How to Grow Your Google Business Profile Audience

GBP is easy enough to set up and use, but optimizing it takes some know-how. Plus, many instructions online only scratch the surface in terms of what you actually need to do.

I’ll run through the top advice for optimizing your GBP, including key statistics that can help you understand what Google actually favors when it comes to a business profile. I’ll also make these changes to a real Google Business Profile to see if it helps improve performance.

Let’s go!

Why Your Google My Business Profile Matters

Statistics show that an average local business will receive 1,260 views monthly from their GBP. The data also shows that 5% of GBP listing views result in a website click, call, or direction request. Considering GBP is 100% free to use, it's one of the most cost-effective marketing strategies for small businesses.

Still not convinced? Here are some of the core benefits of a well-optimized GBP.

Better Online Visibility

GBP ensures that your business appears in local search results, which are triggered when Google understands you're likely to be looking for a business near you. Plus, compared to your website, GBP can tell a user a lot about your business at a quick glance.

For example, try searching for “pizza.” The first thing you’re likely to see is something called the “Local Pack,” or three local results for ordering pizza. This is because Google understands that the usual intent behind this search is to order a pizza.

As shown above, a GBP listing can also help your business show up in Google Maps searches. According to Google’s data, about one-third of all mobile searches are related to location. Depending on your business, helping someone find your physical location could be hugely important.

Customer Trust

GBP can help you establish more credibility, whether people find your business by searching it directly, or by searching for the products/services you offer. This is because it prominently features reviews and favors businesses that have more positive reviews. Google also verifies business information like hours, addresses, and phone numbers, which means that GBP has become a source of truth about businesses that people rely on.

Better SEO

As we’ve learned, a GBP can drive traffic to your website. Because these are people who are searching for your business or its services directly, they're likely to be engaged visitors. Reviews on GBP can also improve your business’s trust, which could support better rankings for your site over time as well. A well-detailed website connected to your GBP makes it easier for Google to know what your business does and when to show it in local searches.

Improved User Experience

If people are looking for your business, products, or services, your Google Business Profile is often your very first point of contact. A detailed profile can make it easier for potential customers to go from thinking about your business to actually buying from you.

How People Find Your Site via Google Business Profile

There are two key ways people might find your business through Google Business Profile. They are:

1. Direct Search
This is when people search directly for your business by name.

2. Discovery Search

This is when a searcher finds you by searching for a product or service you offer (like pizza!). In this case, having your Google Business Profile appear in response to this search can be a great way to bring in new customers who haven’t heard of you yet.

As you might imagine, it’s easier to be found via Direct Search than by Discovery Search. After all, Google generally wants to connect people with what they're looking for. If someone types your business name directly into the search bar, Google will do its best to unearth it, even if your profile and website are not well-optimized.

Getting found via Discovery is typically what people are trying to optimize for when they make changes to their GBP. Ensuring your business is consistently found this way takes significant effort.

In the next section, we're going to discuss the top things you can do to get found.

How to Attract More Visitors to Your Google Business Profile

Google itself provides some guidelines on how to optimize your GBP, but these leave a lot to be desired. They encourage you to fill out your profile, get more reviews, and post regular content. But they aren’t very specific. _How _should you fill out your profile? How many reviews do you need? What other factors are worth your time in terms of improving your GBP’s performance?

Well, I wanted to dig into this too. So, I did some research. As it turns out, there’s some solid data to show what the most successful Google Business Profiles have in common. If you want to grow your Google Business Profile audience, here’s what you should do.

Choose Your Primary Category Carefully

According to local SEO experts (as in, experts in local SEO and GBP), the primary GBP category you choose is the No.1 most important ranking factor for your GBP.

Google has more than 4,000 business categories. That means that you can probably find one that fits your business pretty closely. Choosing the best one can help ensure you appear for the right searchers.

You should also add all the secondary categories applicable to your business. You can add up to nine. For example, if you’re in the pizza business, you could have “Pizza restaurant” as your primary category and then add secondary categories like “Pizza takeaway” and “Pizza delivery.”

