How to Optimise Google My Business Listing for Local SEO Success in 2025

Local SEO with Google My Business Listing enables you to rank on Google Maps and list your business for relevant keywords where local business listings appear. Local businesses, specifically in the service industry, are known to find My Business listing one of the most effective forms of SEO and marketing online. Statistics indicate 96% of users know about local businesses online, with over 64% of Google users checking the contact details on Google My Business listings.

Google Business is beneficial for businesses in driving traffic to websites, generating leads, calls to your business, and walk-ins to your store. Google My Business listings are designed to list businesses near the location of the person searching for a product or service. Other factors that determine ranking include how well the listing is optimized and how many reviews (positive) you have acquired over time. Businesses with relevant reviews and ratings will often show much higher on the listing than those which are new and have no or fewer reviews.

While Google My Business listings could be hard to rank for in a competitive industry, they can be optimized over time to rank better. Setting up your Google My Business listing plays a big role in how you rank for your products or services.

Setting Up Your Google Business Listing

Google Business Listing setup is divided into two parts. One section is the setup of your Google Business listing on Google itself. The second section is to be set up on your website. The right setup, followed by updates and reviews to your Google listing, will increase the ranking at a steady pace. Unfortunately, ranking on Google Local is not an overnight task. Google takes its time to determine ranking based on your reviews and user experience. Ranking on Google Local could take anywhere between 3 months to a year when done correctly, based on the competition.

Setting Up Google My Business Profile: Section 1

This part explains the tasks required to set up your Google My Business account.
Visit https://business.google.com and create a new business by clicking “Add Business.” The first page of the Add Business process asks for your business name and business category. Your business name should be your exact business name. Your business name is key and should not change. Once we set up your business page, you will be using the business name, address, and phone number to promote your website on several other pages. Consistency in these three fields is important. No changes in the business name, variations in the address, or phone numbers are recommended. Ensure that you use the business name as is. Avoid using keywords in your business listing to improve ranking. Google My Business listings with keywords will rank better (at least initially) but will drop in ranking if you are not consistent with the business name in other locations.

For instance, if your business name is Acme Engineering Ltd., use the name Acme Engineering Ltd. instead of “Acme Engineering Ltd. Electrical engineering company” or “Acme Electrical Engineering company.” You can use a variation if you are sure that you will be promoting your company with the variation name throughout and be consistent. Also, remember that you are not the only person who will be referencing the company by name. Your customers will refer to your company as “Acme Engineering Ltd.” and not “Acme Electrical Engineering Company.” This could lead to inconsistencies. When possible, use the same name as the company.

The second field on the page is the Category of the business. This is the primary category, and you will be required to use the category that correctly reflects the services or products of your company. When possible, use the most relevant category. With the above example, if your company was to manufacture electrical products, you may want to list your company as an Electrical Engineering Company rather than an Engineering Company. Be as specific as you can to reduce competition. Engineering companies tend to have more than 3 to 4 times more competition than electrical engineering companies. You want to be competing with fewer people initially.

Section 2 – Adding Location Information to Google My Business

The second page of the Google My Business Setup asks for locations. Locations are key to ranking on Google My Business. Google My Business lists businesses near the location of a user. If a user is in Location X searching for an electrical engineer, Company A located within a 100-meter radius of Location X will have more priority when compared to a company located 2 km away.

Some companies do not have a physical location. Ensure that you put the correct address. You will be required to verify your office with a video, which can be deleted later. Avoid using locations that are not yours. Many companies have been known to list their companies in locations where there are prime businesses and where their end users/customers exist. This adds a lot of traffic to their listing, but due to lack of physical locations, there are poor reviews and complaints, resulting in a drop and sometimes banned listing. List your physical location correctly. You can always optimize your listing to rank better, even when your location is far from the user’s search location, with good reviews, ratings, and optimization of the listing.

The third screen/page asks for your address. List the exact address, which you will be using to promote your business. When promoting your business and optimizing your listing, you will be using the address. Do not change the address even slightly. The address should not have any variations and should be consistent in all places where you promote.

Deliveries & Visits in Google Listings

Deliveries and visits are used for companies that deliver products. This could include businesses like food delivery services and couriers that pick up and drop off products, or companies that make home and office visits, such as plumbers and electricians. Indicating that your business offers visits and deliveries can enhance your listing. However, companies that do not offer visits or deliveries should opt out of these options.

Service Area

The service area refers to the regions where you provide your services. List 10-12 specific areas where you operate. Be as precise as possible. Choosing service areas is particularly beneficial for companies that deliver products or make visits. Keep the areas compact, with a maximum radius of 10 km.

Contact Information & Website

The next section in the Google My Business listing requires your phone number and website. Ensure the phone number you list is consistent, active, and readily available. Also, include the same phone number on your website. Use the number with the country code across all platforms, including social media, to maintain consistency and ease of access for potential customers.

