Local Search

Google Business Profile GBP

Business Owner Office Manager Marketing Manager

A Google Business Profile is the free listing that controls how a business appears in Google Maps and in the local results of Google Search. It holds the name, address, phone number, hours, categories, photos, services and reviews that searchers see before they ever reach the website.

For most local businesses the profile is seen far more often than the website. It is also the only asset here that a competitor or a member of the public can suggest edits to, which is why it needs checking rather than setting once.

Formula
Profile completeness × Review signal × Category accuracy
Where It Lives
  • Google Business ProfileThe listing itself, and its insights
  • Google Search ConsoleBranded and local query performance
What Drives It
  • Category accuracy
  • Review count, rating and recency
  • Photo freshness
  • Hours and holiday hours
  • Services and products listed
  • Q&A answered
Causal Analysis: Profile views and website clicks move independently. A profile can gain views while losing clicks, which almost always means the listing is answering the question of hours, phone number or directions before the visit is needed.
Benchmark

A complete profile typically earns around seven times the clicks of an incomplete one; businesses with photos see materially more direction requests.

Common Mistake
Leaving the profile untouched after setup. Google demotes listings with stale hours and unanswered questions, and a wrong holiday opening time produces a bad review far more reliably than a bad job does.

How different roles think about this metric

Each function reads GBP through a different lens and takes different actions when it changes.

Business Owner
The highest-return hour available in local marketing, and it costs nothing but attention.
Office Manager
Owns the recurring checks: hours, holiday hours, suggested edits and unanswered questions.
Marketing Manager
Read profile insights alongside site analytics; views and clicks move independently and the gap is informative.

Common Questions About Google Business Profile

Click any question to expand the answer.

Do I need a shopfront to have a profile?
No. A business that travels to its customers registers as a service area business, hides the street address and defines the areas it covers. Plumbers, electricians, mobile groomers and most trades run this way.
Can competitors change my listing?
Anyone can suggest an edit, and Google sometimes applies them without asking. Suggested edits to hours or categories are worth checking monthly.

Related Metrics

Metrics that are commonly analyzed alongside GBP.

Map Pack | Map Pack NAP | NAP Consistency Review Velocity | Review Velocity Local SEO | Local SEO Local Citation | Local Citation

Role guides that include this metric

See how each role uses GBP in context with the full set of metrics they own.

Business Owner Guide → Office Manager Guide → Marketing Manager Guide →
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