The free half of your Google listing that most businesses never fill in

I've looked at a few hundred local business listings in detail over the last year. The same thing is true of nearly all of them: the basics are filled in, and everything else is empty.

Name, phone number, opening hours, a couple of photos. Then it stops. And the part that stops is the part that does the convincing.

This is worth knowing because for a lot of businesses, the Google listing isn't the thing that points at their shop window. It is the shop window. It's where somebody decides whether to ring you or ring the next one down. And unlike almost everything else in marketing, filling it in properly costs nothing but an hour of your evening.

The services list is the big one

This is the section people skip most and it's the one that matters most.

Google lets you list your services individually, each with its own short description. Most businesses list two or three, or none, and rely on the category. So a salon shows up as "Hair salon" and that's all anyone learns.

The problem with that is people don't search for categories, they search for the thing they want. Somebody wants balayage, or a gel infill, or a nail-and-cuticle repair after a bad set somewhere else. If those words appear in your listing, you're in the conversation. If they don't, you're relying on somebody guessing you do it.

Write out everything you actually offer. Not a keyword list, just the real services with a plain sentence each. It takes half an hour and it's the single highest-return thing in this article.

Photos: your work, not your logo

The most common photo on a half-finished listing is the logo. It's the least useful image you can put there.

People are looking for evidence. A dog groomer's listing should show dogs before and after. A cafe's should show what's actually on the counter this month, not a stock shot of coffee beans. A clinic's should show the room somebody's going to be sitting in, because a lot of people are nervous about that and a photo settles it.

A few things worth knowing:

• Recent matters. Google shows how old photos are and people notice. A listing whose newest photo is from 2023 reads as closed-down even when it isn't.
• Your customers' photos count too, and you don't control those. The fix isn't to complain about them, it's to add enough of your own that the good ones are what people see first.
• Interiors and exteriors both help. People genuinely use the outside shot to find the door.

The section nobody knows about

There's a Q&A section on every listing. Anyone can ask a question. Anyone can answer, including strangers who have no idea.

Here's the part most people don't realise: you can ask and answer your own questions. That's not a loophole, it's what it's for.

So put your actual frequently asked questions there. Do you take card. Is there parking. Do I need an appointment or can I walk in. Do you do home visits. Are you insured. Is there a minimum charge. Whatever you find yourself answering on the phone five times a week.

Two things happen. People get their answer without having to ask, which removes the last reason not to get in touch. And you stop a stranger answering it wrong on your behalf, which happens more than you'd think.

The bits that take two minutes each

• The business description. You get around 750 characters and most listings leave it blank. Say what you do, who for, and what makes you different, in plain language.
• Special hours. Bank holidays, Christmas, the week you're away. Nothing annoys somebody more than turning up to a closed door your listing said was open, and Google prompts you for these.
• Attributes. Wheelchair accessible, appointment required, free parking, women-owned, LGBTQ+ friendly. These are filters people actually use, and if you haven't ticked them you don't appear when somebody filters.
• Messaging. You can let people message you directly. Either turn it on and answer it, or turn it off. Leaving it on and never replying is worse than not having it, because Google shows your response rate.
• Service area. If you go to customers rather than them coming to you, set the area properly. A lot of listings are pinned to a home address with no area set, which quietly limits where they show up.

One thing not to do

Don't stuff keywords into your business name. "Sarah's Hair Salon Cheap Haircuts Newcastle" is against Google's rules, competitors can and do report it, and suspended listings are a genuine nightmare to get back. Your name is your name.

Where this runs out

I should be straight about the limit of all this, because it's the reason I do what I do for a living.

A listing is rented. You don't own it, you can't change how it looks, and it's laid out identically to every competitor on the same screen. You're filling in someone else's form and hoping yours reads better than the one above it. That's a real ceiling, and no amount of work on the listing gets you past it.

But it's a high ceiling and most businesses are nowhere near it. If you do everything in this article you'll be getting more out of Google than nearly everyone you're competing with, and it won't have cost you a penny.

Start with the services list. If you only do one thing, do that.

Blair