The Definitive Guide to Google Business Profile Optimization

Location and Areas

Address
Physical Location Businesses
If customers can visit you in person, then you may publish your address.

The current recommended best practice for suite numbers is to place it on the second address line and enter it like #300. Google completely ignores suite numbers. They do not factor suites into consistency in any way, no matter where you put them. But, they are important for getting your customers to your store/office in the least hassle-free way. So adding the suite number is for customer experience. Google normalizes data, which means there are acceptable abbreviations for standard address data (ie. both of these are okay: Junction = Jct) – here’s a list if you’re not sure what’s an a-okay variation.

If your business is located within another business/building there is a special feature to add this information to your profile. This feature is within Maps (click here to jump down and learn more about the feature). 

Service Area Businesses or Hybrid Businesses 
If customers do not come to you then you will need to set a service area based on the regions, cities,  Zip/Postal Codes, or districts that your business serves. When updating your business information, you have the option of entering your address, service area, or both.

(1) Service Area Businesses – If you don’t serve customers at your business address, leave the address field blank and only enter your service area.

(2) Hybrid Businesses – If you serve customers at your business address and you travel to visit or deliver your goods or services to customers, then you can show your storefront address, set specific hours for your store, and designate a service area.

Your business can set a maximum of 20 service areas and should be no farther than up to 2 hours of driving time from your base business location.

Hours
Add your regular business hours. Also make sure to use the Special Hours feature so that you can prepare in advance for holiday hours, or irregular/one-off changes in business hours for team days, events, and so on.

Searchers want to be informed with data they can trust, and the most accurate business hours. There is nothing worse than checking a business’s hours and planning a visit, only to find out it’s closed once you arrive.

Hours For Appointment Only Businesses
Right now there is no feature available for appointment-only businesses. If you don’t run regular hours at your location, or if someone can’t just come visit at a specific set time you will need to leave the hours section blank.

More Hours
The more hours feature allows you to post special hours for specific services to your business profile, such as senior hours, pickup, delivery, drive-through, or online service hours. You can only add more hours when your regular hours are filled in. This is also a category-dependent feature.

Google has also added a “confirmed by _____” label to some GBP profiles where they are verifying the published business information. 

Attributes
Your attributes help inform customers on things like what forms of payment your business accepts, accessibility options available, health and safety measures implemented and more. We have a section dedicated to Attributes – so hop on ahead to learn the ins and outs of this feature.

Business Profile Settings

To access the settings for your Business Profile, click the three dots in the top right corner of the NMX:

From here, you can view your Business Profile settings, Notification settings, view other Business Profiles you may own, add a new Business Profile, and more.

To edit your settings, click “Business Profile Settings”.

Managers

In the Business Profile settings, you can view all Business Profile Owners and Managers. It’s important to monitor this section regularly and remove any users who aren’t actively managing your Business Profile. Having additional Owners or Managers on your Business Profile puts you at risk of accidental suspensions, inaccurate changes to your business information, or worse —  someone claiming ownership who doesn’t actually own your business.

To remove a user from your Business Profile, click Managers, select the person you’d like to remove, and click “Remove group”:

Advanced Information Settings

Since you’re already on top of having the ultimate optimized business profile, take it further by adding advanced info to stay organized.

We recommend you review this section to ensure it’s set up according to your preferences, and keep a record of things like your Business Profile ID and store code. Google Support is now asking for your Business Profile ID when contacting them, so be sure to record it somewhere safe and have it ready just in case. This is especially important if your profile becomes suspended as the Business ID helps track it down more easily.

Google Assistant (Only Available in U.S)

Google Assistant makes phone calls on behalf of searchers for booking a reservation, an appointment, or confirming business information (ie.store hours) on a GBP. Google Assistant calls your business using an automated voice-calling technology and asks questions and confirms information based on the customer’s request. When the call starts, the person who answers is advised that the Assistant is calling, and then follows a series of questions based on what the searcher/client wanted to accomplish (ie. dinner reservations for a Tuesday evening or store hours during an upcoming holiday).

This feature is still being tested, but it is available for some profiles. You will see a Google Assistant Calls box in your Info section within the advanced settings, and by default it will automatically opt in your business to participate in this program.

For some businesses you may not want this feature for your profile, so you can login and opt out by unchecking the box. For other businesses this may be something you have been waiting for! Businesses also have the option to also opt out when they receive an assistant call by saying, “please remove my business from your list” or “please, stop calling my business.”

Store Code (optional)

If you are a multi-location business the store codes you create will help you stay organized and keep on top of your locations . You control how you want the code to appear. For instance, if Whitespark had 3 locations in Edmonton we could label them:

• WS-1, WS-2, WS-3, or
• WS-Glenora, WS-Whyte, WS-Oliver, or
• WS-T5J, WS-T6E, WS-T6G

You get the picture. Decide how you want to uniquely identify your locations for ease of management. Adding keywords doesn’t do anything here; this is strictly a feature to organize all your locations.

Tip: Google best practices suggest that if your business moves locations, be sure to give it a new store code and delete the old one. Don’t recycle codes.

Label (optional)
If you’re using Ads and incorporating local ads into your marketing mix, this label will be a major help in keeping you organized in Ads. The label allows you to easily sync your GBP to an Ads campaign, and take advantage of the location extension for your ads. It’s really to help multi-location businesses and agencies to seamlessly manage PPC campaigns linked to Google Business Profile.

Ads Location Extensions Phone (should use if using Google Ads)
If you’re investing your money in Ads, then you should ensure proper tracking methods. By adding a call tracking number in this field, you will have conversion data for how many users are clicking to call from your ads, and know how successful your ads really are. If you choose to leave this field empty, then by default Ads will use your Primary Phone Number and you’ll lose the chance to properly track your click-to-call campaign.

Using the “located in feature” on your Google Business Profile

Located In is not a direct Google Business Profile feature that can be triggered by a specific category and show up in your Info section within the dashboard.  This is actually a Maps feature and to access it you need to edit the information directly from the Business Profile in Search or Google Maps.

You will see the Located In feature for 

• A) businesses that operate within a mall or office tower, or 
• B) companies with separate departments that operate as distinct entities within a business, or 
• C) a business that shares/leases space within another business.

Examples:

1. Dealerships, like a service or parts department within an auto dealership
2. Kiosks inside brick-and-mortar locations
3. Stores located within a mall
4. Businesses located within an office tower

Guidelines for using the Located In feature:

• You cannot use this feature to highlight a specific department/section within a store, for example the “Toy Department in Target”.
• Each distinct business or entity has to have a different primary category from the main business or building that it is located in, and it needs to best represent what that entity does.
  • Examples of acceptable distinct listings
    • Costco Optical
    • Walmart Auto Center
  • Examples of unacceptable non-distinct profiles:
    • The Apple products section of Best Buy
    • The hot food bar inside Whole Foods Market

If you’re located in another building or business and you think this feature would benefit both your business and searchers, here is how to add it to your GBP:

1. Search for your business on Google Maps. On your profile, click “Suggest an edit” and select “Change name or other details.”
2. Go to the “Located within” section, and Search for the place or business you are operating your business within, and click Send.

You can also do this to remove the Located In feature from your business profile if there has been an error in Maps and it’s displaying your business within another location that is incorrect. If your edit is not approved, you can take it a step further and contact business support via Talk to a specialist, or Twitter.

Resources to Keep Your GBP Updated