What your Google Business Profile actually affects
For most London businesses serving a local area, the profile influences more enquiries than the website does — and it is usually the more neglected of the two.
If your customers are local, a large share of them will decide between you and your competitors without ever visiting your website. They will do it in the map results, in about fifteen seconds, on a phone.
That makes the Google Business Profile one of the highest-leverage assets you have, and it is usually the one nobody owns.
What people actually look at
In roughly this order:
- Distance. You cannot change this, and it explains more variation in map rankings than anything else.
- Rating and review count. Both matter. A 4.6 from ninety reviews generally beats a 5.0 from four.
- Photographs. Recent, real photographs of the actual business. Stock imagery is obvious and counterproductive.
- Opening hours. Wrong hours produce a bad review and a lost customer in one step.
- Category. The primary category has a disproportionate effect on which searches you appear in.
The things most profiles get wrong
The primary category is too broad. "Beauty salon" when you are specifically a nail salon means competing with every salon nearby instead of ranking well for what you actually do.
Services are empty. The services list is a genuine ranking and relevance input, and most profiles leave it blank.
No recent photographs. Profiles with current photographs consistently outperform those with images from four years ago.
Reviews unanswered. Responding is visible to everyone reading afterwards, and a calm reply to a poor review often reads better than the review itself.
Service area not set for mobile businesses. If you travel to customers, you should be hiding your address and defining a service area. Many home-based businesses either display a home address they did not intend to publish, or leave the service area empty.
Reviews, without being awkward about it
The businesses with strong review profiles are almost never the ones that ask harder. They are the ones that ask consistently, at the moment the customer is most pleased, with a link that takes two taps.
Make it a step in your process rather than an occasional campaign, and the profile compounds quietly over a year.
Where the website still matters
The profile gets you into the consideration set. The website closes it — pricing, credibility, the specific service someone needs, and the ability to enquire without phoning.
They are not alternatives. But if you have limited time and your customers are local, fixing the profile first will usually produce results faster.
If you would like a review of your local visibility, ask us for one.