The short answer
- Google ranks local results on three things: relevance, distance and prominence. You control relevance fully and prominence partly. You cannot change distance, and Google says you cannot pay for a better local ranking.
- Google Business Profile optimization means filling every field accurately: one specific primary category plus up to 9 additional ones, a description under 750 characters, real hours, services, photos.
- Reviews and review replies feed prominence. Reply to every review, ask every customer, never offer an incentive.
- Posts and the performance report keep the profile current and show you which searches actually find you.
Google Business Profile optimization is the work of making your profile match what local searchers type, proving the business is well known, and keeping every detail correct. Google publishes the rules. Most profiles still skip half of them.
This checklist goes field by field, in the order that moves rankings and calls the most.
How Google ranks local results
Google's Business Profile help center names three factors for local ranking:
- Relevance: how well a profile matches what someone is searching for. Complete, detailed information is how Google connects your profile to more searches.
- Distance: how far the business is from the person searching. When the searcher does not share a location, Google uses what it knows about where they are.
- Prominence: how well known the business is. Google lists how many websites link to the business and how many reviews it has as inputs, and says more reviews and positive ratings can help local ranking.
The same page lists what helps: verify the business, keep information current, respond to reviews, add photos and videos, and provide complete details such as hours, category and attributes. It also states plainly that there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking.
Every item below maps to relevance or prominence.
The field-by-field checklist
| Field | Rule | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Business name | Real-world name only | Matches the storefront and website. No city, keywords or taglines added. |
| Primary category | 1 required | The most specific category for the core business: "Emergency dentist" beats "Dentist" only if that is what you are. |
| Additional categories | Up to 9 more | Only services you actually sell. Google asks for the fewest categories that describe the core business. |
| Description | 750 characters max, no links, no promotions | What you do, who for, where, and why you are different. Key facts in the first two sentences. |
| Hours | Regular customer-facing hours | Regular hours plus special hours for every holiday. |
| Phone | Up to 3 numbers | A local number answered during listed hours. |
| Website | One URL | The location or service page, with UTM tags so you can see the traffic in analytics. |
| Services | Where available for your category | Every service you sell, each with a short description. |
| Attributes | Category-dependent | Accessibility, payment types, online appointments, anything that is true. |
| Photos and videos | Real images of the business | Exterior, interior, team, work samples. Add new ones regularly. |
Categories
The primary category is the biggest relevance lever on the profile. Search the category list for the most specific match, then look at which primary category the top three local competitors use for your main search. If they rank and you do not, a category mismatch is the first thing to check.
Description
Google's guidelines limit the description to 750 characters and prohibit links and promotional content such as prices and sales. Write it for a person deciding whether to call. Example for an HVAC company:
"Family-owned heating and air conditioning company serving Mesa, Gilbert and Chandler since 2009. We repair and replace AC units, heat pumps and furnaces, and offer same-day emergency service. NATE-certified technicians, upfront quotes before work starts, and maintenance plans for homes and small offices."
Hours
Wrong hours cost you a customer who drives over and finds a locked door. Set special hours before every public holiday, and update regular hours the day they change.
Services and products
Services add relevance for searches your category alone does not cover. A dental practice listing "Invisalign", "dental implants" and "teeth whitening" gives Google more to match against than the "Dentist" category by itself.
Photos
Google lists photos and videos among the things that help a profile. Upload real, current images: the building from the street so people recognize it, the interior, the team, finished jobs. Stock photos add nothing.
Reviews: the prominence lever you control
Review count and rating are named inputs to prominence. Three habits move them.
- Ask everyone. Google provides a review request link and QR code from the profile. Send it by text or email right after the job, while the customer still remembers it.
- Reply to every review. Google's help center says replying shows you value customers. Replies post publicly under the business name. Thank positive reviewers specifically. On negative reviews, acknowledge, give the fix or a direct contact, and keep it short.
- Stay inside the policy. Google's contribution policy prohibits offering incentives such as payment, discounts or complimentary goods and services in exchange for reviews, and prohibits discouraging negative reviews or selectively asking only happy customers. Review gating can get reviews removed.
A practical target: reply within two business days, and send the request link after every completed job. For tools that automate requests across many sites, see our guide to review management software.
Posts, and what happened to Q&A
Google posts let you publish updates, offers and events to the profile. They keep the profile active, announce seasonal services and give searchers a reason to click. Google archives posts older than 6 months unless a date range is set, so a profile with one post from last year looks abandoned. Our guide to Google Business Profile posts covers post types, cadence and examples by industry.
Q&A is no longer worth planning around. Google discontinued the Q&A API on November 3, 2025, and public Q&A has been winding down on profiles. Move the answers customers need (pricing approach, insurance accepted, service area, parking) into the description, services and your website, where Google can still read them.
Read the performance report
The profile's performance view shows views on Search and Maps, calls, website clicks, direction requests, and the search terms people used to find you. The searches data updates at the start of each month.
Use the search terms in two ways:
- Find missing relevance. If people find you for "water heater repair" and it is not in your services or description, add it.
- Spot category gaps. If searches are mostly for your brand name, you are not ranking for the category terms. Revisit the primary category and the description.
Compare month over month. A drop in calls with steady views usually points to wrong hours, a wrong phone number, or a recent run of negative reviews.
Common mistakes
- Keyword-stuffed business names. "Smith Plumbing - Best Plumber Denver 24/7" breaks Google's name guidelines and can get the profile suspended.
- Too many categories. Ten loosely related categories dilute relevance. Google asks for as few as possible.
- Stale hours. No holiday hours, or summer hours left running into winter.
- A homepage link for a multi-location business. Send each profile to its own location page.
- Unanswered reviews. Especially negative ones from months ago.
- Phone numbers in posts. Google may remove posts with contact details it cannot verify. Use the call button instead.
- Buying or bartering for reviews. Against policy, and the reviews can be removed in bulk.
Industry notes
Dental. Separate categories exist for specialties such as orthodontist and cosmetic dentist. Use them only when that is the practice's core. List each treatment as a service. More in our dental marketing guide.
HVAC and plumbing. Most are service-area businesses. Set the service area accurately rather than listing a home address, and add emergency hours if you answer at night. More in our HVAC marketing page.
Restaurants. Hours, menu and photos do most of the work. Update special hours before every holiday.
How Sprites keeps a profile optimized
Sprites' proprietary marketing agent connects to your Google Business Profile and does the recurring work:
- Reads performance metrics and the search queries that found the profile, and tells you what changed.
- Edits the business description, website, phone number and regular hours.
- Drafts and posts replies to Google reviews.
- Writes and publishes Google posts.
Every change arrives as an editable approval card, and nothing is applied until you approve it. Categories and photos stay with you: Sprites does not edit them. For rank grids and citations, pair it with one of the local SEO tools built for that, and use Sprites for SEO to write and publish the location pages your profile links to. You can also run the profile from Claude or ChatGPT through the Google Business Profile MCP.
Plans are on the pricing page, and every plan starts with a 7-day trial for $1. Start with the primary category and the description this week; they are the two fields most profiles get wrong.