You can change and add categories to your GBP by selecting “Edit profile.” From here, you can find and select business categories under the “About” tab.

Use Keywords in Your GBP Title

If choosing the right primary GBP category is the most important step to improving your Google Business Profile's performance, the next most important strategy is adding keywords to your GBP title. If you're not an SEO expert, you may be wondering which keywords to focus on and how to find them.

Here are a few tips:

• Brainstorm some keywords your customers might use to find you. For example, if you're a hairdresser and want to be found for a keyword like "bridal hair styling", consider including that in your title.
• Use an SEO keyword research tool (we have some free seo software options) to see what keywords, or variations of keywords, are most popular.
• Analyze competitor profiles to see what keywords they use.
• Take your pick!

Note that you don’t want to go overboard with keywords. This is called “keyword stuffing.” It looks terrible and can negatively impact your profile’s performance. But, if you’re a little pizza restaurant that happens to deliver vegan pizzas, adding this to your title could be helpful - both for people and search engines. Do you see how the first result below includes “pizza restaurant” and “delivery” right in the title? That’s keywords at work!

Add Services

Services are another level of detail that helps Google better understand your business and target it to the right people.

So, for example, if you're a hairdresser, you might select “men’s haircut,” “women’s haircut,” “highlights,” and other services you provide. This can help you come up when people search for these specific hairdressing services in their area. You can find the option to edit your services via your Google Business Profile account.

The services list is very long and depends on the categories you’ve chosen. Carefully look through it to determine and add all the services that apply to your business.

Get Reviews - A LOT of Reviews

Positive reviews on your GBP are a great way to help your business get more visibility. After all, if thousands of people are saying you have the best vegan pizza in town, they're probably onto something.

The data shows businesses that rank in the top three positions in local searches tend to have more than 200 reviews on their profile. Those in positions 4-10 have fewer than 200 reviews.

Not everyone needs to crack the 200 review mark, but you should definitely work to collect as many positive reviews as possible. This will help you be as competitive as possible in your space. SEOs say that there are a few key factors regarding reviews that can impact your profile’s performance:

• Review Sentiment: More positive reviews is better.
• Regularity of Reviews: A sustained influx of reviews over time is better than a burst of reviews.
• Recency of Reviews: Similar to above, if you aren’t getting regular reviews, this may not confer as much benefit.

How can you get more reviews on your GBP? Here are a few tips:

• Be excellent at what you do: If you want to inspire people to leave a great review, the first step is to ensure that you provide a great experience.
• Ask for them: In many cases, people just don’t think to leave a review, especially a positive one.
• Make it easy: Create a link you can email to customers or a QR code they can scan to instantly add a review. Anything you can do to make it easier will help you collect more reviews. (Note that it's against Google’s guidelines to incentivize these reviews.)
• Use different channels: Ask for reviews through more personal interactions, like confirmation email and text/SMS, as well as broader ones like social media.
• Showcase reviews: Remind customers that you're open to reviews by creating visual cues (whether digital or physical) of your reviews when they shop or use your services.

Businesses that thrive online usually have a solid strategy for getting more reviews. Lucky for you, we found a great case study about how Brightlocal increased the number of reviews on its profile.

Respond to Reviews

While the data and sentiment about whether responding to reviews boosts the performance of your GBP, reviews are a way for people to assess the quality of your business or service. Google recommends responding to them as a way to improve your business’s reputation and authority. They’re also a way for potential customers to learn more about your business’s values. This is why you should provide a detailed response to each and every review.

How detailed? Data shows that businesses in the top three positions on Google have an average of 140 words in each review reply.

Detailed responses to reviews, even to negative reviews, show visitors to your business profile that you care about the quality of your customer service. They’re also a way to strategically mention some of your core services. You can see how a personal injury lawyer in my area does this in each and every response.

Read: Does Responding to Google Reviews Help with SEO?

Complete Your Description

Seventy-five percent of businesses that end up in the top three positions in local search have completed the description fields for their companies’ accounts. These businesses also tend to use just under 70 words in their descriptions. Your Google Business Profile description is an opportunity to tell potential customers more about you. It’s also an opportunity to use some of the keywords you're hoping to rank for.

