There are many possible factors. We’re going to dive into all the GBP features that may affect conversion rates for Google Business Profiles. Each is something you’ll want to consider when you run a Google Business Profile Audit.

Let’s go!

Review Factors

It’s a no-brainer that GBP reviews impact conversion rates.

Number of Reviews

If you looked at a listing that only had one review and its rating was five stars, would you trust it?

Or would you want to see more reviews to know if the overall review rating was accurate?

That’s why the number of reviews can affect conversion rates.

Make sure to collect as many reviews as possible so that users know they can trust your overall rating.

Overall Review Rating

As we just mentioned, your overall rating is extremely important.

Trustworthy, positive reviews definitely convert!

Also, having negative reviews isn’t necessarily a bad thing as long as there are not tons of them.

According to a study by Uberall, “There are business ratings sweet spots. Locations that improve their Google My Business star ratings from 3.5 to 3.7 can see significant increases in conversions.”

“On the whole, conversion rates peaked when businesses attained 4.9 stars, but it is when businesses improved from 3.5 stars in a given year to 3.7 stars the following year that conversion growth increased by almost 120%, the highest percentage growth jump from any star rating.”

Replying to Reviews

Replying to positive reviews may increase conversion rates.

But so can replying to negative reviews. That’s because users can see how you tactfully handle unhappy customers and it gives you an opportunity to show them your character.

The Uberall study I mentioned above had this to say about replying to reviews:

“Further, enterprise locations that reply to at least 32% of reviews achieved 80% higher conversion rates compared SMBs and direct competitors that replied to 10% of reviews.”

And another 2018 study showed that replying to both positive and negative reviews resulted in better rankings.

“And, perhaps surprisingly, we also found that when managers respond to positive reviews, it has the same benefits as when they respond to negative reviews.”

Here are a few other super-important stats from BrightLocal’s Local Consumer Review Survey:

• More consumers are reading online reviews than ever before. In 2021, 77% ‘always’ or ‘regularly’ read them when browsing for local businesses (up from 60% in 2020).
• 89% of consumers are ‘highly’ or ‘fairly’ likely to use a business that responds to all of its online reviews.
• 57% say they would be ‘not very’ or ‘not at all’ likely to use a business that doesn’t respond to reviews at all.

So, get that keyboard clackin’!

Recency of Reviews

What if your listing hasn’t had any reviews left in months? Will users think you are out of business? Or that you don’t have any customers?

This is a red flag for users and hurts conversion rates.

Product or Service Keywords in Reviews

What about having the product or service mentioned in your reviews? I can tell you from personal experience that it does help users convert.

Allow me to tell a personal story:

One day I was looking for a good eyebrow waxing technician near me. I decided to look on Google Maps, and found several day spas and studios that offer waxing along with many other services.

In a GBP listing, you can search the reviews for keywords. I chose to search for “brows” to see what names popped up in association with that term. I then read the reviews and found a name that kept popping up and scheduled an appointment with that particular technician.

This is a real-life example of how keywords in reviews can help conversions.

Listing Completeness

Obviously, the more complete the GBP listing is, the more information users have to make their decision of whether to contact or buy from you or not.

Making sure to fill out all possible fields in your GBP may help users convert.

Business Name

This is an interesting one. I definitely believe the business name assists with conversions, but how?

Product / Service or Location Keywords in Google Business Profile Business Title

If you were looking for a flooring store in your area on Google Maps, would you click on “KBF” or “The Kitchen, Bathroom & Flooring Store”?

One name basically says nothing, while the other name explains what they have.

This is an example of how the business name can affect conversion rates.

Make sure to use the full business name, especially if it contains keywords.

Some businesses already have a keyword-friendly business name. They should be aware that including the full business name in a GBP listing is a good idea, instead of using the abbreviated name.

To be clear, I’m not recommending keyword stuffing in your Google Business Profile name.

Hours

If users don’t know for sure that you’re open, will they think you’re closed? Will they come by your business location? Will they call? Possibly not.

See how one of the listings below says “Open now” and the other one doesn’t? 

Google calls this out clearly for users to see.

By adding business opening hours, users can know for sure that you are open and that they can come by or contact you.

You can get the “Open now” feature on your listings just by adding your business hours.

Phone Number

If a phone call is counted as a conversion for your business, it should be a no-brainer that not having a phone number listed in your GBP will reduce conversions. How can they complete a phone call conversion with no phone number?

Website Link

Most businesses consider any action taken on their website to be a conversion. Examples include filling out a contact form, making a phone call, or making a purchase online.

If you don’t have a website link listed in your GBP listing, you will reduce the number of conversions here as well. Oftentimes, drastically.

Product/Service or Location Keyword on Google Business Profile Landing Page

When users land on your website from your GBP, does the page they land on match the query they typed into Google?

For example, if a user searched for “accident lawyer in tampa” but landed on the homepage of a multi-location business, the user would now have to take the time to find the Tampa location page or a Tampa accident lawyer service page to get the information they are looking for. Many times, the user will drop off at this point and abandon your website.

Make sure to link to the best page on your site for users. Also, make sure to optimize this page for what they may be looking for.

Products

If you sell physical products, you can list all the products you sell in your GBP listing. Most likely, these don’t help with rankings but users can see your store inventory (essentially) if you add products to your Google Business Profile. If it shows what they are looking for, this can help attract them and they may end up making a purchase.

Google mentions: “Customers will see a more curated showcase of a store’s products on the Business Profile Products tab on mobile, or the Product Overview module on the computer.”

“When customers search your Business Profile on Google Search with their computer, mobile device, or Google Maps app, they can find:

• On the Maps mobile app: A products carousel.
• On Search only: A products carousel and “Products” tab.”

Services

If you sell services (instead of, or in addition to, physical products), you can list all the services you offer in your GBP listing. Most likely, these don’t help with rankings but users can see all your services that are available if you add services to your Google Business Profile. If it shows what they are looking for, this can help attract them and they may end up contacting you.

Google mentions: “In Business Profile, you may get an option to add the services you offer, along with their descriptions and prices. If your business has multiple categories, group services together into sections under the appropriate category to keep your services organized.

When local customers search on Google for a service you offer, that service may be highlighted on your profile. Customers on mobile devices can also find all your services under “Services.””

Photos

Having photos on your GBP listing is a great idea. It’s worth taking the time to take photos of your business (inside and out), your team, your menu, etc. Users will want to see this information when deciding to do business with you or not.

Here’s an example below of what they could see when searching for an HVAC company.

How often do you look at photos of the inside of a restaurant or photos of their food before visiting them? Here’s an example below for a restaurant.

You can see how much GBP photos can help conversion rates.

Posts

Google Business Profile Posts are a great way to increase conversions! These are essentially mini-posts of content on your GBP listing. You can choose to just share an update, show an offer, etc.

They allow you to choose a call-to-action on each post which encourages users to convert. The images in the posts can also play a role.

When you have local deals or offers to post, these are especially effective at converting.

Justifications

If you’re wondering what these are, justifications are little snippets that Google shows in the local pack. They use these to help “justify” why the business is showing up there for that search.

There are several types of justifications. The type you see highlighted in the local pack changes depending on what you searched for.

In the example above, if you were looking for a specific brand of tire, these would be super helpful. Justifications can obviously help with conversion rates.

If you’d like to see all the types of justifications that are available and how you can get them, read our GBP Justification Guide here.

Attributes

Attributes are a way for businesses to show special information/features to users. GBP attributes include all sorts of different things that you may not expect. For example, “veteran-owned”, “mask required”, “curbside pickup”, or  “Wi-Fi”.

If you happen to list an attribute that your users are looking for, then you may be on your way to having more customers.

For example, if I’m a coffee shop, and I have free wifi, I’d definitely want to make sure that it was easily viewable on my GBP listing.

In the example below, I can see that one Starbucks location has a drive-through while the other one does not. So if I just wanted to drive through, this would be useful to me when making my choice.

Business Summaries

These are defined by Google as: “3 types of short business summaries you might see on Google Maps: business descriptions, editorial summaries, and customer review snippets.” Essentially Google is saying there are 3 occasions someone may see a summary of your business displayed in their tools. These are as follows:

• Business Description: You can edit your business description and that is easy to do.
• Editorial Summary: The editorial summaries “give you a snapshot of a popular business our writers compile editorial summaries”. You can’t edit these but you can influence them.
• Customer Review Snippets: Customer review snippets are when “Data from these reviews may be used to highlight certain aspects of your business through Place Topics or review snippets”. You can’t edit these either, but you can influence them.
  • Place Topics: “Potential customers can find the main themes of your business through Place Topics. These main themes are based on the reviews of your business.”
  • Review Snippets: “Review snippets show keywords most mentioned in quotes from Google reviewers. These snippets are selected by an algorithm.”

To recap, having keywords that match what the users are looking for in these areas can get users to take action.

