How to Get More Customers From Your Google Business Profile

How to Get More Customers From Your Google Business Profile

Most people set up their Google Business Profile once and never touch it again. Then they wonder why the phone isn't ringing.

Your Google Business Profile is not a directory listing. It's the first thing a potential customer sees before they ever visit your website, read a review, or hear your name from a friend. Customers are 70% more likely to visit a business with a complete profile and 50% more likely to make a purchase. That's not a small difference.

Fill every field out completely. Business name, category, address, phone number, hours, website, description. Google rewards complete profiles with better placement in local search results. Most profiles in Central Kentucky are missing at least two or three of these. That's your opening.

Pick the right primary category. This one gets overlooked. If you're an HVAC company and your primary category is set to "contractor" instead of "HVAC contractor," you're not showing up when someone searches "AC repair near me." Be as specific as possible.

Add photos and keep adding them. Not stock photos, real ones. Your truck, your crew, your work, your storefront. Businesses that add photos to their Google Business Profile get 42% more requests for directions and 35% more website clicks than those without. Google also pays attention to how recently photos were uploaded. A profile with photos from 2021 signals an inactive business.

Get reviews and respond to every single one. Good and bad. A business with 12 reviews and responses beats a business with 40 reviews and silence every time. When you respond, you signal to Google and to the next person reading that you're active and you care. Ask every happy customer directly. Most will do it if you make it easy, send them the link, don't just say "leave us a review."

Post updates regularly. Google Business Profile lets you post updates the same way you'd post on Facebook. Promotions, seasonal hours, a recent job you're proud of. Most businesses never use this. The ones that do stay active in the algorithm and look current to anyone who finds them.

Keep your information consistent everywhere. Whatever your phone number, address, and business name say on your Google profile, they need to match exactly on your website, Facebook, Yelp, and every other directory you're listed on. One digit off on a phone number across platforms quietly damages your local ranking. 62% of consumers say they would avoid a business entirely if they found incorrect information online.

None of this requires a big budget. It requires thorough setup and someone making sure it stays current. That's the part most owner-operators don't have time for, and that's exactly where things slip.

If you want to know where your profile stands right now, we do a free local SEO audit for businesses in Central Kentucky. You'll see exactly what's working, what isn't, and what to fix first.