Glossary · Local search

Google Business Profile.

The free listing that puts a business on Google Maps and into local search results, formerly called Google My Business. It carries the name, address, phone number, hours, categories, services, photographs and reviews.

Why it matters.

For many local businesses the listing gets more visits than the website. It is also the part most often left half-finished: of 49,994 GTA listings we surveyed, 11,503 publish no opening hours at all. The primary category is the heaviest single lever on it — it decides which searches the business is considered for — and most owners set it once and never revisit it.

How to check it yourself.

Open your listing as a stranger sees it, not through the dashboard. Are the hours there? Are the services listed with descriptions? Are the photographs yours? Ten minutes with that view usually produces a list of five fixes.

Questions

Asked often.

How do I check google business profile on my own site?

Open your listing as a stranger sees it, not through the dashboard. Are the hours there? Are the services listed with descriptions? Are the photographs yours? Ten minutes with that view usually produces a list of five fixes.

Your turn

Same check,
run on your site.

The check behind this page is the one we ran on every business above. Put your own address in and it will load your site on a phone screen, look at the certificate and the page age, and tell you what a visitor meets. No email, nothing stored.

Check my website free Read the full GTA report

Want the same for
your business?

Tell us what you do and where you work. We will look at what you have now and say plainly whether it is worth rebuilding — including when it is not.

Start a project See our work