google_business_profile v1.0.0

name: "google_business_profile" description: "Manage a Google Business Profile for local search: pick the right categories, run weekly Google Posts, seed and answer Q&A, build steady review velocity, and use the GBP APIs to manage reviews, locations, and metrics at scale. Use when optimizing a business's Google listing, handling reviews, running local SEO, or building tooling against the Business Profile APIs."

Google Business Profile

Purpose

Keep a Google Business Profile complete, active, and trusted by both searchers and Google's local ranking. This covers the three ranking pillars (relevance, distance, prominence) and the day-to-day operations: categories, posts, Q&A, photos, reviews, and, for multi-location work, the GBP APIs.

Workflow

1. Audit the profile first

Check every core field before anything else: claimed and verified, name (no keyword stuffing, that is a suspension trigger), address, phone, website, hours including upcoming holiday hours, and a correct map pin. NAP (name, address, phone) must match the business website exactly.

2. Set categories and services

• Choose the most specific primary category that matches what the business primarily sells. This is the single biggest on-profile lever for appearing in the Local Pack.
• Add up to 10 secondary categories, every one that honestly applies. Never add categories for services the business does not offer.
• Use Google's predefined services list rather than free-text-only entries. The services factor is one of the largest movers in recent local-pack surveys.
• For service-area businesses (no storefront), configure service areas carefully instead of showing an address. Know that hiding the address trades away a ranking factor.

3. Complete the information layer

Write a business description (up to 750 characters) with the keywords customers actually use, no stuffing. Fill every applicable attribute (outdoor seating, Wi-Fi, wheelchair access, LGBTQ-friendly, etc.). List services and, where relevant, products.

4. Publish weekly Google Posts

Posts signal an active profile and keep it ranking. Publish 1 to 2 posts per week: short updates, offers, events, or news, each with a photo and a clear call to action. Stale profiles lose to active ones with fewer reviews.

5. Seed and run Q&A

Before customers ask, post and answer the 3 to 5 most common questions yourself (hours, parking, booking, price range, wheelchair access). Answer real customer questions within 24 hours. Q&A reduces bounce and builds the trust that turns a listing view into a visit.

6. Add real photos and video regularly

Upload 15 to 20 original photos across interior, exterior, staff, and product categories, plus one 30-second video. Never stock imagery. Add fresh photos monthly; recency and count are prominence signals.

7. Build review velocity, then never stop

• Ask every happy customer. Put the review link on receipts, texts, emails, and follow-up messages. One short ask at the right moment beats any review campaign.
• Respond to every review within 48 hours, positive and negative. Negative reviews get a calm, specific reply: acknowledge, take it offline, never argue. Never ignore a review.
• Steady matters more than bursts. Review rating, review count, reviews with text, recency, and steady growth over time all count. Twenty reviews that arrived over the past year beat forty from years ago.
• Never buy reviews, offer incentives for positive reviews, or post fake reviews. Google removes them and can suspend the profile.

8. For multi-location or API work: request access first, then automate

The GBP APIs (reviews, local posts, media, business information, performance metrics) require an approved Google Cloud project before any call works. Unapproved projects get 0 QPM and every call returns 403. See references/api_access.md for the eligibility rules, the application form, and the 300-QPM approval signal. See references/endpoints.md for the federated API surfaces and review endpoints, including the Pub/Sub pattern for new-review notifications and the read-back pattern for verifying edits went live.

Output Contract

A profile optimization deliverable includes:

• Audit summary: field-by-field status (verified, NAP match, hours, pin, categories, photos, posts, Q&A, reviews).
• Action list in priority order: verification and categories first, information layer second, media third, engagement (posts, Q&A, reviews) ongoing.
• For API builds: a credentialed request plan (project number, owner email, OAuth scope https://www.googleapis.com/auth/business.manage), plus a quota-aware fetch plan (Pub/Sub or batched polling with exponential backoff, never tight polling).

Operating Rules

1. Categories before cosmetics. No amount of posting fixes a wrong primary category.
2. Never keyword-stuff the business name. It is a policy violation that can suspend the listing.
3. Accuracy over cleverness: hours must be right at the time of search, the pin must sit on the actual door, NAP must match the website.
4. Reviews are a system, not a campaign: ask every happy customer, respond within 48 hours, track velocity over rolling 90-day windows.
5. Q&A is pre-answered FAQs plus a 24-hour response promise.
6. Google's view of the profile can differ from what was submitted (user suggestions, Google edits). For API-managed locations, read back and diff after every change; alert a human on anything not live.
7. API access is gated by Google approval, not by OAuth alone. If calls return 403 with 0 QPM, the fix is the Basic Access application, not a token retry.