Key takeaways
A current profile is critical for AI search.
Don’t miss opportunities to keep your profile fresh with simple updates or posts.
Photos enhance your Google Business Profile considerably.
Recent changes to Google Business Profiles (GBP) are an excellent opportunity for small businesses to beef up your digital presence.
1. Current profile: Be sure you have a current GBP that reflects a name that’s consistent with your website, social handles, industry directories, review sites like Nextdoor or Yelp and any other online profiles.
2. Posting: Consider your GBP as almost a social profile. You don’t need to post on a daily basis, but monthly is a great idea. Adding content through the post function (you can even schedule it) allows you to create a robust profile, which is helpful to prospective customers who find you through search as well as AI bots that are looking to surface answers to questions people are searching for.
3. Photos: Did you simply upload your logo and call it good? While that’s a start that helps customers confirm your business is what they’re looking for, adding photos to illustrate what you do, who you serve, what the customer can expect, images of your location or products and even ways you support the community provide depth. The photo function is an often-missed opportunity you can take advantage of to tell the story of your business.
4. Google Maps: If you have a physical location, you’ll need to verify it’s a business when you build out your profile. This integration with Google Maps is a key element of getting people in your door. If you are a service-based business, you do not have to have your address populate on the profile. It can simply show your city for a general location.
5. Q&A: An often underutilized component of Google Business Profiles was previously the Q&A function, which was discontinued in 2025. Now, Google’s AI surfaces answers through a profile’s Ask Maps function. The business owner no longer has direct control over those answers but AI pulls from available data about the business. This is another reason to keep your profile and your website current.
6. Messaging. Google recently updated their chat functionality to integrate What’s App into GBP. If your customers/prospects are likely to have questions—and you can facilitate answering them, setting up the integration likely makes sense. Lingering messages without responses can hurt your reputation.
7. Reviews. Customer reviews are still one of the most visible components of a Google Business Profile. Similar to the need to publish consistent owned content, regularly seeking out reviews will benefit your profile. However, monitoring and responding is another crucial step. More to come on reviews in a future post.