How your Google Business Profile and website work together

Google ranks local listings on relevance, distance and prominence

Google has said local results are based mainly on three things. Relevance is how well your profile matches the search. Distance is how far you are from the searcher or the place they named. Prominence is how well known you are, judged from reviews, links, articles and your general presence on the web.

You cannot change distance, so the work goes into the other two. Your website helps with both. A clear page about each service makes you more relevant, and links, mentions and reviews that point to your site add to prominence. The profile and the site are two halves of one local presence.

Set up the profile so it matches your site exactly

The profile should say exactly what your website says. Mismatched names, addresses or hours make Google less sure which details are right. These settings matter most:

• Primary category: the single most important choice. Pick the most specific one that describes your main business, such as 'Florist' rather than 'Gift shop'.
• Secondary categories: add the few that genuinely apply, and no more.
• Name, address and phone: identical to your website, often shortened to NAP. Use your real business name with no added keywords, which breaks Google's guidelines.
• Hours, including holiday hours, kept up to date.
• Services or products, with short descriptions and prices where you can.
• Real photos of the space, team and work, added regularly.

Keep the profile active and answered

An up-to-date profile earns more trust than a perfect one that was set and forgotten. Check it every month. Anyone can suggest edits to a public listing, and Google sometimes accepts them, so confirm your hours, phone and categories have not been changed without you.

Keep the services list in step with your website when you add or drop an offer, and add photos of new work as it happens. Mark special hours for holidays ahead of time. These small updates show Google and searchers that the business is open and cared for.

Build a location page that backs up the profile

Point the profile's website link to a location page, not just your homepage, when you have more than one location or a mixed service area. That page should show the same name, address, phone and hours, an embedded map, directions and parking, the services offered there, local photos and a few reviews.

Add LocalBusiness structured data using the most specific type that fits, such as Florist, CafeOrCoffeeShop or Dentist, with the same details as the profile. If you have several locations, give each its own page with genuinely local detail. Copying one page and swapping the city name creates thin pages that rarely rank.

Track what the profile sends you

The Performance view in your Business Profile shows how people found you and what they did: calls, direction requests, website clicks, bookings and the searches that showed your listing. Check it monthly.

Add a UTM tag to the website link in your profile. A UTM tag is a short code added to the end of a web address, such as ?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=gbp, that tells Google Analytics where a visit came from. Without it, profile clicks mix in with all other search traffic and you cannot see what the profile is worth.