Google Business ProfileGBP

Google Business Profile, formerly Google My Business, is the listing that represents a business across Google Maps, the local pack, and the brand's knowledge panel for local queries. It is the most important single asset in local SEO because it is the primary input to local-pack relevance and prominence, and because it is where most local discovery actually happens.

Profile health is a measurable thing. The signals that matter are completeness (every field filled, hours accurate, attributes set), a correct and specific primary category (the most common high-impact fix, a generic category loses to a specific one), photo recency and quantity, post recency (regular posts signal an active business), Q&A density and accuracy, review velocity and recency, and review response rate. Each is a lever you can pull directly.

The profile is also where many businesses leak trust through neglect: stale hours that cost a walk-in, an unanswered review, a wrong category, a duplicate listing. Google rewards active, accurate profiles and quietly penalizes neglected ones in the pack. For AI-mediated local answers, the profile is also a primary data source, so its accuracy feeds whether an engine recommends the business. We score GBP health across all of these dimensions.