When someone types “bakery open Sunday” or “plumber Cannes” on their phone, the first result is often a map with a few businesses, star ratings and phone numbers. That map does not come from your website: it comes from your Google Business Profile, formerly known as Google My Business.
For a shop, a tradesperson or a practice that lives off nearby customers, it is often the first shop window, even before the website. It is free, but it follows precise rules, and getting one wrong can be costly. This article relies on Google's official help pages, and separates what they say from what you hear elsewhere.
How Google ranks local businesses
Google's help gives three criteria for ranking local results: relevance, distance and prominence. Here is how it defines them.
- Relevance: how well a profile matches what the user searched for. Google adds that complete information helps it understand your business better.
- Distance: how far each business is from the person searching. If they do not share their location, Google uses the information it has about them.
- Prominence: whether your business is well known to the public. Google mentions in particular the number of sites that link to it and the number of reviews received.
That breakdown already says a lot. Distance cannot be worked on: you do not move house to appear better, and the same search gives different results depending on where the person is. Relevance and prominence, on the other hand, can be built: a complete and accurate profile on one side, reviews and links on the other.
Google does not publish the weight of each criterion, nor the details of its algorithm. The figures and “ranking factors” circulating in articles or tools come from third-party observation: treat them as hypotheses, not rules.
Before creating the profile: which address, which type of business?
This is the step where most mistakes happen, because the answer depends on your situation. Google's help distinguishes several cases.
You receive customers at a premises
Shop, restaurant, practice, workshop open to the public: the profile shows the address of the place. The opening hours you give are those during which you are available to receive customers.
You travel to your customers
Plumber, electrician, photographer, home carer: Google calls this a service-area business. You do not show an address, but a service area. According to the help, if you do not receive customers at your premises, you must remove your address from the profile and show only the area you serve. It gives the example of a plumber who runs the business from home: they must remove their address.
A few details on this area, from the same help page. You can define up to 20 areas (a town, a postcode…). The area cannot be defined by a radius around the business, and Google advises not going beyond two hours of travel. To remove all service areas, the business would need a physical address on the profile.
You do both
Google speaks of a hybrid business, for instance a workshop that also does call-outs. In that case, one or more people must be available on site to receive customers during the stated hours.
Addresses that are not accepted
According to the help, P.O. boxes and mailboxes at remote addresses are not allowed. If you rent a virtual office (a business domiciliation service), you cannot create a profile for that address. This matters for sole traders who use a domiciliation address: if you do not receive customers, a service area is what you should show, not the domiciliation address.
Verifying the profile: proving to Google the business is yours
Verification, Google explains, tells it that you are authorised to represent the business. Creating the profile is therefore not enough: you have to complete this step.
For eligible businesses, Google's help documents video verification. The video must be filmed live, with no pre-recorded footage, by an authorised representative who is at the profile's address: you can upload a recording or arrange a live video call, and Google then reviews the video.
Postcard, phone, email: a lot is written about these other methods, with timings that vary from one site to another. We cannot confirm them from the help pages we consulted. The most reliable approach is to look in your account at which options Google offers for your business, because they depend on the profile.
The name: the one your customers know, nothing more
The temptation is strong to add a trade and a town to your name to appear better: “Dupont Plumbing Cannes Emergency 24h”. That is exactly what Google's help advises against: the name must match the real name of the business as customers know it, without superfluous information. Geographic information (it cites the example “near SOHO”) is among what is not allowed in the name.
The right reflex is therefore the opposite: use exactly the name on your sign, your website, your invoices and your legal notices. That consistency also helps customers recognise the right business.
Categories: precision rather than quantity
According to Google's help, you should select as few categories as possible to describe the main activity, and choose them as precisely as possible. Its rule of thumb: ask what the business is, not what it offers. An Italian restaurant is an “Italian restaurant”: takeaway pizzas are a service, not a category.
Since relevance depends on how well you match the search, a category that is too broad or approximate blurs the signal sent to Google. Take the time to browse the list rather than accepting the first option.
Completing the profile: hours, contact, photos
Google writes that businesses that provide complete and accurate information are more likely to appear in nearby results. Here is what the help highlights.
