Identity fields
Business name: exactly your real-world name — keyword stuffing here gets profiles suspended, and enforcement is real. Category: pick the single most accurate primary, then every relevant secondary. Services: list them all, with descriptions.
These fields are the skeleton of how Google understands what you are. Get them wrong and everything downstream underperforms.
Content fields
Description: 750 characters written for search language, not brochure language — include what customers actually type. Attributes: enable every one that genuinely applies. Products: add them with prices where relevant.
Photos: current, real, and varied — exterior, interior, team, work in progress. Profiles with fresh photos measurably out-engage stale ones.
Signal fields
Reviews: request systematically after every job; respond to all, positive and negative, within days. Q&A: seed it with the questions customers actually ask — unanswered Q&A is a conversion leak.
Posts: monthly at minimum. Google treats activity as freshness, and freshness correlates with pack visibility.
Verification and cleanup
Complete every verification Google offers — more verification surfaces, more trust. Then check your listing as a customer sees it: correct hours, live links, no duplicate profiles splitting your reviews.
Duplicate profiles are the second most common GBP disaster after category errors. Find yours and consolidate before building anything else.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. Suspensions for keyword-stuffed names are common and recovery is painful. Keywords belong in services, descriptions and posts.
Monthly is the floor; weekly is better for competitive metros. Each post is a freshness signal and a conversion surface.