For a local business, the profile that appears beside a map is often the first page a customer reads. It is also the page most owners set up in twenty minutes and never open again. That is a wasted advantage, because the listing is free, it belongs to you, and small corrections there change who calls.
Treat it as a small website you do not have to host. It has a home page, a photo gallery, opening hours, a description and a review section. Each part needs the same attention you would give a shop window.
Claim it, then decide who holds the keys
Claiming is the first step, not the last. Verification confirms you control the business; ownership confirms who can edit it. Add a second owner who is not you. Owners leave, phone numbers change, and recovering an account locked to a departed manager takes weeks you do not have.
Use a business email address you will still read in three years, not a personal one tied to a former role. If an agency manages the listing, give them manager access rather than ownership, and keep the ability to remove them.
Categories do more work than the description
The primary category tells the platform what you are and which searches you are eligible for. Choose the most specific option that matches your main revenue, not the broadest one. A specialist coffee roaster is not best served by the word cafe if wholesale is the business.
Secondary categories should describe services you genuinely deliver and can answer the phone about. Adding eight hopeful categories dilutes the signal and attracts enquiries you cannot serve.
The description is read by people. The categories are read by the system that decides whether people ever see you.
Hours, service area and the details people check
Hours are the field customers trust and the one most often wrong. Include public holidays separately, and update them the week before, not the week after. If you close for a stocktake, say so; a customer standing at a locked door rarely tries again.
Service-area businesses should list the places they travel to and hide the home address if that is not a shopfront. Add attributes only where they are true: wheelchair access, card payments, parking, appointment required. False attributes produce complaints that no reply can fix.
Photographs that answer real questions
Upload three kinds of image: the exterior from the street, so people recognise the door; the interior, so they know what to expect; and the work itself, so they can judge quality. Add a photo of the team, because faces reduce the risk of a stranger's premises.
Replace seasonal images when the season changes. Ten current photographs outperform sixty from four years ago, and the platform favours listings that are actively maintained.
Posts, questions and messages
Short posts work for offers, closures and new stock. They do not need a daily rhythm; two a month keeps the listing alive without becoming a second social channel. Include one clear action and a link that works on a phone.
Questions arrive from people who are close to buying. Answer them within a day and answer them fully, because the answer stays visible to everyone who asks next. Turn on messaging only if someone will monitor it during opening hours; an unanswered message is worse than a disabled button.
The monthly maintenance checklist
- Open the listing on a phone and check the phone number, hours and address.
- Confirm the primary category still matches your main source of revenue.
- Upload two recent photographs and delete any that show a previous premises.
- Answer every new review and every unanswered question.
- Publish one post with a working link.
- Update holiday hours at least a week before the holiday.
- Check that the website link lands on the right page, not a 404.
- Note calls, direction requests and website clicks for the month.
What to do when something goes wrong
Duplicate listings appear when a business moves or rebrands. Report them rather than editing both, and keep a note of the reference number. Suspended listings usually need a document that proves the address, such as a utility bill or a lease, so keep one ready.
None of this is exciting work. It is the difference between a listing that quietly answers questions and one that quietly sends customers to a competitor with better hours listed.
