Many businesses think that filling in their Google Business Profile once is enough. Profile created, address entered, a few photos uploaded – done.
It’s a bit like opening a shop, putting up the sign, and then never opening it again.
Google favours active profiles. It ranks active, relevant and trustworthy businesses. This is an ongoing process, not a one-off task.
When someone searches for ‘dentist Vienna’ or ‘lawyer Vienna’, Google runs a multi-stage filtering process before displaying three results in the local search results – the map section directly below the Google Maps view.
Google takes three main factors into account:
Relevance asks: Does this business match the search query? The category, services and the linked website play a decisive role here.
Distance asks: How far away is the business from the person searching? This is based on the business’s actual location.
Although the registered service areas show where a company operates, they do not automatically improve its ranking in those regions.
Prominence asks: How well-known and trustworthy is the company online? Backlinks, mentions, reviews and Google’s own signals are all taken into account here.
The primary category is the most important single factor in the entire GBP. Not reviews, not photos, not opening hours. The category.
Google offers over 4,100 categories and updates them regularly. If you don’t keep track of whether any new relevant categories have been added, you’ll lose visibility without even realising it.
A specific example: A solicitor specialising in immigration and residence law had set his primary category to ‘solicitor’ because it sounded more comprehensive. When the firm itself realised that enquiries were not coming in, it contacted us.
The analysis revealed a major problem: Anyone searching for an ‘immigration lawyer’ was getting results for ‘immigration law’, not for ‘lawyer’. After switching to the correct primary category, profile views increased measurably within three weeks.
The right approach: Take a look at the top three competitors in your town for your main search term. Which primary category do they use?
It’s data-driven and takes the guesswork out of it.
A company’s name can have a significant impact on how easily its Google Business Profile is found.
A simple example:
A company’s official name is simply:
George OG
Another company is called:
George Building Cleaning OG
When someone searches for ‘building cleaning’ on Google, the second company often has an advantage. Google can tell from the company name alone what service is being offered.
However, that does not mean that every business is simply allowed to include key search terms in the name of its Google profile.
Out of:
George OG
you shouldn't just make:
George OG – Affordable building cleaning in Vienna
Although these terms might be helpful for ranking purposes, they are not the company’s actual name. As a general rule, Google only allows the name under which a company actually operates to be used in its business profile.
Anyone who includes additional terms in their profile name solely for Google’s benefit is engaging in what is known as keyword stuffing. This can result in Google automatically changing the name, temporarily suspending the profile or, in the worst-case scenario, deactivating it entirely.
Google gives priority to businesses that are open at the time of the search. Any business that is shown as closed loses its ranking at that very moment.
Here at Mogaji Digital Communications, we have also found that opening hours can affect local visibility. Our Google Business Profile originally showed opening hours until 5 pm only. After we extended the opening hours to 8 pm, our rankings for relevant local search queries improved noticeably.
The possible reason: when displaying local search results, Google also takes into account whether a business is open and accessible at the time of the search. Businesses that specify longer opening hours are therefore more likely to appear in the search results, particularly in the late afternoon and in the evening.
It is important, however, that the opening hours stated reflect the actual situation. You should not artificially extend the opening hours if no one is actually available.
For service providers who use a telephone answering service, stating that they are available 24/7 is a legitimate option that has a direct impact on search rankings.
Google displays the date of incorporation in the profile. Many companies leave this field blank or fill it in incorrectly.
The rule: Enter the earliest valid date. If the company has been in existence for 15 years but the current premises have only been in use for 2 years, the company’s date of incorporation applies.
Anyone who leaves this field blank is taking a significant risk: Google uses automated algorithms to retrieve missing data from external web sources (such as business directories or registers) or to adopt unverified suggestions for changes made by Google Maps users. In practice, this often results in incorrect years appearing on your profile, which then need to be corrected. A correctly entered date protects your profile from unauthorised editing and serves as an important sign of trust for customers.
“15+ years in business” comes across differently from “2+ years in business” — to people as well as to the algorithm.
Google distinguishes between predefined services from its own catalogue and custom services that you enter yourself. Both fields should be completed.
Predefined services increase the relevance of results for specific search queries. Custom services allow you to describe services that do not exist in the original catalogue.
Google allows you to link up to seven social media profiles to your Google Business Profile, but only displays five of them. It is therefore advisable to select and add the five most relevant profiles. Google can also display posts from these platforms directly on your Business Profile.
