Google Business Profile

Your Google Business Profile Is
Your Most Important Marketing Channel

It controls whether you show up in the Map Pack, what customers see first, and how Google and AI systems understand your business. Most Fredericton businesses set it up once and never touch it again. That is a mistake.

Your Google Business Profile (GBP) is the single most important factor in whether your business shows up in local search results. It is more important than your website. More important than backlinks. More important than how long you have been in business. Google has said this publicly, and the data backs it up: GBP signals account for roughly 32% of local ranking factors.

What Most Fredericton Businesses Get Wrong

Incomplete profiles

Missing business hours, no service catalog, wrong categories, no attributes. Google shows complete profiles more often than incomplete ones. Every empty field is a missed signal.

No photos or old photos

Businesses with 100+ photos get 520% more calls than those with fewer than 10. Yet most local businesses have 5-10 photos from the day they opened. Fresh, optimized photos with geo-tags signal an active, legitimate business.

Zero Google Posts

Google Posts are free mini-ads that show up on your profile. They signal activity. Businesses that post weekly get more engagement, more profile views, and better ranking signals. Almost no Fredericton businesses use them.

Wrong primary category

Your primary category is the single strongest signal for which searches you show up in. The wrong category means you are invisible for your most important keywords. We see this mistake constantly.

No review strategy

Reviews are the second biggest local ranking factor. Most businesses wait for reviews passively. The ones winning have an active system that asks every happy customer to leave feedback.

How We Optimize Your GBP

We treat your Google Business Profile as a living marketing channel, not a one-time setup. Here is our process:

01

Profile Audit

We audit every field: business name, categories (primary + secondary), description, hours, attributes, service area, products/services, photos, posts, Q&A, and review status. We score your profile against best practices and your top 5 competitors.

02

Category Strategy

We research every available category for your industry and select the primary category that best matches your highest-value search terms. We add up to 9 secondary categories to expand your visibility without diluting your primary signal.

03

Photo Optimization

We upload optimized photos with proper file names, geo-tags, and alt text. Cover photo, logo, interior, exterior, team, products, and action shots. We add new photos monthly to signal an active, current business.

04

Service & Product Catalog

We build out your full service catalog with descriptions, pricing (if applicable), and categories. This gives Google detailed information about what you offer and helps you show up for service-specific searches.

05

Weekly Google Posts

We create and publish Google Posts every week: offers, updates, events, and tips. Each post includes a call-to-action (call now, learn more, book online) and links back to relevant pages on your website.

06

Q&A Management

We seed your Q&A section with the questions your customers actually ask, then provide detailed answers. This gives Google more content to index and helps AI systems extract accurate information about your business.

07

Review Management

We set up automated review request sequences, monitor new reviews across platforms, and draft professional responses to both positive and negative feedback. Review velocity and recency both matter for rankings.

08

Monthly Reporting

We track profile views, search queries, calls, direction requests, website clicks, and photo views. You see exactly how your GBP is performing and what is driving results.

GBP + Schema Markup: The Combination Most Agencies Miss

Your Google Business Profile tells Google about your business from the Google side. Schema markup on your website tells Google about your business from your side. When both sources match -- same name, same address, same services, same hours -- Google has high confidence in your information and rewards you with better visibility.

We implement LocalBusiness schema that mirrors your GBP data exactly: business name, address, phone, hours, geo-coordinates, categories, and service areas. This cross-platform consistency is one of the strongest signals you can send to both Google and AI systems.

GBP + AI: The New Front

AI systems like ChatGPT and Perplexity pull heavily from Google Business Profile data when making local recommendations. Your business name, category, reviews, and Q&A all feed into whether AI recommends you. An optimized GBP does not just help with Google search -- it directly improves your AI discoverability.

We take this further by adding an llms.txt file to your website that mirrors your GBP information in a format AI systems can read directly. This gives AI two clean, consistent sources of truth about your business.

How Does Your GBP Score?

We will audit your Google Business Profile and show you exactly what is missing, what your competitors are doing, and what to fix first.

Get Your Free GBP Audit