The value of a Google Business Profile

This article covers the role that a properly configured and actively updated Google Business Profile (GBP) plays in getting your business found on Google Search and Google Maps, and what it takes to keep it there. An accurate and actively updated GBP works alongside everything else that builds your brand's visibility, authority and relevancy: an SEO-optimized website, published content, directory listings, your social accounts and quality backlinks from relevant sources such as guest posts, features and interviews. Claiming and configuring a GBP is an important step covered in our comprehensive guide to starting a floristry business.

Where people search

Within the Google ecosystem, a customer typically searches in 2 places. Google Search (Google.com), which generates a dynamically structured page of results, formatted into sections that group result types according to the phrasing of the search query. The results page has evolved beyond a simple list of websites sorted by ranking. Often, groups of results appear on the page in these sections above the traditional list of ranking websites. Inclusion in some of these sections is governed by different criteria than organic ranking; the Places section, for instance, runs on local factors rather than the signals that rank websites. The second way to search would be Google Maps, which returns local business results - your Google Business Profile.

How query phrasing affects results

When searching on Google.com, the various sections of results that may be displayed, and their ordering on the page, is determined dynamically depending on how the customer's search query is structured. A question ("who is the best wedding florist in Austin TX") often returns an additional AI Overview section and a Discussions section. A statement ("wedding florists in Austin TX") tends to include a Places section near the top of the page results, which are local results sourced from Google Business Profiles.

Regardless of which type of additional results sections are presented with a given query, they almost always are displayed above the traditional list of ranked websites, which are the organic search results. An active GBP can therefore put your business higher on the page than sites that rank above yours in the organic results.

The Places results section on Google.com

How types of search results are sourced

On Google.com

In Google Maps

Most search result sections draw from many sources on the web to determine inclusion and ranking for any particular search query. The results displayed in Places and Google Maps are built around Google Business Profiles.

How Google ranks local results

Google states that local results are based primarily on the following three elements:

Google states plainly that more reviews and positive ratings can help your local ranking. A review is the written comment a customer leaves along with a star selection. Your rating is the average of those selections, shown as a number on a scale up to 5.0.

Relevance is the part you control directly and immediately, and it comes from a complete, accurate, actively updated GBP.

Prominence you can continually build over time by way of quality reviews and through social media mentions, press features and backlinks from industry associates like venues, photographers, fellow designers.

Distance you cannot control.

Does your business qualify

Most floristry businesses qualify for a GBP. Google's rule is that a business must make in-person contact with customers during its stated hours, and it does not require that contact to occur at your stated business address. For an event florist, that contact happens at the venue or delivery site.

Google excludes online-only businesses, including anything listed at a P.O. box or remote mailbox. A floral designer who ships dried flowers and never meets a client does not qualify; a florist who designs florals at a wedding venue does. A converted garage with a cooler in the corner and nobody walking in off the street is eligible. Your address verifies you, then gets hidden.

Google's eligibility guidelines

Setting up your GBP

Set this up on a computer rather than a phone. Verification happens after you submit and takes time, so start before you need the GBP live.

Sign in with the proper Google account

Decide this before anything else. A Google account is required, the GBP attaches to whichever account creates it, and changing that later means requesting an ownership transfer. Use an account that belongs to the business and that you control alone: not a shared household login, not a former employee's, not one tied to an email you might lose.

Claim an existing profile, or create a new one

Go to Business Profile Manager and select Manage now. Before you build anything, search your own business name plus your city in an incognito window. One of three things is true.

Nothing exists. Create it and carry on.

An unclaimed GBP exists. Very common, because Google generates unclaimed profiles for businesses it finds information about. Claim that one rather than creating a second, which would put you in violation. The old GBP often carries reviews you would otherwise abandon.

Somebody else claimed it. Use the request access flow and wait out the response window. Tedious, and better than starting over.

Business name

Your business name and nothing more. Adding descriptive terms, or keyword stuffing, as in "Wild Fern Floral | Austin Wedding Florist", is against the rules: Google's guidelines require you to "represent your business as it's consistently represented and recognized in the real world across signage, stationery, and other branding," and Google reserves the right to suspend profiles that violate them.

Primary category

Google asks for this on the first screen alongside your business name. Type into the field and take what autocomplete offers; the options change without notice, so treat no category name as permanent. Most florists will choose Florist. Add secondary categories that genuinely apply, such as Flower delivery if you deliver.

Path afterwards: Edit profile > Business information > Category.

How your address gets handled

What determines how your GBP is displayed to customers are the subsequent questions, which declare whether you have a physical storefront customers can visit.

The two questions that decide whether your address is published

A store would be a physical location that customers can visit, with permanent signage and a business representative present during posted hours. A service area is the geographical region that you are willing to provide services within, shown on your GBP rather than a physical address.

Entering and hiding your address

During setup, you will enter a business address either way. Google verifies against a real physical location and does not publish it when you answer No to Do you want to add a location customers can visit?

• No P.O. box, mailbox rental or virtual office.
• One GBP only covering your entire service area. Not one per town. Duplicates are a violation of Google's guidelines.
• Remove it from public display under Edit profile > Location.

The Show business address to customers toggle, switched off

Setting your service areas

Path: Edit profile > Location > Service area > Edit. Up to 20 areas, by city, postal code or named area. No radius option; Google removed it. Keep the outer boundary within about 2 hours driving of your base. Approved edits take up to 48 hours to appear.

The service area field, with towns added as chips

Phone, website and chat

Add a phone number you actually answer during the hours you posted. The GBP also offers chat, which routes customer messages to you by SMS. Only enable it if you will answer it.