Booking Feature

Online booking transactions count as a conversion for many businesses. If the GBP Bookings Feature is not set up, you are missing out on tons of conversions!

Some businesses that would benefit from this feature are hair salons, spas, massage therapists, chiropractors, etc.

Messaging Feature

Sending an email, filling out a contact form or having a chat should all count as a conversion for most businesses. So if you don’t have the GBP Messaging Feature turned on, you most likely are missing out on more conversions.

Be sure to turn this feature on if you count leads as a conversion. Or if you like to engage with your customers often.

Caution: Only turn on this feature if you will be available to reply quickly. Otherwise, you’ll end up disappointing potential customers.

Conclusion

It may sound hard but it’s worth it to take all these steps listed above. You’ve already worked so hard to get your GBP listing to rank. Now it’s time to convert these folks!

Google understands that when we search, especially on a mobile device, there is often an element of locational intent. As a result, Google uses its extensive database of businesses in Google Maps to populate the search engine results pages.

To have the highest chance of showing up in Google’s algorithm and converting potential customers, you always want to be putting your best foot forward. This is where your Google Business Profile comes in. Whether you have a business that has a bricks and mortar location, or one that offers services to people in a specific geographical area, you’ll want to make sure your Google Business Profile is top notch to increase your visibility.

What is Google Business Profile and what does it do?

Google Business Profile was launched in 2014 as a one-stop shop to help local businesses shine. In its official announcement, Google said it was created for businesses as “a free and easy way to find and connect with your people, wherever you are.”

Put simply, Google Business Profile is a listing on Google’s database that you can claim and control. It was formerly known as Google My Business, and you may still hear many refer to it as such.

This is what Google tells us about Google Business Profile:

“With a Business Profile on Google, you can manage how your local business shows up across Google products, like Maps and Search. If you run a business that serves customers at a particular location, or you serve customers within a designated service area, your Business Profile can help people find you.”

Google Business profile offers an easy way to create, manage, and optimize the information that appears for their business in Google search results and on Google Maps.

When someone searches for local services or businesses, your details—such as your name, address, business hours, and website—will be shown to an interested audience.

What is the purpose of Google Business Profile? 

Google Business Profile helps to connect local searchers in need of specific products and services with appropriate local businesses. It plays a vital role in local search, with information from Google Business Profiles used to inform search results. Listing information also makes it easier for local consumers to find your business and contact you.

Why do I need a Google Business Profile?

Google Business Profile is a free tool, so you can set it up yourself without eating into any marketing budget. In return, it offers a range of benefits that will increase your business revenue by helping you make more sales.

The Benefits of a Google Business Profile

Read more

It Increases Visibility in Google Searches and in Google Maps

Google tells us that four in five people use search to find a local business, and local search ranking factors studies prove that listings information directly influences how visible your business is in Google’s Local Pack, the Knowledge Panel, and Google Maps results.

Your Google Business Profile is your opportunity to win over both Google and local consumers by sharing everything that makes your business unique, like: 

• Who are you? The basics, such as your name, location, and opening hours.
• What do you do? Business categories, both primary and secondary.
• Why should I choose you? Add a compelling description, great images, and show off your online reviews.

This data tells Google what you do, where you’re located, and, once you start getting those reviews flowing in, what people think of you (more on that below). All of this information helps it decide when and where your business should be shown to users.

It Helps You Win More Business

As a local business, the chances are that someone else sells the same items or has the same expertise within your town or city.

Google business listings offer people an easy way to compare similar service providers and retailers. Listings are standardized, so searchers can quickly narrow their selection down and decide who best fits their needs.

This makes a Google business listing an invaluable SEO tool to get seen by people who are new to the area, or a local who needs a product or service for the first time.

Not only that, but according to BrightLocal’s Trust and Discovery report, Google is by far the most trusted local business discovery platform—more so than a business’s own website.

It Will Show Off Your Reviews

It’s no secret that online reviews are a powerful sales tool. They’re the digital age’s word-of-mouth recommendation, giving people valuable intel about where to spend their money.

Feedback from other customers is highly valued when assessing an unfamiliar business and can turn a not-so-sure consumer into a confirmed customer.

A Google business listing makes it quick and easy to reply to reviews and easily monitor what’s being said about your business. You can further streamline the process of managing reviews using third-party tools like BrightLocal’s Reputation Manager. 

It Offers Useful Information About Your Audience

Your ‘performance’ data offers you useful information about your audience’s behavior and your business performance in search.

This data can tell you whether users are looking specifically for your business name or finding you through other search terms. Insights also make it possible to keep tabs on what action consumers take after seeing your profile, such as requesting directions, sending a message, making a booking, or making a call.

Google Business Profile Insights and Performance

Read more

The Business Profile dashboard is currently limited to six months’ worth of data. If you’d like to look further back, BrightLocal’s Google Business Profile audit tool offers access to 18 months’ worth of Insights data.

What are the features of Google Business Profile?

Once you have claimed and verified your Google Business listing, you’ll be able to actively manage a whole host of features. Features include: 

• A business description to tell local search users more about your business and what you do.
• Question and Answers section 
• Reviews 
• Posts to share updates, events, and offers 
• Photos and videos, both from yourself as the business owner and consumers 
• Useful information such as opening times and contact information
• Business attributes
• Bookings, reservations, and appointment making

What should I put on Google Business Profile? 

Your Google Business Profile should include helpful local information about your business, including an accurate address, telephone number, website URL, and opening hours. It should also provide details about your products and services, along with helpful imagery and videos. 

With your basic information updated, you should then aim to answer any questions that consumers submit and share regular updates from your business via Posts. These could include any new product or service launches, changes to your opening hours, the addition of new members of the team, company milestones, and special offers or promotions you’re running. 

Where does a Google Business Profile show up online?    

Google Business information appears in a number of search properties, depending on the type of search being performed.

Google Knowledge Panel

If your business name is used as the search term, information taken from your Google Business Profile (and sometimes other sources, including third-party sites and the business website) is presented in a box that sits to the right of the search results. This gives the local search user helpful information about your business, such as your physical address, contact telephone number, and opening hours. 

Google Local Pack

Search users turning to Google for a specific type of local business will see information from Google Business Profiles presented in a list below a map in the search results. This area is known as the Google Local Pack. Most of the information shown for each business is pulled from their Google Business Profile.

Local Finder

Clicking ‘More places’ under the Local Pack brings the user to the Local Finder, which features more businesses in the area that match the query, alongside a map. The Local Finder, however, is not the same as Google Maps.

Local Service Finder

The local service finder is a variation of the local finder. Google has been rolling out the feature according to the type of service that the searcher is looking for.

If you’re served the local service finder it’ll look like this:

The top spots will likely be filled with ads, which are labeled as ‘sponsored’ in the SERP.

Google Maps

Searching through Google Maps will bring the user to a list of businesses similar to the Local Finder, with the key difference being a greater geographical area. 

How do I use Google Business Profile?

As a business owner, you can use Google Business Profile to share helpful information, news, updates and offers about your business with local consumers. After claiming your free listing, you’ll fill out your listing information providing details such as your opening hours, your contact information, photos of your business, and a description of what your business does, its services, or products. 

How do consumers use Google Business Profile?

Consumers use Google Business Profile to find local businesses, compare them and access helpful information such as opening hours, reviews from other clients, directions to bricks-and-mortar locations, and contact details.

Consumers can also share their feedback about your listing in the form of reviews and suggested edits and upload their own images and videos showcasing their experience of your business, products, or services.  

Who qualifies for a Google Business Profile?

Not all businesses are eligible, so before you rush to get started, you’ll need to confirm that you qualify for a Google Business Profile.

You don’t need to have your own business website to claim your Google business listing. In fact, with Google Business Profile, you can create a basic, mobile-optimized website using purely the details and contents from your Google Business Profile.

But you do need to be a business that has face-to-face contact with customers—either at your place of business or somewhere else, such as in their homes or at another location.

Online-only businesses can not apply for a Google business listing.

Is Google Business Profile totally free?

Yes, it’s totally free to use Google Business Profile. There is no cost to claim your business listing nor is there any fee to use any of the Google Business Profile features including reviews, Posts, photos, and Insights. 

Is Google Business Profile necessary?

Google Business Profile is hugely beneficial for eligible local businesses. Your listing can help you to appear more prominently in local searches and be more visible to local consumers. If you’re aiming to grow your business and get more local consumers or traffic to your bricks-and-mortar location, Google Business Profile is an absolute must. 

Creating a Google Business Profile for your business, or the local businesses that you’re working with, is an essential first step towards SEO success. Setting this up properly is critical, so this comprehensive guide will show you the best way to set up a Google Business Profile.

Step-by-step: How to Create a Google Business Profile

1. Create a Google Account Specifically for Your Business

Before you can create a Google local listing, you’ll need to create a Google Account. Google Accounts are available to everybody and are simple to use.

