How to check your Google Business Profile in 20 minutes

You're parked outside a job, waiting on a signature. Pull out your phone and find your own listing. Maybe it still shows the number from before you had an office line, or says closed on a Saturday.

That look is the first three minutes of this Google Business Profile checklist. The rest covers the fields, your reviews and Google's own numbers, and each block gives you something to write down or fix. For the whole local SEO picture around the profile, see our local SEO checklist for home service companies. Start a timer.

Minutes 0 to 3: what does a stranger see?

Search your trade and town in Google Maps, like "plumber Tampa". Skip your company name, because a stranger doesn't know it.

Google says relevance, distance and prominence shape local results, and it measures distance from the searcher.^[1] So search from your driveway, then from across town. Tap your listing and write down:

• Whether you show up, and which competitors sit above you.
• Star rating, review count and the date of the newest review.
• Which photos show first.
• Open or closed, and whether that's true.
• What the phone number and website link do when tapped.
• Any second listing under your name or old number.

Nobody calls to say why they passed.

Minutes 3 to 8: which details could break Google's rules?

Four of them: name, categories, address, and phone and website. Sign in with the Google account that manages the profile, search your business name and city, and choose Edit profile.^[2][3] If you can't get in, that tops your list.

• Name. Match the name on your truck door and invoices, with nothing added. Google rules out a city, services, a slogan, a phone number or hours.^[4]
• Categories. Pick the most specific one that names what you are, like plumber. Add another only for a real second line of work. Jobs like water heater replacement go in the services list.^[4][5]
• Address. If customers don't come to you, hide it and list the towns you serve. A P.O. box, a remote mailbox or an unstaffed virtual office doesn't qualify.^[4] Setting the service area and hiding the address is covered step by step.
• Phone and website. A local number you control, and a link to your own site that doesn't redirect to someone else's page.^[4]

Count your categories. Google says they affect your local ranking, and the same page says not to add one for every service.^[5]

Minutes 8 to 13: what goes in the services, hours and photos?

List each job you want calls for as its own service, in a customer's words, with one plain line under it.^[6] The description gets 750 characters: say what you do, where, and for how long.^[3] Google bans links and asks you to leave out prices and promotions, so skip the coupon.^[4] To see how Google's Ask Maps chat describes you, see checking Ask Maps.

For hours, list when a person actually answers. Holiday hours go in as special hours, for up to six days in a row.^[7]

Photos and short videos should show real work: the crew on a job, the finished result. Google's photo tips want the business at work, in focus, well lit and not heavily filtered or altered with AI.^[8] How to photograph a job goes through the shots worth taking.

Minutes 13 to 17: what do your reviews say about you?

Buyers notice how many reviews you have, how recent they are and whether you reply. Write down the count, the date of the newest review, and how many have no reply.

If the count is low, here's how to ask for a Google review.

Then look for reviews that break Google's policy: fake ones, ones from a former employee, and ones paid for, even with a discount.^[9] Report those under Read reviews. Google removes only reviews that break its policies, so skip the ones that just sting.^[10] For the ones you keep, here's how to respond to a negative review.

Minutes 17 to 20: which numbers do you write down?

Five lines from Performance: calls, website clicks, direction requests, views and search terms. It's on your profile in Search, or under Business in the Maps app, and only verified profiles have it.^[11]

A call here is a tap on the Call button, not a conversation. Write the five lines in a notebook and repeat next month. The report can't say which taps became booked jobs; your job book can. Here's how to track where your leads really come from.

Which problems come first, and when is help worth paying for?

Suspension risks first, then anything that sends a caller nowhere:

1. A name stuffed with a city or services, an ineligible address like a P.O. box, or a home address showing on a service-area profile. Google's guidelines rule out all three.^[4]
2. A wrong phone number, a dead website link, wrong hours or a pin in the wrong place. To move a pin, choose Adjust in the editor and drag the map.^[12]

Three problems aren't quick:

• A suspended profile can't be edited. The route back is Google's appeal, and you shouldn't start a new profile meanwhile.^[13]
• A duplicate won't show on Search or Maps. Ask for a merge through a suggestion on Google Maps. Reviews combine, but replies may be lost.^[14]
• A profile someone else controls: request ownership. The owner has three days to answer, then you may be able to claim it.^[15]

Send those requests early, since the waiting starts when you ask, and fix the quick problems while you wait.

If you'd rather have someone else look it over, our local SEO audit puts the fixes in order. The Expert Action Plan ($149) is the complete report plus a 30-minute consultation.

Where this check stops helping

Twenty minutes finds mistakes. It can't tell you why the company across town sits above you, and nobody outside Google can. To see where you stand against the companies above you, run a local search audit on your own company. Google says there's no way to pay for a better local ranking.^[1]

A clean profile is one piece of local SEO. Your editor can look different by business type and device, so trust Google's page over mine if a screen doesn't match.^[3] Your other listings are a separate job: which ones matter. Every page cited here was checked on October 4, 2026.