A Google Business Profile can be claimed once and never opened again. If that is your profile, the hours may have drifted out of date and the photographs and posts stopped changing, while another business nearby shows up above you on the map.
Sound familiar?
The unclaimed profile. The profile exists, but nobody in the business claimed it or has the login. The category is wrong and the phone number is the old one.
The second branch. The new location's profile has barely any photos and no services listed, and reviews meant for it land on the other branch's profile.
The suspended profile. Nobody has read the reason Google gives for the suspension, and the appeal has not been filed.
How it works
- We check you qualify, first. Google says a business "must make in-person contact with customers during its stated hours" (eligibility guidelines). On the first call, before anything is created, we give you our reading of whether you qualify. The decision is Google's.
- Your account, our access. You stay the owner and invite us as a manager, as Google's third-party policies advise. We act only with your express consent and tell you about every change. As owner, you can remove us at any time. The same policies say we "need to share" Google's notice on working with a third party, so that businesses "know what they can expect when working with a third-party partner".
- We optimise the profile, once, in full. We choose the fewest categories that describe your core business, as Google's guidelines ask, and list your services where Google offers that for your category. We fill in the attributes you can set, opening and holiday hours, real photographs and a description written for a customer. Your name and phone number will match your website exactly.
- Then every week. A post about something real, and new photographs from a short brief to you. Changes Google suggests to your profile are checked with you, and a listing you believe breaks Google's guidelines is reported through Google's own forms. Google decides what happens next.
- Google's own counts, every month. The report comes from your profile's performance data, which Google says is "available only for verified Business Profiles". It uses Google's metric names: Searches, Views, Calls, Directions and Website clicks, where they apply to you, counting Google Ads as well as organic results. None of them is a ranking.
What the starting price buys
The eligibility check, then the profile set up properly once in your own account. After that, it is looked after every week and you get a monthly report. Each month we check Bing Places, Apple Business, Yell and FreeIndex against your profile, make the changes where the directory lets us act for you, and otherwise send you the exact edits. Per location, because the work is per profile.
Add when you need it: a suspension worked through and appealed (what Google says to check) · listings synced by tool across a long directory list · extra locations.
What keeps you safe
If you need a new profile, we guide you through creating it in your own Google account, never for an address you do not work from, and complete Google's verification with you. Google says: "If we determine that your business doesn't exist in the location that you claim, Google will disable your profile" (why a borrowed address fails).
You stay the owner: Google says customers "must retain ownership or co-ownership of their Business Profile at all times" (questions to ask anyone selling Maps ranking).
For a clinic, we write the profile for the consultation, never a prescription-only medicine (what clinics can say).
What it costs
A set-up fee and a monthly fee per location, both shown at the top of this page. Locations, suspension work and directory sync move the price. Nothing in it is tied to a ranking: Google says "There's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google", and no report of ours can promise one.
When something else fits better
Reviews run as their own plan, Review Management. Content, links and technical work on your website's place in the ordinary search results are the SEO retainer. This plan runs the profile, and each is priced separately so you can buy the one you are missing.
None of this is legal advice, and none of it is a promise about where you will rank. Get in touch with your profile link, or the address you are not sure qualifies, or read how a project runs first.