You can either use an existing email to set up your Google Account or you can make a new one. Visit accounts.google.com and select ‘Create an account’ to get started.

As you go through the process of setting up your account, you’ll be asked to choose a Gmail address as well. This is where you will be given the option to use your existing email. 

Follow the prompts until you have your new account.

Google notes that in a Google Account specifically for your business, you can turn business personalization on. This will make the process of setting up your Google Business Profile easier. 

2. Visit the Google Business Profile Gateway

Once you have your new Google Account, head to google.com/business and click ‘Manage now’ to get started:

3. Look for the Business

Begin by typing in the business name to see if a profile with this name already exists. If it does, then you’ll see it appear as you’re typing. If the business name doesn’t appear, then go ahead and click ‘Add your business to Google’.

The name that you use here should exactly match the official business name. Don’t be tempted to add any keywords to the name, as this violates Google’s guidelines.

Requesting Access to an Existing Business Profile

If someone has already created a Google Business Profile for the business, then don’t worry. You can request that management of the profile be handed over to you. Simply click ‘Request Access’, and you’ll be guided through the process.

4. Choose Your Business Type

You’ll now need to share how you service your customers. If you have a location that customers can visit for face-to-face interactions, you will tick ‘Local store.’ If you’re a Service Area Business (SAB), where you visit customers to provide a service, you select ‘Service business.’

If the business only operates online or has a physical location but doesn’t receive customers in person and is not a SAB, then select ‘Online retail’ instead. If you list yourself as having or being an online retail store, you will have the option of adding a link to your online store. 

You can select more than one of these lists in the event that you are, say, a local store that also sells its products online. 

Service Area Businesses

At this point, if your business is a service-area business or if the business delivers items to customers at home, then you might have a few additional pages to fill out. Simply follow the prompts.

You’ll be able to come back and edit this information later, and you’ll be able to add new locations any time the business expands.

5. Add Your Business Category

Here, you should choose the category that most closely matches the business. You’ll have the option to edit this within the profile later, as well as to add additional categories, so don’t worry if you’re not completely sure what to select right now.

For guidance, check out our advice for local businesses on how to choose the best GBP categories.

6. Enter the Business Location

If the business has a physical location, then you can now provide the address. You might be asked to position a pin on a map to confirm the location.

It’s important that the address you give is accurate and complete to prevent any confusion to customers or issues with the verification process.

If there’s a similar business nearby, Google might ask again if you are looking to claim a different business. If you’re not, simply select ‘None of these’ and hit next. 

7. Add Contact Details

The next step is to add the contact details for the business. First, you’ll need to enter the proper phone number for your business. Remember, this is where you’ll be receiving calls for the business, so include the number that you plan to be interacting with customers via. 

Finishing up this step will create your profile, but it’s not quite live yet. 

At this point, you’ll also be asked if you’d like to receive helpful tips and recommendations from Google. Although there’s no obligation, you might find it beneficial to receive this information.

8. Add Your Services

Now, it’s time to showcase the services your business offers. You can select from a list of selected services, or add custom ones.

9. Add Your Hours

Adding your business hours is essential so that potential customers know when they can visit or contact you.

It’s imperative that the hours you specify are accurate, and you should always edit this information if your opening hours change—whether permanently or temporarily.

There are several reasons why your hours of operation may temporarily change, such as public holidays or staff illness. In these cases, it’s a good idea to let your customers know. For more information on why this is important and how to do it with ease, check out our guide to managing opening hours in Google Business Profile.

10. Toggle Messaging

Here, you can choose whether you want your customers to message your business on Google. While it is a free offering, you should only use this if you are confident that you can quickly get back to customer messages. Being unresponsive to messages will create a poor user experience and could harm your business reputation.

In fact, if you don’t respond within 24 hours, Google might remove your ability to chat with customers via this avenue. Customers can also see the average time you take to respond to messages.

If you do wish to accept messages, then simply click the button. You can come back and pause or disable this feature at any point.

11. Add a Business Description

This is where you can go ahead and add a description of your business that will be seen on Search, Maps, and other Google services. It’s a good place to tell your potential customers a bit more about your business in ways that might not be reflected in your profile, such as what sets you apart from other businesses or your beliefs.

You can write up to 750 characters within this section, so be sure to use this opportunity to put the most important information across in a clear and concise way. Remember that you cannot include URLs here. 

How to Write a Google Business Profile Description

Read more

12. Add Photos

Adding photos is a fantastic way to help searchers visualize the business and to get a glimpse of the brand. Google has a great guide on what sort of photos you should look to feature on your profile.

Customers can add their own photos to the listing; some people will choose to do this when leaving you a Google review.

Be aware that you won’t have any control over the order in which photos appear on your listing, so it’s a good idea to have several of your own photos mixed in with the user-generated content.

Make sure you showcase different aspects of your products and services and different areas of your physical location.

13. Set Up Google Ads (Optional)

You’ll be given the option to advertise with Google Ads. This can always be skipped and revisited later! 

14. Verify the Business

In this step, you’ll be required to choose a verification method to prove the business is operating at the specified address. Receiving a postcard by mail to the business address is the most common route for verification, but you might also have the option to do so via phone or email.

Postcard Verification

This type of verification is available to all businesses. A postcard will be sent to the business address and will usually arrive within five days.

The postcard will contain a code that must be entered into the appropriate place within the GBP account. If you don’t receive the postcard, then you can request a replacement.

Phone Verification

Some businesses will be able to verify their accounts over the phone, but this option isn’t available to everyone. If you’re eligible, then you’ll see this option on the verification page.

If you decide to use this method, then you’ll receive a code via an automated phone call.

Email Verification

As with phone verification, the email alternative isn’t available to everyone.

If you do have the option to verify by email, then you can request a code to your inbox. This will only be possible to the email address connected to the GBP account.

16. Add Social Media Profile Links

While Google does tend to pull these from other parts of the web, including your business website, most users will have the option to expand on or overwrite these via a few simple steps:

1. Go to your Business Profile.

2. Click ‘Edit profile’ and then ‘Business information’ and then ‘Contact’.

3. To edit, click ‘Social profiles’ and then the down arrow.

4. In the drop-down menu that opens, select the social media link you would like to add.

5. In the web address field, add the link, then click save.

Optimize Your Google Business Profile

Once your listing is good to go, then it’s time to consider how best to optimize GBP to maximize visibility and conversions.

Some essential ongoing tasks include:

• Adding new photos and videos
• Using Google Business Profile Q&A to connect with your audience and answer their questions
• Creating Google Business Profile Posts to showcase offers and promotions
• Listing your services, products, or menu items
• Requesting Google reviews

For expert advice on optimizing your GBP listing, check out this free course by Claire Carlile over on BrightLocal Academy. To learn more about GBP—and to become a local marketing pro—you’ll also want to sign up for our newsletter!

You might remember Google Urchin (the forebear of Google Analytics), Google Insights for Search (now merged with Google Trends), or Google Reader (the original and best RSS feed aggregator). Dead and buried. If you’ve been working in local marketing for a while, you might remember the Google My Business app, Google My Maps, CallJoy, and Google Hotpot… may they all rest in peace.

One product that has stood the test of time is what Google is currently calling Google Business Profile—or what I affectionately refer to as ‘the artist formerly known as Google My Business, Google Places, Google+ Local, and Google Local’.

Despite the assortment of names, the product has fundamentally remained the same. It’s a local business management product that allows business owners to manage (to some extent) the ways that their business shows up across Google products like Maps and Search.

Without a local business listing, you can’t rank in the Local Pack or appear on Google Maps

Think of Google Business Profiles as existing in a Google database of businesses with a brick-and-mortar location or existing to serve customers in a specific geographic region.  

This database is used to power results in the map pack in search, in the local finder, on Google Maps. 

With the way that Google currently works, to appear in these results, a Google local business listing has to exist, as these listings are essentially what it uses to populate them.

You’ll also need to have a Google Business Profile if you want to get the full benefits associated with running Local Service Ads.

It’s often the first (or only) source of information that a potential customer will use 

As SEOs, we are very familiar with the concept of zero-click search—the idea that, in many cases, the searcher’s intent is met within the search engine results page itself without the need to click away to a website. In fact, according to BrightLocal’s 2023 Local Business Discovery & Trust Report, the top three most trusted platforms for researching local businesses are Google (66%), Google Maps (45%), and then, finally, a business’s own website (36%)… meaning that the information on your GBP will be the first thing that most people look at when deciding where to custom. It also highlights that there is no guarantee they’ll click through to learn more.

As Local SEOs, we’ve been living in this zero-click world for some time. After all, it’s been years now that Google has been pushing more and more features and functionality into our Google Business Profiles as they display in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

• Want to look at photos of a business? Do this from the profile.
• Want to see if a business is open right now? Do this from the profile.
• Want to ask a question about the business? Do this from the profile.
• Want to message a business? Do this from the profile.
• Want to look at a menu or see how busy a location is right now? You guessed it—do these things from the profile.