In our own tests, we found that hiding the address can have a measurable negative impact on rankings. In several cases, local rankings fell significantly after the address was hidden. Once it was made visible again, the rankings recovered.
That sounds like a simple solution, but it’s strategically tricky.
According to Google’s guidelines, businesses that do not receive customers at their premises must, as a rule, hide their address. Businesses that do not offer genuine customer interactions at that location must not simply display the address in order to improve their rankings. This breaches the Terms of Service and may result in the profile being suspended. Google Guidelines
The best approach for service providers without a physical premises: Carefully configure your catchment area and ensure that all other ranking factors – such as category, reviews and website – are strong enough to compensate for the lack of a physical address.
A Google profile without up-to-date photos is like a shop window with the shutters down. Most companies upload a few photos and then forget about their profile. Those who stand out here come out on top.
Hardly any businesses use videos on GBP. In our experience with client profiles, videos consistently perform significantly better than photos – in some cases attracting up to eight times as many views – simply because hardly anyone else is doing it, so the few videos that are posted really stand out.
Brief, authentic insights such as ‘This is how we work’, a short customer testimonial or a glimpse behind the scenes increase the time spent on the profile and thus engagement, which Google takes into account when assessing local visibility.
What matters when it comes to images and video footage:
Pro-Tipp: If you’re already active on social media (Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok), make use of this material. A 30-second video that has performed well on social media is usually excellent content for your Google profile too.
Your profile setup is complete. You’ve optimised your profile so that you rank highly in the search results. But a technically flawless profile is like a stylish, empty restaurant:
You can see it from the street, but you only go in if there are already other customers sitting there who seem happy.
These ‘guests’ are your reviews. They are not a one-off project, but the social proof that ensures the long-term success of your profile.
In our consultations, we repeatedly observe the same phenomenon: as soon as the importance of reviews is raised, companies start collecting them in earnest. New reviews come in regularly for about three months, but after that the flow dries up abruptly.
Google picks up on exactly that. A brief spurt of new reviews, followed by months of inactivity, is interpreted by the algorithm as a sign of inconsistency. In the worst-case scenario, the reviews are classified as a potential spam pattern.
The aim is steady, continuous growth, not a sprint followed by a standstill.
A company with 150 reviews and four months of stagnation loses out to a company with 40 reviews and steady monthly growth.
More important than the absolute figure is a comparison with the strongest competitor. Anyone who grows more slowly loses out in relative terms, even if their own figures are rising.
Businesses with at least 10 reviews achieve measurably better rankings than those with fewer. But 10 is not a target; it’s the starting point.
Anyone who stops growing at 10, whilst competitors continue to expand, will gradually lose the ground they have gained.
Almost everyone has experienced this: you submit a review, but it doesn’t appear on the profile. Google filters reviews if it detects signs of manipulation.
Typical triggers:
My advice: Don’t simply ask customers for a review. Ask them to search for the business on Google and then share their experience. This small difference in wording makes the algorithm work in your favour.
“Top service!” is, in fact, worthless – both to Google and to potential customers.
A strong assessment includes:
Reviews with photos are displayed first, are seen as more credible and generate more clicks. A genuine review with context is worth ten star ratings with no substance.
A profile with nothing but 5-star reviews comes across as untrustworthy to many users. One or two critical comments mixed in with positive reviews make the profile seem more down-to-earth.
What matters most is how the company responds. A professional, objective response to a negative review – one that addresses the issue and offers a solution – can build greater trust with a potential customer than the negative review itself does damage.
Responding to every review, whether positive or negative, sends a message to Google and the reader that this is an active, customer-focused business.
Google reviews aren’t just a profile feature; they’re sales material. When embedded on the services page or homepage, with structured markup for rich snippets, they boost both conversion rates and trust.
A Google review that appears on your own website serves a dual purpose.
Find out more here: Google Reviews
Google uses the GBP profile as a starting point. The algorithm makes the actual decision as to whether a business is relevant and trustworthy, partly on the basis of the linked website.
This means: a technically sound website, fast loading times, mobile optimisation, a clear page structure with an H1/H2/H3 hierarchy, and content that answers specific local questions. Anyone who neglects their website is operating at half strength.
A navigation bar that links to every single subpage confuses both Google and users. The navigation indicates which pages are most important to the company itself.
In practice: Following a revamp of the navigation, traffic to the remaining pages increased by 40% for one client (an internal medicine specialist in Vienna), whilst conversions rose by 25% for another. This was achieved not by adding more content, but by creating a clearer structure.
