If someone searches for a cafe, a surgery or a tradie in their suburb right now, the first thing they see isn’t necessarily a website. It may be Google Maps, the local results, and the information displayed in Google Business Profiles. For a local business, that profile can do a remarkable amount of selling before a potential customer ever visits your website, yet many business owners have never properly optimised it.
This guide explains how Google Business Profile optimisation works, the main Google Business Profile ranking factors, and how to improve your Google Maps presence in an easy to follow guide. By reading to the end, you’ll have a practical process for improving your own profile, understanding where local SEO fits around it, or being able to have a more informed conversation with a specialist if you’d rather have someone else manage it.
One important caveat before we start: Google Business Profile optimisation is most useful for businesses with a genuine physical location or defined service area. If you operate in a very small market with limited search demand, or don’t serve customers in a specific geographic area, some of these tactics may still help, but the potential impact is will be less pronounced.
What Google Business Profile Optimisation Actually Does
Google Business Profile optimisation is the process of building out and maintaining your free Google Business Profile so that its information is accurate, complete and useful to potential customers. This includes your business name, address, phone number, opening hours, categories, services, photos, products, attributes and reviews.
Done properly, it has two jobs. First, it helps Google understand what your business does and when it is relevant to display in local searches in Google Search and Maps. Second, it helps turn profile visitors into actions such as calls, website visits, direction requests, bookings or visits to your business.
An optimised profile also answers questions that might otherwise interrupt your day: Are you open now? Where are you located? What services do you offer? Is there parking? Do you take appointments? The more useful and accurate the information you provide, the easier it is for a potential customer to decide to take action.
How Does Google Determine Ranking Results?
Google indicates that local results are mainly based on three factors: relevance, distance and prominence. These are the core Google Business Profile ranking factors businesses need to understand.
Relevance is how well your Business Profile matches what someone is searching for. Providing complete and detailed business information helps Google understand your business and match it with relevant local searches.
Distance is how far your business is from the location used in the search. That may be the searcher’s location or a different location, if a location included in the query. You cannot optimise your way around distance, although accurate location information is essential.
Prominence refers to how well known a business is. Google says prominence can be influenced by information about a business across the web, including links and reviews. More reviews and positive ratings can help a business’s local ranking, although reviews are only one part of the overall picture.
The important point here is that these factors all work together. A profile does not rank because it contains more keywords. Google is trying to return businesses that are relevant to the search, appropriately located and prominent.
What Are the Google Business Profile Ranking Factors?
Google does not publish a complete list or weighting of every individual local ranking signal. Its official guidance focuses on relevance, distance and prominence. Independent research can provide useful additional nuances, but it should not be presented as a definitive list of Google’s algorithm.
Whitespark’s 2026 Local Search Ranking Factors study, for example, surveyed experienced local SEO practitioners and grouped more than 180 factors across areas including Google Business Profile signals, reviews, links, citations, on-page signals and behavioural signals. The study ranks the primary Google Business Profile category, searcher-business proximity and other signals highly, but Whitespark explicitly notes that contributors do not have special access to Google’s internal algorithm and the studies are determined through testing and practitioner experience.
The takeaway is to prioritise the things a business can control: an accurate and relevant primary category, complete business information, appropriate services and products, genuine reviews, a correctly represented location, useful website content and a strong overall local presence.
Avoid tactics that manipulate the profile, such as adding keywords to the business name when they are not part of the real-world business name. Keyword stuffing can violate Google’s guidelines and create suspension risk. Optimisation should always make the profile more accurate and useful.
How to Optimise Your Google Business Profile
Here’s the practical, step-by-step process. Work through each area carefully rather than treating profile optimisation as a one-off setup task.
Get Your Basic Information Accurate
Your business name should exactly match the real-world name of the business and should not be padded with keywords. Your address, phone number, website and opening hours should be accurate and kept up to date. If details change, update your profile and other important online listings promptly.
Choose Your Categories Carefully
Your primary category is one of the most important pieces of information in your profile because it helps Google understand what your business is. Choose the most specific and accurate primary category available for your core business, then add secondary categories only where they genuinely apply.
Do not choose categories simply because you want to rank for a particular keyword. The objective is to describe the business accurately. An incorrect category can work against local visibility and may also mislead potential customers.
Build Out Your Services and Products
List the genuine services or products you offer, using clear customer-friendly names and descriptions. This gives Google additional context about your business and helps potential customers confirm that you provide what they need before they call or visit.
Where products are eligible to be displayed on your Business Profile, keep product information accurate and current. For service businesses, make sure the services listed in the profile align with the services described on your website.
Write a Complete, Honest Business Description
Use your business description to explain what you do, who you serve and what customers can expect. Write naturally for people rather than turning the description into a list of keywords. Include relevant local context when it genuinely helps explain your business, but don’t stuff suburb names into the copy. Analysis of top-ranking profiles cited by Shopify found that businesses ranking highest in local search typically had far more detailed profile content and substantially more reviews than businesses sitting lower down the results.
Add Genuine, High-Quality Photos and Video
Upload real photos that help customers understand your business: your storefront, premises, team, products, completed work or other relevant parts of the customer experience. Avoid relying on stock imagery. Keep visual content current and representative of the business.
Photos are particularly valuable from a conversion perspective because customers can use them to judge what the business looks like, what it sells and what the experience may be like before deciding whether to contact or visit.
Use Google Posts to Stay Active
Google Posts can be used to communicate updates, offers, events and other useful information directly on your profile. They are best treated as a supporting engagement and conversion feature rather than a ranking tactic.
Use Posts when you have something useful to tell customers. Don’t publish low-value updates simply to create activity, and don’t assume that adding keywords to posts will improve rankings.
