Google Business Profile audit

Google Business Profile audit: a checklist you can run yourself

Updated November 4, 2026

Your Google Business Profile is often the first thing a local customer sees, and for many businesses it brings more calls than the website. A profile audit checks that everything Google shows about you is complete, accurate and working for you. You can run this one yourself in under an hour.

1. Business details

Name matches your real-world name, with no added keywords (these break Google's guidelines and can get a profile suspended).
Address or service area is correct; service-area businesses that don't serve customers at their address should hide it.
Phone, website link and hours are accurate, including holiday hours.

2. Categories

The primary category affects rankings more than almost anything else on the profile. Make sure it matches the service you most want to be found for, then add secondary categories only for things you really do. Look at the categories your top-ranking competitors use for ideas.

3. Services, products and description

Every service listed, in the words customers use, with short descriptions.
A description that says what you do, where, and for whom, without keyword stuffing.
Products added if you sell items or packages.

4. Photos and posts

A real logo and cover photo.
Recent photos of your work, team, vehicles and premises, added regularly.
Posts for offers, news or seasonal services, if you have something worth saying.

5. Reviews

How many reviews you have and how recent they are, compared with the businesses ranking above you.
Whether every review has a reply, including old and negative ones.
Whether you have a simple way to ask customers for reviews.

6. Where you actually rank

A complete profile is only useful if it shows up. Check your main searches from points across your service area, not just from your own phone, which Google personalises. You may rank first near your office and not at all a few kilometres away. That map shows where the profile needs help, and is the best way to measure whether your fixes worked.

What to fix first

Anything wrong: name, address, phone, hours.
The primary category.
Missing services and description.
Review requests and replies.
Photos and posts, on a regular schedule.

Questions

How often should I audit my Google Business Profile?

A full check every few months, and a quick look whenever rankings or calls change. Google and other users can edit profiles, so details can change without you.

What hurts a profile most?

Wrong details, a poorly chosen primary category, keyword-stuffed names that risk suspension, and few or old reviews.

Can I audit a competitor's profile?

Yes. Their categories, services, review count and photos are public, and comparing them with yours often shows why they rank higher.

Does an audit improve rankings by itself?

No, the fixes do. An audit tells you what to change; measuring rankings across your area before and after shows whether it worked.

SearchTerrain

Track it every week, not once

SearchTerrain checks where you rank on Google Maps across your service area, in search results and in AI answers, then tells you what to work on next. Plans from $99 a month. Free for the first 7 days.

See plans Run the free scan