Google Business Profile, past the basics

Once the profile for your company is set up properly, there are a few features almost nobody uses, and they are where the remaining advantage sits.

Messaging

If you turn it on, answer fast. Google tracks response time and an ignored message thread is worse than never enabling it. If nobody can watch it during the day, leave it off.

Products and services

The services list lets you write a real description for each one. Most profiles have a single line. Write each one properly, using the same language as the matching service page on your website, and link each to that page.

Posts, used properly

One or two a month is enough, but make them count. Seasonal reminders when the buying moment arrives, a recent project with a photo, an answer to a common question. Every post links to the page on your site that handles that topic.

Q and A, seeded by you

You can ask and answer your own questions. Seed the five questions you answer on every estimate. This is public, it shows in the profile, and it is another surface an AI answer tool can read.

Photo cadence

Add a few every month rather than fifty once. Steady activity is a signal. Geotagging is not the magic people claim, but filenames and consistency do no harm and take no time.

Tracking, which almost nobody does

Add UTM parameters to the website link on your profile so the traffic shows up properly in your analytics instead of getting lumped in with everything else. Then you actually know how much work the profile is doing.

Check the profile insights monthly: how people found you, how many called, how many asked for directions. Calls and direction requests are the numbers that matter in this trade.

Watch for edits you did not make

Google accepts suggested edits from the public, including competitors. Check your hours, category, and phone number once a month. Incorrect hours on a profile can cost you a season of calls before anyone tells you.