Because of all the things that a customer or potential customer can do via a profile, it’s a no-brainer that you need to have a listing that’s kept up to date.

Your potential customers can take actions that lead to a conversion right from the SERP

The previous point illustrates the amount of information that a potential customer can access via the business profile without clicking through to the website… the type of content that will help them in their early stages of decision-making when they’re trying to decide which business to choose.

We must also remember that customers who are a little bit further down their path in terms of being ready to make a conversion also have options in the SERP. Google Business Profile offers various functionalities and features that could be considered actual business conversions.  

For example, the ‘order online’ link allows a customer to order ahead of time for collection or delivery:

The ‘book online’ link allows you to schedule and book an appointment directly from the SERP.

It brings a variety of user-generated content (UGC) into one place

There was a time when ‘user-generated content’ was kind of a big deal—back in the day when we all became ‘creators’, and ‘web 2.0’ marked a shift in the general ease of creating content online.

Google Business Profile is an excellent example of where business-created content and user-generated content merge. Although a well-established and trustworthy business has the chance to manage its listing carefully in terms of the information that it chooses to share, it can never truly ‘control the message.’ As user-generated content merges seamlessly with business-generated content in most Google Business Profiles, the various messages become one… one that’s at least partially out of the hands of the business.

Examples of user-generated content in the business profile:

• Reviews
• Q&A
• Photos
• User updates—‘updates from customers’

User-generated content can be great for businesses. It can also be… not so great:

We all know that the various iterations of our ‘GBP content’ across Google’s assorted surfaces are the first (and sometimes only) content related to our business that our potential customers will consume. 

So, now we know that GBP also combines our business-produced, carefully curated content with UGC (both good and not-so-great). With this in mind, we must be sure that we’re consistently monitoring, responding, and encouraging UGC (the good kind). We also need to be careful to try to suppress the UCG that breaches Google’s guidelines by reporting it accordingly.

It also reminds us that businesses need to be consistent with putting their best foot forward in all aspects, hoping that the UCG garnered in response paints them in a good light. 

It gives you plenty of opportunities to signpost content on your website

The ‘website’ link in GBP will indeed drive the lion’s share of the traffic to your website—after all, it’s usually the most obvious link through to a website from any iteration of GBP across surfaces:

But it’s also a great opportunity to drive your potential customers to other spots on your site.

There are a bunch of other places where you can add a link to your website. This might sound obvious, but make sure that you’re linking to a page on your website that suits the intent of that feature and the potential customer that is likely to click.

Bonus points for adding UTM tagging to your GBP links so you can measure their impact in GA4.

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It’s a useful source for customer insight for your own business (and your competitors’ businesses)

Sometimes we get so fixated on ‘managing’ or responding to UGC that we forget that monitoring and analyzing that content can give us terrific insight into how our customers and potential customers perceive or experience our products and services.

Reviews

Did you know that 98% of people read online reviews for local businesses, according to BrightLocal’s Local Consumer Review Survey? That’s a lot of eyes on the reviews you get and a lot of minds that could be swayed based on what they say.

But it’s not just about what potential customers see in your reviews; it’s about what you can see. 

By analyzing the textual content of our reviews, we can surface themes and topics that can indicate our business’s strengths and weaknesses. If you’re a multi-location business, you can group that content in any number of ways (by geography, service offering type, size, etc) for insight.

Make sure to look at the review topics for your business(es)—that’s where Google offers up their take on the commonly occurring themes within your reviews:

Are your reviews highlighting issues with your product or service delivery? Go ahead and fix them.

Are your reviews uncovering unseen strengths or facets of your product or service that are important to customers and that you were unaware of? Go ahead and highlight this feedback and those strengths in your marketing materials!

Q&A

Take a look at the questions that are asked in the questions & answers (Q&A) section. Although Q&A can be full of guff, there is also the occasional insight: are there questions here that you should be answering on your website, in your other content, or across various channels?

It’s used by potential customers to get directions to your business

This might seem like an obvious one, but Google Maps is the mapping application that is going to inform your potential customers as to where you are located. Furthermore, it’s likely the app that will guide them on their journey to you.

That might be using the app on their phone, via the navigation system in their car, or via a third-party app that uses Google mapping technology at its core (such as Lyft). No matter how the customers find those directions, they must lead to the right place! 

Its Insights section gives you important information about how people are finding you

We’re used to Google obfuscating our search query data (anyone remember the good old days when keyword data flowed freely into GA?), so we shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

When you have a Google Business Profile, Google offers up a range of data points—one of which is related to the search terms that searchers use when they trigger a Google SERP that shows your business profile:

It influences Google’s understanding of your business as an ‘entity’

This might sound a bit fluffy, but on a very basic level, your Google Business Profile is one way for you to use a Google Product to feed into Google’s Knowledge Graphs directly.

If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of ‘things, not strings’, read this.

By making sure that all of your details are correct in GBP—including your name, address, phone number, and details of your products and services—and making clear to Google the connection between your GBP, your websites, and your social media channels, you’ll be making a good start in terms of ensuring that Google has a clear idea of who you are, what your business is, and who you serve.

Time to Get Started

It should be clear by now that GBP offers a wide range of benefits to businesses and search users alike. In addition to being the top local SEO ranking factor for the Local Pack, it also makes it easy to showcase useful information about your business, ultimately making the process of searching for, comparing, and selecting a relevant local business much easier for local consumers. 

With bottom-line boosting benefits such as booking and reservation buttons plus the ability to share offers, news, and imagery, it can also make a notable difference to your local business. Getting your GBP up and optimized can have a vital impact on the success of your business, so be sure to stay on top of it.

You can set up a Gmail account in seconds. Ditto for Google Ads. And on the face of it, setting up Google Business Profile (formerly known as Google My Business) follows the same principle. 

That is until you’ve registered but aren’t able to make changes to your GBP straight away. So, what gives? 

Well, verification. It’s a pain, we get it. But until you prove who (and where) you are, you won’t be able to do any of these things:

• Edit your business information across Google (e.g. Search and Maps), including business hours
• See your GBP insights
• Upload images
• Respond to online reviews about your business

The verification system ensures that only authorized representatives of the business, and genuine businesses, can create and manage listings, which ultimately safeguards your business. 

How do I get my business verified on Google? 

Google says that most local businesses will need to verify their listing by post. This means they will send you a postcard containing a verification code that you will then need to enter to confirm your listing. 

How long does it take for Google Business Profile verification?

The time required for Google Business Profile verification depends on the method of verification. In some cases, Google will allow instant verification. This may happen if your business is already verified in Google Search Console. 

Other methods of verification vary—the postcard for example takes around a week to arrive on average but it can be longer if the postal service is busy. Google will then need around one week to manually verify. 

If verifying by email, the email should arrive right away but you’ll also need to allow up to a week for manual verification to then take place. 

For video verification, once your video is uploaded it should take around five days for the video to be reviewed by Google. 

If you’re given the option to verify via live video call, you’ll need to check the support hours for your region and then join the line to speak to an advisor, all of which can be frustrating when you’re ready to take control of your local SEO and optimize your Google Business Profile.

You may also find that this process can be more complicated when you are verifying multi-location business listings. Fortunately, additional features, functions, and support are available. 

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What if I’m tempted to skip Google Business Profile verification?

If you skip verification, there’s very little point in actually claiming your Google Business Profile in the first place as you won’t be able to access most of its features without first completing the verification process. 

Do I have to verify by postcard?

Postcard verification has historically been the most popular method of verification – it’s also the slowest which is why many local businesses would prefer another option. Thankfully, Google has added new methods of verification in the form of video uploads and live video calls, which are much quicker. In some instances, Google will offer other alternatives to postcard verification.

If you’re a service-area business operating within a specific geographic area, or a hybrid business that both serves customers at your place and visits them at theirs, you may be given the option to complete verification via email, phone, or through Google Search Console.

For businesses with multiple locations (such as a chain of stores or restaurants), there is also a bulk verification option. If you’re eligible for this option, you’ll be asked to complete a form, including a telephone number for verification and a business manager email, to confirm you are an authorized representative. 

If you aren’t given an email, phone, or Search Console verification option, you must verify by post. 

The only way to find out what your available options are is to claim your listing and proceed to the verification stage. 

How do I verify Google Business Profile?

When you have claimed your listing, Google will present you with appropriate verification methods, which may include via email, postcard, or video.

Verify With a Postcard:

1. Log in to Google Business Profile and click ‘Verify’.
2. Ensure your address is entered accurately, with full street name and zip code.
3. Include your floor, suite, or building number.
4. Add a contact name.
5. Click ‘Request Postcard’.
6. Wait for your postcard to arrive, then log back into Google Business Profile and enter the verification code. This code will expire after 30 days so it’s advisable to verify as soon as possible after you receive the postcard.

