Google Business Profile: the 12-point optimisation checklist

Your Google Business Profile is the most valuable piece of marketing real estate you own — and it's the one most Adelaide businesses fill in once, three years ago, and never touch again. That set-and-forget profile is quietly costing you calls.

The good news: fixing it isn't a project. It's a checklist. Here are the twelve fields worth a fresh look, roughly in the order Google cares about them. Most take under ten minutes. Grab a coffee and work down the list.

If you've ever wondered why your business isn't showing up on Google Maps, an incomplete profile is usually the first culprit. So let's close the gaps.

Get the basics locked (points 1–4)

These are the foundations. If any one of them is wrong, everything above it wobbles.

• 1. Claim and verify the profile. An unverified profile can't rank properly and anyone could suggest edits to it. If you haven't verified, start there — Google will confirm you by video, phone, or a posted code.
• 2. Use your real business name. Exactly as it appears on your signage and paperwork. Resist the urge to bolt on "Adelaide plumber" — keyword-stuffing the name breaks Google's rules and can get you suspended.
• 3. Set your primary and secondary categories. Your primary category does more heavy lifting for ranking than almost anything else. Pick the most specific one that fits, then add secondary categories for your other services.
• 4. Check your contact details. Phone, address, and name need to match your website and every online listing to the letter. That consistency — the same details everywhere — is a signal Google leans on hard.

Fill the fields that move rank (points 5–8)

This is where most set-and-forget profiles leak. The fields exist; they're just empty.

• 5. Sort your service area or address. Got a shopfront in Norwood or Prospect? Show the address. Travel to customers instead? Hide the address and list your service areas — the suburbs you actually cover across greater Adelaide.
• 6. Set accurate hours — including public holidays. Nothing kills trust like a customer driving to a "closed" business that said it was open. Add special hours for long weekends, Christmas, and the odd Fringe late-night.
• 7. Add every link. Your website, plus booking, quote, or menu links if you have them. These give people a next step without leaving the profile.
• 8. Write a real description. You get 750 characters — use the first sentence well, because it's what shows first. Say what you do, who you help, and where. Skip the fluff; write like you'd explain it to a neighbour.

“Nine times out of ten, we don't need to do anything clever to lift a local business — we just fill in the fields they left blank three years ago. The profile was always doing the work; it was only half switched on.”

IndyFounder, lemonlolly

The trust signals that tip it (points 9–12)

The basics get you in the race. These are what nudge you above the business down the road.

• 9. List your products and services. Add them individually, with prices where you can. It fills out your profile, answers a common question before it's asked, and gives Google more to match searches against.
• 10. Add real photos — and keep adding them. Your storefront, your team, your work. Profiles with fresh photos get more clicks, and a trickle of new images every month beats a one-off dump. Phone photos in good light are fine.
• 11. Use the Q&A section. Anyone can post a question — so seed the obvious ones yourself (parking, bookings, what you specialise in) and answer them. Better your answer than a stranger's guess.
• 12. Ask for reviews, and reply to all of them. Reviews are one of the biggest local ranking levers there is. Ask happy customers at the right moment, and reply to every review — good or bad — so Google and future customers both see a business that's paying attention.

Do those twelve and you'll have a profile that's not just present but competitive. It also feeds everything else: a well-tuned profile is half the battle when it comes to ranking for "near me" searches in Adelaide.

None of this is clever. That's the point. Local search rewards the businesses that fill things in properly and keep them current — not the ones chasing tricks. Work down the twelve points once, set a reminder to glance at it monthly, and let a switched-on profile quietly do the work while you get on with the job.