This is the field-by-field breakdown of every Google Business Profile setting that matters for ranking in 2026. Read it once, audit your profile against it, and you'll likely close 60-70% of your local SEO gap in an afternoon.
Business Name
Use your exact legal/brand name. Keyword-stuffing the name is a guaranteed suspension on report. "Joe's Pizza" — fine. "Joe's Pizza Best Italian Restaurant Downtown" — suspended. Google has gotten aggressive about enforcing this in 2024-2026.
Primary Category
The single highest-impact field. Pick the highest-search-volume match for your core revenue driver. If pizza is 60%+ of revenue, "Pizza restaurant" beats "Italian restaurant." If you're 50/50, lean toward the higher-volume term.
Additional Categories
You can list up to 9. Most local businesses use 1-2. Top-ranking competitors use 5-7. Every category is a separate ranking opportunity. Pick ones that map to real services — adding categories you don't actually serve dilutes your relevance score.
Description (750 char limit)
First 250 chars are critical — they show in the search snippet. Open with: [primary keyword] + [city] + [USP]. Natural keyword density 1-3%. Include 2-3 semantic variations. Include city + 1-2 neighborhood names. End with a soft CTA.
Forbidden: URLs (auto-rejected), phone numbers (use the phone field), HTML, special characters, ALL CAPS sections, superlatives without proof ("best in the world").
Services
Each service item is a separate ranking target. Aim for 15-25 services. Names should match customer search queries, not internal jargon. Each service description should be 2-3 sentences with one long-tail keyword embedded naturally.
Attributes
Enable every applicable attribute (wheelchair accessible, free Wi-Fi, accepts credit cards, etc.). Attributes match "near me + [feature]" searches — a hidden traffic source most businesses ignore.
Photos
100+ photos correlates strongly with higher engagement. Mix: exterior, interior, team, products/services, "at work" shots. Geotag photos (EXIF GPS) for location authenticity. Upload every 7-14 days for freshness signal.
Q&A
Seed 8 questions yourself — the top customer questions in your vertical (pricing, hours, availability, payment methods, service area). Answer each in 80-200 chars, second-person, with the question's keyword embedded.
Posts
Post weekly. Rotate: Offer / Event / Update / Product. Posts have a 7-day freshness window in search results. The CTA button drives measurable conversions.