Google Business Profile Audit: The 30-Point Checklist to Find What Is Hurting Your Rankings

If your Google Business Profile is not ranking where you expect it to, the answer is almost always buried somewhere in the details. A thorough Google Business Profile audit uncovers the gaps, errors, and missed opportunities that quietly drag your visibility down — and most businesses have several.

This 30-point checklist covers every area of your GBP that affects local search rankings, from the obvious (are your hours correct?) to the subtle (are you using the right primary category?). Work through each section methodically and you will almost certainly find at least five things to improve. We have organised the checks into eight categories, with each item showing what good looks like, the most common mistake, and exactly how to fix it.

Key Takeaways

A Google Business Profile audit is not a one-time task — Google can and does change your profile without notifying you.
Your primary category is the single most influential ranking factor in your GBP; getting it wrong costs you significant visibility.
Incomplete profiles rank lower: Google's own research shows businesses with complete profiles are 70% more likely to attract location visits.
Photos, Google Posts, and Q&A are consistently underused — and they signal active, trustworthy businesses to Google's algorithm.
Review response rate is a ranking signal in 2025/2026; unanswered negative reviews actively harm your profile.
Automated monitoring (via tools like MyReputation.ie) catches unauthorised changes and compliance issues between manual audits.

Why Your Google Business Profile Needs a Regular Audit

A Google Business Profile audit is a systematic review of every element of your GBP listing to identify inaccuracies, gaps, and optimisation opportunities that are reducing your visibility in local search results.

Most business owners set up their GBP once and rarely return to it. This is a costly mistake. Google regularly makes automatic "suggested edits" to business profiles — changing your hours, address, or even business name based on information it scrapes from third-party sources. Public users can also suggest edits. If you are not auditing regularly, your profile may be quietly harming your rankings without you ever knowing.

Beyond the risk of unauthorised changes, local SEO best practices evolve. What was an optimised profile in 2023 may be significantly behind the curve in 2026. This checklist reflects current best practice based on Google's published guidance and observed ranking behaviour across thousands of local businesses.

Category 1: Business Identity

Your business name and identity signals are the foundation of your GBP. Getting them wrong undermines every other optimisation.

Check 1: Business Name Matches Your Legal Trading Name

What good looks like: Your GBP business name is exactly your real-world trading name — nothing more, nothing less.

Common mistake: Adding keywords to your business name (e.g., "Murphy's Plumbing — Emergency Plumber Dublin"). This is explicitly prohibited by Google's guidelines and is one of the most common reasons profiles get suspended. Competitors can and do report keyword-stuffed names.

Fix: Edit your business name to match your signage, website header, and legal registration exactly. If you legitimately have keywords in your trading name, they are fine — but artificially appending them is a policy violation.

Check 2: Business Name Is Consistent Across the Web

What good looks like: Your business name is identical on your GBP, your website, your social profiles, and major directories like Yelp, Bing Places, and Apple Maps.

Common mistake: Minor inconsistencies such as "Murphy Plumbing Ltd" on GBP versus "Murphy's Plumbing" on Facebook. Google uses NAP (Name, Address, Phone) consistency across the web as a trust signal.

Fix: Run a citation audit using a tool like BrightLocal or Whitespark and standardise your name everywhere.

Check 3: Business Category Is Set to the Most Specific Option

Your primary category is arguably the most important single ranking factor in your entire GBP. It tells Google what searches to show your profile for, and choosing a vague or incorrect category can mean missing enormous amounts of relevant traffic.

What good looks like: You have selected the most specific primary category that accurately describes your core business. A family solicitors firm should be "Family Law Attorney" rather than "Law Firm". A Thai restaurant should be "Thai Restaurant" rather than "Restaurant".

Common mistake: Choosing a broad parent category when a more specific child category exists. Or choosing a category based on what sounds prestigious rather than what matches your actual service.

Fix: Search your category in the GBP interface and review every available option. Use Google's category list (available from third-party SEO tools) to see all options, as the search within GBP does not always surface the most specific matches.

Category 2: Secondary Categories

Secondary categories expand the range of searches your profile appears for. Most businesses use too few.

Check 4: You Are Using 8–9 Secondary Categories

What good looks like: Your profile uses the maximum practical number of secondary categories — typically 8 to 9 additional categories beyond your primary — to capture the broadest relevant search coverage.

