How do I improve my Google Business Profile in Norfolk?

For a business that serves its own patch of Norfolk, the Google Business Profile is often the first thing a customer sees. Search for a plumber, a café or a web designer in Norwich and the map with three businesses under it usually appears before any website. For a lot of searches, that box is where the decision gets made.

It is also one of the first things we look at in an SEO audit for local businesses, because it is free, it is under your control, and it is often half finished. This guide covers what Google itself says matters, and how to do each part properly.

Google’s own help pages say local results are based mainly on three things: relevance, distance and prominence. Relevance is how well your profile matches what someone searched for. Distance is how far you are from the person searching. Prominence is how well known your business is, and Google says reviews play a part: “More reviews and positive ratings can help your business’s local ranking.”

You cannot change distance. Most of the rest happens inside the profile itself.

Fill in everything, accurately

Relevance starts with Google knowing what you do, so complete every section you can: hours, including holiday hours, your website, your phone number, a description, your services, and your address or service area.

A few of Google’s rules are worth knowing, because breaking some of them can get a profile suspended:

• Your business name should be your real-world name, as it appears on your signage, website and stationery. Do not add keywords. “Smith Plumbing” is right. “Smith Plumbing Norwich Emergency Boiler Repairs” is not, unless that is genuinely what it says on the van.
• Your address must be a real location, not a PO box.
• If you go to your customers rather than them coming to you, Google says you should hide your address and set a service area instead. A roofer working from home in Wymondham is a service-area business. So is a mobile dog groomer.
• Your phone number should connect to that business directly, ideally a local number rather than a central call centre.

Choose the right category

Your category tells Google what kind of business you are. It is also one of the most commonly got wrong.

Google asks you to pick one primary category that best describes your core business, and to choose the most specific option on its list. A “Landscaper” is more specific than “Contractor”. An “Italian restaurant” is more specific than “Restaurant”.

You can add secondary categories, but Google’s guidance is to “use as few categories as possible”. Add one only if it describes a real part of your core business. Do not use categories as extra keywords or to cover things you do occasionally.

It is worth looking at the businesses that already appear in the map results for your main search. Their categories show you what Google treats as the closest match. Copy the idea, not their mistakes.

Add real photos

Google’s guidance describes photos as helping to “complete your Business Profile and make it more attractive to customers”. In practice, a profile with recent, real photos looks like a business that is open and busy. One with a single blurry logo does not.

Useful photos for most businesses:

• The outside, so people recognise you when they arrive. Google specifically mentions this.
• The work itself. For trades, finished jobs. For hospitality, the rooms, the food, the view.
• The team, if you are comfortable with it. People like to know who is turning up.

Google asks for JPG or PNG files between 10 KB and 5 MB, at a recommended 720 by 720 pixels or larger. Photos should be in focus, well lit and not heavily filtered. Add a few new ones every so often rather than forty on one day.

Getting more reviews

Reviews are the part most businesses find awkward, and the part that most often separates the profiles at the top from the ones below. The simplest way to get more is to ask, every time, at the moment a customer is happiest.

Google gives you a direct link for this. In your Business Profile, choose “Read reviews”, then “Get more reviews”, and you can copy the link or download a QR code. Google notes the QR code can currently only be generated in a computer browser, not on a phone. Then put the link where customers will see it:

• In the email or WhatsApp you send when a job is finished.
• On your invoice or receipt.
• As a printed QR code on the counter, or in a holiday let’s welcome book.

Asking well, within Google’s rules

Keep the ask short and personal: thank them, say a review helps a small business, and include the link. Reply to the reviews you get, good and bad. Google says helpful replies can help your business stand out.

Two rules matter. Google prohibits offering anything in return for a review, such as a discount or a freebie. It also prohibits selectively asking only happy customers while steering unhappy ones away. Ask everyone the same way.

The reviews on our own site come from Google reviews by Groundcore Contractors and Dilham Hall Retreats, a glamping site in the village of Dilham. The useful ones are specific. Dilham Hall’s says a new website was built within 24 hours of the old one going down, with two booking systems and 360° tours. That sells harder than five stars alone.

Keep your NAP consistent

NAP stands for name, address and phone number. Your business is probably listed in more places than you realise: your website, Facebook, Yell, trade directories, Companies House, old local listings.

When those details disagree, for example an old phone number on one site or “Ltd” on some and not others, it becomes harder for Google to be confident they all describe the same business. Pick one exact version of your name, address and phone number, use it on your website and profile, then work through the other listings and correct them. It is dull work, and exactly what an audit lists line by line.

This week, open your profile and check the primary category is the most specific one available. Fill in any empty fields. Add five recent, real photos. Copy your review link and send it to the last three customers who were pleased with your work. That is an hour, and it covers most of what Google says it looks at.