Add More Photos

Visual content is powerful and can communicate a lot about your brand. While I can’t find any evidence that the presence of photos on a GBP acts as a ranking factor, they likely increase engagement. Google also mentions them as a best practice for improving local rankings.

So, how many photos do you need? The answer is that the more (high-quality) photos the better. Data shows that top-performing GBPs have 250 or more images.

Of course, not all businesses will hit this mark - or need to. In fact, the data is likely skewed by businesses like hotels and restaurants, which tend to have a lot of photos.

Even so, photos matter. Look for opportunities to add as many original, relevant photos as you can. Videos can also be added to your GBP and can be a great marketing and engagement tool.

Match Your NAP to Your Website

What Google calls “NAP” refers to “name, address, phone number.” Those are important details for most businesses. According to research by Brightlocal, how accurately and consistently you show them online can impact your local search performance.

Here are some best practices:

• Include your NAP on your website and make it crawlable (ie. it must be plain html text.) Many businesses include this in the footer of each website page.
• Add your information to as many other local and online directories as you can, using the same information. This includes directories like Better Business Bureau, Yelp, Bing, and other more business-specific options.
• Search your business and ensure every place that lists your business lists the same NAP. (Some SEO software, like Semrush, includes local SEO tools to help you do this more quickly and easily.)
• Add local business schema to your website and include NAP.

NAP consistency seems simple, but it’s actually really important for your GBP performance. Variable or incorrect information can erode both Google’s and the public’s trust in your business.

Strategically Use Your Q&A Section

Each GBP includes a Q&A section. It’s a place for people to ask questions in a public forum, where the answers may also be useful to other users. While there isn't data to suggest the Q&A section is a ranking factor, it does give your GBP a bit more “meat.” Plus, it’s easy to do. For example, a restaurant might see questions like:

• Do you offer vegetarian options?
• Are you open on New Year’s Day?
• Do you have high chairs for kids?

If you receive questions through your GBP, answer them as thoroughly as possible. But, even if your Q&A section isn’t active, you can use it strategically by posting and answering key questions that potential customers might have.

You can do this by going to your Google Business Profile and selecting Q&A.

You’ll have the option to “Ask a Question” just like any GBP visitor. Ask it, post it, then answer the question yourself.

Consider Paid Ads

I know, I know. Everyone loves that GBP is free. But paid ads can be a great way to quickly boost your online visibility. Running paid ads alongside organic efforts has been found to lead to higher click-through rates, delivering a lift that can complement organic traffic.

Linking your GBP to Google Ads also gives you access to more comprehensive performance tracking. This can help you monitor how many people interact with your profile, how, and why. You can use the data to optimize your future campaigns and overall GBP performance.

You can even create ads that closely resemble organic GBP results, which will allow you to target certain search terms with greater control over what appears.

Read: SEO Software vs. SEO Tool: What's the Difference?

My Testing on a REAL Google Business Profile

Advice and data are nice, but what all business owners really want is more business. I wanted to know whether these actions would result in a measurable improvement in Google Business Profile performance. As it turns out, I have access to the GBP of a local business owner who was willing to let me test this out.

Over the course of four weeks in 2024, this GBP received 181 profile interactions. Google tells me that’s 30% less than the same period last year. The business is a local real estate agent who recently launched a new website. Let’s see if we can improve this business’s GBP performance by implementing the key guidelines we’ve already covered.

Step 1: Add Keywords to GBP Title

The first thing I did to this GBP was add a keyword to the profile’s GBP title. This person is a real estate agent, and currently, his title looks like this:

"Realtor" is a keyword, but when I search for it, Google doesn’t show realtors. After some research using Semrush, I found that people searching for a real estate agent in my city most often use "Edmonton Realtor." So, I updated the title to feature the keyword first, followed by the person’s name. This approach won’t work for everyone, but in this case, it’s subtle and effective.

Step 2: Adjust the Description Field

My research found that top GBP profiles have a completed description of just under 70 words. The current profile description was 86 words, so I refined it, incorporated natural keywords, and shortened the text for better optimization.

