The Google Business Profile checklist for Atlanta businesses

1. Claim and verify your profile

• Look before you create. Search your business name on Google Maps. If a profile already exists, claim it instead of making a new one. Duplicates split your reviews and can get both profiles suspended.
• Use an account the business controls. Not a former employee’s Gmail or an agency’s account. Add staff and agencies as managers, so you never need to share a password and can remove access later.
• Verify it. Google picks the method. It’s often a short video that shows your signage, tools or vehicle and where you work. Have those ready before you start.

2. Get the basics exactly right

• Business name: your real-world name, as it appears on your sign, truck and paperwork. Adding keywords or cities (“Smith Plumbing – Best Atlanta Plumber”) breaks Google’s guidelines and is a common reason profiles get suspended.
• Address or service area: if customers come to you, show your address. If you go to them, set a service area and hide the address. List the cities and neighborhoods you really serve, like Decatur, Marietta or Sandy Springs, not the whole state.
• Phone: a local number that someone answers, or that at least texts back when you can’t pick up. Use the same number on your website.
• Website link: your home page, or the matching location page if you have several. Add tracking tags (for example ?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=gbp) so Google Analytics shows visits from your profile separately.
• Hours, including holiday hours. Few things lose a customer faster than a closed door your profile said was open.

3. Choose your categories carefully

• The primary category matters most. Pick the one that describes your main service as specifically as Google allows: “HVAC contractor” rather than “Contractor”, “Personal injury attorney” rather than “Lawyer”.
• Add secondary categories only for work you really do. More categories don’t help if they’re a stretch, and they can show you to the wrong customers.
• See what the leaders use. Search your main service and city on Google Maps, open the top three results, and note their categories.

4. Fill in services, description and attributes

• Services: add each service you offer with a short description, and a price or “from” price where it makes sense. Specific services help you show up for specific searches.
• Description: you get 750 characters. Lead with what you do and where, in plain language: “Family-owned HVAC company serving Decatur, Tucker and East Atlanta since 2009…” No links, no ALL CAPS, no sales pitch.
• Attributes: tick the ones that apply, such as online estimates, wheelchair access or women-owned. They show on your profile and help customers choose.

5. Add real photos, and keep adding them

• Your logo and a cover photo.
• Your team, your vehicles, your shop or office, and your work. For trades, before-and-after photos are gold.
• Real phone photos beat stock photos every time. Add a few each month: it shows customers you’re active and gives them a reason to pick you.

6. Build a steady flow of reviews

• Ask every happy customer, at the right moment: when the job is done or the problem is solved. Send the direct review link from your profile, so leaving a review takes one tap.
• Don’t pay for reviews or only ask happy customers. Offering discounts or gifts for reviews, and screening out customers you think are unhappy, both break Google’s rules. Fake reviews get removed, and can cost you the profile.
• Reply to every review within a few days. Thank people by name. For a bad review, stay calm, offer to fix it offline, and remember you’re writing for the next customer who reads it.
• Steady beats sudden. A few reviews every month looks, and is, more trustworthy than twenty in one week and then silence. An automatic review request after each job makes it effortless.

7. Post updates

Your profile lets you publish short updates and offers. A post every week or two, such as a finished job, a seasonal tip or a limited-time offer, keeps the profile fresh and gives searchers one more reason to call you instead of the next listing.

8. Make your website agree with your profile

• Same name, address and phone everywhere: your website, your Business Profile, Apple Business Connect, Bing Places, Yelp, Nextdoor and the directories for your trade. Mismatches make Google less sure the details are right.
• A page for each main service, and a clear list of the areas you serve.
• Fast and easy on a phone, with tap-to-call. Most people who find you on Maps are on their phone and want to call now.
• Schema markup: a few lines of code that give search engines your business details in a format they read reliably. Every site we build includes it.

9. Check it every month

• Read your performance numbers: calls, website clicks, direction requests and the searches that showed your profile.
• Check rankings from more than one spot. Results depend on where the searcher is standing, so your ranking from the office isn’t the whole picture. A grid rank report shows how you rank across your whole service area.
• Watch for edits you didn’t make. Anyone can suggest changes to a Business Profile, and Google sometimes accepts them. Make sure your hours, phone number and categories are still yours.

Mistakes that get profiles suspended or ignored

• Keywords or city names stuffed into the business name.
• A virtual office, coworking desk or PO box listed as your address.
• A second profile for the same business at the same location.
• Buying reviews, or reviewing yourself from friends’ accounts.
• Changing lots of key details at once, which can trigger a fresh verification.

Want us to do it, or just check it?

Local search is most of what we do. Our free visibility check looks at your Business Profile, where you show up on the map and how fast your site loads, and lands in your inbox within one business day. If you’d rather hand it off, see how we handle local SEO in Atlanta, from $149 a month.