The business profile

Why the profile matters so much

When someone searches for “bakery near me” or “carpenter Villeurbanne”, search engines and map apps first display business profiles: name, rating, opening hours, directions, call button. Many customers decide at that moment, without ever opening the website. For a neighborhood shop, a complete and accurate profile is therefore often more useful than a perfect website.

The most used is the Google business profile (Google Business Profile). There are others, to be maintained with the same rigor: Apple Business Connect (Apple Maps), Bing Places, professional and local directories (yellow pages, the town hall’s website, the tourist office, your trade federation), and collaborative maps such as OpenStreetMap.

Claim or create

A profile may already exist, created automatically or by a customer. Search for your business on the map:

• if the profile exists, choose the option to claim it (“Own this business?”);
• otherwise, create it from the platform’s management tool with the company’s business account (not the personal account of an employee who might leave).

The platform then asks for verification: depending on the case, mail, a phone call, email or a short video showing the premises. Until the profile is verified, your changes are not published or remain limited.

Filling in each section

• Name: the real name, the one on the sign and the documents. Adding keywords (“Boulangerie des Tilleuls - pain bio Lyon”) goes against platform rules and may lead to the profile being suspended.
• Primary category: the most precise one (“Bakery” rather than “Food store”), then a few secondary categories that you really practice (“Pastry shop”).
• Address: exact, with the right postal code. A business that travels to its customers without receiving the public (plumber, carpenter) can hide the address and state a service area.
• Opening hours: regular hours, and special hours for public holidays and vacations. Wrong hours lose trust faster than anything else.
• Phone and website: a number that answers, and the address of the homepage or the Contact page.
• Description: a few factual sentences about the business, with no unverifiable promise or keyword list.
• Photos: the storefront (so people recognize the place), interior, products, team if they agree. Add some regularly.
• Products or services, attributes (wheelchair access, contactless payment, terrace): only if they are true.

Consistency everywhere: the “NAP”

NAP stands for Name, Address, Phone. Search engines cross-check the information found on your website, your profile and the directories. Variants (old number, wrong postal code, different name) blur this signal and send customers to the wrong place.

Take an inventory of the existing profiles (search for your name and your number), correct each one, and keep the list in a table so you can update them all when opening hours or a number change.

Keeping the profile alive

A profile is not fixed: publish updates (new product, summer closure), respond to reviews (next lesson), and check every month that nobody has suggested an incorrect edit: platforms accept suggestions from the public, which you need to monitor.