Verify Over the Phone:

If your business is eligible for phone verification, you’ll see a phone option when you click ‘Verify’. 

1. Log in to Google Business Profile and click ‘Verify’.
2. Click the associated phone number.
3. The code will be sent via an automated phone call or text message.
4. Return to Google Business Profile and enter the code you were given.

Verify Via Email:

Some businesses may be given the option to verify by email, rather than a postcard.

1. Log in to Google Business Profile and click ‘Verify’.
2. If you see the email option, click this.
3. Go to your email and follow the instructions provided in the message from Google.

Verify With a Video Recording: 

1. Log in to Google Business Profile and click ‘Verify’ you must be at your business location).
2. Click the video option and start recording.
3. Your video will need to include your business location (try to film street signs), the business itself, and proof of management (entrance into staff-only areas, for example, or video yourself unlocking the premises with your keys).
4. End the recording and upload your video.

Verify With a Video Call:

1. Log in to Google Business Profile and click ‘Verify’ (you must be at your business location).
2. Select the video call option.
3. Click start call. A text window will open with a support assistant, and they will walk you through how to join the live video call.

Is my business verified on Google Business Profile?

You can check if your business is verified by logging in to your Google Business Profile. If your listing is verified, you’ll see the dashboard and have access to all features. If your listing isn’t verified, the verification options will show. Or, you may be offered no verification options and instead, see a message saying that someone else has verified that profile:

If you see this image, you’ll need to use the ‘request ownership’ option to send an email to the other party asking them to contact you. That person can then confirm or deny your request. 

If the present owner doesn’t reply, your ownership request email will contain a link that will then walk you through a verification process. 

Verifying your Google Business Profile listing can take some time but is necessary to manage and use your Google Business Profile. It’s advisable to start the process as soon as you can as verification can take a while to complete, depending on the verification options presented for your business. 

Fortunately, Google continues to add features and offer support for enterprise brands and agencies, thereby assisting multi-location companies with GBP listings.

One fantastic feature available for agencies working with multi-location businesses is the GBP agency dashboard. This dashboard makes it easy to manage multiple brands and locations with an intuitive interface and bulk features.

Another great feature is Google Business Profile bulk verification. This is an option that chains and franchises can use to get an account whitelisted, meaning that they don’t have to send postcards to verify every new location that they add.

Here I’ll explain the steps to doing this, so you can save yourself time and stress!

Verifying a Business on Google Business Profile

In order to bulk-manage multiple locations in Google Business Profile, the business listings must first be set up and verified. The listings can either be verified one by one, or bulk verification can be used to make the process much simpler. 

Before you can get started with verification, you first need to set up your listing. For details, check out this guide to setting up GBP listings.

Once the listing has been created, the most common way to verify a location is to receive a postcard at the business address.

This usually takes between one week and 12 days for the postcard to arrive, or (in some cases) it’s possible to obtain a verification code via an email or phone call, which will naturally be much faster.

Each location you manage will need to go through the same process. Once the verification process is complete, you can begin making edits to the listing. 

Bulk Verification for Multiple Locations

Google’s guidelines explain that you can bulk manage 10 or more locations of the same business. In order to do this, you need to become ‘bulk verified’.

Being bulk verified means you’ll be able to add new locations and make updates to a listing without having to go through further manual verification procedures. 

In order to use bulk location management, you’ll need to create a ‘location group’ for your business. From there, you can create and upload a spreadsheet with all of the location information and request bulk verification.

When you bulk-verify listings with an individual account, all eligible locations in your account not claimed by someone else will be verified.

If you are a location group, when the main owner of the account is verified, all eligible locations in the group are verified as well. This then means that the locations can’t be owned by anyone else.

Google Business Profile Bulk Verification

Google’s guidelines on eligibility for bulk verification are straightforward: you have to have 10 or more locations belonging to the same business.

Additionally, Google specifies that:

• All of the locations for the brand should be in your bulk account, either published or unpublished
• No duplicate listings should be in your account when you request bulk verification

The business information for each individual location should always be accurate and up to date. Also, if the listings all belong to the same brand, then the business name, domain, and GBP categories should all match.

What about Service-area businesses?

Service-area businesses (SABs) are not eligible for bulk verification. It’s usually the case that a SAB will only have one listing due to only having one physical address.

The areas that the business serves can be added as additional information within the same listing.

Setting up Bulk Location Management

According to the Google Location Group guidelines, a business qualifies for bulk location management if they have 10 or more locations.

They must also meet the Google quality guidelines to be eligible to appear on Maps, Search, and other Google properties.

If an account has not been bulk verified, there is a limit to the number of business listings a company can create per Google Account in a given time period.

Listing creation thresholds for bulk spreadsheet upload are based on the number of verified listings you already have in your account. These limits exist to help maintain the integrity of listings on Google.

According to Google, to manage profiles in bulk you need to:

1. Use an email address with your business domain—an email address not affiliated with a business domain will take longer to verify.

2. Create a business group to manage the locations—business groups allow the GBP manager to safely share management of locations with multiple users.

3. Create a spreadsheet with all of your locations so you can verify them all at once.

a. Within GBP, near the top right corner, click ‘Add Location’
b. Import locations and download the template
c. Add all locations
d. Complete all the fields you can

4. Upload the spreadsheet to Google.

5. Review and fix any errors before locations are published.

6. Request bulk verification to ensure only the business owner or authorized representative of the business can manage and verify locations. Simply submit a form through GBP with information about you and your business.

The form will ask for information about your:

a. Business name
b. Countries/regions
c. Contact name
d. Contact phone
e. Business manager email
f. Google account manager email (if applicable)

7. Double-check all of the information is up to date

Setting up GBP Management with Fewer than 10 Locations

If your business has fewer than 10 locations, then you’ll need to claim, verify, and update each location individually. This is likely the case for the majority of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Verifying each location individually can be challenging when this task is divided between several different team members. Restricting GBP manager access to a small number of people is a good idea and this will help to keep the process organized.

An easy way to simplify the process is to use a general company email, or the business owner’s email, to claim GBP listings. This will avoid potential headaches in the future, and ensure that access is never lost due to employee turnover.

Creating a spreadsheet is a sensible way to keep track of essential information, such as location data, business details, and any errors. This spreadsheet will serve as a convenient central reference point for businesses with multiple locations.

A Note About Account Suspensions

In recent months, Google has been handing out account-level suspensions to GBP account holders. A suspension will often happen because of an issue with an individual Google account, and not necessarily because of any fault by the business itself.

For example, if a business previously worked with an SEO agency, and this agency has later been found to be engaging in bad practices, then this connection between the agency and the business could trigger a suspension.

An account suspension may also be triggered if an account holder makes spammy edits to Google Maps. If a user has several edit suggestions denied, then they could be automatically flagged as a spammer. This will cause the account holder to be suspended and any listings they manage could also be suspended.

When an account is suspended, the user will lose access to all of the listings within their account. Furthermore, separate users who also manage these affected listings will lose access to the listings, and they’ll be able to see that a suspension has been given.

How to Deal with a Google Business Profile Suspension

Listing suspensions will either be hard or soft, and the severity may vary based on Google’s assessment of the violation (although this has not been confirmed):

• A hard suspension will result in the GBP listing not being visible at all.
• A soft suspension means the listing is still visible, but you can’t access or make edits to it. 

It might sometimes be the case that you log in to your GBP account and see that one of your listings has been suspended but that the rest of your listings are active as normal. In this instance, it’s likely that another manager of the affected listing has been suspended.

When this happens, you’ll have to attempt to identify the suspended user so that you can remove them from the listing. Due to privacy reasons, Google will not let you know which user has been penalized, so you’ll have to investigate yourself.

Once you know who is responsible, you should remove them from the listing and contact GBP support to explain the issue. This is the fastest way to get your listing live again.

In order to avoid problems with potentially rogue account managers, it’s a good idea to audit your Google Business Profile account semi-regularly to determine if anyone should be removed. Having a listing suspended when you’re not personally at fault could be incredibly frustrating, and detrimental to the reputation of your business.

Verified Google Business Profiles

If you want to use a spreadsheet to verify more than 10 listings, a Google team member will review the information, verify the listings, and then you’ll see them in your Google Business Profile account. It’s worth being aware that this process could take several weeks.

If you’re verifying less than 10 locations, your listings should be verified within two weeks via postcard, phone, or email.

Be sure to stay organized, allocate resources, and be patient. Once your listings are verified, your team can begin the process of GBP optimization.

Wrapping Up

Google Business Profile continues to evolve and this extends to its features for multi-location businesses.

Verifying multiple business locations has gotten easier over the years, especially for bulk listings. Whether a business has three locations or several thousand, GBP provides guidelines and tutorials on how to effectively verify these listings.

Remember, always follow the guidelines when completing this process to avoid creating a headache for yourself, or risking a suspension on your account.