Common mistake: Leaving secondary categories mostly empty, or using only 2–3. This is one of the most significant missed opportunities in GBP optimisation.

Fix: Brainstorm every legitimate service or product type you offer and find the matching GBP category. A solicitors firm might add "Conveyancing Solicitor", "Employment Attorney", "Wills and Probate Attorney", "Notary Public", and so on.

Check 5: No Irrelevant Categories Are Listed

What good looks like: Every category on your profile accurately reflects a service or product you genuinely offer.

Common mistake: Adding popular categories you do not actually serve in an attempt to capture more traffic. This leads to irrelevant impressions, low click-through rates, and signals to Google that your profile is unreliable.

Fix: Review each secondary category and remove any that a customer clicking through would find misleading.

Category 3: Contact Information

Accurate, local contact information builds trust with both Google and potential customers.

Check 6: You Are Using a Local Phone Number

What good looks like: Your primary phone number is a local geographic number with the correct area code for your business location.

Common mistake: Using a national rate 0800 number, a virtual phone number, or a number that differs from your website. Google prefers local numbers as they reinforce geographic relevance.

Fix: Set your primary phone number to your local landline or mobile. If you use a tracking number, add your local number as the primary and the tracking number as the secondary.

Check 7: Your Website URL Is Correct and Includes UTM Tracking

What good looks like: Your website URL points to the correct page (ideally your homepage or a dedicated landing page) and includes UTM parameters so you can track GBP traffic in Google Analytics 4.

Common mistake: Linking to a broken URL, an outdated page, or simply not including UTM tracking and therefore being unable to measure what GBP is actually generating for your business.

Fix: Set your URL as https://yourwebsite.ie/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=gbp. Check the URL loads correctly.

Check 8: Address Is Correctly Formatted and Matches Your Website

What good looks like: Your address is formatted in the standard local convention, matches your website contact page exactly, and pinpoints your actual physical location accurately on the map.

Common mistake: An abbreviated or informally formatted address that differs subtly from your website or Companies House registration. Even a "Street" vs "St" discrepancy can erode trust signals.

Fix: Standardise your address format and apply it consistently everywhere. If your map pin is in the wrong location, drag it to the correct position within GBP.

Category 4: Business Hours

Incorrect hours are one of the top reasons customers are lost and one of the most common issues flagged in a Google Business Profile audit.

Check 9: All Seven Days Are Set

What good looks like: Every day of the week has either hours listed or is explicitly marked as "Closed". No days are left blank.

Common mistake: Leaving some days empty, which Google may interpret as "unknown" and which makes your listing look incomplete.

Fix: Go through each day and either set hours or mark it closed. If you are "by appointment only", use that option where available or set your standard response hours.

Check 10: Special Hours Are Set for Bank Holidays

What good looks like: You have proactively added special hours for all upcoming Irish bank holidays so customers are never misled.

Common mistake: Forgetting to update hours for bank holidays, leading Google to show incorrect hours and customers to turn up to a closed business — which generates negative reviews.

Fix: Set a calendar reminder before each bank holiday to update your special hours. In Ireland, the nine public holidays (including the May Day Bank Holiday and St Brigid's Day) all need consideration.

Check 11: "More Hours" Is Used for Specific Services

What good looks like: If you offer services with different hours (e.g., a restaurant with kitchen hours separate from bar hours, or a garage with different hours for the parts counter), you have used the "More Hours" feature to specify each.

Common mistake: Not knowing this feature exists. More Hours can include senior hours, delivery hours, drive-through hours, takeaway hours, and more.

Fix: Review the More Hours options available for your category and add any that apply.

Category 5: Business Description

Your description is read by potential customers and scanned by Google. It needs to be complete, relevant, and compliant.

Check 12: Description Uses Close to the 750-Character Limit

What good looks like: A description that uses most of the 750-character allowance to describe your business, services, history, and key differentiators.

Common mistake: A two-sentence description that wastes this valuable space.

Fix: Write a full, compelling description. Lead with your most important service and location, include 2–3 natural keyword mentions, and end with a trust signal (e.g., years in business, number of clients served, certifications held).

Check 13: Keywords Are Included Naturally

What good looks like: Your description reads naturally to a human reader but includes the key phrases customers use to find businesses like yours — woven into real sentences, not listed in a spammy block.

