. Any modern phone clears that easily. No stock photos: a customer can tell.

7. Services

The services list is where you spell out the jobs you do. Google’s help page on services says you can choose from suggested options for your type of business or add your own, and add a price and a description to each.

Fill in the five or six jobs that bring in most of your work. A Stockport plumber might list boiler servicing, boiler installs, leak repairs, bathroom fitting and radiator work. Keep each description to a line in plain words.

One catch. Google says custom services that break its policy are rejected automatically, and tells you to keep prices and phone numbers out of the service name. The price goes in the price box.

8. The description

Fewer customers read this, but the ones who do are close to ringing. Google’s edit page says it must not exceed 750 characters and should cover what you offer, what makes you special and how long you have been in business. No web addresses, and the guidelines steer you away from promotions and prices.

Write it the way you would describe the firm to a neighbour. What you do, where you do it, and the thing that makes you the safe pair of hands: registered with the relevant scheme, family run, twenty years in the trade. Only say what is true and what you can back up.

Google now offers some businesses an AI helper that drafts the description for you. Its own page says to review it for accuracy, and we would go further: rewrite it in your own words.

9. Posts

Posts are short updates that appear on your profile: a finished job, a note that you are booked up until the new year, a seasonal reminder about boiler servicing. Google offers three kinds (updates, offers and events), and its help page says posts older than six months are archived unless a date range is set.

So a post from last spring is not doing much. One a month, with a photo from a job you were doing anyway, keeps the profile looking lived in. It takes five minutes. Google also says a post carrying a phone number it cannot tie to your business may be rejected, so leave the number in the phone field.

10. Questions and answers

Older checklists tell you to seed your profile with questions and answers. Google’s developer notes say it discontinued its Q&A API, the connection software used to read and post those questions, on 3 November 2025, because it was updating how the feature works.

Google has not spelled out on those pages what replaces it, so we would not spend time chasing it. Put your effort into the fields above instead, because whatever Google shows a customer, it can only draw on what you have filled in.

What to do next

Open your profile on your phone, as a customer would, and check the top four: name, category, hours, phone. Fix anything wrong today, then work down the list a field a week. If you would rather someone went through it with you, send us the free check-up and we will tell you exactly what we would change.