increasing visibility

A Google Business Profile is a powerful tool for local visibility, conversions, and overall trust for businesses.

By optimising your account correctly, you can be shown in what we call the map pack for certain search terms and ultimately attract more clicks to your business than the competition.

So, how do we actually optimise a profile in a way that moves the ranking and drives actual enquiries?

Setting up your profile correctly is a critical component for a local SEO strategy, which can directly influence whether your business appears in the local Map Pack, which are the listings that appear above the organic search results for local-intent keywords.

These are completely different from the search engine results that come up when you enter something into Google. Even if you don’t rank highly for search terms, being at the top of the local pack provides a great level of visibility, which aids in visibility .

Did you know that review velocity is a factor which contributes to being shown?

Did you know proximity to the location from the user searching is one of the primary ranking factors of being shown?

Setting up GBP Correctly

Explicit and implicit searches, where Google infers the location, are very important in the discovery of your services. When users search for services, Google shows data to match businesses with relevancy locally, so it’s key here to set your primary business category correctly in the first instance.

Search engines pull key information such as reviews, categories, location and services with active profiles signalling higher quality and reliability.

Business profiles that have complete and accurate profiles are easier to match to searches, and active profiles also signal higher quality and reliability. By understanding how Google evaluates ranking signals, we can position our business profile for success.

This comes down to 3 unique posts that measure why our pages should be shown over the competition, which ultimately decides if we are shown.

Relevency

Relevance measures how well your profile matches a search query.

Selecting accurate primary and secondary categories

Adding detailed services and products

Including relevant keywords in descriptions and updates

Distance

You cannot directly control proximity. However, you can:

Ensure your address is accurate

Define service areas correctly

Create separate listings for legitimate locations

Prominence

You business’s authority and trust signals. Google states that strong review signals can improve local rankings and visibility. We have also found the Google scrapes reviews for keywords.

Review volume and ratings

Review recency and responses

Profile activity (posts, updates, photos)
Overall online presence

All of these elements influence whether your GBP is going to be visible in the local-pack results. It’s important that you begin by getting a profile set up as soon as possible, as the verification process in some cases, can take several weeks. It is important to claim your business profile and submit verification to Google.

As a top tip, if you are trying to service multiple areas, most people set this as a service area rather than a central location. We would advise that if you can, try to set this as a physical location, as this will appear more prominently as Google looks for proximity.

Getting things done correctly

By having a good foundation this allows you to make sure you are focusing your attention on the right area to begin with.

Make sure your location and opening times match your website

Start with your Name, Address, and Phone number (NAP). This information must match your website and other listings exactly and must be consistent across ALL citations!

Incorrect hours lead to poor user experience and negative reviews, which could hurt your rankings over time.

Optimise Every Field on GBP

Each field in your Google Business Profile contributes to how Google understands and ranks your business. Accurate, complete, consistent, structured data improves relevance and visibility.

Make sure your primary category matches your industry. You also need to make sure your secondary category is optimised, to capture other services and only includes categories that also accurately reflect your business type.

Using keyword research, this can help find gaps and niche opportunities.

Focus Your Business Description For Conversions

Business descriptions do not directly influence ranking, although It does affect engagement and conversions as an overall factor.

By keeping services short and sweet, such as who you are, what you offer, and where you operate, this includes keywords naturally helping to describe the business.

FAQ

If you have any questions or want to book a Google Business Profile consultation drop us a message.

Drop us a message!

Google My Business is a free listing that enables you to feature your business on Google Search and Maps. The listing features important aspects such as your services offered, location, and customer reviews.

Google’s verification process is straightforward, involving processes such as sending you a postcard or making a phone call to you. It proves that you are indeed the owner of the firm and enables the edit functionality.

Your primary category is one of the strongest ranking signals. It tells Google what your business does and which searches you should appear for.

You should update your profile regularly with posts, photos, and business changes. Consistent activity could signals relevance and improves performance.

Yes. Review volume, recency, and rating all influence your visibility and conversion rates. Strong review profiles improve trust and rankings.

Increasing Google Business Profile visibility in the health industry

increasing visibility