When someone searches Google for a local service — 'hairdresser near me', 'AC repair', 'accountant in my town' — the first thing they see isn't a list of websites but a map with three featured business profiles. That space is called the local pack, and for many industries it's worth more than the first organic position. The ticket in is free: Google Business Profile.
Setting up the profile properly
You create or claim your profile at business.google.com, and Google verifies ownership depending on the business — by postcard, phone or video. After verification, the key is to fill in everything, not just the required fields:
- Your exact business name — without stuffing keywords into it, which Google penalizes
- A carefully chosen primary category (plus additional categories where they make sense)
- Opening hours, phone number and a link to your website
- A description that naturally mentions your services and the area you cover
- Your own photos: premises, team, work — profiles with photos get noticeably more inquiries
Reviews: the single most important factor
The number and freshness of reviews, and your replies to them, are among the strongest local-pack ranking signals — and the first thing a potential customer looks at. The simplest tactic is also the most effective: ask a satisfied customer for a review right after the job is done and send them a direct link (Google provides one in the profile dashboard).
Reply to all reviews, including negative ones — calmly and concretely. You're not writing the reply for the unhappy customer, but for everyone who will read it later.
The most common mistakes
We see three mistakes constantly: inconsistent data (a different phone number or address on the profile, website and directories — Google reads that as unreliability), a profile set up and then forgotten (Google rewards activity: occasional posts, new photos, up-to-date hours), and ignored questions that users ask directly on the profile — where anyone else then answers instead of you.
The profile and the website work together
A business profile and a website aren't alternatives — they reinforce each other. The profile gets you on the map and brings a call or a visit; the website turns an interested visitor into a customer and ranks for all the searches the map doesn't cover. Businesses that have both, consistent and maintained, systematically beat competitors who have only one.