Your Google Business Profile in 10 minutes: the settings most SMEs skip

Your Google Business Profile is the free listing that appears on Google Search and on Google Maps when someone looks for your business, or for a service like yours nearby. For a local SME it is often the very first impression, even before your website. Yet many profiles are only half filled in, with the wrong category, no photos and opening hours from three years ago.

The good news: fixing the essentials takes about ten minutes. Here is what to check, in order of impact.

1. Claim and verify your profile

Search for your business name on Google. If a profile already exists, click on "Own this business?" and claim it. If nothing shows up, create one at business.google.com.

Google then asks you to verify that you really run the business, by phone, email, video or postcard depending on your case. Until the profile is verified, most of your changes will not be visible. Do this first, everything else depends on it.

2. Pick the right primary category

This is the setting with the biggest impact on your local ranking, and the one most often wrong. Your primary category should describe what you are, as precisely as possible:

• "Physiotherapist" rather than "Health"
• "Plumber" rather than "Construction company"
• "Hamburger restaurant" rather than "Restaurant"

Then add a few secondary categories for your other real activities. Do not add categories for services you only offer once a year: it dilutes the signal.

3. Set your address or service area

Two cases:

• Clients come to you (shop, practice, restaurant): show your address so you appear on the map.
• You go to your clients (plumber, cleaner, photographer): hide the address and list the towns or regions you cover instead.

Then fill in your opening hours, including public holidays. Wrong hours are one of the fastest ways to lose a client's trust, and Google regularly asks users if a place was open.

4. Write a description a client understands

You have 750 characters. Use them like you would explain your business to a new client on the phone: what you do, for whom, where, and what makes you different. Mention your town and your main services naturally.

Avoid lists of keywords, capital letters and promotions: Google can reject descriptions that look like advertising.

5. Add real photos

Profiles with photos get more clicks and more requests for directions. Add:

• your logo and a cover photo
• your team, your premises or your vehicle
• examples of your work (before and after works very well)

Real photos taken with a phone beat stock images every time. Add a few new ones every month: it shows the business is alive.

6. Build a simple review routine

Reviews influence both your position on the map and the decision of the person reading them. The easiest moment to ask is right after a job well done, when the client is happy.

Copy the review link from your profile, and keep it ready as a QR code at the counter or as a short message you send after each job. And reply to every review, positive or negative, politely and briefly. A calm answer to a bad review often reassures future clients more than ten five-star ratings.

7. Keep your details identical everywhere

Your business name, address and phone number should be written exactly the same way on your website, your Google profile and directories like local.ch or search.ch. Small differences ("Str." vs "Strasse", an old phone number) confuse Google and weaken your local signals.

The 10-minute checklist

• Profile claimed and verified
• Precise primary category, a few secondary ones
• Address or service area, correct opening hours
• Clear description mentioning your town
• At least 10 real photos
• Review link ready to send
• Same name, address and phone everywhere

Once this is done, your profile is ahead of most of your local competitors. The next step is to connect it to a website that confirms what Google shows: clear service pages, your town in the titles and an easy way to contact you.