Services

Why should you add services to your Profile?

There are two major reasons to add services to your Google Business Profile.

1. Ranking value

For the longest time, the Services section of the Google Business Profile (GBP) had absolutely no impact on rankings. However, that changed in 2023 when Joy Hawkins published a very compelling article about Predefined Services — the services that Google suggests you add to your Profile — and how they might actually impact rankings.

We even conducted our own tests just to make sure:

The bottom line:

1. Services can definitely give your GBP a ranking boost, especially for lower-competition, long-tail keywords.
2. Both pre-defined services (the ones Google suggests for your GBP) and custom services seem to impact rankings. Predefined services may carry more weight, but local SEOs are still testing to learn more.

2. Conversion value

The Services feature can enhance your Profile with rich details and information about your services that the business description doesn’t allow for. It’s an awesome way to inform customers about the services you provide and it’s easier to read at a glance.

Another cool thing about GBP Services is that they trigger “Provides” justifications in the search results.

When someone looks up “car accident attorney”, the businesses who have listed this term as a service on their GBP will get a Justification in the results saying “Provides: Car accident attorney”, which is awesome for two reasons:

• It makes the profile stand out immediately
• It shows the searcher that this business provides exactly what they are looking for

How to add services to your GBP

You can add and edit your services via the NMX.

When you click the “Edit services” button, you will see that services are grouped by category.

💡Tip: This is another reason why adding all the additional categories that are relevant to your business (and watching out for new categories every month) is important. The more categories you have, the more predefined services you’ll be able to list and rank for.

To add a predefined service, click “add more services” under one of your categories and see what Google has suggested for your business:

Then, select the services that your business offers and click Save. If you offer a service, but you don’t see it in the list Google provides, just click “Add custom service” at the bottom and enter it yourself.

✍️ Note: It’s important to check for new predefined services on your Profile consistently. Google sometimes adds services to GBPs without asking the business owner for approval or even notifying them.

This is actually one of the reasons we developed our Local Platform software. It automatically monitors your GBP for changes (made by Google, by a shady competitor, or by someone managing the Profile), notifies you, and gives you the option to accept or reject those changes. And only costs $1/mo — check it out here!

Once you’ve added all your services, you can go back to your services list and click on each service to edit it. You can:

• Change the name of the service (if it’s a custom service, not a predefined one)
• Add a description of the service (this is important and we speak more on it below)
• Include price (or price range) of the service
• Delete the service

We recommend you add as much information as you can for every service you offer to increase the conversion value of this section of your GBP.

Don’t forget to write descriptions for your Services

Here’s the deal: Most of your competitors aren’t adding descriptions to their services, so this is your chance to make your Profile stand out. By adding descriptions, you’re not just listing your services — you’re selling them.

Think of each description as an additional advertisement or sales pitch for your business. Highlight why customers should choose your service over the competition. What sets you apart? What makes your service the best option?

Just compare the services section of a business not adding descriptions with one that is:

💡Bonus tip: Put emojis in the titles of the services to make them stand out even more 😉