Most underperforming Google Business Profiles are not missing some advanced trick. They are losing calls to basic gaps – wrong hours, a thin category, three photos from 2021. This check-up takes about 15 minutes with just your phone, and it covers the issues we find most often in audits.

Open your profile in the Google Maps app or search your business name while signed in to the owner account, and go down the list.

The nine checks

  1. Your name matches your signage. The profile name must be your real-world business name – no bolted-on keywords like "Best Plumber Mississauga". Stuffed names can trigger suspensions, and a suspension costs you weeks.
  2. Your primary category is exact. "Plumber" and "Plumbing supply store" rank for completely different searches. Pick the most specific primary category that matches your core service, then add secondary categories for the rest.
  3. Hours are right – including holidays. "Closed" at the moment someone searches sends them straight to a competitor. Set special hours for holidays now, not the night before.
  4. Phone number is local and consistent. The number on your profile should match your website and everywhere else your business is listed. Mismatches quietly erode Google's confidence in your data.
  5. The website link goes to the right page. Ideally your homepage or the service page that matches your primary category – not a dead link, a Facebook page, or a generic booking portal.
  6. Services are filled in with descriptions. List every service you offer with a sentence or two each. This is text Google reads to match you with searches, and most businesses leave it half empty.
  7. You have 10+ real, recent photos. Real jobs, real team, real storefront – not stock images. Profiles with fresh photos get more clicks, and adding a few each month keeps the profile active.
  8. The Q&A section is not running unattended. Anyone can post questions – and answers – on your profile. Seed it with your five most common customer questions and answer them yourself from the owner account.
  9. Recent reviews have replies. Scroll your last ten reviews. If the newest replies are months old, spend five of your fifteen minutes fixing that today.

Two bonus checks if you have five more minutes

Post something. A short update, offer, or finished-job photo keeps the profile visibly alive. Weekly is ideal; monthly is the floor.

Add a booking or quote link. If you use online scheduling, connect it so searchers can book without hunting through your website. Fewer steps, more jobs.

Why these small things move rankings

Google ranks local results on relevance, distance, and prominence. Categories, services, and your website link feed relevance. Photos, posts, reviews, and replies feed prominence. And consistency of your name, address, and phone across the web is the trust layer underneath all of it – which is why citation cleanup is usually the first thing we do for new clients.

The takeaway: run these nine checks once, then put the recurring ones – photos, posts, review replies, holiday hours – on a monthly calendar reminder. Or book a free audit and we will run the full version for you, including the parts you cannot see from the dashboard.