How Do I Optimize My Google Business Profile? 7 Things You Can Do Yourself
You Googled your business.
Congratulations—you exist. 🎉
But if your Google Business Profile is half-filled-out, sporting photos from 2019, or still confidently telling people you're open on Sundays when you haven't worked a Sunday in three years, we need to talk.
One of the questions I hear regularly from small business owners is:
“How do I optimize my Google Business Profile?”
The good news? There is quite a bit you can do yourself.
And if you serve customers locally, it's worth doing.
Your Google Business Profile can appear when people search for your business, your services, or businesses like yours in the area. It's often one of the first impressions a potential customer gets of your company—sometimes before they ever visit your website.
So let's make it a good one.
1. Complete Your Business Information
Start with the basics.
Make sure your profile accurately lists information such as your:
Business name
Address or service area
Phone number
Website
Hours
Business category
Services
Accuracy matters.
Your Google Business Profile shouldn't say one thing while your website and other online listings say something completely different.
If you've moved, changed phone numbers, updated your hours, or changed your website, make sure that information gets updated.
Think of it as digital housekeeping.
Not glamorous. Still necessary.
2. Choose the Right Business Categories
Your primary category helps Google understand what kind of business you are.
Be specific.
If you're a plumber, choosing a category that accurately identifies you as a plumber is considerably more useful than trying to make your business sound broader or fancier than it actually is.
You can also select additional categories when they're genuinely relevant to services your business provides.
The key word there is genuinely.
Don't select every vaguely related category because you're hoping to appear in more searches.
You're trying to help Google understand your business—not throw spaghetti at the algorithm and see what sticks.
3. Add Your Services
If your Google Business Profile allows you to list individual services, use them.
Don't make Google—or your potential customers—guess what you offer.
A contractor might list services such as:
Interior painting
Exterior painting
Drywall repair
Deck staining
Cabinet painting
A photographer might list:
Corporate headshots
Branding photography
Family photography
Event photography
Be accurate and specific.
This is another opportunity to give Google context about your business while also making your profile more useful to the human being looking at it.
4. Add Good Photos—and Keep Adding Them
Please don't let your only Google photos be your logo, a picture of the front door, and something a customer uploaded seven years ago from a questionable angle.
People want to see your business.
Depending on your industry, useful photos might include:
Completed projects
Before-and-after photos
Your team
Your workspace
Products
Your storefront
Equipment
Behind-the-scenes images
You don't necessarily need professional photography every single time.
Clear, current photos taken with your phone can be perfectly useful.
The important thing is that they're accurate, relevant, and recent.
It's June. The sun is out until approximately bedtime. Take advantage of all that glorious natural light and update some photos.
Your 2018 flip-phone-quality masterpiece has served bravely. We can let it retire.
5. Ask Happy Customers for Reviews
Reviews are one of the most visible parts of your Google Business Profile.
They're also one of the first things many potential customers check before contacting you.
Make asking for reviews part of your normal customer process.
Finished a successful project?
Ask.
Customer sends you a glowing text about how happy they are?
Thank them—and ask.
Someone tells you in person that you're absolutely amazing?
Fantastic. Google would also like to hear about it.
The trick is consistency.
You don't want to ignore reviews for eight months and then suddenly launch Operation Please Everyone Review Me Immediately.
Build the habit.
6. Respond to Your Reviews
If someone takes time to leave you a review, respond.
You don't need to write an acceptance speech.
A simple, genuine response thanking them for their business is enough.
For positive reviews, acknowledge what they said when appropriate.
For negative reviews, resist the temptation to turn the response section into the season finale of a reality show.
Stay professional.
Remember: you're not only responding to the person who wrote the review.
You're also writing for every potential customer who reads that exchange later.
How you respond tells people something about what it might be like to work with you.
7. Keep Your Profile Updated
This is where many businesses fall off.
They create the profile.
They fill everything out.
They upload some photos.
Then they disappear.
Your business changes over time, and your profile should reflect those changes.
Check it periodically (I set alarms in my google calendar) for:
Incorrect hours
Holiday hours
New services
Outdated photos
Incorrect links
Changed contact information
Updates Google may have suggested or applied
And yes, check your holiday hours BEFORE the holiday.
Nothing says Happy Fourth of July quite like driving across town because Google said a business was open, only to find a dark building and a handwritten sign taped to the door.
Don't be that business.
BONUS: Look at Your Profile Like a Customer
Here's an easy DIY exercise.
Open Google in a private or incognito browser and search for your business.
Then pretend you've never heard of your company.
What do you see?
Ask yourself:
Is it immediately clear what we do?
Does the business look active?
Are the photos good?
Are the hours correct?
Do the reviews inspire confidence?
Can someone easily visit the website or contact us?
Then search for a few of the services you offer in your area.
Look at the businesses appearing around you.
What information do their profiles have that yours doesn't?
This isn't about copying your competitors.
It's about understanding what a potential customer sees when they're deciding who gets the call.
How Often Should I Update My Google Business Profile?
There's no magic schedule that guarantees better rankings.
But you should check your profile regularly enough that the information stays accurate and the business looks active.
For many small businesses, a quick monthly review is a good starting point.
If your hours, services, photos, or other information change frequently, check it more often.
And definitely review it before major holidays or seasonal changes.
Does Optimizing My Google Business Profile Help SEO?
Your Google Business Profile is an important part of local SEO, but it isn't your entire local SEO strategy.
Google is looking at a larger picture.
Your website, reviews, business information across the web, backlinks, content, location, relevance, and overall authority can all contribute to how visible your business becomes in local searches.
That's why I don't recommend treating your Google Business Profile as a standalone marketing strategy.
It's one piece of your digital presence.
A very important piece—but still one piece.
Can I Optimize My Google Business Profile Myself?
Absolutely.
In fact, if you're a small business owner who isn't ready to invest in professional SEO yet, this is one of the first places I'd start.
Complete your information.
Choose accurate categories.
Add your services.
Upload current photos.
Ask for reviews.
Respond to those reviews.
Keep everything updated.
None of that requires an SEO agency.
It mostly requires something small business owners tend to have approximately zero extra supply of:
time.
When Should I Hire Someone to Manage My Google Business Profile?
If keeping up with your Google Business Profile has become one more task permanently living at the bottom of your to-do list, it may make sense to hand it off.
It can also make sense when you're ready to look beyond the profile itself and start working on the bigger picture: your website, local SEO, content, directories, backlinks, reviews, and overall search visibility.
That's where professional SEO becomes less about checking boxes and more about building a strategy.
At Tektite Digital, Google Business Profile optimization is part of the local visibility work I do for growing businesses.
Because claiming your profile is step one.
Getting the right customers to actually find you is the goal.
You focus on your craft. We'll make sure they notice.
