Google My Business

I used to treat Google My Business as a simple listing you fill out once and forget. After running local campaigns for a dozen businesses in the UK and Australia, I now see it as the highest-impact free channel for any business with a physical location or a service area. The profile is the primary asset that feeds the local pack, Maps and the Knowledge Graph. Optimising it is the first thing I check in any [local SEO](/local-seo/) audit.

The insights dashboard gives you real data: how many searches, calls and direction requests came from the profile. For a plumber in Leeds, adding service-specific photos and updating hours for weekends doubled profile views in one month. The review management is straightforward – you can read, reply and report spam from one dashboard. A direct response to a bad review often convinces prospective customers you care.

I also value the ability to control categories. Choosing the right primary category – not just "plumber" but "emergency plumber" – can change which keywords you rank for. The secondary categories add context. This is a place where [citation SEO](/citation-seo/) matters because your NAP consistency across the web backs up your profile data. Google cross-references.

The biggest win: it's free. No ad spend needed to appear in the local pack if your profile is better than competitors. I've seen a dentist in Manchester get 200 extra profile views a month just from completing every field and posting once a week.

I originally recommended Google My Business for every business regardless of type. Now I know better. It is awkward for service-area businesses that hide their address. They show up in fewer local pack results because Google prefers showing businesses with a fixed location. For a window cleaner in London who works at customers' homes, we had to accept lower visibility.

Multiple locations are a pain. The bulk management interface is clunky – you can't sort or filter easily, and updating hours for one branch takes too many clicks. For a client with 15 retail stores, we ended up using a third-party tool to manage the profiles because the bulk tool frustrated us.

The insights data is too limited. You see query buckets but not exact terms. You can't see which photos drove action. And the support from Google is essentially non-existent for business profiles – you rely on forums and guesswork.

Spam is a real issue. Fake reviews and hijacked listings are common, and Google's response is slow. I've spent hours reporting fake profiles for a car mechanic without resolution.

If you run a pure e-commerce business with no physical presence, the profile is useless. I thought it might help for brand visibility, but it doesn't. Stick to traditional SEO.

That said, for a standard local business with one location, it's still the best option. The awkwardness mainly hits when you scale or have unusual business models. [Business Profile](/business-profile/) is the new name, but the problems haven't changed. If you manage many listings, consider [local SEO tools](/local-seo-tools/) to supplement.

If you're hitting Google's limits, the alternatives are weaker but sometimes necessary. Yelp for Business has a review-friendly audience in the US, but their sales calls are aggressive. I tried Yelp for a restaurant client in New York and saw some traffic, but the ad push made it not worth it. Bing Places is easy and free, but traffic is low – maybe 5% of Google's. Still, it's a quick setup and no spam. Apple Maps Connect has a bare-bones backend but if your customers are iPhone users, it's worth claiming.

I personally use a [local SEO audit](/local-seo-audit/) to decide whether to invest in alternatives beyond Google. For most single-location businesses, Google alone is enough. If you're stuck, hiring a [SEO consultant near me](/seo-consultant-near-me/) may be more efficient than splitting efforts across platforms.

Admission: I used to recommend Apple Maps Connect to everyone, but the effort-to-reward ratio is poor. Now I only suggest it for businesses with heavy iPhone footfall.