The Google Business Profile Audit Checklist

Your Google Business Profile is probably your single highest-return marketing asset. It is free, it shows up above your website in local searches, and it controls whether you appear in the map pack that captures the majority of local service intent. And yet, most of the profiles we see have five to fifteen clear, fixable issues dragging down their visibility.

This is the audit we run on every new profile. Forty points, grouped into seven categories. Work through it once and you will likely surface a handful of quick wins that lift your rankings within weeks.

Category 1: Identity and Core Fields

Start here because everything else builds on it.

• Business name exactly matches your legal or operating name. No keyword stuffing (Google will suspend you).
• Primary category is the most specific match for your service. "Plumber" beats "Contractor." Specificity matters.
• Secondary categories cover all real services, up to nine allowed.
• Phone number matches the one on your website, invoices, and citations.
• Website URL uses HTTPS and resolves without a redirect chain.
• Hours are accurate, including special holiday hours.
• Service area (or physical address) is defined correctly. Never set both if you are a service-area business.
• Business description is 750 characters, keyword-aware, and free of promotional language.

Category 2: Media

Profiles with more photos get more clicks and, according to Google's own data, more direction requests. The volume and freshness of media matter more than the artistry.

• Cover photo is on-brand, high resolution, and shows the work you actually do.
• Logo is square, high contrast, and readable at small sizes.
• At least 20 interior/work-in-progress/team/vehicle photos.
• At least one video (a 30-second tour or project highlight).
• New photos uploaded in the last 30 days.
• Geo-tagged photos where appropriate (shot on location with location services on).

Category 3: Services and Products

• Every service you offer is listed as a distinct service entry.
• Each service has a 2-3 sentence description using natural language (not keyword-stuffed).
• Prices are included where feasible. Even a "starting at" figure boosts click-throughs.
• Service menu is grouped logically so browsers can find what they need.

Category 4: Reviews

• Review count is trending up month over month.
• Star rating is 4.5 or higher.
• Every review from the last 90 days has a response.
• Responses personalize with reviewer name and service context.
• No policy violations (incentivized, gated, or employee-authored reviews).
• Review keywords map to your target service phrases.

Category 5: Posts and Updates

GBP posts are one of the most under-used features. They appear on your knowledge panel, in search, and for a rolling window on the mobile profile. Google has confirmed that regular posts are an engagement signal.

• At least one post per week for the last 8 weeks.
• Posts include a relevant image and a clear call to action.
• Post content varies (offers, updates, service highlights, seasonal reminders).
• Offer posts have start and end dates that are current.

Category 6: Questions and Answers

• Every public question has a business-authored answer.
• You have proactively seeded 3-5 common questions with answers yourself.
• Spam questions are flagged.
• Your answers mention your service type and location naturally.

Category 7: Technical and Verification

• Business is verified (green check or equivalent).
• No duplicate listings for the same location.
• Ownership is in a Google account you control (not a former agency).
• Two-factor auth is on the owning account.
• Manager access given to staff instead of sharing the owner login.
• Menu, booking, and messaging integrations are set up if supported for your category.

How to Use This Checklist

Score your profile against all 40 items. For every miss, write down the specific fix and the owner. Batch the quick wins (media, services, Q&A) in one session. Save the ongoing items (posts, reviews, responses) for a weekly recurring block.

Most operators moving from a baseline 20/40 to 35/40 see measurable lift in impressions and direction requests within 30 to 60 days. That is the compounding power of GBP hygiene.

What the Audit Tool Does That Manual Checks Miss

You can run this checklist by hand, and it is worth doing once. But several checks are genuinely hard to do manually: duplicate detection across multiple map clusters, NAP drift across citation sources, review sentiment analysis at scale, and post cadence trending. Our free GBP audit tool runs all of those checks automatically and gives you a prioritized fix list.

What to Fix First

If you can only do five things this week, do these:

1. Set the correct primary category.
2. Upload 10 fresh photos of real work.
3. Respond to every review from the last 90 days.
4. Publish one GBP post with a clear call to action.
5. Seed three common questions in the Q&A section.

That is one to two hours of work and will start moving impressions within about a week.

Related Tools

• Local Rank Checker - See your map pack ranking across your service area.
• GBP Post Generator - AI-drafted posts in under a minute.
• NAP Citation Checker - Catch inconsistencies across directories.