Common mistake: Keyword stuffing ("best plumber Dublin, emergency plumber Dublin, cheap plumber Dublin…") or writing a description that mentions no relevant services at all.

Fix: Write for the customer first, then check that your primary service terms appear at least once in context.

Check 14: Description Contains No URLs or Phone Numbers

What good looks like: A clean description with no embedded links or phone numbers.

Common mistake: Including your website or phone number in the description text. This is a Google policy violation and can trigger a suspension.

Fix: Remove any URLs or phone numbers from your description text. These details live in dedicated GBP fields.

Category 6: Photos

Photos are one of the most powerful trust signals on your GBP. According to Google's own data, businesses with photos receive 42% more requests for directions and 35% more clicks through to their websites.

Check 15: You Have 20 or More Photos

What good looks like: A rich gallery of at least 20 high-quality photos showing your premises, team, products, services, and work.

Common mistake: Only the cover photo and logo — or no photos at all.

Fix: Upload a minimum of 20 photos. Mix exterior shots, interior shots, team photos, product or service photos, and photos of your work in action.

Check 16: Logo Is Uploaded

What good looks like: A high-resolution logo image is set in the Logo field (separate from your general photo gallery).

Common mistake: No logo uploaded, or a low-resolution or cropped version.

Fix: Upload a square, high-resolution PNG or JPG of your logo.

Check 17: Cover Photo Is Set and On-Brand

What good looks like: Your cover photo is a professional, on-brand image that represents your business well — ideally showing your premises, team, or flagship product/service.

Common mistake: Using the default cover photo Google automatically selects (which is usually not your best image), or using a cover photo that is blurry, outdated, or off-brand.

Fix: Explicitly set your cover photo from within the GBP photo management screen. Google may override your selection; check it regularly.

Check 18: Photos Have Been Added in the Last 30 Days

What good looks like: Fresh photo uploads within the last month, signalling to Google that your business is active.

Common mistake: The last photo upload was 18 months ago. Stale photo libraries are a signal of an inactive or potentially closed business.

Fix: Set a monthly reminder to upload at least 2–3 new photos. These can be simple: a photo of a recent job completed, a team event, a seasonal window display.

Check 19: A Virtual Tour Is Available (If Applicable)

What good looks like: A Google-approved virtual tour (360° walkthrough) embedded in your profile, giving customers a feel for your space before they visit.

Common mistake: Dismissing this as unnecessary. For hospitality, retail, healthcare, and professional services, a virtual tour can significantly increase the conversion rate from profile view to visit.

Fix: Contact a Google Street View trusted photographer to create and publish a virtual tour of your premises.

Category 7: Engagement Features

Google rewards active, engaged profiles. These features are used far less than they should be.

Check 20: Booking Button Is Linked

What good looks like: If your business takes appointments or bookings, your GBP has the "Book" button connected to your booking system.

Common mistake: Not knowing this feature exists, or linking it to a general contact page instead of a direct booking tool.

Fix: In GBP, go to Bookings and connect your booking provider. If you do not use a supported provider, add your booking URL as a service link.

Check 21: Messaging Is Enabled and Monitored

What good looks like: Google Business Profile messaging is switched on and someone on your team monitors and responds to messages within 24 hours.

Common mistake: Messaging is either not enabled (missed enquiries) or enabled but not monitored (Google penalises slow response times and can disable messaging if your response rate drops).

Fix: Enable messaging from the GBP dashboard. Assign a team member to check it daily. Google measures your response time and displays it publicly.

Check 22: Q&A Section Has 10+ Seeded Questions and Answers

What good looks like: You have proactively asked and answered the 10–15 most common questions your customers ask, creating a self-service FAQ directly on your GBP.

Common mistake: The Q&A section is completely empty — or worse, has unanswered questions from members of the public that contain incorrect information.

Fix: Using a secondary Google account (or asking a colleague), post the top questions customers ask you. Then switch to your business account and answer them. This content also appears in Google's AI-generated summaries of your business.

Check 23: Google Posts Are Published Regularly

What good looks like: You are publishing at least 2–4 Google Posts per month — updates, offers, events, or news — keeping your profile active and your latest information visible.

Common mistake: Never using Google Posts, despite them being a free, algorithm-friendly way to signal activity and push specific offers or events.

