Google Business Profile: 10 Tips to Get More Local Customers

Your Most Important Digital Storefront

If you run a local business, your Google Business Profile (GBP) is probably the most important marketing asset you have, and the most neglected. According to BrightLocal's 2025 Local Consumer Survey, 87% of consumers used Google to evaluate local businesses in 2025, and 56% of actions taken on a GBP listing were website visits, direction requests, or phone calls.

Your GBP listing is not just a directory entry. It is a decision-making tool. When someone searches "best coffee shop near me" or "auto detailing in [your city]," your profile is competing against every other local business in real time. The ones that win are not always the best businesses. They are the best-optimized profiles.

Here are 10 tips that actually move the needle.

Tip 1: Complete Every Single Field

This sounds obvious, but BrightLocal's data shows that 49% of GBP listings are missing at least one key piece of information. Google's algorithm favors complete profiles because complete profiles give searchers better information.

Go through every field:

• Business name: Exact legal name. Do not keyword-stuff (e.g., "Joe's Coffee" not "Joe's Coffee - Best Espresso Lattes Coffee Shop Downtown").
• Category: Choose your primary category carefully. This is the single most important ranking signal. Then add all relevant secondary categories.
• Address and service area: Exact and verified.
• Phone number: A local number performs better than a toll-free number for local businesses.
• Hours: Including special hours for holidays. Outdated hours are the number-one consumer complaint about GBP listings (GatherUp, 2025).
• Website URL: Link to your homepage or a dedicated landing page.
• Attributes: Wheelchair accessibility, outdoor seating, free WiFi, LGBTQ+ friendly, etc. These appear in search results and influence click-through rates.
• Business description: 750 characters to explain what you do. Use natural language that includes your core services and location. Do not keyword-stuff.

Tip 2: Post Weekly Updates

Google Business Profile has a built-in posting feature that most businesses ignore entirely. GBP posts show up directly in your listing and signal to Google that your business is active and engaged.

What to post:

• New products or services: "Just launched our summer menu" with a photo.
• Events: "Live music this Friday, 7-9 PM" with event details.
• Offers: "20% off first-time details this month" with a call-to-action button.
• Updates: "We have expanded our hours. Now open until 10 PM on weekends."

Businesses that post weekly to GBP see 7x more profile views than those that do not (Whitespark Local Search Ranking Factors, 2025). Posts expire after 7 days in search results, which is why weekly posting is the minimum effective cadence.

Tip 3: Get (and Respond to) Reviews Strategically

Reviews are the second most important ranking factor for local search (Whitespark, 2025). But it is not just about having more reviews than your competitors. Quality, recency, and your response rate all matter.

Quantity: More reviews is better. A business with 150 reviews will generally outrank one with 15, all else being equal.

Recency: Google weights recent reviews more heavily. 10 reviews in the past month signals more than 100 reviews from three years ago. This means you need a consistent system for generating reviews, not a one-time push.

Response rate: Respond to every single review, positive or negative. Google has confirmed that responding to reviews improves local ranking (Google Business Profile Help Documentation, 2025). For your complete strategy on this, see our guide to asking for reviews the right way.

Quality: Reviews that mention specific services, products, or experiences are more valuable than generic "Great place!" reviews. When asking for reviews, prompt customers to mention what they came in for: "Would you mind sharing what you loved about your haircut today?"

For a deeper dive into how reviews impact your visibility, see our Google reviews and local SEO guide.

Tip 4: Add Photos Every Week

Photos are engagement magnets. Google reports that businesses with more than 100 photos get 520% more calls and 2,717% more direction requests than the average business (Google internal data cited in Sterling Sky, 2025). That is not a typo.

What photos to add:

• Interior and exterior shots: Updated seasonally to reflect current decor
• Team photos: Customers want to see the humans behind the business
• Product and food photos: High-quality, well-lit images of what you sell
• Behind-the-scenes content: The kitchen, the prep process, the craftsmanship
• Customer photos: (With permission) Customers enjoying your products or services

Aim for 5-10 new photos per month. Quality matters more than quantity, but consistency matters most.

Tip 5: Use the Q&A Section Proactively

Most businesses treat the Q&A section of their GBP listing as reactive. Someone asks a question, they answer it (eventually). But you can seed this section yourself.

