What is Google Business Profile?
What is Google Business Profile?
Why is Google Business Profile important to me?
Your business GBP account is the doorway into Google Maps and Reviews. Without this account, your business will never show up in Google Maps, and you can’t collect or respond to reviews. If someone wanted to look up my reviews before hiring me, here is what they would see: 
The area on the right is my Google Business Profile listing. Notice all the different parts – each of these are sections you can fill out in your GBP account for your business. If an area is left blank, it will not show on the listing. This gives Google less information about your business during searches and makes your listing look less robust than your competition.
GBP Sections of great importance
Here are a few sections that are a priority for your GBP listing.
- Address and hours – you will not show up in Google Maps without an address. If you are a business that works from home, you still need to list your address. You can check a box that will not display the address, but it still needs to be there. Phone number is so significant. People often search for your business from a cell phone and can call directly with that phone number. Also, the hours are necessary – if someone searches during your open hours, it will say you are open. It will say you are closed if it is outside your published hours.
- Reviews make a huge difference in calls and traffic to your website. Many people searching the Internet look at reviews first, then decide to contact you or not. Having reviews directly on your website is excellent. However, you get more benefits from reviews in Google now. Your GBP listing pulls reviews from other sites as well – like Facebook and Yelp. They are found under Reviews from the Web – you can see mine is finding 5 Facebook reviews. This is not very accurate – I currently have 20 Facebook reviews.
- Posts section – there is a Post area where you can add a post directly into your GBP account. It will remain for seven days on your GBP account and show in the listing. It goes away after seven days but can be seen if someone clicks on the “view previous posts” text. Also, if you are posting an event, it will remain visible until the event is past. That is a way to get your posts to stay live longer than seven days. Update 2021 – Posts no longer expire after 7 days.
GBP seems like a lot of work – why do I care?
I know businesses that either do not have a website or are so old and outdated that it does not rank at all in any search result. I also know that (for at least some of these people) they collect Google Reviews and get plenty of phone calls for their business. A robust Google Business Profile account can make your web presence very productive for your business.
GBP seems complicated – Can you do it for me?
Google Business Profile is something that Premium Websites can do for you. We offer three packages – one will be perfect for you. The first is for businesses that we created websites for in the past. You get a better deal because we already have a great understanding of your business, and we have most of the items needed. These items are:
- Name, Address, Phone, Hours
- Business Description
- Descriptions of all your services or products
- Logo in high resolution
- Many images
- Videos (if your company has any)
Having all this information readily available will save you money, and your GBP account can be created quickly by us. We also offer a maintenance package – we will go into your GBP account one time each month and add a post, update images, add any new services, etc. You need to email us the information, and we will take care of the rest.
GMB Account Creation for Non-Website Clients
- Add Business Information
- Add Business Description
- Add Services and/or Products (up to 15)
- Add Logo, Images, Video
GMB Account Creation for Website Clients
- Add Business Information
- Add Business Description
- Add Services and/or Products (up to 15)
- Add Logo, Images, Video
GMB Account Maintenance
- Review Business Information
- Make changes submitted by client
- Add up to 5 more products | services each month
- Add more Images, Videos supplied by client
** GBP Maintenance will be automatically billed the same day each month. The physical maintenance will occur in the first week of each month. The client is responsible for getting Premium Websites the new information to add by the last week of the prior month.
Google Business Profile FAQs
The Knowledge Graph is the block of information pulled from Google Business Profiles that show on a search results page. The Knowledge Graph pulls in information from your Google Business Profile as well as other places on the web. For example, it might display some reviews from Facebook. Here is a partial image of my Knowledge Graph. The entire Knowledge Graph is too long to get in 1 screenshot.
Google allows business owners to add posts to their profiles. These accept images, a block of text, and a link or call to action button.
The different categories are COVID updates, Offers, Events, and What’s New.
These posts show on your Knowledge Graph when someone searches for your business. They make your business stand out from the competition, especially if your competition is not using this feature. They also let your future clients know that you are staying current within your industry and are the person to go to.
Yes! Products can be added through the Info tab or the Products tab. This is a great way to feature the products that you sell on your website. You can put them into categories to organize them.
Link to the actual product page on your website for purchase.
Products get highlighted on the mobile version of Google Business Profile.
This is an easy way to add content to your GBP account regularly.
Yes! Services can be added through either the Info tab or the Services tab. They get added per business category that you added to your account in the Info tab.
You can add all your services and include either a price or a price range. Descriptions can also be added. These will show on your account when someone looks at your mobile version.
One thing to watch for, Google tends to add services for you that they think you might offer. I check this area frequently and find that I have to accept their changes, then delete the services that do not apply. If you decide to keep one that they have added, fill it out completely.
The types of posts that can be added to your Google Business Profile account are as follows:
- Offers: These are specials or deals of your products or services with a starting and ending date. You can attach coupon codes to these posts. You can link to where the offer can be purchased.
- What’s New: General blog posts. These can be on any topic but should be educational. They can also be announcements for new products, new services, new hours, etc.
- Events: These are events that have a specific date and time. You can link these posts to anywhere on the Internet where they can register or purchase the event. These posts will stay active until the event has passed.
Posts used to expire after seven days. That is no longer true. You will still get an email from Google telling you your last post is about to expire. I take that as a reminder that I need to make another post.
Posting regularly in Google Business Profile helps keep your GBP profile higher in the search results.
Yes! Videos can be added by going to the Photos tab and selecting Video. The videos need to be under 30 seconds, under 75 MB, and over 720p resolution. They take a while to upload and up to 24 hours to render and view your GBP account.
Google Business Profile (GBP) is Google’s program to get businesses listed in its Map area. If you do not have a GBP account, your business will not get listed in Maps. GBP is also where companies collect reviews, respond to reviews, make blog posts, add services, and add other information about their business.