For the website field, you don’t necessarily have to input the homepage URL—you can use specific web pages as well. While the homepage is generally recommended, if it doesn’t include details about your services, use the URL of a services page instead. Linking directly to a page with all your services listed improves user experience. People searching for your services should find relevant information immediately upon visiting your website. Reducing the need for extra clicks or navigation prevents frustration for users. This approach also helps Google easily identify your services and relevant pages on your website.

Adding Services to Your Google My Business Listing

The next section allows you to add relevant services your business provides. Focus on listing services that are highly specific and tailored to your offerings. Avoid the temptation to add an excessive number of services, as there is little benefit to listing every possible service, especially if they aren’t closely related to your business.

Instead, concentrate on custom services and long-tail keywords that are relevant to your business. For example, if you offer plumbing services, consider adding specific terms like “overhead water tank installation.” This type of service may not be commonly listed but could rank well and convert effectively if it’s part of your offerings.

Do not add more than 10 to 15 services in this section. Some Google My Business listings add hundreds or even thousands of services, which often proves unhelpful. Instead, target a concise list of highly relevant services that are also prominently featured on your website.

Listing Opening Hours of Your Business in Google Business Profile

Listing opening hours helps with a better user experience. Business listings that are listed as open will be displayed prominently during the opening hours and will not be listed prominently when the business is closed. If your business is listed to be open from 9 am to 5 pm, you will be shown prominently during business hours but will drop down in ranking when your business hours are not met. Many optimizers and companies list their companies as open 24 hours to get listed prominently throughout the time. This is not recommended. Google is known to call occasionally to test if your business is open and if you pick up calls during business hours. If you do not pick up calls, you may either be listed as temporarily closed or worse, banned. Also, this is not recommended for user experience. People who may want to visit your location outside the business hours may find the business open on Google but closed when they reach your location, leaving them unsatisfied.
Provide the right business hours. If you are a location that does not take visitors, do not list a physical location. Unfortunately, your listing will not be visible without a physical location, but it’s the right thing to do.

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Adding a Business Description to Your Google Business Listing

The business description is one of the key factors to determine how well you will rank for your services. We suggest that you use a good content creator to help you write a description. The description should be keyword-rich and should include your company’s name, services, and products when possible. Keep the content concise but interesting. Do not write the templated “about us” section in the description field. This is marketing material. Write your content to encourage users to visit your store or your website, make a call, or leave a review.
Take the effort to add at least 500 characters to the description tag. The description field accepts 750 characters. We encourage you to use the maximum number of characters available effectively. Remember that each word counts, and making the best use of the description tag helps you rank for more keywords.

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Adding Images to Your Google Business Profile

Images add to the better user experience. Images of your business location and products add value. People looking for your products and services may click through to your business listing when they see images. The images should be high-quality and should be related to your business. For the service industry, provide images and videos of the service. For instance, a plumbing service could show a video of an installation being done on a client site. For a website design company, you could show the office with your staff or without the staff and also some of the website screenshots you have worked on.
Users are usually looking for images that they can relate to. Imagine listing your company in the furniture section without images as opposed to one with 100 images of all your products. Which listing do you think people would prefer to go to?
When submitting photos, there is a small advantage when the image is geo-tagged. Geotags are meta tags embedded with the image showing the location where the photo was taken. While geo-tagging is enabled on smartphones, you may not have geo-tagging on some DSLR cameras or you may need to adjust the settings in the camera to show geo tags. When you do not have an image with a geo tag (screenshots, for example), you can geo-tag your image with tools like Geoimgr (https://www.geoimgr.com/). This tool helps geo-tag your images. Though this small addition will not boost your ranking a lot, it makes a small difference.

Google Local Optimization for Your Website

While Google My Business listings are the key to successful ranking, your user experience may affect your listing on the Google My Business profile. Keep the information consistent on your website and Google My Business profile. Follow the rules below on your website to rank well on Google My Business profile:

1. Ensure Business Name Consistency
   Ensure that your business name is prominently displayed on the website. Make sure the name is consistent with what is provided on Google My Business, without any variations.
2. Address Consistency
   Ensure that the address is listed on your website, preferably on all pages, and is consistent with the address provided on your Google Business profile.
3. Phone Number Availability
   Ensure that your phone number is listed on all pages or at least on the page URL you provide on your Google Business profile. Keep the phone number consistent.
4. Location Prominence
   Ensure that the location is prominently displayed on the pages. If you are serving Vadodara, ensure that the title tag of the webpage includes “Vadodara.” Also, add the location in relevant areas of the webpage.
5. Service Subpages
   Try to add subpages for each of the services you provide and link them from the URL listed on your Google Business profile. If you have more than one service, list all the services on the main page and link to each relevant service page. This not only adds value to your website and authority but also helps in ranking.
6. Opening Hours Integration
   Incorporate opening hours on the website when possible. Some businesses might find it hard to integrate opening hours on their website, but we encourage you to add them for better rankings.
7. Add Schema Markup
   Add local business schema markup with all the relevant information to your webpage. Schema markup helps with local business ranking not just on Google Business but also in your organic search results.

For more details on our services in Local SEO, we encourage you to check out our Local SEO business services.