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If you want to dominate local search in 2025 and beyond, connect with more customers, and drive more conversions, your Google Business Profile (GBP) is the tool to help you do just that. Your GBP is where your customers will find key information about your business, such as your contact details and opening hours, read and leave reviews, and discover updates about your business. 

It’s an essential tool to grow your business and build a loyal customer base. In this guide, we’ll provide a few key steps to help you master and optimise your GBP and win more local business.

Make sure your details are up to date

The first optimising step is to make sure all sections of your profile are completed and accurate. This, naturally, should include your business name and address, but also your contact details, website URL and hours of operation. You also have the opportunity here to write a compelling description of what your business offers and specialises in. This is a great place to include relevant keywords and location terms that will enhance your local SEO strategy.

Add engaging visuals

High-quality visuals can significantly improve the aesthetic appeal of your profile and give more context to what your business does. This can be in the form of photos and videos too. For photos, use a JPG or PNG format with a resolution of 720px by 720px, and for videos, stick to 30 seconds or less and keep the file size below 75MB. Make sure you use descriptive file names for both, including keywords relevant to your brand and your location, to make your visual assets more accessible and SEO-friendly.

Update customers using posts

GBP posts are like mini updates that you can use to share news of your products and offers, events that you have coming up or developments in the business that your customers might be interested in. Maybe you have a new product launch to announce or a limited time deal that you want to get the word out about—posts are the best way to do this.

Regularly posting fresh content on your GBP also signals to Google that your business is active, and this can benefit your local search rankings. While it’s also a great place to include keywords to enhance your SEO efforts, use them sparingly. Overusing keywords can appear spammy and could have the opposite effect in harming your rankings.

Manage reviews—good or bad

Positive customer reviews are essential to any business, whether you’re based solely online or have brick and mortar premises. They also shape your reputation as a brand and can influence your local SEO rankings, because they act as a trust signal to both customers and search engines. As a business, you need to respond and manage your feedback, both positive and negative, because it shows your customers that you’re committed to delivering outstanding service and improving all the time.

Ensure that no matter what the review says, you respond in a professional and empathetic way. This will help to improve your brand image and highlights to potential customers that you’ll try to find a resolution if any issues arise. Review management is an ongoing process but it’s necessary to engage with your customers and build trust.

Make use of the attributes feature

Attributes are a valuable feature on GBPs—they enable you to add additional information to your profile to define what your business offers and what sets you apart from your competitors. Maybe your café offers outdoor seating or is pet-friendly, or perhaps you offer trade services and will respond to emergency callouts or offer same-day appointments. These are features that are beneficial to your customers, so shout about them and let people know what you can offer that others might not.

Your Google Business Profile offers so much value to your business, but too many companies don’t use it to its full potential. Strategic optimisation, consistent posts that keep your customers up to date with what you offer, and another platform to add relevant keywords, it can transform your online presence.

Well-written content can enhance your SEO strategy and boost your brand’s reputation. For help attracting the right customers and increasing conversions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch to discuss how your business can benefit from my freelance writing services.

Article by Chloe Miller | CC Consulting