Google Business Profile, set up to be found on Maps
Search for a service nearby and Google shows a map with three businesses before any
website. Which three depends less on who is best and more on whose profile tells Google
the most. I fix the profile, the categories and the review flow, and keep them alive.
Setup that fills every field: categories, services, hours, attributes, photos
Verification, suspension appeals and ownership recovery from a former agency
A review flow your staff will actually use, inside Google's rules and EU law
Profile and website telling the same story, with LocalBusiness schema on the site
Clinic, garage, salon, law office, shop. People search “near me” and pick from the map, often without opening a single website.
CASE B
You work across a city
No shopfront, you go to the client. The profile still matters, it just has to be set up as a service area business with the address hidden.
CASE C
People search your name
If the profile is empty, wrong or controlled by someone else at that moment, the customer goes to whoever is nearby and has reviews.
02 · Scope
What I do with the profile
01
Full setup
Name, categories, service area, hours, services, attributes and photos. A complete profile gives Google more to match against searches.
02
Verification and access
Verification, often by video now, and recovery of the profile when a former agency or employee still owns it.
03
Categories
The primary category moves visibility more than anything else you control. I choose it from what actually ranks in your area, not from what sounds right.
04
Reviews
A short script for asking every customer at the right moment, and calm replies to negative reviews that future customers will read.
05
Posts and photos
Regular updates that show the business is open and give people a reason to call. Not a ranking trick, a conversion one.
06
Suspension appeals
Find the cause first, fix it, then appeal with evidence. Appealing without a fix gets the same answer.
How the map decides, and where people get it wrong
How Google decides which business to show
Google names three things behind local results: relevance, distance and prominence. Distance is fixed, you cannot move the office. The other two you can work on.
Relevance comes from the categories, services, description and photos. A thin profile with one category loses to a complete one even when the business behind it is stronger.
Prominence comes from reviews, links and mentions across the web, and from your website. That is why I treat the profile and the site as one project, keep the business name, address and phone identical on both, and add LocalBusiness structured data to the site.
Reviews, and the rules around them
Google reads the text of reviews, not just the stars, so a review that names the service helps the profile show for searches about it. The script I give your staff asks customers to say in their own words what they came for.
What it never does, because it gets profiles penalised and in the EU breaks the law:
Paying or rewarding customers for reviews
Asking only happy customers, known as review gating
Reviews written by staff, friends or bought from a service
Fake and bought reviews are banned under the EU Omnibus Directive, which Poland has applied since January 2023, and the competition authority UOKiK fines businesses for them. A slower, honest flow of reviews is cheaper than that.
Why profiles get suspended
Keywords added to the business name (“Dentist Kraków Best Prices”)
A virtual office or a coworking desk used as the address
A service area business showing an address where customers are not served
Several profiles for one business, or a new profile made after a suspension
The last one is the most common mistake: a duplicate makes the original case harder. I find the cause, fix it in the profile, gather the evidence the appeal asks for, and only then appeal.
Competitors that break the rules
Keyword-stuffed names, invented locations and fake reviews push honest businesses down the map. Google has a redressal form for exactly this. I file it with screenshots and evidence, which works better than reporting through the map.
Old business.site websites
Google shut down the free websites made with Business Profile in 2024. Many profiles still link to a business.site address that no longer opens. If yours does, the website button sends customers nowhere, and a simple fast page fixes it.
04 · Pricing
Pricing
Profile check
$0
I review the profile, the categories and the competitors around you.
20-minute call
List of fixes
The list stays with you
Start here
Setup and optimisation
from $200one-off
A complete profile, verification, photos, services, and LocalBusiness schema on your site.
Categories and services
Verification or recovery
Review playbook for staff
Ongoing management
from $200per month
Posts, photos, review replies and a regular look at where you rank on the map.
Monthly posts
Review replies
Calls and directions reporting
The profile is free, and it stays in your Google account. I work as a manager on it, and you can remove me with one click.
05 · Questions
Questions about Google Business Profile
Why does my business not show in the map results?
Usually the wrong primary category, empty fields or too few recent reviews. Map ranking is calculated separately from your website's ranking, so a good site does not fix a weak profile.
Can a bad review be removed?
Only if it breaks Google's rules, for example spam, a conflict of interest or a personal attack. Genuine criticism stays, and the answer to it is a calm reply and a steady flow of newer reviews.
How many reviews do I need?
There is no magic number. Recency and consistency matter more than the total: five reviews this month say more about a business than ten spread across last year.
Can I add keywords to my business name?
No. Google's guidelines require your real business name, and keyword stuffing is one of the most common reasons for suspension. Keywords belong in categories, services and the description.
A former agency owns my profile. What now?
I file an ownership request through Google. It takes from a few days to a few weeks, depending on whether the current owner answers.
My profile was suspended. Can it come back?
Often yes, once the underlying cause is fixed. Do not create a new profile in the meantime: a duplicate makes the original appeal harder.
Do posts help the profile rank?
Not much on their own. They keep the profile looking active and give people a reason to call, which is why they are part of ongoing management.
Should I reply to every review?
Yes, positive and negative. A reply shows someone is there, and a calm answer to a bad review is read by every future customer who finds it.
Tell me what you sell and where you advertise now. I look at the account with
read-only access, change nothing, and walk you through what I found on a
20-minute call. The list of fixes stays with you, even if we never work together.
