Short answer: Your Google Business Profile is now one of the main sources AI assistants use to describe and recommend local businesses, not just a map listing. Complete every relevant field, follow Google’s rules on names, categories and reviews, keep it consistent with your website, and keep it active. This checklist covers each item and why it matters for AI.
When someone asks Google’s AI Mode, AI Overviews, Gemini or even ChatGPT for a local recommendation, the answer draws heavily on Google Business Profile data. In BrightLocal’s study of over 200,000 local AI searches, Google Business Profile was the largest single source of citations, at 28.5%, ahead of every directory and review site.
Google also changed how profiles answer questions. The old Q&A section has been phased out and replaced with an AI-powered Ask button that answers customers’ questions from your profile, your reviews and your website. If your profile is thin, the AI has little to say about you.
Work through the checklist below. Most businesses can complete it in an afternoon. For the wider picture of how AI picks local businesses, see how local businesses get recommended by ChatGPT.
1. Ownership and the basics
- Claim and verify the profile. Google says verification helps it know you’re authorized to represent the business.
- Business name exactly as it appears in real life, on your sign, website and paperwork.
- Address, if customers visit you. If you are a service-area business (a plumber or cleaner working at customers’ homes), hide your address and set a service area instead. Google’s guidelines say service-area businesses should not show their address.
- Service area listed as the cities, ZIP codes or regions you actually serve.
- Primary phone number that customers can reach. Use the same number as on your website.
- Website link to your homepage or the most relevant location page.
- Regular hours, plus special hours for holidays and closures.
Don’t add keywords to your name. “Smith Heating & Cooling” is fine; “Smith Heating & Cooling, Best HVAC Repair Des Moines” isn’t. Google’s guidelines say unnecessary information in the name isn’t permitted and can lead to suspension. It also makes AI assistants less sure which business you are.
Tip: add UTM parameters to your website link (for example ?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=gbp) so visits from your profile show up separately in Google Analytics.
2. Categories
- The most specific primary category that describes what you are, such as “HVAC contractor” rather than “Contractor”.
- Additional categories for other core services. You can add up to nine, but Google advises using as few as possible.
Categories are one of the strongest signals for which searches you appear in. Google’s guidelines say not to use them as keywords or to describe attributes. Choose categories for what the business is.
3. Description
- A plain description of up to 750 characters: what you do, who you serve, where, and what makes you different (years in business, licenses, guarantees, specialties).
- No links or promotional pricing. Google doesn’t allow them in the description.
Write it the way you would explain your business to a new customer on the phone. AI assistants often pull from this text when describing you.
4. Services and products
- Every service you offer, using Google’s suggested service names where they fit, and custom services for the rest.
- A short description for each main service: what is included, and price ranges where you can give them.
- Products, if you are an eligible retail business.
The services list is where an AI finds out whether you do the specific job someone asked about, such as “tankless water heater installation”, not just “plumbing”.
5. Attributes
- Every attribute that applies: accessibility, payment options, online appointments or estimates, languages spoken, and identity attributes such as veteran-owned or women-owned where relevant.
Attributes answer the follow-up questions people ask AI: “that takes credit cards”, “with online booking”, “wheelchair accessible”. Google lists attributes among the information that helps match your profile to searches.
6. Photos and videos
- Logo and cover photo.
- Exterior photos if customers visit, so they can find you.
- Photos of your team, vehicles and real work: before and after shots, finished jobs, your premises.
- Short videos of your work or team.
- New photos regularly, not just at setup.
Use real photos, not stock images. Recent, genuine visuals show the business is active.
7. Reviews
- Ask every customer for a review, with a direct link, soon after the job.
- Respond to every review, positive and negative, promptly and specifically.
- Never offer incentives, ask only satisfied customers, or tell people what to write.
Reviews are where AI finds the words it uses to describe you, so volume, recency and detail all matter. But Google’s review policy is strict: merchants may not offer “payment, discounts, free goods and/or services” for reviews, and may not “selectively solicit positive reviews from customers”. Breaking these rules can get reviews removed and profiles restricted.
Asking soon after the job is the honest way to get more detailed reviews: people remember more and write more.
8. Posts and updates
- Post regularly: recent jobs, seasonal advice, offers, events, new services.
- Keep offers and events current, and remove expired ones.
Regular posts show the business is active and give AI more current material, such as “now offering furnace tune-ups for winter”.
9. Answers for the AI “Ask” feature
Since Google replaced profile Q&A with an AI-powered Ask feature, the answers come from your profile, your reviews and your website. To make sure they are right:
- Put a real FAQ on your website, covering pricing, service area, response times, guarantees, licensing and booking.
- Make sure your profile answers the basics directly (services, hours, attributes) so the AI doesn’t have to guess.
- Ask the AI yourself. Try common questions on your own profile and fix whatever it gets wrong at the source.
10. Consistency with your website and listings
- Name, address, phone and hours identical on your profile, website, Yelp, Bing Places, Apple Business Connect, Facebook and industry directories.
- Services and service area match your website, with a page for each main service and area you serve.
AI tools cross-check sources. Mismatched details make them less confident, and more likely to name a competitor whose information agrees.
11. Monitoring
- Check your profile monthly for suggested edits from Google or the public, and correct anything wrong.
- Watch the Performance report for searches, calls, direction requests and website clicks.
- Ask AI assistants for the best [your service] in your area every month and track who is named.
What not to do
- Keyword-stuffed names, fake locations or virtual offices for service-area businesses.
- Categories added only as keywords.
- Buying, incentivizing or gating reviews.
- Duplicate profiles for the same location.
- Letting the profile go stale for months.
Google is clear that there is no way to pay for a better local ranking. Relevance, distance and prominence decide it, and a complete, accurate, well-reviewed profile is how you win the first and the third.
Where to start
If you only have 30 minutes today: verify your hours and phone number, add every service you offer, set the most specific primary category, and send a review request to every customer from the last month.
If you would like it done for you, our local SEO service covers your profile, reviews and listings, and Local GEO tracks how AI assistants recommend you in every area you serve.