Google Business Profile checklist for Miami-Dade businesses

For many local searches, your Google Business Profile shows up before your website does: on the map, with your hours, phone, photos and reviews. Google publishes clear rules for these profiles. This checklist follows them, point by point.

Before you start

Google says local results are mainly based on three things:

• Relevance: how well your profile matches what someone searched.
• Distance: how far you are from the searcher, or from the location in the search.
• Prominence: how well known your business is, based on things like reviews, links and mentions across the web.

Google also says there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking. Everything below is about the parts you control.

The checklist

1. Verify the profile

An unverified profile is limited. Google recommends verifying your business so it can show across Google products like Maps and Search.

2. Use your real-world business name

Your name on the profile should match your name in the real world: your sign, your truck, your invoices. Google's guidelines say not to add extra keywords, locations or taglines. "Diaz Moving" is fine. "Diaz Moving Best Movers Miami Cheap" is not, and it can get the profile suspended.

3. Address or service area: pick the right one

• If customers come to you, show your exact address.
• If you go to your customers (plumbers, cleaners, movers, roofers), you are a service-area business. Google asks you to hide your address and list the areas you serve.
• Google doesn't allow P.O. boxes, mailboxes or virtual offices as your location.

4. Choose as few categories as possible

Google's guidelines ask you to use the fewest categories that describe your core business. Pick the most specific primary category (for example "Roofing contractor" rather than "Contractor"). Don't add categories just to show up for more searches.

5. Use a phone number you control

Use a local number that goes directly to your business. Avoid numbers that redirect customers to a different business or a lead-generation service.

6. Hours, holidays and special hours

Keep regular hours accurate and add special hours for holidays. Wrong hours are one of the fastest ways to lose a customer's trust.

7. Write a clear description

Describe what you do and where, in plain words. Google's rules don't allow links or promotional offers in the description, so keep those out.

8. Add real photos

Add photos of your work, your team, your vehicles and your place. Google lists photos among the things that help a profile be complete. Use your own photos, not stock images.

9. Ask for reviews, and reply to them

Ask real customers for reviews, and reply to the reviews you get, both good and bad. Google recommends responding to reviews. Never buy reviews, offer rewards for positive ones or write them yourself: it breaks Google's policies and, in the US, the FTC rule on consumer reviews that took effect October 21, 2024.

10. Keep the profile and the website consistent

Your name, phone, hours and service areas should be the same on your profile and your website. If you speak Spanish, say so on both. Link the profile to the matching page of your site.

A note for bilingual businesses

Many Miami-Dade businesses serve customers in English and Spanish. Don't write your business name twice or add "Se habla español" to the name. Use the description, attributes and your website to say it instead.

Sources

• Google Business Profile Help, Tips to improve your local ranking on Google
• Google Business Profile Help, Guidelines for representing your business on Google
• Google Maps User Contributed Content Policy, Fake engagement
• Federal Trade Commission, Final rule banning fake reviews and testimonials