Your Google Maps profile brings customers before your website does

Search your trade and your area on your phone. Before any website, you’ll see a map with three businesses, stars, opening hours and a “Call” button. That’s where many people decide, and quite a few call straight from there without ever opening a website.

That box is the business profile on Google. It’s free, and many local businesses have it half filled in or not at all.

What happens if you don’t have one

We learned this first-hand. On the first day our site went live, anyone searching our name on a phone saw, at the top of the screen, the details of another software company with a similar name, a different address and a different phone number. Our site ranked first in the results, but below that. Someone else sat on top.

From what we can tell, when there’s no verified profile for a name, Google fills the slot with the closest match it can find. So a profile isn’t only for shops with a storefront. It’s how you keep your own name.

What to fill in, in order of importance

• Categories. The most important field, because they decide which searches you appear in. Your primary category is what a customer types when looking for you, not the fanciest title. Don’t add categories for work you don’t do: they’ll bring you the wrong calls.
• Phone and hours. Only hours when you actually pick up. A customer who called during “open” hours and got no answer doesn’t call again.
• Address or service area. If customers visit you, add the address. If you go to them or work from home, declare a service area and keep the address hidden.
• Services and description. They describe what you do inside the profile. Write them as you’d say them to a customer, not like an advert.
• Photos. Real ones, of your place and your work. Google crops the same photo differently on every screen: square on one, taller on another. Keep anything important in the centre and don’t put text near the edges. Photos can take a few days to appear.
• Your website link. Add it. And make sure it opens fast on mobile, because whoever taps it is already interested. A slow site loses them right there.

Verification

For the profile to appear, Google has to verify that the business exists. The method varies: some are asked for a video of the premises, others for a code by post. We were only asked to confirm our address. You don’t choose the method, so don’t worry if yours differs from what you read somewhere.

One thing worth knowing: the profile should be in your own Google account, with you as owner. If someone else sets it up for you, you stay the owner and they become a manager. Why that matters I explain in a separate article.

Reviews

Everyone reads reviews, and that’s where a customer decides between three options on the map. The simplest way to collect them: ask right after a job that went well, with the link the profile itself gives you. Reply to all of them, negative ones included, calmly and specifically.

Don’t pay for reviews and don’t offer anything in return. Google forbids it, and people spot fake reviews more often than you’d think.

Where to start

If you don’t have a profile, create it today. If you do, open it on your phone as if you were a customer and check three things: is the category right, are the hours right, does the website open fast?

If you want to see what a customer sees when they look for you, send me your business name, the way they would type it. I’ll tell you what shows up and what’s missing.