Google Business Profile optimisation checklist 2026 (UK edition)

This is the actual checklist we run when a new client comes on board. Nothing here is secret — it's all just work. Run through it yourself, honestly, and you'll know exactly what state your profile is in.

Part 1: Foundation (do once, do properly)

Ownership & identity

• Profile claimed and verified, with owner-level access you control
• Business name is your real business name — no bolted-on keywords or towns ("Smith & Sons" not "Smith & Sons | Emergency Plumber Leeds 24/7")
• One profile per real location — no duplicates (search your own name plus old addresses to check)

Categories

• Primary category matches your highest-value service — this is the single most powerful setting you have
• Secondary categories added for every service you genuinely offer
• No aspirational categories for things you don't do

Core information

• Hours accurate, including bank holidays
• UK phone number, ideally local, identical everywhere it appears
• Website linked — to the most relevant page, not always the homepage
• Service areas set honestly (and home address hidden if you work at customers' premises)

Part 2: Content (an afternoon's work)

Services & description

• Every service listed individually, each with a description
• Business description using all 750 characters — written for a human, naturally mentioning what you do and the areas you cover
• Attributes ticked for everything that applies

Photos

• Logo and cover photo set
• 10+ real photos: jobs, your van, your team, your premises
• No stock photos — customers can tell, and so can Google's image systems

Part 3: The monthly rhythm (where rankings are actually won)

This is the part most businesses skip, and it's the part that separates climbing profiles from parked ones:

• Photos: one or two real ones a week
• Posts: a steady monthly quota of updates, offers and job showcases — our packages build this in as a fixed number (10–30 a month) because "post regularly" without a number never survives a busy fortnight
• Reviews: ask every happy customer at the moment the job's done; reply to every review within days
• Q&A: seed the questions customers actually ask, answer any new ones fast
• Accuracy sweep: hours, services, offers still right?

Part 4: Beyond the profile

The profile is the engine, but two outside factors feed it:

• Citations: your name, address and phone on Yell, Thomson Local, Checkatrade and sector directories — consistent to the letter. Old addresses and stray phone formats quietly erode trust.
• Landing page: a fast page per core service, NAP matching your profile exactly, LocalBusiness schema.

For the full step-by-step on both — and how it all fits together — see our complete UK guide to ranking on Google Maps.

Scoring yourself

Be harsh: tick only what's genuinely done. 25+ ticks — you're in good shape; keep the rhythm. 15–25 — the foundation work will move you noticeably within weeks. Under 15 — there's real ranking headroom sitting on the table, and fixing it is a 3–6 month climb, not a miracle.

Not sure where you stand even after the checklist? The fastest way to find out is from the outside: get a free rank check and we'll show you exactly where your profile ranks across your patch — by hand, within 48 hours.