Add Every Relevant Attribute
Attributes can describe practical features of your business, such as accessibility, facilities and other customer-facing characteristics. Complete the attributes that genuinely apply to your business. They can help customers determine whether your business meets their needs and may support visibility for searches using particular filters.
Turn Reviews Into an Ongoing Process, Not a One-Off Task
Reviews matter for both reputation and local prominence. Make asking for genuine customer feedback a normal part of your sales or service process, while following Google’s policies. Never create fake reviews, buy reviews or offer incentives in exchange for positive reviews.
Respond to reviews professionally, including negative reviews. The objective is to demonstrate that you take customer feedback seriously and provide useful information to future customers, not to stuff keywords into responses.
A consistent flow of authentic reviews is preferable to treating reviews as a one-off campaign. If managing review requests and responses alongside running the business is difficult, this is one area where reputation management services can help.
How to Optimise Your Google Maps Presence
Google Maps optimisation and Google Business Profile optimisation overlap heavily because your Business Profile supplies much of the business information displayed in Maps. There isn’t a separate Maps profile that you optimise independently. Instead, the focus is on making your Business Profile accurate, relevant and trustworthy.
Make sure your map pin represents the correct location and that customers can find the business easily. Keep opening hours accurate, including special hours where applicable. If your business is a service-area business, make sure your profile follows Google’s rules for representing your address and service area.
It’s also worth checking how your business information appears across important websites, directories and other sources. Google says it compiles Business Profile information from multiple sources, including publicly available web content, third-party data, user contributions and information from its own interactions with businesses. Consistent information therefore helps Google and customers understand the business more clearly.
Is SEO Still Worth It in an AI-Driven Search World?
It’s a reasonable question given how quickly search behaviour is changing. For local businesses, however, Google Search and Maps remain important discovery channels because people continue to use them to find nearby businesses, compare options and take actions such as calling, visiting a website or requesting directions.
AI search also makes accurate business information increasingly important, but it would be too broad to claim that every AI system simply takes its local information directly from Google Business Profiles. Different AI products use different sources and retrieval methods. It’s recommended to maintain accurate information across your important online properties rather than relying on a single platform.
Local SEO should also be judged by business outcomes, not rankings alone. Calls, enquiries, bookings, direction requests and qualified website visits are more meaningful measures of performance than profile activity by itself.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I optimise my Google My Business page?
Google My Business is now called Google Business Profile. Start by claiming and verifying your profile, then complete the available information accurately: business details, category, services or products, description, photos, opening hours. Keep the profile current, manage reviews and make sure important information matches your website and other business listings.
How do I get my Google Business Profile to rank higher?
Start with the factors Google identifies for local ranking: relevance, distance and prominence. Make sure your category and business information accurately reflect what you do, build a complete profile, earn genuine reviews and strengthen your wider local presence. Remember that distance is a major factor and cannot be changed through optimisation.
How do I optimise my Google Business Profile?
Treat it as an ongoing process rather than a one-time setup. Complete the profile accurately, choose appropriate categories, add useful services or products, upload genuine photos, keep hours and attributes current, manage reviews and maintain consistent business information across the web.
How do I optimise my Google Maps presence?
Because Google Maps and your Business Profile are closely connected, focus on the same fundamentals: accurate business information, the correct category, a correctly represented location & service area, useful profile content, genuine reviews and consistent information across online sources.
How does Google determine ranking results?
Google says local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and prominence. Relevance concerns how well the profile matches the search; distance concerns how close the business is to the search location; and prominence reflects how well known the business is, including signals such as reviews and information about the business across the web.
How much does it cost to optimise a Google My Business profile?
Creating and maintaining a Google Business Profile is free through Google. Businesses may still pay for professional Google Business Profile optimisation services because research, setup, ongoing optimisation, review management and broader local SEO work take time and expertise. The cost varies according to the scope of work, the competitiveness of the market and the business’s objectives.
How can I improve Google Maps performance?
Focus on the fundamentals rather than looking for a separate Maps optimisation: accurate location and hours, an appropriate category, complete profile information, genuine reviews and consistent business details. Also measure the actions generated from your profile, such as calls, website visits and direction requests, rather than focusing only on ranking position.
Is SEO still worth it in 2026?
For businesses that rely on local customers, local SEO can remain a valuable part of a broader marketing strategy. Its value depends on local search demand, competition, customer value and how effectively the business converts local searches into enquiries and sales. It should be assessed against measurable outcomes rather than assumed to be the right investment for every business.
What does Google Business Profile Optimisation do?
It makes your business information more complete, accurate and useful while giving Google clearer information about what your business does and where it operates. This can support local visibility and, importantly, help potential customers decide whether to call, visit, book or learn more.
What is involved in Google Business Profile optimisation?
At a minimum, it involves claiming and verifying the profile, choosing accurate categories, completing available fields, adding genuine photos and relevant services or products, maintaining hours and attributes, managing reviews and keeping business information consistent across online properties. In competitive markets, it should normally sit within a broader local SEO strategy that also considers the website, links, citations and reputation.
Where to Go Now
You now have a practical framework for Google Business Profile optimisation and Google Maps optimisation, including the three factors Google identifies for local rankings and the main areas you can control.
If you’d rather have a specialist manage the work, Evolocity offers Google Business Profile optimisation services as part of a broader local SEO strategy. The work can include profile optimisation, local visibility, reputation management and the wider local SEO signals that support performance.
As a boutique local SEO consultancy, Evolocity can assess your existing profile, competitors and local search opportunity before recommending what should be done. That gives you a clearer basis for deciding whether professional optimisation is likely to justify the investment for your business.