Keep it right, and check it's working
Google changes profiles from other people's suggestions. A 20-minute monthly check that catches problems and shows whether it's working.
A profile isn't something you set up once. Google can change it, competitors can game theirs, and your own business changes. Twenty minutes a month keeps it right.
Changes you didn't make
Anyone can suggest an edit to your profile, and Google sometimes accepts suggestions, or updates details from other sources, without asking you. Check your profile every month for changed hours, phone numbers, categories or websites, and put back anything that's wrong.
Profile watch
Today 9:14am
Suggested edit detected
Phone number changed by a Google user suggestion.
(515) 555-0137 → (515) 555-0100
Sample data
Duplicates and spam
- Search Google Maps for your business name and your phone number. If there's a second listing for you, with an old address or an old name, ask Google to remove it or merge it rather than leaving two.
- If a competitor stuffs keywords into their name or lists an address they don't have, suggest an edit on Google Maps. Anyone can, and it keeps the map honest.
How to tell it's working
- Open Performance on your profile each month: calls, website clicks, direction requests, and the searches that showed your profile.
- Check where you show up for your main searches from a few spots around your area, on the same day each month. One search from your desk tells you very little.
- Give each change a few weeks before you judge it. Map spots move slowly, and reviews add up.
Your monthly routine
- Check for changes you didn't make.
- Add a few new photos, and keep posting every week.
- Ask for reviews, and reply to every new one.
- Look at Performance, and check your spot from a few places.
Do this before the next lesson
- Put a 20-minute monthly check in your calendar.
- Search Google Maps for your name and phone number, and deal with any duplicate.
- Write down this month's calls, website clicks and direction requests, so next month has something to compare with.
In Groow
Groow does this check for you: it watches your listing every week, checks your Maps rankings from across your area, and puts what changed in your monthly report.
Put this to work on your business
Groow checks how ChatGPT, Google and Google Maps see your business every week, tells you what to fix first, and drafts the work for your OK.