Most guides tell you to "complete your profile" and stop there. This is the full reference: every section of your Google Business Profile, what it does, how to fill it for ranking, and the mistakes that get profiles suspended. Bookmark it — this is the manual we work from ourselves.
Use your exact real-world name. Nothing else. Adding keywords or locations ("Sharma Dental - Best Dentist Trichy") violates Google's representation guidelines — it can work briefly, then triggers suspension or a competitor's edit report. The businesses that keep rankings for years are the ones Google never has a reason to punish.
The primary category is the single strongest relevance signal you control. Rules: pick themost specificmatch ("Dental Clinic" beats "Clinic"), make your main revenue line the primary, and add every honestly applicable secondary category — each one qualifies you for a set of searches. Review them quarterly; Google adds new categories regularly.
Search your main keyword and check what primary category the top 3 competitors use (tools like GMB Everywhere reveal it). If they all share a category you lack, that is usually the gap.
Description:750 characters; front-load the first 250 with what you do, where, and for whom — naturally worded, no keyword lists.Opening date:set it — longevity is a trust signal (a clinic serving "since 2001" should say so).Attributes:tick everything true — women-led, wheelchair accessible, online appointments — they appear as search filters and badges.
Services= what you do. Add every service as its own entry with a description — each becomes a relevance signal for that search ("root canal treatment," "gym membership," "GST filing").Products= physical items with photos and prices — ideal for retail, food, and packages you sell as units. Service businesses that skip the Services section are leaving their most specific keywords unstated.
Profiles with photos get dramatically more clicks and direction requests. What to upload: real exterior shots (helps customers find you and Google verify you), interiors, team at work, and your products or results. Add 2–4newphotos monthly — recency matters. Never upload stock images; users report them and Google detects them.
Posts (updates, offers, events) show Google the business is alive — and dormancy is why claimed-then-abandoned profiles decay. Sustainable rhythm: one post per week or fortnight — an offer, a tip, a completed project, a festival greeting. Each post can carry a call-to-action button pointing at your website or WhatsApp.
Anyone can ask — andanyone can answer— public questions on your profile. Seed it yourself: post your 5 most common customer questions from your owner account and answer them properly (parking? insurance accepted? appointment needed?). Unmonitored Q&A sections accumulate wrong answers from strangers.
Enable chat if — and only if — you will answer within a few hours; Google shows response times, and slow chat looks worse than no chat. Add appointment or booking links if you have them. For most Indian SMBs, the honest setup is: chat off, phone and WhatsApp prominent.
Not showing at all?See our full guide onwhy businesses don't appear on Maps.Duplicate listings:report and merge them — split reviews dilute your prominence.Wrong info edits appearing:Google accepts public suggestions; check the Info tab monthly and reject bad edits.Suspended:usually a name/address guideline issue — fix the violation before appealing, never create a second profile.
Everything above works alongside reviews — the other half of local ranking — covered inour ethical review guide. And for how all this translated into a real #1 result, see theDr. Uma clinic case study— a profile taken from empty to complete, ranking in 10 days.
The initial build — categories, services, photos, description, attributes — takes 2 to 4 hours done properly. But optimization is ongoing: posts, new photos, review replies, and Q&A monitoring are monthly habits, not one-time tasks.
One primary category (the most specific match for your main business) plus every genuinely applicable secondary category. The primary carries the most ranking weight — a General Practitioner who also does pediatrics should be General Practitioner first, Pediatrician second, not the reverse.
Services for what you do (consultation, repair, design); Products for physical items with prices (menu items, retail goods). Service businesses should fill the Services section thoroughly — each service is a searchable signal.
Stuffing keywords into the business name ("Kumar Bakery - Best Cakes Trichy"). It violates Google's guidelines, risks suspension, and any ranking gain is temporary. Your name should be your name; keywords belong in the description, services, and posts.
We do exactly this guide, done-for-you: claim, verify, complete every field, and set up the posting and review rhythm. Setup from ₹3,000, with ownership always staying in your Google account.