LaneFirst Guides / Business Profile checklist
Your profile is free, and most of what makes it work is in fields owners skip. Here's a step-by-step checklist in the order we fill profiles in, with Google's own limits, a sample description and the mistakes that get profiles suspended.
Free PDF audit in 2 business days: your Maps ranking, reviews vs. competitors, AI search check and your top 5 fixes. See what's in the audit
The limits to know
From Google Business Profile Help: editing your profile, service areas and categories.
Twenty minutes of prep makes the rest go quickly.
Use the Google account that owns the profile, not a former employee's or an old agency's.
Google says verified businesses are more likely to show up in local results, so finish verification first.
Every service you sell, and every town or ZIP code you'd drive to for a job.
Your truck, your team, and before-and-after shots from your last few jobs, on a phone in daylight.
Work top to bottom. The first six steps tell Google what you do and where. The rest help customers choose you once they find you.
Google says complete and accurate profiles are more likely to show up in local results.
Write it for a homeowner deciding whether to call, not for Google. Say who you are, the jobs you take and the towns you drive to.
Cactus Flow Plumbing is a family-run plumbing company in Tempe, Arizona, started by Ana and Luis Ortega in 2014. We fix leaks, clear drains, replace water heaters (tank and tankless), repipe older homes and handle slab leaks. Our licensed plumbers drive to homes in Tempe, Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert and Scottsdale, and we answer the phone until 8 pm on weekdays. Every job gets a written price before we start, and we clean up before we leave. Most of our work comes from neighbors and repeat customers, and we would like to earn yours.
A fictional business. It names the owners, the work, the towns and one reason to call, with no links, prices or sale offers.
Google suspends profiles that don't follow its guidelines, and a suspended profile drops off Maps. Every one of these is avoidable.
Don't panic, and don't start over with a new profile. Follow Google's appeal process.
Open Google's appeals tool. It shows which decision was made and which rule Google says you broke.
Change the name, address or reviews that triggered it before you appeal.
A business license, registration, tax certificate or utility bill with the same name and address as the profile.
Google says an appeal can only be submitted once, so include everything the first time.
A profile you set up once and never touch slowly drifts out of date. Put this on your calendar for the first Monday of each month.
Every LaneFirst plan includes Google Business Profile management: setup, weekly posts, photos and replies to every review.
Doing it yourself? Your free audit shows where your profile ranks on Maps against the top 3 businesses near you, and the five fixes that matter most.
Google reviews edits before they go live. Google says that usually takes about 10 minutes, but it can take up to 30 days.
Describe your work in the words customers use, once each. A list of keywords reads badly to people and does nothing that Google's guidelines reward.
As few as describe your core business. Google allows a primary category plus up to 9 more, but its guidelines ask for the fewest that fit.
If customers don't come to your address, yes: remove it and list the areas you serve instead. If you have a shop or showroom people visit, keep it.
No. Google says there's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking.
Written by George, founder of LaneFirst. Updated October 2026. Sources: Google Business Profile Help: guidelines for representing your business, tips to improve your local ranking, photos and videos, posts, attributes, services and suspended profiles; Google's Maps user-contributed content policy.
We'll check how you show up on Google Maps, in reviews and in AI answers, compare you with the top 3 businesses near you, and send you a PDF with the 5 fixes that would bring you the most calls. Free, within 2 business days, no obligation.
5 to 7 pages, written in plain English. Yours to keep, whether or not you work with us.