Your business presence across Google Search and Maps is managed from within a single Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) platform. It’s a great system for small businesses, but how can you ensure consistency, accuracy and the greatest degree of optimization across hundreds or even thousands of locations? Multi-location businesses, including franchises, corporate chains and service-area businesses, face unique challenges when it comes to local listings management.

Over the last few years, Google has added more features and support for enterprise brands and users to manage locations in bulk. Most recently, they rolled out an agency dashboard that makes it easier to manage multiple brands and locations in a simpler interface. In this guide, we’ll explore some of Google Business Profile’ bulk features and provide tips on how to maximize efficiency and manage locations at scale.

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The Basics of Google Business Profile Bulk Import: Step-by-Step

While it’s helpful to use both bulk importing and bulk verification, you can use one without the other.

Bulk importing your location data is a simple way to make updates to existing locations, or create new ones, in bulk. For enterprise brands that are managing dozens, hundreds, or thousands of locations at a time, bulk importing data and updates based on your internal system or CMS is likely the most efficient method. This gives you the ability to impact a large number of locations in a relatively short period of time, rather than clicking through each location manually within the dashboard.

1. You have two choices for getting started

You can either create a new template for uploading, or download your existing locations. To download existing locations to build or edit your bulk template, simply click on ‘Download Locations’ located underneath your account summary within the Google Business Profile dashboard.

This gives you the option to download all ‘downloadable’ locations in an excel or .csv format. Locations ineligible for downloading have errors or are not published (e.g. duplicates, request access, etc.). Once these errors have been resolved, these can be included in your downloads.

Google Business Profile will also give you the option to ‘include Google Updates’ in your export. Including this data is helpful if you want to review Google and user-suggested updates alongside your current data. If you chose to include the updates, when available, they will be in a neighboring column for each field prefaced with ‘[UPDATED]’.

The export provides your list of locations, as well as a summary of Google Updates and each location’s status. This is helpful for auditing your locations, as you can focus on just those locations that may need attention or that users have suggested changing.

Outside of the basic location elements, you’ll also see your list of attributes included in the export. Keep in mind that because you have bulk-exported all locations (which may be separate brands and have varying categories), all available attributes will show. However, if a particular attribute is not available for that location or category, you will see ‘[NOT APPLICABLE]’ in the column for that location.

2. Edit your attributes in keeping with Google Business Profile formatting guidelines

When editing attributes, you can export the Attribute Reference Spreadsheet to see which values are accepted for each attribute. These can only be included when the field is blank and does not show the [NOT APPLICABLE] notice.

Be sure to follow all Google Business Profile formatting guidelines for the bulk import spreadsheet. Once you’ve reviewed any errors and made the necessary changes, you are ready to import your corrected file. Remember, if you are making a change to a single or a small number of fields, it is not necessary to include all columns in your import. If you are only making updates and not creating new locations, the only column required is Store Code.

In order to bulk edit, each location is required to have a unique store code. Because this is the required association field, it’s also the one field you are unable to change in bulk. When creating new locations, you must include the Store Code, all address fields, and primary category.

3. Import your corrected file

Next, to import your file, click the blue plus sign button and select ‘import locations from file’.

This is also where you’ll find the template and sample file to download for building files from scratch.

4. Verify your changes in the Import Summary

Once you’ve loaded your file, there is one last step before the changes are published to your locations. Google will review your spreadsheet and provide a summary of changes that will be made to your listings, so you can review before you import.

The Import Summary lets you know how many locations and changes you are making by completing the import, and flags potential errors or missing locations. If your summary includes changes you weren’t anticipating, you can select the ‘Download Details’ option which will download a summary by location for you to validate before continuing. You can also ‘Cancel’ the import if you do not want to continue.

When all changes are correct, click the submit button to process your file. From here, as long as your changes are valid, your data will save and publish to Google. If there are any errors with your data (such as address formatting), these locations will be flagged in red as formatting errors and require a manual update in order to save changes.

While many changes publish in a matter of minutes, some larger changes to fields like name, address, and URL may take up to 48 hours to publish. Additionally, if you do not have bulk verification, some of these larger changes can trigger a re-verification flag.

Google periodically adds and changes fields, acceptable values, categories and attributes, so it’s important to review available options for your locations by downloading your existing locations.

The Road to Google Business Profile Bulk Verification

In order to manage your multiple locations on Google, you first have to claim and verify your business locations. This process exists to ensure that you are associated with the business and have the authorization to manage location updates. Standard business verification requires that the user receives a postcard, email, or phone call with the verification code. Once you’ve completed the verification process, you can make location updates to your listing. This process must be repeated for each additional location you’re managing.

Bulk verification in Google Business Profile differs from standard verification in that it was created for brands with 10 or more locations. With bulk verification, you don’t need to manually verify each new location.

Who is eligible for bulk verification in Google Business Profile?

Google’s published eligibility guidelines are fairly simple: you must have 10 or more locations belonging to the same business. However, there a few other things you should know before applying for bulk verification:

1. All of the locations for the brand should be loaded to your account. Your location statuses can show published or not published.
2. You should not have any duplicate or access-needed locations in your account when requesting bulk verification.
3. You can still request bulk verification if you’ve previously manually verified some of your locations.
4. You will still be able to benefit from bulk verification for future changes or locations.

To prepare for bulk verification, ensure that all business details (primarily name, address, website, and categories) are as accurate as possible and match what is published on real-world signage and marketing material. If your listings are all of the same brand, then the name, domain, and categories should all match.

Verifying locations with name or category variations

If your brand has variations of names and categories (example: banks with ATMs, or apartment communities), they can still be bulk-verified as long as Google can prove they are all managed under the same business/company. Some things you should have prepared for these types of businesses in particular are:

1. A corporate website showing all location details as you have in Google Business Profile
2. Current storefront images of at least 5 locations. These images should show the business name and address number and street name, if possible. It’s also helpful if you can see surrounding businesses in your images, so Google can reference their data. If Google has trouble verifying your locations via Street View or other methods, they may request this data for a sample set of your locations.

Ensure that you have a corporate domain email account available to access, as Google requires a response from a corporate domain in order to approve your account. You can sign up for bulk verification with a generic email address (such as Gmail), but the corporate domain needs to respond to a Google request. When applying for bulk verification, keep in mind that the email address you verify can not be changed.

You should not register an employee’s personal email for this verification, as there is a chance they may move on and that would interfere with the company’s access to the Bulk Verified Google Business Profile account. Additionally, if at any point in time you transfer ownership of locations that were bulk verified, they will lose verification if transferred to a non-bulk verified account.

Of course, there are other potential delays and issues when applying for bulk verification. Most importantly, Google wants to ensure that the data you are publishing is correct and representative of the business in the real world, and that you are authorized by the business to manage these updates.

Google Business Profile Bulk Management FAQs

Which fields cannot be edited in bulk?

You cannot edit store codes or map pin location/coordinates in bulk. You also can’t add or edit Google Posts via the bulk import function.

Can you apply for bulk verification for Service Area Businesses?

No, because Google requires that Service Area Businesses are manually verified. If you have a bulk-verified account that includes brick-and-mortar locations and try to change a location to a service area or add a new location that is a service area, it will revert to ‘manual verification required’.

Do you need to be bulk-verified in order to bulk upload your locations?

No, all Google Business Profile users have access to bulk-import their data.

How do I add managers to my locations in bulk?

Only location owners can add managers. While you can add single managers in bulk, if you have different managers you will want to add by location, and it must be done manually (or via API).

If you have a manager that you want to add to all or a set of your locations, you simply need to move these locations to a subfolder in Google Business Profile. This doesn’t impact any location data or verification. Once your locations are in a subfolder, edit the subfolder and ‘manage users’, adding the Google Business Profile email address of the desired manager.

Can you close locations in bulk?

Yes, but not via import. You can multi-select a group of locations that you wish to close and ‘mark as permanently closed’. From here, you can either keep or remove the locations from your account. You can always store the closed locations in a subfolder separate from active locations, to avoid publishing incorrect data.

I hope I’ve been able to explain the ins and outs of Google Business Profile bulk verification and bulk upload in a way that makes this process much easier.

Just like your website, you want to actively manage and optimize your business profile in order to keep your customers informed of any changes or updates to your business—and to give you the best chance of converting potential customers into leads and ideally lifelong advocates of your business!

Editing Google Business Profile via the NMX and the Google Maps App

Edits to your Google Business Profile can be made via the in-SERP editing experience (or New Merchant Experience/‘NMX’ as it is sometimes called) or via the bulk edit function at business.google.com.

Businesses with just one or a small handful of listings will most likely use the in-SERP editing option. If you’re managing multiple listings and need to make bulk updates then you’ll most likely find the ‘bulk updates’ solution quickest and easiest.

