Your Google Business Profile is the best hour you'll spend

An hour on your Google Business Profile will do more for a local trade or shop than a month of almost anything else you could buy. It's free. And in the UK there's no realistic alternative: Statcounter had Google on 91.19% of UK search in June 2026, Bing second on 6.22%.

Most profile advice online is years stale or simply made up. Here's what's true, and what to do with the hour.

What decides who shows in the map pack

Google says it plainly on its own help page: "Local results are mainly based on relevance, distance, and popularity." Prominence comes partly from "how many websites link to your business and how many reviews you have." The same page says there's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking, whatever the cold caller told you.

Beyond that, the best read is Whitespark's Local Search Ranking Factors report, published 6 November 2025 as the 2026 edition. It splits the local pack roughly 32% Business Profile signals, 19% on-page, 16% reviews, 15% links. Informed opinion rather than telemetry: 47 practitioners rating 187 factors, not anything Google published.

Your primary category is the biggest single lever

That report makes the primary category the single most important relevance signal for the map pack. Ten minutes, and nobody knows the business better than you.

Google's rule is a sentence test. Pick categories that complete "this business IS a", not "this business HAS a". Use as few as you can, take the most specific one that fits, and don't treat the field as a keyword box. Google adds the parent categories itself. A bakery that sells decent coffee is a Bakery, not a Coffee Shop. The dashboard allows around nine extras, a limit the industry reports rather than Google.

The Services list, which almost nobody fills in

Most under-used field on the profile. Sterling Sky tested Google's pre-defined services twice: no impact in 2019, then clear ranking gains on the 2022 retest, usually within 24 to 72 hours of adding them.

Twenty minutes of ticking boxes with real testing behind it, so do this one first. If you're a plumber, tick everything you genuinely do: boiler repair, tap installation, drain unblocking, radiator fitting. Not the jobs you'd like one day.

Service areas don't work how you think

Up to 20 areas, set by city, postcode or region. No radius any more. Google says the boundaries shouldn't stretch more than about two hours' driving from base, and if customers never come to your premises you must remove the address. Edits can take up to 48 hours to show.

The bit owners get wrong: adding 20 towns does not make you rank in 20 towns. Distance from the searcher still dominates. The field describes where you work. It doesn't advertise you there.

The name field is where listings go to die

Your name on Google has to be the real-world one, the same as the shopfront, the website and the invoices. Google prohibits taglines, trademark symbols, fully capitalised words, opening hours, phone numbers, URLs, service descriptors and location descriptors in that field.

So "Dave's Plumbing" cannot become "Dave's Plumbing | Emergency Boiler Repair Manchester". Most common DIY mistake, most punished. Your competitor two towns over is probably doing it. Report them through the business redressal form rather than copying them.

What actually gets a listing suspended

Top of Sterling Sky's suspension list: too many edits to important fields at once. It trips an anti-hijacking wire. Freshly claimed profile, five fields changed in one sitting, gone by teatime. Stagger changes over a fortnight.

After that: no real physical presence at the address (a rented mailing address you don't work from isn't eligible), a hacked owner account taking down every profile it touches, duplicates, and high-risk trades like locksmiths. "Soft" and "hard" suspension are industry shorthand. Google says suspended or disabled.

If it happens, fix the violation first, then appeal once with evidence: company registration, trade licences, a utility bill. Have it open before you start: once the evidence form appears you get 60 minutes to submit or the documents won't attach. Reported turnarounds run days to weeks.

Verification is video now: at least 30 seconds, unedited, no breaks, filmed and uploaded live from a phone, showing street signs or landmarks, the tools you work with, and proof you manage the place. Gas Safe card, NICEIC paperwork, the signwritten van. The commonest failure is the van name not matching the profile name.

Photos, and one myth worth killing

The specs: JPG or PNG, 10 KB to 5 MB, 720 by 720 pixels recommended, in focus and well lit, no heavy filters or significant alterations. You'll also read that Google banned stock and AI images in 2026. There's no such written policy. What's real is that photos not depicting your actual business get rejected. Fifteen phone shots of the van, the workshop and a finished bathroom will do.

Reviews: Google's rules and UK law are two different things

Google states it outright: "More reviews and positive ratings can help your business's local ranking." Its policy still bans incentives, pressuring customers on the premises, asking staff to solicit a set number, and asking for reviews that name a member of staff. Asking is fine. Directing what they write is not.

Then the UK layer, which most agency blogs skip. Fake and undisclosed incentivised reviews are illegal here under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (in force since April 2025), with fines of up to 10% of global annual turnover. On 27 March 2026 the CMA opened its first review cases under the Act into five businesses, including the funeral group Dignity, over staff allegedly asked to write positive reviews, and Pasta Evangelists, over discounts for five-star ones. Investigations, not findings.

"Ask the lads to leave us a review." "[your usual discount] off next time for five stars." Both get said casually. Note the asymmetry: a labelled incentive might satisfy UK law and still breach Google's policy, which has no labelling exception.

The best current data on behaviour is BrightLocal's 2026 Local Consumer Review Survey. It polls US consumers, so treat it as directional. 47% won't consider a business with fewer than 20 reviews, and 74% weight the last three months more heavily. Twelve reviews from 2023 aren't the asset you think.

Posts, and two dead features

Sterling Sky posted weekly for nine weeks across dormant listings, tracked 441 keywords, and measured no ranking movement. A 2021 study, never overturned. Post because a human might read it, not because Google counts it. Posts older than six months are archived unless you set a date range, and a phone number in the description can get one rejected. Paying a retainer purely for posting is poor value, and we sell monthly SEO.

Q&A is gone: Google's developer changelog dates the API's discontinuation to 3 November 2025. Built-in chat went in July 2024. And in June 2026 Google auto-added WhatsApp numbers to profiles in bulk, some plain wrong, as Search Engine Roundtable reported. Check which number is on yours.

Where the hour goes

• 10 minutes: primary category, the most specific one that completes "this business IS a".
• 20 minutes: every applicable pre-defined option in the Services list.
• 10 minutes: service areas by town or postcode, plus hours including bank holidays.
• 15 minutes: the job photos on your phone.
• 5 minutes: message your last few happy customers by name. No incentive, no script.

Not worth your own time: a suspension appeal while the phone isn't ringing, video verification when signage and profile name don't match, anything that changes the registered name or address. Hand those to somebody who's done them fifty times.

How long do Google Business Profile changes take to appear?

Service area edits up to 48 hours, and Google doesn't promise that for every change. Photos within a day or two, and publicly only once verified. Services list changes have moved rankings within 24 to 72 hours in Sterling Sky's testing.

Is it legal to offer a discount for a Google review in the UK?

Undisclosed incentivised reviews are illegal under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, with fines of up to 10% of global turnover, and on 27 March 2026 the CMA opened investigations into five businesses over review practices. Even a labelled incentive, which may satisfy UK law, breaches Google's policy. Ask, and offer nothing.