5 Steps to Optimize Your Google Business Profile (And Actually Get Found)
5 Steps to Optimize Your Google Business Profile (And Actually Get Found)
If you're a small business owner in Middle Tennessee and you're not showing up when people search for what you do, your Google Business Profile is probably the first place to look.
The good news? You don't need a marketing agency to fix it. You need about two hours, a phone with a camera, and the willingness to do five things most of your competitors haven't done.
Here's exactly what to do.
Step 1: Claim and Verify Your Profile
You can't optimize something you don't control. Start at business.google.com and search for your business. If it's already listed, claim it. If it's not, create it.
Google will verify you by phone, text, or postcard. Do it now. An unverified profile is invisible in the ways that matter most.
Once you're verified, check every field. Business name, address, phone number, website, hours. All of it needs to match exactly what's on your website and every other place your business appears online. Google calls this NAP consistency — Name, Address, Phone — and it affects whether you show up.
Step 2: Choose the Right Categories
Most business owners pick one category and stop. That's a mistake.
Your primary category should be as specific as possible. If you're an HVAC company, don't pick "Contractor." Pick "HVAC Contractor." If you're a family dentist, don't pick "Health" — pick "Dentist."
Then add secondary categories that describe everything else you do. A plumber who also does water heater installation should have both. A lawyer who handles both personal injury and family law should list both.
Google uses your categories to decide which searches you're eligible to appear in. Every category you leave out is a customer you're invisible to.
Step 3: Write a Description That Works for AI, Not Just Humans
Your business description used to just be for people reading your profile. Not anymore.
ChatGPT, Google's AI Overview, Siri, and Perplexity are all reading your profile and using it to decide whether to recommend you. That means your description needs to be clear, specific, and written in plain language.
Say what you do. Say where you do it. Say who you serve. Use the words your customers actually type when they're looking for help.
"We're a family-owned HVAC company serving Shelbyville, Murfreesboro, and Bedford County. We handle residential heating and cooling installation, repair, and maintenance. Same-day service available."
That description works for a Google search. It also works for an AI that's trying to recommend someone trustworthy and local.
Step 4: Load Up Photos — And Keep Adding Them
Profiles with photos get dramatically more clicks than profiles without them. That's not an opinion. Google has published data on it.
Start with the basics: your storefront, your team, your work in progress, your finished projects. If you're a dentist, show your office and your smiling staff. If you're a contractor, show before-and-afters. If you're a restaurant, show the food.
Then keep adding. Google rewards profiles that are actively maintained. A profile that gets new photos every couple of weeks signals to Google that you're open, active, and worth showing.
One photo from 2019 is not helping you.
Step 5: Post to Your Profile Every Week
Most business owners don't know their Google Business Profile has a built-in posting feature. It works like a social media feed, and Google actually shows those posts in search results.
Post something every week. It doesn't have to be long. A completed job, a seasonal promotion, a quick tip for your customers, an answer to a common question. Anything that shows Google — and the AI tools that read your profile — that your business is alive and active.
Posts with a photo and a call to action perform best. Keep it simple. Keep it local. Keep it consistent.
The Bottom Line
Your Google Business Profile is one of the most powerful free marketing tools available to a Middle Tennessee small business. Most of your competitors are ignoring it. That's your advantage.
Claim it. Complete it. Update it every week. Those five steps alone will put you ahead of businesses spending money on advertising while neglecting the basics.
If you want to go deeper or you'd rather have someone handle this for you, Cory Media Group does this for local businesses across Bedford and Rutherford County. But start with these five steps today — you can do this yourself.
And if you're not already part of the Ignite Tennessee community, come join us. It's a free group for Middle Tennessee small business owners sharing exactly this kind of practical, no-fluff marketing help.
