For a local service business, your Google Business Profile is arguably a more important asset than your website. It is what shows up in the map pack, the block of three businesses Google displays above the normal results for local searches, and it is where most calls, direction requests and “visit website” clicks actually originate. It is free, most owners set it up once in twenty minutes and never return, and that neglect is exactly your opening.
I have set these up for clients where the profile alone started producing enquiries before the website campaign even began. Here is how to run one properly.
Claim it and finish it, completely
Start at google.com/business, claim or create the profile, and verify it; Google usually wants a video, a postcard or a phone confirmation proving you are real and where you say you are.
Then complete every field, and I mean every one. Business name exactly as it appears everywhere else, because machines cross check identity. The most specific category available, “family lawyer” and not “lawyer”, since category is one of the heaviest inputs to which searches you can appear in, plus secondary categories for everything else you legitimately do. Hours, phone, website, and the services list with descriptions and prices where you can. Google says plainly that complete profiles get more clicks and calls, and profiles I manage confirm it: every empty field is a question a customer answers by calling your competitor.
The description and photos are not decoration
The description field gives you 750 characters to say who you serve, what you do and what makes you different. Write it in plain sentences naming your services and your city; skip slogans, they carry no information a machine or a hurried human can use.
Photos, real ones of you, your work and your workspace, do measurable work. People check whether a business looks real before contacting it, and a profile with recent, genuine photos beats a profile with a logo and a stock image. No stock images. People smell them, and so does Google’s image matching.
Reviews are the engine
Reviews deserve their own article, and they have one, so the short version here: reviews are among the strongest local ranking inputs, ask for one after every completed job with a direct link, and reply to all of them, especially the bad ones, because your reply is public marketing to every future reader.
Post signs of life
The profile lets you publish small updates: a finished project, a seasonal note, an answered question. Nobody reads these the way they read a blog, and that is fine; their function is to show Google and visitors that the business is alive. A profile with photos from three years ago and zero activity reads as possibly closed. Ten minutes a month is enough.
Same for the questions section: anyone can ask a question on your profile, and anyone can answer, including strangers guessing. Seed it yourself with your real frequently asked questions and answer them properly, before someone else answers wrongly on your behalf.
The profile and the website feed each other
The profile is not a substitute for a website; the two reinforce. The profile wins the map pack, and the website behind it does the convincing, carries the depth, and confirms to Google and to AI assistants that the entity behind the profile is substantial. Assistants asked “who should I hire” lean visibly on profile data: categories, reviews, and whether it all matches the site. The pair working together is the whole point of local SEO.
Profile setup and optimization is part of the local visibility work at Studio Squalli; some clients have had a full site and profile live within days. The free audit covers your profile alongside your site, because customers experience them as one thing.