Step 3: Add Services

This profile had lots of services listed, but I scoped out the GBPs of competitors whose profiles were ranking better. As it turns out, there were some services this profile was missing. I also noticed that you can add your own custom services. I added every service that applied to the business.

Step 4: Add More Images

Not all businesses have that much opportunity when it comes to images, but real estate has lots of images. So, I started adding more images to this profile, including nice shots from listed and sold properties, and even compelling neighborhood shots.

Step 5: Answer Q&As

There were no Q&As on this profile, so I added three of the top questions this business tends to get from clients and provided comprehensive answers.

Step 6: Add Updates

GBP provides the option to add updates to your profile. This is easy enough. Plus, if a person searches the business directly, it’s just more content for them to see. This provides the business a bigger footprint on the page, and the ability to provide more information about what they do and who they are. I started adding a weekly update to the GBP, either new posts from this real estate agent’s blog, new listings, or his comments/impressions about real estate-related news.

Step 7: Answer Reviews (with Keywords)

This GBP’s reviews were always answered, but usually just with a “Thanks! It was great to work with you!” Following best practices, new reviews received a response of up to 140 words, with relevant keywords included.

Step 8: Add Local Business Structured Data on Website

Since the website is a key component of this business, we implemented local business structured data to help Google better understand it. This can improve search visibility in local results and increase the chances of appearing in Google’s Local Pack - the map and business listings shown for local search queries.

Step 9: Submit the Business to All Local Directories

Many SEOs recommend this as a way to boost a business’s visibility. While it’s easy to focus solely on Google, other sites like Yelp, the Better Business Bureau, and industry-specific platforms, such as restaurant review sites, can help expand your online presence. Fortunately, adding your information to these directories isn’t as daunting as it sounds. I used the Semrush Local tool - just connect your GBP to Semrush, and with a single click, it will submit your key details to all relevant directories (whew!).

Step 10: Set Up Paid Ads

I also set up paid ads for this property. It’s worth noting that the budget was fairly low, as this was more of a test.

The Results: Did It Work?

Over the course of four weeks, I took an underperforming Google Business Profile and threw the book at it. I tried every Google-recommended and data-backed tip I could find. Did it work? Here’s what the results look like in Semrush:

Overall, this business received 75% more interactions than during the previous period. This is a pretty good result for a profile whose visibility has been steadily declining over the past year. Yes, the numbers are still pretty small (lots of work to be done yet!), but this definitely shows that some of these things moved the needle.

As with a lot of things in SEO, improving performance tends to involve a lot of things working together. That said, here are the things that appeared to have the most immediate impact.

• Reviews: As a realtor (rather than, say, a restaurant) the flow of reviews is slower for this business. However, I noticed that each time a new positive review was added, search and map views saw a small spike. I’ve since helped this business owner set up an automated email campaign to ensure that new clients are prompted to submit a review once their home purchase or sale is complete.
• GBP Title: I was surprised at how well this worked, but adding target keywords to the business’s GBP title led to a clear and sustained spike in visibility. It’s also helping the business appear for more relevant local searches than before. Just make sure your GBP title isn’t stuffed and cluttered.
• Local Directories: This was the first change I made and it resulted in immediate improvement. I also noticed that when I search for this business now, I see a lot more legitimate results. This makes the business look more legit to humans too.
• Google Ads: I wasn’t sure if ads would impact organic performance, but they may have. (Again, this is just one profile, so it’s not a lot of data!) But I did see a solid spike in map views after implementing ads through GBP. We’ll need more data here to know for sure.

Final Thoughts

If you’re hoping to grow your Google Business Profile audience, I’m here to tell you it isn’t that hard. Many of the steps I’ve outlined here can be completed for free with just a little effort. (If you’re looking for a free or low-cost keyword research tool, check out our list of best free SEO software.)

If you have a business that needs more online visibility, give some of the above tips a try! Your Google Business Profile is one of the few “free lunches” out there for promoting your business, and it could be the first touchpoint for new customers. Make sure it portrays your business in the best possible light and is optimized for visibility. Good luck!