I recently opened a client’s Google Business Profile expecting to find what you’d expect from a profile that hadn’t been actively managed.

Six reviews.

The latest was from April 2025.

None of them had been responded to.

There was no website linked from the profile.

There was plenty I could improve. Then I looked at the performance data.

271 interactions.

246 people had requested directions to the clinic. Another 25 had called directly from the profile.

And that changed the question.

It wasn’t: How do I make this Google Business Profile more active?

It was: What is already working here, and where is the profile still losing opportunity?

That’s an important distinction. Spend ten minutes reading Google Business Profile advice and you’ll end up with a very long to-do list: post regularly. Add more photos. Get more reviews. Respond to reviews. Add services. Update your description. Fill every available field.

Some of those things can be useful. But doing more isn’t automatically the same thing as improving the profile.

Profile activity isn’t profile strategy.

That’s how I approach Google Business Profile optimisation: before deciding what to change, I’d rather understand what problem we’re actually trying to solve.

A Profile Can Look Neglected and Still Be Doing Something Valuable

The profile I mentioned above is a good example.

If I’d audited it using a generic optimisation checklist, it would have failed on several obvious points. The review profile was weak, important information was missing, and there had been little active management.

But people were still finding the business and taking high-intent actions.

That’s useful information.

It doesn’t mean the profile didn’t need work. It means the work needed to start from a better question than: “What haven’t we filled in yet?”

For this particular business, I already knew people were requesting directions and making calls. So I could start asking more useful questions:

• What searches were bringing people to the profile?
• Were potential patients getting enough information about the treatments available?
• Was the lack of recent reviews affecting how someone evaluated the clinic against another dentist nearby?
• Were people who wanted more information being hindered because there wasn’t a website linked?

Those questions give me priorities.

A checklist gives me tasks.

There’s a difference.

Start With Performance, Then Diagnose the Problem

Rather than running through a generic checklist, I prefer to start with performance data.

Google Business Profile Performance can show how people discover a profile and what they do after finding it — including the search terms used, calls, direction requests, website clicks and other interactions available for that business.

That gives you a baseline.

Then I look at four areas:

Discovery: Are the right people finding the business?

Understanding: Once they find it, can they tell whether it’s relevant to them?

Trust: Is there enough evidence for them to feel comfortable choosing it?

Conversion: Can they easily take the next step?

Performance isn’t simply the final step in that process. It helps diagnose what might be happening across all four.

Make the change that addresses the most important gap, then return to the data and measure again.

1. Can People Find the Business? (Discovery)

Google says local results are primarily based on relevance, distance and prominence.

Distance refers to how far a business is from the person searching. If Google doesn’t have a precise location from the searcher, it calculates distance based on what it knows about their location.

Either way, distance isn’t something you simply “optimise” by editing your listing.

Relevance, however, is about how well a Business Profile matches what someone is searching for.

Instead of immediately asking How do we rank the GBP higher?, I ask:

What is the business currently being found for?

Look at the searches generating visibility.

Is the clinic appearing only when someone searches its name, or is it also appearing for relevant treatments and services?

Are the primary and additional categories accurate?

Are the actual services listed on the profile?

Does the linked website reinforce the same services and location?

If discovery is the primary issue, posting another update isn’t where I’d start.

I’d investigate why Google may not be connecting the business with the searches that matter.

2. When People Find It, Do They Understand the Offering? (Understanding)

Being visible isn’t particularly useful if someone lands on the profile and still can’t tell whether the business is right for them.

When someone finds a clinic on Google Maps, they’re trying to answer basic questions:

• Does it offer the specific treatment I need?
• Is it open today?
• Can I book an appointment?
• Is this the right type of practice for my situation?

Categories, services, business hours, attributes and descriptions can all help answer those questions.

You don’t need to turn the business description into an SEO essay.

You need to make the business easy to understand so a potential customer can quickly work out whether it’s relevant to what they need.

