The Google Business Profile Checklist for St Helens Businesses

Search for what you do plus St Helens and look at what comes first. Not a website. A map with three businesses on it. Those three listings get more clicks than everything underneath them put together, and your website is competing for what is left.

The listing is your Google Business Profile, it is free, and most of the ones I look at are half empty. Here is what to fill in, in the order it matters.

One, the category

Google uses your primary category to decide which searches you belong in at all. Pick the one that matches what you actually sell, not the broadest one that sounds impressive. A plumber who chooses Contractor instead of Plumber has opted out of the searches that matter. You can add a few secondary categories for the other things you do.

Two, reviews, and not just the stars

A rating with no words does very little. A sentence about the work is what convinces the next person, and it is also what Google reads to work out what you do. Ask customers for a line about what you actually did for them. A steady few a month is better than twenty in one week, which tends to get filtered out.

Three, services

Each service you list is another search you can appear for. Most profiles have none. Add each thing you do as its own line with a short description and, where it makes sense, a price. It takes ten minutes and it is the quickest win on the whole profile.

Four, a cover photo

If you do not set one, Google picks something for you, usually your most recent post image, and it looks accidental. Set a proper cover and a logo, then add a few photos of real work or real premises over time rather than all in one go.

Five, posts

Posts get very few views and will not bring you customers on their own. What they do is tell Google somebody is home. A short update every couple of weeks is plenty.

How long it takes

About an hour for all five, and it is free. If your website is not bringing in enquiries from local searches, do this before you spend anything on the site, because for local terms the profile is the thing being ranked.

More on how local search works on the SEO in St Helens page.