When was the last time you actually looked at your Google Business Profile?
Not a quick peek. Not “I’m sure it’s fine.” An actual, eyes-on-the-screen look at how your business shows up when someone Googles you.
If your answer is “uhhh, last year?” or “when I first set it up and honestly never again,” you’re in good company. This is one of those things every local business owner knows they should check on, and almost nobody does. I get it. Between seeing clients, running the business, and trying to have some semblance of a personal life, your Google Business Profile is not exactly begging for attention. It just… sits there.
Here’s the thing, though. Google is using that profile right now to decide whether to show your business to the people searching for what you do. And if it’s out of date, incomplete, or pointing to the wrong category, you could be losing local clients to competitors who’ve taken 5 minutes to get this stuff right.
Good news: a Google Business Profile audit doesn’t have to be complicated. You don’t need to buy a tool. You don’t need to hire an agency. You need five minutes and a cup of coffee. By the end of this post, you’ll know exactly what to check, what to fix, and what you can stop worrying about.
Let’s get into it.
Why These 5 Minutes Actually Matter
Your Google Business Profile is often the very first thing a potential client sees. Before your website. Before your social media. Before they’ve read a single word about you.
When someone searches “massage therapist near me” or “best yoga studio in [your town],” Google shows a little box at the top of the search results called the local map pack. That’s the three businesses Google thinks are the best match for that search. Your Google Business Profile is most of the reason you do (or don’t) land in that box.
And the businesses that show up in the map pack get the calls. They get the bookings. They get the “I found you on Google” conversations.
Here’s what nobody tells you: you don’t have to do anything fancy to compete. Most local businesses have profiles that are half-empty, outdated, or set up wrong. Just by checking these five things and fixing what’s broken, you’ll already be ahead of a big chunk of your competition.
Before You Start: What You’ll Need
Grab your phone or laptop. Search your business name on Google while signed in to the account that manages your profile. You should see a little edit panel pop up for your business.
That’s it. No tools, no subscriptions, no new accounts. Keep a sticky note or a notes app open so you can jot down anything that needs fixing. You’re not doing the fixes right now, just noticing.
Ready? Here are the five things to check.
1. Check Your Categories
Categories are the single most important ranking factor on your Google Business Profile. Get this right, and you’re already most of the way there. Get it wrong, and you could be invisible for the exact searches you want to show up for.
Scroll down to the “Category” section of your profile. You’ll see a primary category and (hopefully) a few secondary ones.
Your primary category carries the most weight. It should be the most specific, accurate description of what you primarily do. If you run a massage practice, “Massage Therapist” is a stronger primary category than “Spa” or “Wellness Center,” even if those also technically fit. A more general category pulls you into a wider, more competitive pool. A specific one helps you show up for the people who actually want what you offer.
Here’s a trick. Search for a competitor who shows up high in your area, click on their profile, and peek at their category. Google doesn’t show secondary categories to the public, but the primary one is right there. If three competitors are all using the same primary category and you’re using something different, that’s a clue worth investigating.
Secondary categories are where you add the other services you offer. Prenatal massage, cupping, sports massage, whatever applies. Don’t stuff this with categories that don’t truly fit your business, though. Google’s getting smarter about that, and relevance beats quantity every time.
One heads-up: changing your primary category can cause a short-term dip in rankings while Google re-evaluates you. That’s normal. If you know your current category is wrong, make the change anyway. Better to take a short wobble than stay stuck in the wrong pool forever.
2. Check Your NAP
NAP stands for name, address, and phone number. It sounds silly that we need a whole section on this, but this is where I see the most mistakes.
Look at the three fields on your profile and check them against your website. Not sort of. Exactly.
Your business name should be your actual business name. Not “Serenity Massage Annapolis Best Prenatal Specialist.” Google has explicit rules against adding location or service keywords to your business name, and they do penalize profiles that break this rule. If your name has extra stuff in it, clean it up.
Your address should match your website down to the “Ste” versus “Suite” versus “#”. This isn’t as important as it used to be, but I’m on the side of making things easier for search engines and AI to connect the dots, so I make sure everything is consistent.
Your phone number should be a local number when possible. Toll-free numbers work, but local numbers send a stronger local signal. Whatever you use, make sure it matches your website.
If you’re a service-area business (you go to clients instead of them coming to you, or you don’t have a public-facing address), make sure you’ve set your service areas correctly and hidden your address. You do not want your home address showing up on Google Maps.
Pop open your website in another tab. Compare. Fix any mismatches on your sticky note list.
3. Check Your Hours
This is the one that makes people chuckle and then immediately wince when they realize their profile has been telling customers they’re open on Mondays for six months when they’ve been closed on Mondays for a year.
Look at your regular hours. Are they right? Today, this week, this season? If you adjusted your schedule and forgot to update your profile, today is the day.
Now scroll down and look at holiday hours and special hours. This is where most profiles fall apart. Google actually flags profiles that don’t update for holidays as less trustworthy, which means your rankings can take a hit around big holidays if you haven’t said whether you’re open or closed.
Any upcoming holiday on the calendar? Add your hours for it now. Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Day, and the Fourth of July. It takes less than 30 seconds per holiday and keeps you looking active and reliable.