Log into your GBP, ask common questions as the business owner, and answer them:

• "Do you offer gluten-free options?" - "Yes! We have 6 gluten-free entrees and our full dessert menu is gluten-free."
• "Is parking available?" - "We have a free parking lot behind the building with 20 spaces."
• "Do I need an appointment?" - "Walk-ins are welcome, but appointments guarantee your preferred time. Book at [link]."

This serves two purposes: it provides immediate information to potential customers and it adds keyword-rich content to your listing that helps with search relevance.

Tip 6: Choose the Right Primary Category

Your primary category is the single most important ranking signal in local search. If you are classified as "Coffee Shop" but your main competitor is classified as "Espresso Bar," you could be showing up for different searches despite serving the same product.

Research which category drives the most relevant traffic:

• Search your main keywords and see what categories top-ranking competitors use
• Test switching your primary category for 30 days and track impression changes in GBP Insights
• Use all available secondary categories to capture additional search queries

Google added 20+ new business categories in 2025 alone. Review the current list to see if a more specific category now exists for your business.

Tip 7: Enable and Optimize Messaging

GBP messaging allows customers to text your business directly from your Google listing. According to Google's 2025 local business data, listings with messaging enabled receive 35% more customer interactions than those without.

Tips for success:

• Respond within 5 minutes. Google tracks your response time and displays it on your listing. A "Usually responds in a few minutes" badge dramatically increases message volume.
• Set up automated welcome messages: "Thanks for reaching out! We typically respond within 5 minutes. If this is urgent, call us at [number]."
• Have a dedicated person monitoring messages during business hours. Slow responses are worse than no messaging at all.

Tip 8: Track Performance with GBP Insights

GBP provides built-in analytics that most businesses never look at. Check your Insights dashboard monthly for:

• Search queries: What people are actually searching to find you. This tells you what keywords matter.
• Customer actions: Calls, direction requests, website visits, messages. Track these month-over-month.
• Photo views: How your photos compare to competitors in your category.
• Search type: Direct (searched your business name) vs. discovery (searched a category or product). A healthy business should have strong discovery searches, meaning new customers are finding you.

Use these insights to inform your strategy. If "birthday dinner [your city]" is driving searches but you do not offer birthday specials, that is a missed opportunity.

Tip 9: Keep Your Information Accurate Across the Web

Google cross-references your GBP information with data from other directories (Yelp, TripAdvisor, Apple Maps, Facebook, industry-specific directories). If your name, address, or phone number (NAP) is inconsistent across these platforms, it confuses Google and can hurt your ranking.

Audit your listings on:

• Yelp
• TripAdvisor (if applicable)
• Apple Maps
• Facebook
• Bing Places
• Industry-specific directories (OpenTable for restaurants, Mindbody for wellness, etc.)

Ensure your NAP is identical everywhere. Even small differences ("Suite 200" vs. "Ste 200" vs. "Ste. 200") can create issues.

Tip 10: Use Products and Services Menus

GBP allows you to add detailed product and service listings with descriptions and prices. This feature is underused but powerful because it adds keyword-rich content directly to your profile and gives customers pricing information before they call.

For each service or product:

• Write a clear, benefit-focused description
• Include the price or price range
• Add a high-quality photo
• Link to the relevant page on your website

This is especially impactful for service-based businesses (salons, spas, detailing shops) where customers want to compare prices before choosing a provider.

The Compound Effect

None of these tips is revolutionary on its own. The magic is in doing all 10 consistently. A complete profile with weekly posts, fresh photos, a steady stream of recent reviews, active Q&A, and accurate information creates a listing that Google wants to show and customers want to click.

Think of your GBP as a living document, not a set-it-and-forget-it entry. Spend 30 minutes per week on maintenance: post an update, upload photos, respond to reviews, check your analytics. That 30 minutes per week generates more local visibility than most paid advertising campaigns.

Use our retention score to see how your overall customer engagement stacks up, and our benchmarks tool to compare your metrics against other businesses in your industry. Regulr complements your GBP strategy by turning the customers who find you through Google into repeat visitors, automatically tracking their behavior and sending the right follow-up at the right time so that every new Google customer has the best chance of becoming a regular.

Explore our Restaurant Retention Guide and Restaurant Review Management Playbook for the complete strategy.

Brian Boesen

Founder of Regulr and Denver Curated

I built Denver Curated into a local marketing platform reaching 300,000+ people across Denver, Austin, Chicago, and LA. Now I build retention technology at Regulr. I write about keeping customers because I have run the campaigns myself.