Google Business Profile management for Australian local businesses.
Most local businesses have a Google Business Profile that's half set up and hasn't been touched in months. That's the difference between showing up first and showing up nowhere.
Three spots, and most people never scroll past them.
Someone searching for your trade near them gets a map and three businesses. That's the whole shortlist. Fourth place is a click on "more places" that almost nobody makes, so the gap between third and fourth is bigger than the gap between fourth and fortieth.
- Relevance. Does the profile say you do the exact thing that was searched. This is categories and services, and it's the part most profiles get wrong.
- Distance. How close you are to the person searching. You can't change where they are, but you can change what area the profile claims.
- Prominence. Reviews, activity, and whether the rest of the web agrees you exist. This is the slow one, and it's the one that compounds.
The field that moves the most, set wrong on nearly every profile I open.
Your primary category is the single biggest lever on the profile. Pick "Contractor" when you're a roofer and you're competing against every trade in the city instead of the handful of roofers. Most owners picked theirs once, at signup, in about four seconds.
- Primary category matched to the work that actually pays, not the work you started with.
- Secondary categories for the jobs you'd still take, without watering down the primary.
- A services list built off your own menu, each one written out, not left as Google's default labels.
- Attributes set: on-site estimates, emergency callouts, payment types, whatever applies.
Handled every week, no software for you to learn.
- Google posts going up, so the profile reads as a business that's open, not one that stopped in 2023.
- Fresh photos of real jobs, geotagged and named properly.
- Questions answered before a competitor or a stranger answers them for you.
- Opening hours and public holiday hours kept right, because a wrong "closed" costs a job that day.
- The website link tagged so you can see in your analytics which calls came off the profile.
- A monthly report on calls, direction requests and searches, plain numbers, no jargon.
- No lock-in, cancel any time.
A profile can vanish overnight, and nobody emails you about it.
Google suspends profiles for things that look harmless. Stuffing keywords into the business name, a service address that doesn't match your ABN, editing too many fields in one sitting. The first sign is usually a quiet drop in calls, which is why it often goes unnoticed for weeks. We watch for it, and if it has already happened we handle the reinstatement.
One week in, 20 seconds from Andrew.
"If your Google reviews aren't moving, I'd be definitely giving Ben a call. Getting in contact with him has made a big difference to our company."Andrew CappelloFins Up Electrical
What owners ask before they start.
What is Google Business Profile management?
Someone keeping your Google listing accurate and active for you. Categories and services set properly, photos and posts going up, hours right, questions answered, and the profile watched so it doesn't get suspended or edited by a stranger.
Do I need this if I already have a website?
They do different jobs. Most local searches never reach a website. People search, look at the top three map results, and ring one of them. If your profile is thin, the website never gets seen.
How long before it ranks better?
Reviews can start moving within days, because that only takes asking the customers you already have. Rankings take longer. The profile has to be fixed, then stay active, before Google shifts where it puts you. Anyone promising you the top spot by a set date is guessing.
Can you fix a suspended profile?
Usually, yes. Reinstatement means showing Google the business is real and matches what the profile claims. The bigger win is setting it up so it doesn't happen again.
Want to know where your profile actually sits?
Tell me your business name and the suburb you work in, and I'll tell you what's holding the profile back and what I'd fix first.