One more thing while you’re here. If you have special hours for a specific season (summer schedule, holiday season extended hours, closed for a two-week vacation in August), add those too. The goal is that nobody, ever, shows up to your business to find it locked when Google said you were open.
4. Check Your Photos
Scroll to the Photos section. When was the last photo uploaded?
If you can’t remember, or it’s been more than a few months, that’s your audit finding. Google loves fresh photos. Customers love them even more. Profiles with recent, quality photos get significantly more clicks, more calls, and more direction requests than profiles with stale or missing ones.
Here’s what should be there, at a minimum:
- Exterior shots (if you have a location) so people can find you when they pull up
- Interior shots (if you have a location) so people know what to expect when they walk in
- Team photos so clients see real humans, not a stock photo of somebody else’s business
- Work or service photos that show what you actually do
You do not need a professional photographer. Your phone camera is fine. What matters is that the photos are yours (not stock), clear, well-lit, and current. Snap a few shots this week and upload them.
One more thing: delete any photos that don’t represent your business anymore. An old space, outdated decor, and a team member who left two years ago. If it’s not accurate, it’s not helping.
5. Check Your Business Description
This is the part of the profile almost nobody ever revisits. Which is exactly why checking it is such a quick win.
Scroll to your business description. Read it.
Does it sound like a real human wrote it? Or does it sound like a press release written by a robot who’s trying to cram in as many keywords as possible? If it’s the second one, it’s doing you more harm than good.
A good description answers three questions in clear, warm language:
- What do you do?
- Who do you help?
- Where do you serve?
That’s really it. You don’t need flowery language or buzzwords. You need a description that sounds like you’d actually talk about your business if someone asked you at a coffee shop.
A few things to avoid:
- Keyword stuffing. Repeating “best massage in Annapolis massage therapy Annapolis massage near me” reads as spam to Google and to humans. Mention your service and your city naturally. Once is plenty.
- Mentions of competitors or comparisons. Google’s description rules prohibit this.
- URLs or phone numbers (Google will reject them, and your description may get truncated)
- Generic “premier provider of” or “leading specialist in” language. Everyone writes this. Nobody believes it.
You have up to 750 characters to work with, but only the first 250 characters show up in most previews. Front-load the important stuff. Tell people what you do and who you serve in the first sentence or two.
Here’s a quick test. Read your description out loud. If it makes you cringe a little, it’s time for a rewrite. You don’t have to do that rewrite right this minute. Just put it on the list.
What to Do If You Find Problems
First: take a deep breath. Finding things to fix is the whole point of an audit. That’s a win, not a failure.
Some fixes take 30 seconds (updating hours, uploading a few photos, correcting a typo in your address). Do those right now, while you’re here. Everything else goes on a short list.
Pick the thing that will have the biggest impact first. Usually, that’s categories or your description, since those are directly tied to whether you show up for the right searches. Block 20 minutes on your calendar this week to tackle one thing. Then do one thing next week. In a month, your profile will look completely different.
One note: some changes, especially category changes and description rewrites, trigger a quick Google review. Your edit might not show up for a day or two while Google checks it. Sometimes, changes might require you to verify your profile (again). Don’t panic. It’s normal.
One Thing to Do Every Month
Here’s the part that turns this 5-minute audit into a habit that actually moves the needle.
Once or twice a month, block 30 minutes, and do three quick things:
- Post something to your Google Business Profile. A seasonal update, an offer, a new photo, a quick tip. Google rewards profiles that look active.
- Glance through any new reviews and make sure you’ve responded to them.
- Check for user-suggested edits. Google sometimes lets customers suggest changes to your profile (new hours, a “permanently closed” note, a category change), and those can go live if you don’t push back. Always worth a quick look.
Reviews are a whole topic in themselves. Asking for them the right way, responding to the good and the not-so-good, what to do when someone leaves a review that feels unfair. I’ll cover that in another post. For now, just make sure you’re checking in.
Wrapping Up
Let’s recap the five things to check:
- Your categories
- Your NAP (name, address, phone)
- Your hours (including holiday hours)
- Your photos
- Your business description
Five minutes, once a month, and you’ll stay ahead of the vast majority of local businesses that set up their profile years ago and never touched it again.
You’ve got this. I mean that. This stuff isn’t as complicated or technical as the internet makes it sound. It’s just a matter of actually looking at what’s there and making a few small fixes.
And if you want to see how the rest of your local SEO setup stacks up, your website, your reviews, your citations, and everything else that helps you show up in local search, grab the Local SEO Quickstart Checklist from the Website Success Academy. It’s a free 5-day walkthrough that takes you through the whole picture in small, doable steps. No tech degree required.
If you want to go even deeper and actually work through local SEO hands-on, take a look at the Local SEO Lab. It’s a workshop where we walk through local keyword research, page optimization, citations, reviews, and more, live and together. Perfect if you’re the type who learns best by doing.
Either way, pick one thing from your sticky note list this week and fix it. That’s it. One thing. Small, consistent steps can build real local visibility over time.
You’re doing great. Now go take another look at that profile.