A useful Google Business Profile audit checklist
Audit a business profile for accurate identity, category, services, opening information, photographs and maintained contact routes.
AI-assisted practical guide · Editorial approach
The useful starting point
Audit a business profile for accurate identity, category, services, opening information, photographs and maintained contact routes. Compare it with the actual business and website. Local discovery depends on several factors; a completed checklist does not guarantee a specific map position.
Understand the decision
Confirm who owns and can maintain the profile. Review details that frequently change and remove information that does not describe the real offer. Check how someone moves from the profile to the correct page or team. Follow current platform guidance for eligibility and categories rather than selecting labels merely because they seem commercially attractive.
A practical approach
Make the business’s real identity, services, opening information and contact routes consistent and easy to verify. Publish pages for locations you actually serve and include useful local facts. Google describes local results using relevance, distance and prominence; neither paid work nor repeated location names can guarantee a position. Use genuine customer questions to decide what information belongs on a location page.
- Verify profile ownership and business facts.
- Review categories and services accurately.
- Maintain hours and contact routes.
- Test the listing-to-website journey.
Illustrative example
An independent gym could check its published hours, actual location and class information against the website. A visitor seeking a trial should reach the maintained trial journey rather than an outdated promotion. Accurate details improve the task even when the business cannot control ranking.
A mistake to avoid
Do not invent an address or service to target a desirable location. Profile information should represent the business you actually operate.
What to review
Review incorrect-detail reports, relevant customer actions and enquiry fit, while assessing local visibility through available platform evidence.
Turn the guide into a working brief
Keep a location register with an owner for hours, service availability, contact details and approved photographs. Check the journey from a listing to the website and onward to the correct team. Ask how the business handles requests outside its service area. Review enquiry fit by location and service rather than treating every map interaction as a lead. Avoid fabricated addresses, invented reviews and pages that merely swap a city name into generic copy.
Common questions
What should I prepare before asking for help?
Start with this checklist: Verify profile ownership and business facts. Review categories and services accurately. Maintain hours and contact routes. Test the listing-to-website journey. Add your business context, existing materials and the decision you need to make. A useful initial brief can include uncertainty; you do not need to invent answers before discussing scope.
How should I judge whether the work helped?
Review incorrect-detail reports, relevant customer actions and enquiry fit, while assessing local visibility through available platform evidence. Keep the observation period and definitions visible. Use the responsible team's evidence alongside the website journey; do not attribute every change in results to one asset or article.
Sources & scope
AI-assisted practical guide. Examples are illustrative; business-specific facts and sector claims need the responsible owner’s approval.
- Google Business Profile: local ranking guidance
Reference for relevance, distance and prominence in local discovery. The practical planning methods here do not guarantee map rankings.
Use this guide to start your brief.
Share your business context, existing materials and what is still unclear. The guide title will be included so the conversation starts with the right problem.
Prefer email? Send a brief with this guide’s context.Related guides
Location pages that provide more than a city name
A useful location page explains the actual services, availability, contact route and local information relevant to that area.
Read the guide →Local service-area communication for mobile businesses
A mobile business should explain the areas and conditions it can actually serve, with a clear route to confirm suitability.
Read the guide →Local photography that helps customers recognise the business
Local photographs should answer practical questions about the real place, entrance, product or service.
Read the guide →