Fix: Set up a monthly content calendar for Google Posts. Each post should include a clear call to action and a link back to your website. Posts expire after 7 days for standard updates, so regular publishing is essential.

Check 24: Products or Services Are Listed (Where Applicable)

What good looks like: Your specific products or services are listed with descriptions, prices (or price ranges), and photos where available.

Common mistake: Leaving the Products and Services section empty because it "takes too long to fill in". This section feeds directly into how Google surfaces your business for specific product or service searches.

Fix: Add your core services with brief descriptions. Even a skeleton list is significantly better than nothing.

Category 8: Reputation

Your review profile is a direct ranking signal and a primary conversion driver. These checks are often the most impactful.

Check 25: You Have 10 or More Reviews

What good looks like: A healthy baseline of at least 10 recent reviews, providing social proof and the statistical sample Google needs to trust your rating.

Common mistake: Fewer than 10 reviews, or a large gap in the dates of reviews (no new reviews in 12 months).

Fix: Implement a systematic review request process. Ask every satisfied customer at the natural end of the transaction, whether in person, by email, or by SMS. Use your GBP review link (found in your GBP dashboard under "Ask for reviews") to make it frictionless. Never incentivise reviews — this violates Google's policy.

Check 26: Your Average Rating Is 4.0 or Above

What good looks like: A rating of 4.0 stars or higher. Google's research shows that consumers prefer businesses rated 4.0 and above, and the algorithm itself factors rating into local pack rankings.

Common mistake: Allowing a small number of negative reviews to drag the average below 4.0 without addressing the underlying issues or generating more positive reviews to balance the score.

Fix: Respond to every negative review professionally and resolve the issue where possible. A well-handled complaint can neutralise its impact. Then focus on generating more positive reviews to raise your average.

Check 27: You Have a 100% Review Response Rate

What good looks like: Every single review — positive and negative — has a response from the business owner.

Common mistake: Only responding to negative reviews (missing the engagement opportunity on positive ones) or not responding to any reviews at all.

Fix: Set up a review monitoring alert so you are notified of every new review. Respond to positive reviews with personalised thanks (avoid copy-pasting identical responses — Google's algorithm detects this). Respond to negative reviews calmly, professionally, and with a commitment to resolve.

Check 28: No Unanswered Negative Reviews Are Older Than 7 Days

What good looks like: Every negative review has a timely, professional response.

Common mistake: A negative review from three months ago that has never been acknowledged — visible to every potential customer who views your profile.

Fix: Audit your review history and respond to any unanswered reviews immediately, even if they are old. A late response is always better than no response.

Check 29: You Have Flagged Spam or Fake Reviews

What good looks like: Fake or spam reviews have been flagged for removal via the GBP interface.

Common mistake: Leaving obviously fake reviews (from competitors or disgruntled non-customers) on the profile without flagging them, allowing them to artificially suppress your rating.

Fix: Report any review you believe is fake or violates Google's policies using the flag option. The process is slow, but persistence pays off. For stubborn cases, escalating via the GBP support forum with documentation improves success rates.

Check 30: Review Keywords Reflect Your Core Services

What good looks like: Customer reviews organically mention your key services and location — which Google uses to reinforce your relevance for those terms.

Common mistake: Reviews are generic ("great service, highly recommend!") and fail to mention what the business actually does.

Fix: You cannot write reviews for customers, but you can prompt specificity. When asking for a review, say: "It would really help us if you could mention which service you used and where you are based." This guidance nudges reviewers to include useful detail without scripting their response.

Ongoing Monitoring: Protecting What You Have Built

A one-time Google Business Profile audit is valuable, but it is not enough. Google allows anyone — including competitors — to suggest edits to your profile. Google's own algorithm also automatically applies changes it believes are correct, based on data scraped from websites, social media, and mapping data. These changes happen silently, without any notification to you.

In 2025, Google was observed automatically modifying business hours, addresses, categories, and even business names across thousands of UK and Irish listings. Many business owners only discovered the changes when customers complained or when they noticed a sudden drop in visibility.

