[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":252},["ShallowReactive",2],{"\u002Fen\u002Fguides\u002Fgoogle-business-profile":3,"guides-catalogue":232},{"id":4,"title":5,"body":6,"description":212,"extension":213,"image":214,"kind":215,"manufacturer":214,"meta":216,"metaTitle":217,"model":214,"navigation":218,"order":219,"path":220,"publishedAt":221,"relatedDossiers":214,"relatedDrones":214,"relatedServices":214,"seo":222,"sources":214,"specs":214,"stem":229,"translationKey":230,"updatedAt":221,"__hash__":231},"content\u002Fen\u002Fguides\u002Fgoogle-business-profile.md","Google Business Profile: the guide",{"type":7,"value":8,"toc":201},"minimark",[9,13,16,21,24,31,37,43,47,50,56,62,68,74,78,85,88,91,105,116,119,123,126,137,144,148,151,154,161,164,168,175,178,181,185,188,191,194],[10,11,12],"p",{},"When a customer searches your trade followed by your town, the first thing shown\nis not a website: it is the map, with three business profiles. Your site, if all\ngoes well, comes below.",[10,14,15],{},"That is why a badly configured profile costs more than an imperfect website — and\nalso why it can be fixed in an hour, for free.",[17,18,20],"h2",{"id":19},"what-is-a-business-profile-for","What is a business profile for?",[10,22,23],{},"Three things, and only one of them is obvious.",[10,25,26,30],{},[27,28,29],"strong",{},"Existing on the map."," With no profile you do not appear in the local results\nblock, whatever your site does. That block captures most \"trade + town\" searches\non mobile, before anyone scrolls down to the links.",[10,32,33,36],{},[27,34,35],{},"Answering practical questions."," Opening hours, phone, directions, service\narea. A customer who cannot find those in three seconds calls the next name.",[10,38,39,42],{},[27,40,41],{},"Carrying your reviews."," It is the one surface where your reputation appears\nnext to your name whether you chose it or not.",[17,44,46],{"id":45},"why-does-my-business-not-show-on-google","Why does my business not show on Google?",[10,48,49],{},"Four causes, in the order to check them.",[10,51,52,55],{},[27,53,54],{},"You have no profile."," The simplest case, and a common one for businesses\nwithout a shopfront — many assume a profile requires premises. It does not, and\nwe come back to that below.",[10,57,58,61],{},[27,59,60],{},"Your profile is not verified."," Created but never confirmed through the\npostcard, call or video Google asks for. It exists for you, not for anyone else.",[10,63,64,67],{},[27,65,66],{},"Your primary category is wrong."," You do appear, but never on the searches that\nmatter. This is the most expensive cause and the most invisible: everything looks\nfine.",[10,69,70,73],{},[27,71,72],{},"You are searching for your own name."," Many owners test their trading name,\nwhich nobody else types. Appearing on your own name proves nothing.",[17,75,77],{"id":76},"how-to-choose-the-primary-category-and-why-it-decides-everything","How to choose the primary category, and why it decides everything",[10,79,80,81,84],{},"This is the most important setting on the profile, and the least known. ",[27,82,83],{},"The\nprimary category determines which searches your profile is eligible for."," Not\nyour description, not your photos, not how many words you put in them.",[10,86,87],{},"A joinery listed as \"furniture shop\" will not come up for \"joiner\". It may be\ncomplete, well rated, with fine photographs. It simply is not running in the right\nrace.",[10,89,90],{},"Google states the rule itself, and it is more useful than it looks:",[92,93,94],"blockquote",{},[10,95,96,97,100,101,104],{},"\"Select as few categories as possible to describe your primary activity. Ask\nyourself what your establishment ",[27,98,99],{},"IS"," rather than what it ",[27,102,103],{},"OFFERS",".\"",[10,106,107,108,111,112,115],{},"Three practical consequences. The primary category describes ",[27,109,110],{},"what you are"," —\nthe trade, not the service. Secondary ones, up to nine, describe what you also\ndo, with less weight. And ",[27,113,114],{},"piling on unrelated categories dilutes"," rather than\nwidens: Google explicitly forbids using categories \"solely to define keywords\".",[10,117,118],{},"The simple test: run the search you want to appear on, look at the three profiles\nin the local block, and compare their category with yours.",[17,120,122],{"id":121},"do-you-have-to-show-your-address-when-you-have-no-premises","Do you have to show your address when you have no premises?",[10,124,125],{},"No — and this is the question that blocks the most profile creations.",[10,127,128,129,132,133,136],{},"If you do not receive customers at your address, set the profile up as a ",[27,130,131],{},"service\narea business",": the address is hidden, and you declare ",[27,134,135],{},"service areas"," instead.