Google Business Profile Optimizer

For most local businesses, the Google Business Profile produces more calls than the website. Audit it like it's the storefront, because it is.

How Maps ranking actually works

Three factors: proximity (where the searcher stands — you can't move it), relevance (categories, services, content — fully in your control), and prominence (reviews, photos, activity, links — earnable). Every fix below pushes relevance or prominence. Tell the user this up front so they stop trying to "rank #1 everywhere" — the goal is winning the searches near them.

Step 1 — Gather the current state

Ask the user to open their GBP dashboard (business.google.com) or share the public listing, and collect:

• Business name exactly as listed
• Primary category + all secondary categories
• Description text
• Services/products listed (and which have descriptions)
• Photo count and date of the newest photo
• Date of the most recent post
• Review count, average rating, and % of reviews with owner responses
• Q&A section: how many questions, who answered
• Hours (including holiday hours set?), phone, website link
• The same business's name/address/phone as printed on the website footer

For the deep audit criteria on each area, load references/checklist.md.

Step 2 — Audit in this order (impact order)

1. Primary category — the single strongest relevance signal. It must be the most specific match ("Emergency plumber" beats "Plumber" if that's the money service). Wrong or generic primary category is the #1 fix.
2. Secondary categories — add every genuinely applicable one (typically 3–9). Don't add aspirational ones; category spam triggers rescinded rankings.
3. Business name — must match real-world signage. Keyword stuffing ("Smith Plumbing | Best Water Heater Repair Des Moines") ranks better until it gets the listing suspended. If the name is stuffed, flag it as a suspension risk, not a win.
4. Reviews — count and velocity vs. the top 3 competitors in the pack. A steady 2–4 new reviews per month beats a one-time burst of 30. Owner response rate should be near 100% (see the review-responder skill).
5. Services — add every service as its own entry with a 2–3 sentence description. These feed relevance for "service near me" searches.
6. Description — 750 characters max; front-load the first 250 with what you do, where, and for whom. No keyword walls, no "welcome to."
7. Photos — minimums: exterior (helps people find the door), interior, team, and 10+ real work/product shots. Add 2–4 new ones monthly; a listing whose newest photo is 14 months old signals "possibly closed."
8. Posts — weekly is ideal, biweekly is fine, dead-for-six-months is harmful. Offers and updates outperform generic tips.
9. Q&A — seed it: post the 5–10 questions customers actually ask (from the owner's account) and answer them (from the business account). Anyone can answer Q&A — if you don't, a stranger will.
10. Hours, attributes, booking link, messaging — completeness signals. Holiday hours unset = "hours may differ" warnings that cost calls.
11. Website link — should point to the most relevant page (service page for a single-service push), tagged with UTM parameters so GBP traffic is visible in analytics: ?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=gbp.

Step 3 — Deliver the audit

## GBP Audit — [Business name]

**Score: [X]/100** (weights: categories 20, reviews 20, services 15,
photos 10, posts 10, description 10, Q&A 5, completeness 10)

### Top 5 fixes (do these first)
1. [fix] — why: [ranking factor it moves] — effort: [15 min / 1 hr / ongoing]
...

### Full findings
[area-by-area: current state → what to change → exactly how]

### Monthly maintenance (30 min/month)
- [ ] 2–4 new photos
- [ ] 2+ posts
- [ ] Reply to every new review
- [ ] Check Q&A for new questions

Suspension traps — warn before the user touches anything

• Changing name, address, and category in one session often triggers re-verification and a listing outage. Space edits days apart.
• Keyword-stuffed names, virtual-office addresses, and P.O. boxes are the top suspension causes.
• Service-area businesses (no storefront) must hide the address, not fake one.

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