What Unauthorised Changes Look Like

Your hours are changed to reflect a holiday schedule that no longer applies
Your business category is switched to a broader, less relevant option
Your address is updated to an old address scraped from an outdated directory
Your business name has keywords stripped or added by Google's automated systems
A competitor suggests an edit to your phone number or website URL

How MyReputation.ie Automates Your Ongoing Audit

MyReputation.ie monitors your Google Business Profile continuously, comparing your profile against a verified snapshot of what it should look like. When something changes — whether by Google, a user suggestion, or any other means — you receive an instant alert with the exact change shown side by side.

From the alert, you can revert the change to your approved version with a single click, without logging in to Google, finding the right field, and re-entering the correct information manually.

This turns your audit from a periodic manual task into a continuous automated process. Think of it as the ongoing layer that protects the work you have done in this checklist. For agencies and franchises managing multiple locations, the platform monitors every profile simultaneously and surfaces changes across all locations in a single dashboard. You can learn more about how the monitoring works in our post on how to protect your Google Business Profile from unauthorised changes.

Putting It All Together: Running Your Audit

The most efficient way to work through this checklist is in a single sitting with your GBP dashboard open in one browser tab and this post in another. Allocate about 90 minutes for the first audit.

Create a simple spreadsheet with three columns: the check number, Pass/Fail, and your action note. Any item that fails goes straight onto your to-do list with a deadline.

Prioritise in this order:

Category and identity checks first (Checks 1–5) — these have the greatest impact on which searches you appear in.
Contact and hours (Checks 6–11) — these directly affect whether customers can reach you.
Reputation (Checks 25–30) — these affect conversion rate immediately.
Photos and engagement (Checks 15–24) — these require ongoing effort but compound over time.
Description (Checks 12–14) — important but lower urgency if your other elements are strong.

Set a reminder to re-audit in 90 days, and use a monitoring tool like MyReputation.ie to catch any changes that occur between now and then.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How often should I do a Google Business Profile audit?

A: A full 30-point audit should be done at minimum once per quarter. However, certain elements — particularly hours, photos, and review responses — should be checked weekly. For businesses in competitive local markets, monthly audits combined with automated monitoring are best practice.

Q: Can competitors change my Google Business Profile?

A: Yes. Any logged-in Google user can suggest an edit to any business profile, including yours. Google may accept these suggested edits automatically if they are supported by other data sources it trusts. This is why automated monitoring is essential — you may not notice a malicious or erroneous change for weeks without it.

Q: Does the number of Google reviews affect local rankings?

A: Yes, review quantity, review recency, and overall star rating are all confirmed local ranking signals in Google's algorithm. A business with 5 reviews and a 5.0 rating will generally rank below a competitor with 80 reviews and a 4.4 rating, all else being equal.

Q: What is the most common reason a Google Business Profile gets suspended?

A: The most common causes of GBP suspension are keyword stuffing in the business name, using a virtual office address without a genuine customer-facing presence at that location, having multiple profiles for the same location, and operating in a category Google considers high-risk (locksmith, financial services, legal services). Name violations are the most easily avoided — simply use your exact trading name with no additions.

Q: How long does it take to see results after optimising a Google Business Profile?

A: Visibility improvements from category and identity fixes are typically seen within 2–4 weeks. Review generation is cumulative and takes longer. Photo and Q&A improvements may influence click-through rates and engagement metrics almost immediately.

Q: Are Google Posts worth the effort?

A: Yes, particularly for time-sensitive offers, events, and news. Google Posts appear directly on your profile in both standard search results and Google Maps. While they expire after 7 days for standard updates (events last until the event end date, offers last until the offer expiry), they signal recency and activity to Google's algorithm. Businesses publishing consistent Posts see stronger engagement on their GBP listings overall.

Q: What should I do if Google keeps reverting my changes?

A: If Google keeps overriding your edits — for example, changing your business name back to a keyword-stuffed version suggested by users — this usually indicates that other data sources on the web are contradicting your preferred information. The solution is to fix the source: update your website, directories, and social profiles to match your GBP, remove inconsistencies, and then re-apply the correct information on GBP. Automated monitoring (via MyReputation.ie) will alert you immediately each time a reversion occurs.

A complete Google Business Profile audit takes time, but the return on that investment is direct and measurable. Every check you complete improves either your ranking visibility, the rate at which searchers click through to your website, or the rate at which they convert into customers. Most businesses that work through this checklist discover significant gaps — and the improvements that follow are often the highest-ROI SEO work they do all year.

Start monitoring your Google Business Profile free at MyReputation.ie.