Editing GBP for multi-location businesses

Read more

Editing via the NMX

It is possible to edit your business profile(s) via Google Maps, but sometimes the full range of GBP functionality is only available via the In-SERP editing experience (the NMX)—so we recommend starting there.

The in-SERP editing experience will look a little something like this:

In order of left to right, we’ll go through what happens in each of these, as well as what’s hiding under the ellipsis seen in the upper right corner.

Edit Profile

Here, you’ll find the core information about your business, such as:

• About your business (Business name, Business category, Description, Opening date)
• Contact information (Phone number, Website, Social profiles)
• Location and areas (Business location, Service area)
• Opening hours (Hours, Special hours, Add more hours)
• More (From the business, Accessibility, Amenities, Children, Crowd, Planning)

You can use the tabs across the top, or just scroll down the page to see ALL fields that are updatable.

Read Reviews

In this section you’ll be able to view and respond to reviews.

If you click on the ‘get more reviews’ button here:

You’ll see a shortlink that you can use in your review requests:

Messages

If you have messaging enabled, you can do the following here:

• Respond to messages
• Block users and mark messages as spam

It should look something like this:

This is also the place where you can change your ‘chat’ settings. By clicking on the ellipsis in the upper right corner of the above screen, you’ll see this pop up:

Here you can:

• Turn chat on or off
• Opt to send read receipts
• Set your welcome message
• Add your FAQs
• Manage your ‘away mode’

There’s a lot more to Google Business Profile’s messaging system, and it’s always evolving. 

How to Use Google Business Profile Messaging and Chat

Read more

Add Photo

Here, you can add photos, add your logo, and choose your ‘cover’ photo.

Logo

This surfaces the same ‘upload public photos of…’ box as per the ‘photos’ tab shown above—but this populates the ‘logo’ for your business. 

Your logo is displayed here (see below) in your local knowledge panel, and also in other parts of GBP, such as next to your review responses.

Cover Photo

Again, this surfaces the same ‘upload public photos of…’ box as per the ‘photos’ tab—but this populates the ‘cover photo’ for your business, which may (or may not—such are the whims of Google!) be shown as the primary photo in your local knowledge panel.

You can also upload photos by clicking ‘add photos’ in your local knowledge panel:

A Guide to Using Photos on Google Business Profile

Read more

Performance

‘Performance’ is the new iteration of what we used to call ‘insights’, and includes the following metrics:

• Total business profile interactions
• Calls
• Messages
• Bookings
• Directions
• Website clicks
• How your products performed
• How people discovered you
• Searches breakdown

Learn more about Google Business Profile Performance Insights

Read more

Advertise

This links to Google Ads Smart Campaign (quelle surprise).

Tickets

If you have this button on your dashboard you’ll be able to add the prices and details of your ticketing options:

You’ll be able to link back to the ticketing page(s) on your website so make sure that you add the corresponding UTM tagging to the link—this UTM tagging for GBP guide can help.

Activities

If you have this button on your dashboard you’ll be able to add the prices and details of the activities that you offer:

Just like with Tickets, when added Activities can allow you to link through to your website, so remember to add those sweet, sweet UTM tags.

Google’s ‘Things to do’: Managing Activities and Tickets in GBP

Read more

Edit Products

This links back to the editing interface in the old Google dashboard:

You can also click here on the business profile on a desktop to get to the product editing interface:

Edit Services

Here is where you can edit your services.

Don’t forget to check this regularly to see what new services Google is scraping from who knows where.

Add and Manage Google Business Profile Products and Services

Read more

Booking

If you have online booking tools you can link to them here:

This could be a page on your own website (don’t forget to UTM tag it up!), but it might also be one of Google’s supported scheduling providers.

How to Manage Google Business Profile Bookings and Appointments

Read more

Q&A

Here is where you manage your Q&A.

Add Update

In this instance, ‘update’ means ‘Google post’. Click here to add a new post to your listing:

You can also add ‘updates’ (posts) here on a desktop:

A Guide to Google Business Profile Posts

Read more

Ask for Reviews

This will take you to the same referral link page that can be found under ‘read reviews’.

When clicked, the email, Whatsapp, and Facebook links auto-populate a review request, for example, on Whatsapp:

Before using any of these 1:1 messaging options (email, Whatsapp) check if you need express consent before contacting your customers in any of these ways.

Review Response Templates for Customer Feedback

Read more

What’s under the ellipsis in the top right corner?

Under the ellipsis section you’ll find:

• ‘Business profile settings’
  • ‘People and access’ where you can add, edit, or remove people’s access to the business profile
  • ‘Advanced settings’ which includes Business Profile ID, Google Assistant calls, option to show or not show your phone number, business labels, shop code, and Google Ads phone number for location extension ads
  • ‘Linked accounts’ which takes you off to a page where you can manage link requests from other Google products such as Google Ads or Merchant Centre.
• Notifications
  • In this section, you enable email notifications for a range of actions that take place on Google Business Profiles including customer questions, customer reviews, and Q&A.

Google CTA Carousel

Under the NMX icons described above, you’ll find a carousel of related Google CTAs, such as:

• Complete your profile
• Add photos
• Get custom email
• Add update
• Get more reviews
• Create an offer
• Claim your credit
• Set up booking
• See your latest photos
• Add a map to your website

It’s worth keeping an eye on these notifications and CTAs from Google to give you an insight into which parts of your profile might need some attention, and also to gain an idea of which features of GBP and related Google services Google is looking to promote or increase uptake of.

Editing GBP via the Google Maps App

If you’re using the Google Maps app, you simply click on the ‘business’ icon at the bottom of the screen:

When you click on this you’ll see a complete list of the GBP profiles that you manage.

Click on the profile you want to manage. The NMX looks like this and works in a very similar way to the NMX on a desktop:

These icons and their uses generally mirror those seen in the desktop NMX.

Editing GBP via Bulk Edit

You can access bulk editing functionality via the GBP dashboard (business.google.com). To use bulk edit, your business profiles will need to be in a location group and they’ll each need to have unique store codes.  Bulk edit allows you to upload your updates via a file. So, it’s much easier when you’re updating 100s (or even 10s) of locations at a time!

Editing Google Business Profiles for Multi-location Businesses

Read more

Managing Google Reviews in Bulk

You can currently manage ALL reviews for ALL of the businesses you manage in the dashboard at:

https://business.google.com/reviews

Here you can select which location’s reviews you’d like to see—just choose the location group and you’ll see all reviews from all business listings in that location group:

Google Business Reviews

Read more

Roundup

The ‘NMX’ or IN-SERP editing experience is the primary method for many businesses to make edits to their business listing(s). This guide runs through the current direct edit interface and how businesses can use it to complete the most popular and common tasks for businesses. It’s worth remembering that the editing experience remains in a pretty near constant state of flux—so keep your eyes open for any changes, and we’ll be sure to do the same!

The free profile makes it easy for businesses to connect with customers across Google Search and Maps, and is pretty much essential if you’re hoping to source new customers online.

Gaining visibility among a local audience is important for any type of business, but especially so for a service-area business (SAB). A business of this nature may see its reach cover a very specific geographical radius, as well as offering targeted expertise or solutions to local consumers at a distance from its own home base.

What is a service-area business?

The term ‘service-area business’ (also known as an SAB) sounds like it refers to any business that, well, ‘serves an area’, right? But no, as far as local SEO needs are concerned, a grocery store that pulls in customers from the local ‘area’ does not count as a service-area business.

So, to further refine the definition, we turn to Bing, which prefers to use the term ‘businesses without a physical store’. But hang on… that could mean e-commerce, right?

Confusingly, ‘service-area business’ and ‘business without a physical store’ both refer to the same type of operation. A service area business (SAB) is a business that:

• Provides a service at the customer’s location (they come to you)
• Serves a wide area beyond the service provider’s immediate location
• Has no physical location which customers can visit*
• Needs to ‘hide’ (i.e. not display its address in business listings)

* Having a physical location with ‘office hours’ was actually a requirement for Google Business Profiles, but these examples are why Google had to start to change its guidelines to suit these kinds of businesses.

If your business satisfies the above conditions, then it’s a service-area business, and that means there are plenty of online marketing tools, specifics, and processes that apply to you.

Examples of these kinds of businesses include:

• Garage door contractors
• Window cleaning companies
• Locksmiths
• Pest control professionals
• Cleaning companies
• House painting businesses
• HVAC providers

N.b. It’s worth noting that the definition is still subject to change, with some using ‘service-area business’ to also include businesses that have a physical location and the ability to deliver a service at your home or office. For the purposes of this piece, I’ll be talking about service-area businesses with no physical location, or what Google refers to as ‘pure service-area businesses’.

How Do Local Search Services and Products Differ for Service-Area Businesses?

No Address, No Listings?

The lack of publishable address is the key thing differentiating service-area businesses from other local businesses. In local SEO, we often point out that having accurate and consistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone number) data displayed across multiple relevant business listings is very much ‘table stakes’ for online visibility.