- Opening hours, including special hours (public holidays, time off). Out of season, you can mark the business as temporarily closed. Some types of business, such as accommodation, schools, cinemas or transport services, should not show hours.
- A phone number or a website that represents the business. Google does not allow a number or address that redirects to pages or numbers other than the business's own.
- Attributes: parking, Wi-Fi… anything that helps a customer choose.
- Photos and videos, to show what you offer. We recommend real photos of your premises and your work, which reassure far more than generic images.
Reviews: getting them, within the rules
Google says it plainly: the more positive reviews and ratings you get, the higher your business climbs in the local ranking. This is the part of the profile that takes the most consistency, and the one where people make the most mistakes while trying to do well.
What is forbidden
Google's policy on user-generated content leaves little room:
- Paid or rewarded reviews, whether money, discounts, or free products or services. The same applies to an advantage offered in exchange for changing or deleting a negative review.
- Selecting customers: Google forbids selectively soliciting positive reviews, discouraging negative ones, or forcing customers to rate or write a review on the spot.
- Reviews arising from a conflict of interest: current or past employment, a contractual relationship, personal or professional ties. Google gives the example that merchants must not ask their staff to solicit a given number of reviews.
- Fake reviews: those that do not correspond to any real experience, or that are posted from several accounts by the same person. Google states that artificial engagement is not allowed and will be removed.
What is allowed
Asking for or encouraging reviews that reflect a genuine experience remains possible, provided you offer no advantage and do not try to influence the rating or the text. In practice: offer every customer, without distinction, the chance to leave a review if they wish, for example with a note at the till or a line in an end-of-service email.
Replying, including to negative reviews
Google reminds businesses that replying to reviews shows you value your customers' opinions, and that positive reviews and helpful replies can help your business stand out. A short, polite, factual reply to a negative review is read by future customers far more than by the author. One point to watch: the help allows you to publish your contact details in reply to a review, but forbids soliciting personal or confidential information.
The mistakes that waste time, or cost the profile
- Adding keywords and the town to the name, contrary to what Google's help asks.
- Creating the profile on a domiciliation address or a P.O. box, two cases that are explicitly excluded.
- Showing your home address when you do not receive anyone: if you travel to customers, a service area is what you should show.
- Choosing too many categories, or approximate ones.
- Leaving outdated hours: a customer who finds a closed door after seeing “open” rarely leaves a good review.
- Buying reviews, or having relatives or employees write them: these are precisely the practices the policy forbids.
- Forgetting the profile after creating it: seasonal hours, photos and replies to reviews need regular upkeep.
The profile and your website: each strengthens the other
Prominence takes into account, according to Google, the number of sites that link to your business. That echoes what we said in our article on sites that do not appear on Google: an isolated site, with nothing pointing to it, is hard to find. Your profile, website, social networks and trade directories confirm one another.
A piece of common sense, not a Google rule: make sure your name, address, phone number and hours are identical everywhere, on the profile, on the site and in your legal notices. The legal notices of a business website must give this information anyway.
And if your website is still to be built, now is the time to think about it: a well-designed showcase website presents your activity, hours and service area clearly, and gives you a useful link to put on the profile.
In short: your checklist
- Define your situation: premises open to the public, travelling to customers, or both.
- If you do not receive customers, show a service area (up to 20 areas) and remove your address.
- Use neither a P.O. box nor a domiciliation address.
- Use the exact name on your sign, without keywords or a town.
- Choose few categories, as precise as possible.
- Verify the profile with the method Google offers you.
- Fill in hours (including special hours), phone, website and attributes, then keep them up to date.
- Add real photos of your premises and your work.
- Ask all your customers for reviews, without reward or selection, and reply to each one.
- Keep the same information on the profile, the site and the directories.
A solid profile and a clear website work together to get you found in Cannes and on the French Riviera. If you would like advice on the website side, let's talk.
Sources
- Improve your local ranking on Google (Google Business Profile help)
- Guidelines for representing your business on Google (Google Business Profile help)
- Set your service area (Google Business Profile help)
- Prohibited and restricted content (Google's policy on user-generated content)
