Google Business Profile and your website: what each does
Your Google Business Profile is the box that shows your hours and a map pin and your reviews. Your website is the place you control. A customer reads the details there and decides.
A Google Business Profile is free to create. Your job is to make the profile and the website say the same thing.
What the profile does
The profile is the short version of your business. A customer sees whether you are open and where the door is and what other customers say.
The profile gives quick answers. The details belong on your site. A customer may see the box first and your site second or the other way round.
Your reviews sit in the box too. Read them. They show you what customers notice.
What your website does
You control your website. You choose the words and the photos and what comes first. A customer reads it to decide whether to hire you.
The site has room for the long answers. Put these on it.
- Your full list of services, each in plain words.
- How your pricing works.
- Your request form and a line on when you reply.
- Your license and insurance lines.
- Real photos of your work.
Four things must match
A customer who sees two phone numbers does not know which one works. A customer who sees two sets of hours may arrive at a locked door. Small differences count too. Suite 4 in one place and Unit 4 in the other can look like a move.
Change both places the same day when something changes. A new phone number and a holiday closing both count.
Make the profile and the site agree on these four things. Keep one note on your phone that holds all four. Copy from that note into both places.
- Your business name spelled the way your sign spells it.
- Your street address.
- Your phone number.
- Your hours and your holiday hours.
Link the two together
Make sure your profile links to your site. A customer who likes what the box says can then read the details with one tap. Go the other way too. Put a map button on your contact page so a customer on a phone can tap for directions.
Use the same words for your services on both. A customer may think they are two jobs when one says drain cleaning and the other says rooter service.
Your site can also tell Google your hours and address with Local Business structured data. Ask your web person if yours does.
Who holds the logins
You cannot fix a profile or a site that you cannot log in to. Make sure both logins use an email address that you control.
Ask for the logins and keep them if a helper set up either one. Write down who else can log in.
A five minute check
Set a reminder for the first of each month. Run this check on that day and any time something changes.
- Open your profile on your phone and write down the name and address and phone number and hours.
- Open your website and write down the same four things.
- Put the two lists side by side and mark every difference.
- Look at your holiday hours and any day you plan to close.
- Tap each phone number on both to make sure it rings you.
- Tap the website link on your profile and see where it lands.
- Read your newest reviews and fix anything on your site that a review points out.
- Change whichever place is wrong and look at the other one again.