3. Is There Enough Evidence to Trust the Business? (Trust)

Reviews can influence both local search visibility and customer decision-making, but it helps to distinguish those two roles.

For local visibility, Google says that more reviews and positive ratings can help a business’s local ranking.

But reviews also play another role: they help potential customers decide whether they trust the business.

Going back to the dental example, six reviews isn’t much.

The latest was from April 2025, and none had been responded to.

Imagine a potential patient comparing that clinic against two others nearby.

They’re looking for evidence.

• What have other patients experienced recently?
• Do the reviews talk about treatments or concerns relevant to them?
• Does the business engage with customer feedback?

Google encourages businesses to request genuine reviews and respond to them. It also prohibits offering incentives in exchange for reviews.

So review generation may become a priority.

Not because a checklist told me the business needs more reviews, but because I’ve identified trust as an area worth improving.

4. Can Someone Easily Take the Next Step? (Conversion)

This is where Google Business Profile optimisation becomes commercially interesting.

Someone has found the business.

They understand what it offers.

They trust it enough to consider it.

Now what?

Depending on the business, they may want to call, visit the website, request directions, book an appointment or use another available contact option.

If the action they want to take is missing or broken, you’ve introduced friction at exactly the wrong point.

In the profile I audited, 246 direction requests and 25 calls showed that people weren’t simply seeing the listing.

They were acting on it.

But the missing website link created a potential conversion gap.

Someone who wasn’t ready to call or visit and wanted to research the clinic further didn’t have a direct route from the profile to the website.

Fixing that is a much more meaningful optimisation opportunity than adding another post simply because the profile hasn’t had one this week.

Then Go Back to Performance

Once you’ve made changes, return to the data.

There isn’t one interaction that every Google Business Profile should maximise.

The profile needs to support how that particular business actually acquires customers.

A direction request for a local clinic can be extremely valuable.

A website click might matter much more for a business where customers need to research services before making contact.

That’s why the numbers need context.

You’re not trying to make every GBP metric go up.

You’re trying to understand whether the profile is helping more of the right people find, evaluate and contact the business.

So What Should You Optimise First?

Once you’ve evaluated the performance data against those four areas, priorities become clearer.

If people aren’t finding the business for relevant searches: Start with discovery. Look at categories, services, business information and whether the website supports the same offering and location.

If people find it but can’t easily tell what you offer: Fix understanding. Make the services, hours, attributes and other important information clearer.

If the business is visible but looks less credible than local alternatives: Work on trust. That might mean building a consistent process for requesting genuine reviews and responding to existing ones.

If people are showing intent but the next step is missing or difficult: Fix the conversion path. Check website links, booking options, contact information and other relevant actions.

And if you don’t know which of those is the problem?

Start with the performance data before prescribing anything.

A Google Business Profile Isn’t a Social Media Account

You don’t need to prove you’re “doing local SEO” by finding something to update every week.

Google Business Profile gives businesses different ways to provide useful information and help customers evaluate and contact them.

Posts can be useful.

Photos can be useful.

Reviews can be extremely useful.

Updating services can be necessary.

But those are tactics.

Use them when they have a specific job to do, not simply to maintain activity for activity’s sake. It’s the same principle I use when thinking about newer search channels: diagnose the problem before prescribing the tactic. I made a similar argument in building an AEO strategy without abandoning SEO about why businesses shouldn’t bolt a new optimisation checklist onto an existing SEO strategy.

For the dental profile I audited, the starting point wasn’t:

“We haven’t posted recently.”

It was:

We’re already getting 271 interactions from this profile despite several obvious gaps. Which gap is most worth fixing next?

That’s the question an optimisation strategy should answer.

Because a Google Business Profile doesn’t necessarily need more activity.

It needs better priorities.

Not Sure What Your Google Business Profile Actually Needs?

If your profile is live but you’re not sure what’s helping, what’s missing or what should be prioritised first, that’s exactly what I look at through Google Business Profile Optimisation.