When this post was first published in 2022, the big news was the rename from Google My Business to Google Business Profile. That transition is long done. Google Business Profile optimisation itself has changed dramatically since then, and the way Google uses a profile to decide where a business ranks in local search has changed even more.
Profiles set up a few years ago, with an address filled in, categories chosen, and little activity since, are losing ground quietly. What drove results in 2022 requires meaningful updates today.
Originally published March 2022 · Updated April 2026
The five things your Google Business Profile listing still needs to get right
Before examining what has changed, the basics remain essential. These are the non-negotiables, the floor every serious profile needs to cover:
Primary business category. This remains the single most important signal for local pack visibility. The category that most accurately describes the core service outperforms a broader one every time.
Additional business services. Three to five secondary services or categories that reflect what the business actually offers. Relevance matters here. Google pays attention to it.
A completely filled-out profile. Name, address, phone number, website, hours, description, attributes. Every blank field is a missed opportunity. Gaps in the profile are the first thing to address.
Keywords in the business description. A strong description includes the terms customers actually search for. The most effective language mirrors how someone would describe the service when searching for it on Google.
Positive customer reviews. Quantity and consistency of reviews have always mattered. Their role has grown considerably, covered in more detail below.
When all five are solid, the foundation is in place, and you have began with solid Google Business Profile optimisation. The challenge is that serious competitors have the same foundation covered. When everyone has the basics right, something else determines who ranks at the top.
What's changed with Google, it now rewards profiles that look alive
Until relatively recently, Google treated a GBP a bit like a directory listing. Accurate details, consistent name, address, and phone number across directories, and the work was largely done. NAP consistency across listing sites was the defining signal.
That is no longer the complete picture. Google Business Profile optimisation has become what search marketers now call a live engagement surface. Google actively rewards businesses whose profiles show ongoing activity: fresh photos, regular posts, recent reviews, and consistent engagement. A profile with months of inactivity loses ground to competitors who have understood this shift.
Fresh photos matter more than most businesses realise
Research from Birdeye’s State of Google Business Profile 2025 report shows that verified profiles with recent photos consistently receive more website visits, direction requests, and calls than profiles with infrequently updated imagery.
The important word is recent. A profile with eighty photos uploaded three years ago sends a different freshness signal than a profile with photos added steadily over recent months. Google distinguishes between the two, and it factors into visibility.
A recurring reminder to upload new photos at least twice a month works well in practice. Real images perform best: recent work, the current team, premises, seasonal activity. For service businesses, before-and-after shots and job-site photos carry particular weight because they are authentic and specific.
Uploading fifty photos in one batch and leaving the profile untouched for another year produces weaker results than consistent, steady activity.
Opening hours as a ranking factor
The 2026 Local Search Ranking Factors report identifies being open when a user searches as the fifth most important factor for local pack rankings. Listed hours communicate more than when to visit. Google uses them actively to assess whether showing a business is useful at the moment of the search.
Two practical actions follow from this. Keeping hours accurate and current is essential, with seasonal variations and bank holiday adjustments updated in GBP in advance. For businesses with any flexibility in how they operate, extending listed availability in any realistic direction has a measurable impact on when and how often the profile appears.
Reviews are a reputation sign and ranking differentiator
Reviews have always mattered for local SEO. Recent research has clarified exactly how they matter, and the finding is significant.
Analysis of over 3,000 Google Business Profiles shows that proximity to the searcher drives roughly 55% of local visibility overall. In the top positions, proximity’s influence drops significantly, and review count alongside the keywords used within reviews becomes far more important.
Proximity gets a business into consideration. Reviews determine where it ranks.
Several points follow from this.
Asking for reviews consistently, as an ongoing habit rather than a one-off push, signals an active and trusted business far better than a burst of ten reviews followed by silence. Responding to every review, positive and negative, is an active engagement signal. When customers mention specific services or locations in their reviews, that keyword relevance helps Google understand what the business does and where. Asking specific questions, “how did you find our web design service?” rather than a generic request, encourages the kind of detail that strengthens relevance.
GBP posts are the most underused tool in local SEO
Google Posts are short updates, offers, events, news, tips, that appear directly on a profile. They act as a freshness signal showing Google the profile is active, give searchers more reason to engage, and engagement itself is now a measurable ranking factor.
A realistic and effective rhythm is one post per week, or at minimum two per month. Short, relevant updates perform well: a brief note about recent work, a seasonal offer, a useful tip for the target audience. Consistent activity across several months compounds more effectively than occasional bursts.
Your monthly Google Business Profile optimisation checklist
This takes around twenty minutes once it becomes a habit:
- Upload two or more new photos, real and recent and specific to the work
- Check and update opening hours, including any upcoming bank holidays or changes
- Publish one or two GBP posts
- Respond to any new reviews received that month
- Confirm that the business description, services, and contact details remain accurate
- For any recently completed notable work, add it to posts or photos.
Twenty minutes a month, done consistently, puts a business ahead of the majority of local competitors still treating their profile as a static listing.
The businesses winning in local search right now treat their Google Business Profile as an active part of their marketing. Consistent attention each month, compounding over time, produces results that irregular or one-off activity cannot replicate.
The gap between a well-maintained profile and a neglected one has grown considerably since 2022.
Most of the actions above are straightforward to implement, and the cumulative effect builds quickly with consistency.
To discuss auditing a current profile or building a local SEO strategy around it, get in touch with the team at Beech to discuss Google Business Profile optimisation. We’d be happy to take a look.
This post was originally published in March 2022 and has been fully updated in April 2026 to reflect current Google Business Profile best practices and the 2026 Local Search Ranking Factors report.
Read the original 2022 post
Google is constantly changing things and late last year, they announced that it the popular Google My Business would be renamed to Google Business Profile.
Google’s reasoning for the new name is to “keep things simple” and sometime in 2022 the Google My Business app will be retired completely.
Here at Beech Web Services we wondered how the change might affect the way in which we and our clients use this powerful tool.
Why did it change?
The primary reason for the change is so that small businesses can take advantage of the upgraded merchant experience on Google Maps and Search.
In the near future, additional tools to enhance your online presence will be available exclusively on Search and Maps. It will be easier to manage your profile and understand how your business is performing.
For single location businesses already using Google My Business, this means you can edit the most important updates and the information that people see when they search for your business can be done without having to go to access the Control Panel in the GMB website listing or mobile app.
If you are new to Google and want to set up an account, you can do this by entering your business in the Google search bar and adding an account from there.
Google have made it very straightforward to do this, as they want to encourage small businesses to use Google as the mechanism for new customers to find them.
Hint for setting up your account: make sure you have all your marketing content ready to add as it will ask you for additional supporting material (hours of operation, photos, opening date etc). If you can add them in straight away, it makes the verification process easier and will ensure your profile has information to help your customer make an informed decision about what you offer (and where they can buy it via Google Maps!).
How will multiple listings be affected?
But what if you aren’t a business that has only one location? What if you have multiple shop or office locations and need to have more options available to add your business profile?
If you manage multiple locations for your business, you will still continue to use an interface like Google My Business but it will be renamed to Business Profile Manager. Continuing to use the GMB style interface will allow the flexibility to add more appropriate information for being a larger/multi-site business.
If you want new paying customers to find you, having a Google My Business Profile listing is no longer optional — it’s an essential part of any business’s online presence.
Here are the 5 essential elements that and can single-handedly improve a business’s local ranking.
- Primary business category
- Additional business services (3–5 maximum)
- Completely filled out Google Business Profile information
- Keywords in the description
- Positive customer reviews