Verifying the GBP

Verification is required before your GBP is eligible to appear. Google may offer different verification methods, but video verification is common. For video, record one continuous, unedited recording showing 3 things: that the location is real and matches what you entered, that you have authority over the business, and that the business operates as described. For a florist that usually means showing the cooler, the buckets, the workbench, the vehicle and the tools.

Business hours

Retail florists should post storefront hours. Service-area and hybrid florists should post the hours they are actually reachable by phone, email or appointment, even without walk-in hours. Add holiday hours ahead of Valentine's Day and Mother's Day, since those dates can materially affect sales.

Description

750 characters. Google truncates the display without warning, so put the important information first. What you include beyond that will vary depending on whether you are a retail, commercial or event florist. Here is a sample of what you might include as a wedding and event florist.

1. 1Front-load what you are and where

   Business type, city, then specialty, in the first sentence.

2. 2Name your towns in prose

   Service areas live in a separate field that is not readable as sentences. Writing "serving Austin, Dripping Springs and Wimberley" puts those towns somewhere a reader and a machine can both use them.

3. 3Name two or three venues you work regularly

   Venue names are terms couples search for. Present a few venues that you have an actual history of designing at regularly.

4. 4Give the year you started

   "Founded in 2016" costs 16 characters and tells a customer something an adjective cannot.

5. 5Accurately name details when describing methods

   Foam-free, pin frogs, oshun pouches, armatures. Specific technique language separates you from every listing that says "beautiful custom arrangements."

Keep the first sentence informational. Vague, generic language (my love for flowers, passionate about blooms and similar phrases) tells a customer nothing they can act on, and uses characters you could spend describing the work.

Photographs

During setup, Google asks for a storefront photo and then for photos of your store. Both screens have a Skip button, and you can add or change photographs at any time afterwards under Edit profile > Photos.

If you have a shop with signage, photograph it straight on in daylight. If you are a studio florist, skip the storefront step. Instead you can add photos within your profile settings, including a cover photo, your logo and images of your studio space.

GBP profile settings

Once your GBP is established and verified, this is where you manage it and keep it updated.

The controls available once your GBP is established

From here you can edit your business information, including hours, location and service areas, respond to reviews, add photos, add products and keep your profile active and engaging by adding posts.

Posts

Posts are how you keep the profile fresh. There are three types, and any of them can be scheduled rather than published immediately.

Getting Google reviews

The common problem is not a bad rating. It is a thin one: a handful of reviews, most of them old. Start the day you are verified rather than waiting for the next event, and send a request to every client from the last 12 months you parted with on good terms.

The system: ask soon enough that the work is still vivid, allowing for the fact that a couple may be away for a week or 2 after the wedding. Send a thoughtful email thanking the client for trusting you and kindly requesting a review, with a direct link to your GBP. Send it to every client, not only the ones you know were delighted, and offer nothing in return for it. Mention that photographs of the work would be welcome if they care to post any.

Review count and rating feed prominence, one of the three factors behind local ranking, so more reviews and better ratings help your position in Places and in Google Maps. Reply to every review, and make the reply specific enough to be worth reading. "Thank you so much!" carries less information for a future customer than "Thank you, Sarah. The garden roses in that arbor were a favorite of ours all season".

Evidence of the importance of reviews can be seen: perform a Google.com search for florists in your own town and look at the business listings returned in the Places section. Google tends to insert a snippet from a customer review in the results. Google therefore considers the text of reviews, not just the overall rating, plus what a client writes about you can end up in front of the next person searching.

Review practices Google prohibits

These come straight from Google's Prohibited and restricted content policy, which is worth reading in full. In the United States the FTC also regulates consumer reviews, and its rule carries civil penalties. That is a second regime on top of Google's, and a business offering a discount for a review is exposed under both.

Keeping the GBP current

Setting up the GBP is the easy part, but keeping the profile active and updated requires implementation into your regular digital content routine.

The habit worth building is simple: keep your GBP up to date with relevant imagery and posts regarding your business operations and work. Since you are already producing such content for social media and your website portfolio, it is merely a matter of adding your GBP as one additional endpoint.

Photos should be your own; avoid stock or AI-generated content. If permitted to share a photographer's coverage of your work, be sure to give credit. Google's requirement is that a photo be in focus, well lit, with no significant alterations or excessive filters, because the image should represent reality.

Posts are what keep the profile active. Use them to keep customers informed about business happenings: recent work, upcoming and past events, holiday hours and deadlines, seasonal availability, sales and collaborations.

Ask for reviews, then reply to the ones you get.

Photo requirements: photo requirements

What your GBP does not replace

Keep your details identical everywhere. Your business name, address, phone number and website should match across your own site, your GBP and any directory that lists you. When those details disagree, Google has a harder time recognizing all of those listings as the same business.

Posts are not website pages. A post is a short-lived update. You still need real pages on your website for wedding work, event floral design, delivery and the cities you serve.

A 10 minute monthly routine

• Upload 4 or 5 new photographs of real work.
• Publish 2 to 4 posts throughout each month.
• Reply to every new review being genuine and specific.
• Update store hours when necessary, looking ahead each month in preparation for holidays or heavy event weeks where store hours need to be modified.
• Following website updates or rebuilds confirm that the GBP phone number and website links still work.
• Check the dashboard for any notices from Google about your GBP.
• Open the Performance tab in your GBP dashboard, which contains useful information about how customers discover your business, including the search terms they used.

Avoiding suspension

Violations that can lead to suspension:

• Keywords in the business name.
• A P.O. box, mailbox rental or virtual office address.
• A residential address left public on a service-area business.
• Duplicate GBPs, such as creating a separate GBP for each city you serve.
• Photographs that do not represent reality; avoid stock images and AI-generated content.
• Incentivized reviews, or soliciting only your happy clients.
• Posted hours nobody is available to honor.