Setting up your Google Business Profile to win local customers

When someone picks up their phone and searches for "coffee near me", "dentist in Kadıköy" or "closest car service", the first thing they often see is not a website. It is a map and a handful of business cards: address, opening hours, photos, reviews and buttons that say "Call" or "Directions". The decision is usually made right there, in a few seconds.

Behind each of those cards is a Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business). It is free, but profiles that were set up once and then forgotten tend to work against the business, with missing details, outdated hours or reviews nobody has answered.

We look at this the way we look at everything else, through WIFT, "What's In It For Them?": when someone lands on your profile, can they find the answer they came for? The steps below are about making that answer a clear yes.

1. Make sure you own the profile

The first step is administrative, not technical. Your profile should be managed from a Google account that belongs to your business and that you control. In our experience, one of the most common problems is a profile opened years ago from an employee's or an agency's personal account, which nobody can access today.

• Claim and verify the profile with your company account.
• Add your agency or colleagues as managers, not owners.
• Review who has access at least once a year.

2. Use your real business name

It is tempting to add keywords to your name, something like "Best Hair Salon in Ankara". However, Google's guidelines for representing your business ask that your name match the one you use in the real world: on your storefront, your invoices and your website. Stuffing extra words into it can get your profile suspended. A small, short-lived advantage is not worth that risk.

3. Choose your category carefully

Your primary category is one of the most important fields in deciding which searches your profile appears in. Pick the narrowest category that accurately describes your business: "Bicycle store" rather than "Store", "Seafood restaurant" rather than "Restaurant". If you genuinely offer other services, you can add secondary categories, but adding categories for work you do not do misleads customers and erodes trust. Google's page on managing your business category is a good place to start.

4. Address or service area?

If customers come to you (a shop, a clinic, a restaurant), enter your full address exactly as it appears on your sign. If you go to your customers (a plumber, a cleaning company, a mobile specialist), you can hide your address and define the areas you serve instead. Either way, check that the pin on the map actually points to your door. A pin on the wrong street can send a customer to someone else's entrance.

5. Keep the basics identical everywhere

Your name, address and phone number should be written the same way on your website, your social media accounts, directory listings and your Business Profile. Consistency keeps customers from getting confused and helps search engines recognize your business correctly.

On top of that:

• Opening hours: Add special hours in advance for public holidays, New Year's and closures for renovation. A business that shows as "Open" but is closed rarely gets a second chance.
• Website link: Pointing to a page with that location's details is often more useful than pointing to your homepage.
• Phone: List a number that someone actually answers.

6. Description, services and products

Use your business description to explain, in plain language, what you do, who you serve and what sets you apart. Skip the promotions, links and keyword lists, and write a few sentences that answer the questions a first-time visitor would have.

The services and products sections are often left empty, yet they answer the customer's most direct question: "Do they have what I am looking for?" Adding your main services with short descriptions makes your profile far more informative.

7. Real, current photos

Photos are one of the parts of a profile people look at most. Instead of stock images, show your actual space, your team, your products and what your place looks like from the outside. An exterior shot in particular helps customers recognize you from the street. When your space changes, your menu is updated or you add a new product line, update your photos too.

8. Manage reviews, never buy them

Reviews are the foundation of trust in local search. Two rules apply:

1. Do not be shy about asking. Send happy customers your review link after the job is done, in a short message or through a QR code at the counter.
2. Do not buy reviews or reward them with discounts. Fake or incentivized reviews go against Google's policies and can be removed. More importantly, readers often notice.

Reply to every review, positive or negative. A calm, solution-focused reply to a negative review, without sharing personal details, shows everyone reading it how your business behaves. Remember that you are writing not only for the reviewer but for every future customer who reads the exchange.

9. Keep it alive and measure it

A Business Profile does not improve on its own after setup. We recommend a short monthly check:

• Are your hours, phone number and links still correct?
• Are there any unanswered reviews?
• Are there suggested edits from other people? (Google lets users suggest changes to your profile; reviewing them is up to you.)
• Can you add new photos, products or updates?

The performance section of your profile shows how many people called you, asked for directions or clicked through to your website. If you add a campaign tag (UTM) to your website link, you can also see those visits separately in your own analytics tool.

Conclusion

Your Google Business Profile is one of the first places a local customer meets you, often before they ever see your website. The right name and category, consistent details, real photos and well-managed reviews turn your profile into a place where customers find what they are looking for, without a big budget.

If you are curious how your profile looks today and what might be missing, we can take a look at it together.