Most local businesses claim their Google Business Profile, fill in the hours, and never open it again. Then they wonder why a competitor with worse food, worse work, or worse prices sits above them on the map.

Ranking in the map pack comes down to three things Google has stated openly: relevance (does your profile match the search?), distance (how close are you to the searcher?), and prominence (how well-known and well-reviewed are you?). You can't move your building, but you can influence the other two heavily. This checklist covers what actually moves them, it's the same sequence we run for local SEO clients in London and the surrounding towns.

If you haven't created or claimed your profile yet, start with our guide to adding your business to Google Maps, then come back.

The foundation: get the facts right

  • Business name = your real name. Exactly what's on your sign. Adding keywords ("Mike's Plumbing-Best Plumber London Ontario") violates Google's rules and is the most common reason profiles get suspended.
  • Primary category is your biggest lever. Pick the most specific one that fits. A "Family restaurant" and a "Pizza restaurant" show up for different searches. Add secondary categories for everything else you legitimately do.
  • Address and service area set correctly. Storefronts show an address. Service-area businesses hide it and list served cities, London, St. Thomas, Strathroy, wherever you actually go.
  • Phone and website consistent everywhere. Same format on your profile, your website, and every directory. Mismatched data erodes Google's trust in all of it.
  • Hours always current, including holidays. "Closed when Google said open" is a one-star review machine.

The profile most owners never finish

  • Description: 750 characters available. Say what you do, who you serve, and what area you cover in plain language. No slogans.
  • Services / menu: list every service with a short description. Each one helps you match more searches. Restaurants: keep the menu current, Google shows it prominently.
  • Products: retail and restaurants can showcase items with photos. These appear directly on your profile.
  • Attributes: wheelchair accessible, patio, Wi-Fi, women-owned, payment types. Filters use these; AI answers cite them.
  • Photos monthly: real photos of work, food, staff, and premises. Profiles with recent photos get more direction requests and calls than ones with a logo and a stock image. Geotag nothing; just be real and recent.
  • Booking / ordering links: if customers can book or order online, put that link on the profile. It's the shortest path from search to sale, this is where an online ordering or booking system pays for itself twice.

Reviews: the prominence engine

  • Ask consistently. The businesses with 200 reviews aren't luckier than you, they ask every customer, usually automatically after the job or the meal. A CRM with review-request automation makes this a background process instead of a chore.
  • Reply to every review, good and bad. Short, human, no templates. Google has confirmed replies factor into local ranking, and future customers read them.
  • Never buy reviews or gate them (only asking happy customers via a filter). Both violate Google's policies, and the penalty, review removal or suspension, costs more than the shortcut gained.
  • Work keywords in naturally by asking specifically: "Would you mind mentioning the bathroom reno in your review?" Reviews that describe the service help you rank for it.

The parts nobody does

  • Google Posts: short updates that appear on your profile. Weekly offers, seasonal notices, new products. Low effort, keeps the profile visibly alive.
  • Q&A section: anyone can ask, and anyone can answer, including competitors or confused strangers. Seed it yourself with your real top-10 customer questions and answer them from the business account.
  • UTM-tag your website link so your analytics shows profile traffic separately. If you use a privacy-friendly tracker like NX DAT, you'll see exactly how many visits and conversions the profile drives.
  • Check "suggested edits." Google lets the public suggest changes, and it sometimes applies them silently. Review your profile monthly to catch hours or categories you didn't change.

How do you know it's working?

Watch three numbers monthly: search views, direction requests, and calls (all in the profile's performance tab), plus your actual map position for your money searches. You can eyeball position by searching in an incognito window from your service area, or track it properly. A free SEO audit takes ten minutes and shows where you stand beyond the map too.

If you've done everything here and you're still buried, the problem usually lives deeper, website signals, competition density, or a filter issue. That's covered in why your business isn't showing up on Google Maps, and it's the point where an audit from us stops being optional.

Frequently asked questions

How often should I update my Google Business Profile?

Touch it monthly at minimum: new photos, a post, answered questions, and a scan for public "suggested edits" Google may have applied. Reply to reviews as they arrive, not in batches.

What's the most important ranking factor on a Google Business Profile?

Your primary category, followed by review quantity, quality, and recency, and the completeness of your profile. Proximity to the searcher matters too, but you can't control it, so win the factors you can.

Do Google Posts actually help ranking?

Their direct ranking effect is small, but they increase engagement, clicks, calls, bookings, which feeds prominence. They also make your profile look alive next to a competitor's dead one, which wins the customer even when it doesn't win the algorithm.

Can I optimize my profile myself or do I need an agency?

Everything in this checklist is owner-doable, that's why we published it. An agency earns its fee when you don't have the hours to do it consistently, or when you've done it all and still aren't ranking, which points to website and competitive factors that need professional local SEO.