Complete the profile: hours, services, description, photos

Hours and special hours

Set the regular hours exactly, including days closed. Set special hours for public holidays as they approach; Google asks, and a profile that says open on Christmas Day is a profile customers stop trusting. A business that takes calls outside its premises hours can list separate hours for that. Wrong hours produce “closed” labels in the pack at the moments customers are looking.

Services

The services section lets you list what the business does under each category, each with a short description. Fill it fully for the services you actually offer, in the words customers use, because it feeds relevance. “Boiler servicing”, “Bathroom installation”, “Emergency call-out” beat a single entry reading “Plumbing”. Prices are optional; where you can state a starting price honestly, do, because customers filter on it.

The description

Up to a few hundred words, in plain language, saying what the business does, for whom, and where. Write it as you would explain the business to a neighbour. Do not stuff it with the target queries; Google's guidelines prohibit promotional or keyword-laden descriptions, and it reads badly. Do not put phone numbers, URLs or offers in it; the profile has fields for those.

Attributes

Attributes are yes-or-no facts Google shows as icons and uses as filters: wheelchair access, women-owned, on-site parking, online appointments, and many more depending on category. Set every one that is true. Do not set any that is not; attribute disputes are a common source of one-star reviews.

Photographs

Real photographs of the premises, the people, the work and the products, taken on a phone in daylight, uploaded a few at a time over weeks rather than all at once. A logo and a cover photo first. Then the front of the building so a customer recognises it, the interior, the team, examples of work. No stock images. Google's own material says businesses with photos receive more engagement; this handbook makes no numerical claim about it.

Links

Website, and if the business takes bookings, the booking link. Make sure the website link goes to the page for this location, which for a single-location business is the homepage, and that the page shows the same name, address and phone as the profile, which is the subject of the NAP chapter.

Illustrative example. A salon fills eight services under “Hair salon” with a starting price for each, sets the attributes for wheelchair access and online booking, writes a three-sentence description naming the district and the specialities, and uploads two photographs a week for two months: the front, the chairs, three stylists, and work with permission. That describes the exercise, not a result.

Output

Every applicable field filled, a dozen or more real photographs, and a note of the date the profile was completed. Then the part of the profile that customers read most: reviews.