Already on Google? A profile checklist for your local business

Keep the profile you already have

Find your business by its real name and town. Check which profile is yours and who controls it before asking someone to rebuild your online presence. Keep a note of the owner account and the website address currently linked from the profile.

Google's guidelines call for an accurate business name and normally one profile for each business location. Adding search keywords to the name or creating extra language-specific copies is the wrong starting point. Use your website's language pages to explain the same business to different customers.

Follow the customer journey on a phone

Open the public profile as a customer would. Tap the website link and use the page you reach, without relying on information you already know. Can you identify the service, area and next step? If you have to search for a number or translate the text yourself, write that down as a specific repair.

For a cleaning company, the important question may be whether it serves the customer's postcode. For a translator, it may be the language pair and how to send a request. For a salon, it may be which service to book. Your linked page should answer the question that fits your business.

• Does the website link open the correct page without an error?
• Can a customer understand the service in a language you serve?
• Does the call, message or booking link reach your own business?

Separate ranking from usability

Google describes local results in terms of relevance, distance and prominence. A supplier cannot sell you a guaranteed position. A more useful starting brief is to correct the information, connect the website and make the contact journey understandable.

Keep a short before-and-after record of the repairs: the old destination of a link, the new destination, and the question the page now answers. Avoid treating one search from your own phone as a ranking audit. What you see can differ from what a customer in another area sees.

Set a routine that survives a busy week

When a price, service or opening arrangement changes, update the customer-facing information together. Give one person responsibility for checking the website and profile. Put the next check in the same diary you use for the business, rather than depending on someone remembering after work.

For Navidu, Start includes a one-time Google profile setup; Presence includes monthly management and every Google review answered within 48 hours, or that month is free. These are defined tasks and a review-response promise, not a guarantee of more reviews, calls or higher rankings.

• Keep a list of the links and details you have changed.
• After a change, test the public page on a phone again.
• Ask new callers how they found you; keep this separate from button-click counts.