The best local content strategy doesn’t start with keywords, but with questions. What questions do prospective customers ask before choosing a provider?
Google’s ‘People Also Ask’ section displays these questions directly in the search results – a free editorial feature that reveals what the market really wants to know. Include the answers directly on your website, in the FAQs section, in blog posts or on your services pages.
Those who answer their customers’ questions precisely are better able to match search intent, which increases the chances of greater visibility, for example in featured snippets or AI overviews.
Updating existing content regularly is at least as important as creating new content. A blog post from 2021 about local SEO recommendations usually ranks lower than the same text with a current date and updated information.
Over 60% of all local search queries come from smartphones. According to several practical tests, a navigation menu that remains visible whilst scrolling and includes direct contact options measurably improves both the conversion rate and the time spent on the site.
The option to get in touch must always be just a tap away on a smartphone.
The GBP links to a page on your website. Which page it links to has a direct impact on your search rankings.
A common pitfall: the profile links to a page that already ranks well organically. Google doesn’t like duplicate rankings for the same URL, and if there’s any doubt, the Local Pack loses out.
The solution is a dedicated landing page whose content is tailored to the local search query, which is technically well-structured, and which includes UTM parameters in the URL to accurately track GBP traffic in Google Analytics.
When it comes to local SEO, a link from a relevant local source – such as a trade association, a local magazine or a partner company – is worth ten generic directory links.
One effective and scalable strategy is sponsorship. Local events, sports clubs and cultural institutions are all looking for supporters and, in return, offer prominent links on their websites.
The shortcut: AI-powered sponsorship research
You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Copy the prompt below into an AI chatbot (such as ChatGPT or Gemini) and customise the placeholders to suit your industry and location. The AI will provide you with a list of potential partners in seconds.
Copy this text:
"I am the owner of a [Branche/Business, z.B. Fitnessstudios] based in [City].
Find local sponsorship opportunities that will provide me with an active, clickable backlink on the organiser’s website. Search in the following categories:
Please create a table for the results with the following columns:
– Name of the organisation
– Link to the potential sponsors’/partners’ page (URL)
– Assessment: Do you actively link to sponsors on your website? (Yes/No)
– Contact method (email/telephone)
Important filter: Please prioritise only organisations that can demonstrate they feature sponsored links on their website (not just logo placement in print or on social media).“
Google understands text. Even a mention of the company name on a relevant platform without a direct link still sends a signal of authority.
Not every mention carries the same weight. A mention on a leading industry portal carries more weight than an entry in an obscure directory.
The aim is not to have a presence everywhere. It is to have a dominant presence on the two or three platforms that carry the most weight on Google within your own sector.
Local SEO can be measured, but not always using the metrics that spring to mind at first glance.
GBP-Insights
Shows direct profile interactions: views, clicks through to the website, calls, route enquiries. These figures show whether the profile is attracting attention.
Where to find it: Directly in your Google Business Profile dashboard under the ‘Performance’ tab.
Google Analytics 4
It clearly separates GBP traffic if UTM parameters are included in the profile URL. Without these parameters, GBP traffic is grouped under the ‘organic’ category.
Where to find it: In your GA4 dashboard under ‘Reports’ > ‘Acquisition’ > ‘Traffic Acquisition’.
Ranking tracking with Grid Tools
Tools such as LocalFalcon or PlacesScout don’t just show a single location, but a grid of locations across different areas of the city. Anyone who ranks well only in the city centre but is invisible in neighbouring districts will see this straight away.
Where to find it: In the dashboards of the relevant third-party tools (e.g. LocalFalcon or PlacesScout).
Competitor comparison
The total number of ratings, the ranking position and the review velocity of the strongest competitor. That is the real benchmark.
Where to find it: Manually check directly via Google Search or Google Maps by analysing the profiles of your top three competitors.
A Google Business Profile is not a digital directory. It is often the first point of contact between a business and a customer who does not yet realise they want to speak to you.
If you get this initial contact right, you’ll attract enquiries from people who are already searching. If you neglect it, you’ll pay the price in terms of visibility, which will go to your competitors.
The four key factors:
Anyone who brings all four together builds a competitive advantage that cannot be copied, because it takes time.
We are an SEO agency in Vienna that helps local businesses gain visibility in the Google Map Pack and generate qualified enquiries. We still have four places available for new clients until December 2026.
Managing Director of Mogaji Digital Communications OG since 2021.
Digital Marketing Expert since 2019