Although there are some key business listing sites (or ‘citation sites’) that don’t allow you to hide your address, the good news is that there are plenty of citation sites out there that are a perfect fit for service-area businesses.

Google Business Profile makes it easy to set up a profile without an address. Simply toggle ‘Show business address to customers’ on setup:

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Ranking Outside Your Area

By and large, businesses in the same vertical and location compete for the same audience. Two hotels nearby each other, two Italian restaurants in the same neighborhood, two beauty salons on the same road, they’ll each be targeting the same people, be they visitors to the area or residents.

They’ll also be targeting the same localized keywords in their online marketing: phrases like ‘hotels near me’, ‘Italian restaurant Baltimore’, and, if the search engine knows the searcher’s location, simply ‘beauty salon’.

Things are slightly different for service-area businesses. Their customers don’t have to travel anywhere to provide their custom, and so they’re a lot less likely to base their search requirements on business location. This leads to the proximity of searcher to business being much less critical a factor in local search rankings.

So more weight gets put on the other key pillars of local search rankings: prominence and relevance. While Google has some information on the area the business serves (see below), it’ll be much more inclined to rank service-area businesses with a good reputation and great reviews.

After all, if I’m booking a home visit from a pest control company, I’m far less interested in how far they’ve had to drive to get to my house and much more concerned with how many satisfied customers they’ve served.

There are other tips and tricks to help you rank outside your local area, but starting with fantastic reputation management (and leaving a trail of happy customers in your wake) is a good move.

The Truth: How to Rank Outside Your Area

Learn How

Define a Service Area in Google Business Profile

Google Business Profile is still trying to figure out the best way to let service-area businesses set up their business profiles in a way that allows them to best highlight the accurate area of work.

Until 2019, businesses could define a service radius around their hidden address in Google Business Profile, enabling Google to better serve local searchers. However, in its updated guidelines on adding or editing your service area (which you can while you’re setting up your GMB listing or afterwards), it states that “you can set your service area based on the cities, postcodes or other areas you serve”.

If you define the service area and you have no physical location, Google encourages you to leave the ‘business location’ field completely blank in your Google Business Profile, and you should not enter an address under the ‘Info’ tab in the Google Business Profile dashboard. Google’s verification process for these businesses is also slightly different, as they’re unable to send a physical postcard to the address.

Local Services Ads

Because service-area businesses don’t have the capability of showing up with a map pin in Google Maps, they can sometimes lose out to searchers who prefer to browse the local map when looking for a business.

This is one of the reasons that Google launched Local Services Ads, a feature of Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) specific to searches that return service-area businesses as results.

Local Services Ads is a listing type that sits atop SERPs and provides reputation and service information prominently for the searcher. It’s a changing product, with some elements coming with a charge from Google (such as the ‘Google Guaranteed’ badge), but it’s worth reading this guide by service-area businesses specialist Tom Waddington for a good overview of the opportunities presented by Local Services Ads.

If you’re interested in how the presence of Local Services Ads in SERPs affects click-throughs, and what consumers think of the features in this search results type, take a look at our comprehensive Local Services Ads study, which looked at the behaviour of over 5,000 searchers.

Local SEO for Service-area Businesses

As a SAB, you’ll naturally have a geographical area where you can deliver your services. 

It’s up to you to determine what that range is, but whether you serve clients within a 30-mile or 100-mile radius, your business will nonetheless operate within a particular zone and not beyond it.

Because you perform your service at your customer’s location, they don’t have to travel. That means they simply need to find a garage door installer who covers their zip code. 

This means the customer is therefore less likely to perform a local business search for a garage door installer within a specific distance of their location—as would be the case if they had to travel to a physical store to obtain their new garage door. 

Boosting Visibility on Google Maps

SABs, like other local businesses, can appear in Google Maps and in the Local Pack. How they are set up, though, is a little different as you’ll need to specify the zip codes and cities that fall under your service-area boundaries. 

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This may mean an extra step is required in the traditional process of setting up and optimizing a Google Business Profile, but it will benefit you in the long run. 

Why doesn’t my business show up on Google Maps?

With a standard GBP listing, your profile is built around your physical location, which may not accurately reflect the wider geographical area you serve.

Being able to specify those areas makes your GBP listing more accurate and more likely to rank for prospective clients further away from a physical store address, while still being covered by your service business zone in Maps and local search. 

Let’s say your garage door business is based in Rochester, New York. A traditional Google Business Profile listing could mean that you don’t show up in local search for a homeowner looking for an installer in Buffalo, 66 miles away, even if it’s company policy to travel up to 100 miles to offer your service.

So in that case, you’d potentially miss out on winning a customer.

A service-area Google Business Profile places less emphasis on proximity and allows you to tell Google that you do service Buffalo and should be visible in local search for that customer.

Before its launch in 2018, local business owners could only input basic information such as company name, address, phone number, hours, and types of payments accepted.

Now, it’s an important part of a business’s Google Business Profile (GBP). It’s a place where the business can communicate to potential customers. They can tell them in their own words what they do and, if they desire, things like their history, values, and beliefs. 

What is a Google Business Profile description?

It may sound obvious, but a Google Business Profile description is a short outline of your business. It’s limited to 750 characters and can be used to quickly spell out who you are and what you do.

It can be used to help inform potential customers of what to expect from you or your business, offering them valuable information about either the physical location or your brand.

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Google Business Profile Description Guidelines

Before you put pen to paper (or your fingers on the keyboard), make sure you read over the Google Business Profile Description Guidelines. These set out what you can and can’t include in this part of your listing. For instance, you shouldn’t add details of promotions, but can refer to the history of your business.

You must adhere to these rules because Google will review your Google Business Profile description and could suspend your account if you’re found to be in violation of its policies.

Google says the following about business descriptions:

Use the business description field to provide useful information on services and products offered, as well as the mission and history of your business.

You should be upfront and honest about the information provided, focusing on content that’s relevant and useful to your customers to understand your business. Content that’s irrelevant to your business or has no clear association with it isn’t allowed.

In addition to our overall guidelines on prohibited and restricted content, make sure that your business description does not:

• Display low-quality, irrelevant, or distracting content. For example, misspellings, gimmicky character use, gibberish, etc.
• Focus on special promotions, prices, and offer sales. Examples of content not allowed include, “Everything on sale, -50%” and “Best bagels in town for $5!”
• Display links. No links of any type are allowed.

How long should a Google Business Profile description be?

You will need to adhere to the Google Business Profile description character limit when crafting your description. This is currently 750 characters. 

Google outlines this in the Google Business Profile Help Center: 

Enter a brief description of your business.

Things to include:

• What you offer
• What sets you apart
• Your history
• Anything else that’s helpful for customers to know

Things to avoid:

• Do not include URLs or HTML code.
• Do not exceed 750 characters in the description field.

Focus primarily on details about your business instead of details about promotions, prices, or sales. Read more about guidelines for business representation.

Example: “We’re an independent ice cream shop located steps from the center of town. We’re proud to be the favorite for locals to meet friends for a cone or call for a fresh pizza, delivered straight to their home. We serve 35 flavors of homemade, hand-churned ice creams and sorbets year-round. The pizza oven turns out New York-style pies every day from midday until close. Come see us today!”

How do I write a Google Business Profile description?

Before you sit down to write your Google Business Profile description, keep in mind that you may need to draft several versions. This will provide you with a backup option should your description be rejected due to a guideline violation. 

If you’re lacking inspiration, the ‘about’ page on your site can be a good starting point. A lot of time and effort likely went into creating this page and distilling your brand’s credibility, achievements, and product or service offering. Because of this, it’s often a helpful starting point when drafting a Google Business Profile description for the first time. 

How to Add a Google Business Profile Description to Your Listing

Adding a Google Business Profile description is very easy to do.

In the NMX select ‘edit profile’ and you’ll find ‘Description’ in the ‘About’ section.

A truncated version of your description will be displayed in the Local Knowledge Panel on desktop or mobile. People will then have to click to see the full description, so be thoughtful with what you’re saying. Your most important information should be placed towards the start of the description. This truncation applies on both desktop and mobile, so remember… each character counts! 

Just like you carefully craft your meta title and description tags for your website, you need to take the same amount of care when writing your GBP business description.

Once you have your Google Business Profile description inserted, click “Apply”. You’ll then need to wait for Google to review and approve your description. 

If it isn’t approved, double-check to make sure you followed Google Business Profile guidelines. 

Utilizing Google Business Profile Description

To get inspiration for your own description, try checking out how your competitors have approached the task. To do this, perform a Google search for a rival business and then review their descriptions, noting down what works well and what stands out.

Knowing how to write a strong Google Business Profile description can seriously elevate your local search presence. It’s the search equivalent of your elevator pitch, outlining your credentials and spelling out why a consumer should choose your business. 

What are you waiting for? Go check your Google Business profile description!