\nYou stay eligible for the local block without exposing your home.",[10,138,139,140,143],{},"Two limits worth knowing. Google caps how many areas you can declare, so coherent\ndépartements or a region beat a scatter of towns. And above all, ",[27,141,142],{},"declaring an\narea does not make you strong in it",": actual proximity remains a local ranking\nfactor. A business in the Nièvre declaring Paris will not show up in Paris.",[17,145,147],{"id":146},"what-about-reviews-and-should-you-reply","What about reviews, and should you reply?",[10,149,150],{},"Reply, yes, and to all of them — including the good ones.",[10,152,153],{},"The reply rate is visible to any visitor, and a run of unanswered reviews reads as\nindifference. It is also one of the few signals you control entirely.",[10,155,156,157,160],{},"On a negative review, the reply is not addressed to its author but to ",[27,158,159],{},"the dozens\nof people who will read it afterwards",". Factual, short, no argument: that is what\nwill be judged, not the complaint.",[10,162,163],{},"And never buy reviews. Beyond the risk of losing the profile, an unnaturally\nsmooth rating pattern is recognisable, and it destroys precisely what it claims to\nbuild.",[17,165,167],{"id":166},"why-your-profile-and-your-site-must-say-the-same-thing","Why your profile and your site must say the same thing",[10,169,170,171,174],{},"Name, address, phone: all three must be ",[27,172,173],{},"identical"," on the profile, on the site\nand everywhere else. A phone number differing by one digit, a company name\nabbreviated on one side and spelled out on the other, and search engines stop\nbeing certain it is the same business.",[10,176,177],{},"That consistency now reaches beyond local search. Generative engines tie a mention\nto an entity through those same signals: when they fail to reconcile, your company\nbecomes two blurred businesses rather than one identified.",[10,179,180],{},"The check takes five minutes: open the profile and the site side by side, and\ncompare character by character.",[17,182,184],{"id":183},"where-should-you-start","Where should you start?",[10,186,187],{},"With the primary category: it is the only setting that changes what you are\neligible for, and it takes thirty seconds to correct.",[10,189,190],{},"Then with completeness — hours, service areas, services, recent photos. Google\nitself flags what is missing, and that list beats any general advice.",[10,192,193],{},"Finally with consistency against your site.",[10,195,196,197,200],{},"None of those three actions costs a penny, and together they weigh more, for a\nlocal clientele, than anything you could buy in advertising. That is precisely why\n",[27,198,199],{},"the business profile has become a section of the diagnosis"," I produce: on a\nlocal business, ignoring it would mean auditing the wrong asset.",{"title":202,"searchDepth":203,"depth":203,"links":204},"",2,[205,206,207,208,209,210,211],{"id":19,"depth":203,"text":20},{"id":45,"depth":203,"text":46},{"id":76,"depth":203,"text":77},{"id":121,"depth":203,"text":122},{"id":146,"depth":203,"text":147},{"id":166,"depth":203,"text":167},{"id":183,"depth":203,"text":184},"Why your business does not show on Google, and what actually decides its local visibility.","md",null,"guide",{},"Google Business Profile guide",true,3,"\u002Fen\u002Fguides\u002Fgoogle-business-profile","2026-08-22",{"keywords":223,"title":5,"description":212},[224,225,226,227,228],"google business profile","business not showing on google","google business primary category","service area business","google reviews replies","en\u002Fguides\u002Fgoogle-business-profile","google-business-profile","xSG6YZ-oUs0bPWnucqv1Cw8QgOO4iMluaC0SigI0rDo",[233,235,239,242,246,249],{"locale":234,"slug":230,"path":220,"translationKey":230},"en",{"locale":234,"slug":236,"path":237,"translationKey":238},"site-not-showing-on-google","\u002Fen\u002Fguides\u002Fsite-not-showing-on-google","not-showing-on-google",{"locale":234,"slug":240,"path":241,"translationKey":240},"website-cost","\u002Fen\u002Fguides\u002Fwebsite-cost",{"locale":243,"slug":244,"path":245,"translationKey":240},"fr","combien-coute-un-site-internet","\u002Ffr\u002Fguides\u002Fcombien-coute-un-site-internet",{"locale":243,"slug":247,"path":248,"translationKey":230},"fiche-google-entreprise","\u002Ffr\u002Fguides\u002Ffiche-google-entreprise",{"locale":243,"slug":250,"path":251,"translationKey":238},"site-invisible-sur-google","\u002Ffr\u002Fguides\u002Fsite-invisible-sur-google",1787432457109]