Having a Google Business Profile and having one that wins calls and direction requests are two different things. This is the complete optimisation checklist - the signals Google weighs, the gaps most profiles have, and how to fix them at scale with Ampli5 Pulse.
Free to start · No credit card · Works across every location
Google's local results weigh dozens of profile signals at once. Most profiles are quietly failing several of them. Work through these twelve and you've covered the ground that matters.
Name accuracy, address format, phone, website URL and hours - including special hours and holiday closures.
The right primary category, plus secondary categories. Many profiles underperform simply because the primary category is wrong.
Up to 750 characters of keyword-relevant, location-specific copy. Generic 120-character descriptions waste the field.
Coverage across all photo categories, uploaded regularly. Stale or sparse photo sections signal an inactive business.
Review count, rating, recency - and your response rate. Google explicitly rewards businesses that engage with reviews.
Regular Updates, Offers and Events. A last post from six months ago reads as an inactive business.
A complete, well-named list. Google shows individual services in results and uses their names as keyword signals.
Answered questions with relevant keywords. The Q&A section is indexed - and usually empty.
Every attribute relevant to your category, matching how customers filter searches on Maps.
A working link, mobile-friendly site, and name/address/phone details that match the profile exactly.
Set, correctly formatted, and covering the areas your customers actually search from.
Profiles that are updated - info, photos, posts, replies - consistently outperform ones left alone.
These aren't edge cases - they're the issues that show up on the vast majority of profiles, each quietly limiting visibility.
Top-showing businesses typically carry several times more photos than the ones below them. If your competitor has 80 photos and you have 12, that gap is working against you.
The average description is under 200 characters; the limit is 750. Every empty character is a keyword and a customer reason left uncommunicated.
A response rate below 50% leaves one of the strongest engagement signals unused. Google rewards businesses that respond - even to negative reviews.
Google displays services in search results and uses their names as keyword signals. Most profiles leave this section blank - zero visibility for service-specific searches.
Your profile details must match your website and listings exactly. Even "St" vs "Street" creates a data conflict that erodes trust in the listing.
Post activity is a freshness signal. A profile whose last post is months old tells Google - and customers - that nobody's home.
Watch calls, direction requests, website clicks and profile views respond as you close the gaps - per location, over any date range, with your website's Search Console data alongside. Real performance, not vanity keyword positions.
See performance insights
Connect your profiles, then correct info, categories and descriptions for every location - the highest-impact fixes come first.
Load up photos, complete the services list, and clear the review backlog with AI-drafted replies.
Schedule posts ahead, answer every new review, and watch the performance insights to see what's moving.
Free to start. Connect your locations and work the checklist from one app.
No credit card required · Web, iOS & Android