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Get found locally

Google Business Profile optimisation

I set up and optimise your Google Business Profile so you appear in more local searches and on the map: claimed and verified, every field completed, the right categories, photos and services sorted, review requests running, and your details consistent across Bing, Apple Maps and Nextdoor as well. From £150 one-off, with a walkthrough at the end so you can keep it going yourself.

Your profile just became the thing AI reads

Something changed at the end of 2025 that most local businesses have not noticed. Google retired the questions and answers section on Business Profiles: the API behind it was switched off on 3 November 2025, and the public Q&A section began phasing out from 3 December 2025. In its place, Google now generates its own AI answers about a business.

Those answers are assembled from two sources: the data on the Business Profile itself, and the content of the business's website. Which means the answer a customer sees when they ask about your opening hours, your prices, whether you come out to their area, is no longer something you typed into a box. It is generated from what your profile and your site say, or fail to say.

That makes two things matter more than they used to. First, the profile has to be complete and accurate, because it is being read by a machine that will summarise it either way. Second, the questions your customers actually ask need to live on your website, written out properly and marked up with FAQPage schema, because that is now the text the AI layer draws on. Businesses that leave gaps get answers built out of whatever it can find instead.

Both are part of this job. If you would rather do it yourself, the full step-by-step guide to optimising your Google Business Profile is free and holds nothing back.

What is included

Claimed, verified and complete

Every field filled in rather than the obvious ones, because completeness is one of the few things Google measures directly.

Categories done properly

The primary category is the single biggest lever on which searches you appear in, and it is the one most often set wrong.

A description that says what and where

Written for the customer reading it and the engine parsing it, without stuffing the same town name in nine times.

Photos and services as products

Photos sorted and kept coming, and your services turned into products with prices so the listing shows what you actually sell.

Review link and reply templates

A one-tap review link plus wording for replying to good and bad reviews, so it stays on top of you rather than the other way round.

Consistent everywhere else

Name, address and phone checked across the web, and listings on Bing Places, Apple Maps and Nextdoor so you are not invisible off Google.

Questions moved onto your site

The questions customers ask, rebuilt as an FAQ on your website with FAQPage schema, now that Google's own Q&A section has gone.

A walkthrough so you can run it

A short handover so the profile does not quietly decay the moment I stop touching it. No dependency built in.

Simple pricing

Setup, Optimisation & Handover

One-off

From £150

Everything above, done once and properly, with a walkthrough at the end so the profile stays yours to run. Fixed price agreed before anything starts.

Keep Reviews Growing

Optional add-on

ReviewPing

Automatic review requests by text after each job, so the biggest local ranking factor keeps moving without you chasing anyone. See how ReviewPing works.

The same pricing appears on the portfolio and pricing page alongside everything else.

Common questions

What happened to the questions and answers section on Google Business Profiles?

Google retired it. The Business Profile Q&A API was switched off on 3 November 2025 and the public Q&A section began phasing out from 3 December 2025. In its place Google now generates AI answers about a business, drawing on the profile's own data and on the content of the business's website. The practical effect is that the answers customers see are no longer ones you typed into Google: they are assembled from what your profile and your site say.

So where should those questions and answers live now?

On your website, as a proper FAQ section marked up with FAQPage schema, sitting on the page each question belongs to. That is the migration path worth taking, because it turns your own wording into a source the AI layer can quote, it is indexed by search engines as well, and unlike the old Q&A box you own it. Setting that up is part of the work here.

What does Google Business Profile optimisation actually involve?

Claiming and verifying the profile, filling in every field rather than the obvious ones, getting the primary and secondary categories right, writing a description that says what you do and where, sorting the photos, turning your services into products with prices, setting up a review request link with reply templates, checking your name, address and phone number are consistent everywhere they appear, and listing you consistently on Bing Places, Apple Maps and Nextdoor as well.

How much does it cost?

From £150 as a one-off for setup, optimisation and handover, including a walkthrough so you can keep it going yourself afterwards. Keeping reviews coming in automatically is an optional add-on through ReviewPing. The price is agreed before anything starts.

Will this get me into the map pack?

It gives you the best shot at it, honestly rather than magically. Categories, completeness, proximity and reviews are what move local rankings, and consistency over weeks is what makes it stick. Anyone promising a guaranteed position is guessing. What I can tell you is what is currently missing, what it is costing you, and what realistically changes when it is fixed.

Can you check my profile before I commit to anything?

Yes. The free Google Business Profile Grader scores your listing in about two minutes and shows what is incomplete. If you would rather have a person look at it, send me the link and I will tell you what I would do to it and what it would cost.

Do I need a website as well, or is the profile enough?

You need both now, and more than before. Google's AI answers about your business are built from the profile and from your website's content, so a gap between the two weakens the answers it produces about you. If your profile lists a service your site never mentions, there is nothing for it to draw on. Lining the two up is part of this job.

Profile work is one part of getting found locally. The rest of it, and how the pieces fit together, is on the local SEO in Bolton page. If you want the wider picture of how your business appears to customers and to AI tools, the AI Opportunity Audit includes an external visibility audit across Google, ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity.

Start with a free score

The grader scores your profile in about two minutes and shows exactly what is incomplete. If you would rather I just looked at it, send me the link and I will tell you what I would change and what it costs.