If your business isn’t appearing when local customers search for what you sell, the problem often isn’t your website — it’s your Google Business Profile. This free listing controls how you show up on Google Search, Google Maps and Google Shopping, and getting the keywords right inside it can make the difference between being found and being invisible.
The good news is that optimising your profile for keywords takes less than an hour, and you don’t need any technical skill to do it. Here’s exactly where to add them, how to find the ones worth targeting, and what else you can do to get more clicks from your listing.
Why Keywords Still Matter for Local Search
Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) works a bit like a mini search engine of its own. When someone types “plumber near me” or “wedding florist in Brighton”, Google scans business listings for matching terms before deciding which ones to show in the local pack — that cluster of map results and business cards that appears above the standard organic listings.
If your profile never mentions the services or products people are actually searching for, you’re relying on your name and reputation alone to win that visibility. Adding relevant local SEO keywords throughout your profile gives Google more context, and more reasons, to match you with the right searches.
Where to Add Keywords Inside Your Profile
Before you touch anything, log into your Google Business Profile account and open “Edit profile”. From there, several fields accept keyword-rich text, and each one plays a slightly different role.
Business Categories
Your primary category is arguably the single most influential keyword on your entire profile. It tells Google, in the simplest possible terms, what you do. A florist listed under “Gift shop” will struggle to appear for flower-related searches, no matter how well-written the rest of the listing is.
Google restricts you to predefined categories rather than free text, so start typing a relevant term and choose the closest match from the dropdown. You can add one primary category plus several secondary ones — a florist might add “Wholesale florist” or “Flower delivery service” alongside the main listing to widen its net without diluting relevance.
Business Description
The 750-character description field is where you get to write more naturally. This is the place to mention what you offer, who you serve, and what makes you different, weaving in terms your customers would actually type into Google — without tipping into keyword stuffing, which does more harm than good.
A well-written description for a local glazier, for example, might reference “double glazing repairs”, “emergency glass replacement” and the specific towns or postcodes served, all within natural sentences rather than a list of terms bolted together.
Product and Service Listings
If your business category supports it, you can list individual products or services with their own titles and descriptions. This is a genuinely underused opportunity. Each listing is a chance to target a more specific, often less competitive, keyword than your homepage could realistically rank for. A driving instructor might list “intensive driving courses” as a separate service from “motorway lessons”, capturing two distinct searches rather than competing with itself for one broad term.
Business Attributes
Attributes are the tick-box details — wheelchair access, outdoor seating, free delivery, and so on — that Google surfaces directly in search results when they match what someone’s looking for. Search “donut delivery near me” and you’ll usually see the word “delivery” bolded in the results of businesses that confirmed the attribute. It’s a small detail, but it’s free visibility, and there’s no reason to leave it unchecked if it applies to you.
Finding the Keywords Worth Targeting
Guessing at keywords is better than nothing, but a proper keyword research process will surface terms you’d never have thought to include.
Start With a Seed Keyword
Begin with one broad term that describes your niche — “flowers”, “plumbing”, “resin driveways” — and run it through a keyword tool such as Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool or Google’s own Keyword Planner. You’ll typically get thousands of related suggestions, most of which are irrelevant or hugely competitive. Filter by topic groups to narrow the list down to phrases that genuinely match your services, and prioritise ones with a reasonable search volume but a lower difficulty score, since these are the ones a smaller local business can realistically compete for.
Check What Competitors Are Missing
A more targeted approach is to look at what’s already working for competitors and find the gaps. Tools like Semrush’s Organic Rankings report let you enter a rival’s website and filter for keywords where they don’t appear in the local pack. Any term that fits this description is a genuine opportunity — a search Google is actively serving local results for, where the incumbent hasn’t claimed the spot yet.
Once you’ve built a shortlist, work the strongest terms naturally into your business description, categories and product listings rather than trying to cram every keyword into one field.
Quick Wins That Support Your Keyword Strategy
Keywords alone won’t carry a profile. Google also weighs up accuracy, activity and trustworthiness, so these five habits are worth building into your routine.
Keep Your NAP Details Consistent
Your business name, address and phone number — commonly shortened to NAP — need to match exactly across your website, your Google profile and every other directory you appear in. Inconsistent formatting, an old phone number, or a slightly different spelling of your business name can quietly undermine the trust Google places in your listing. Checking these fields takes two minutes and is worth doing every few months.
Reply to Every Review
Reviews are often the first thing a potential customer reads, and how you respond says almost as much as the review itself. Thanking people for positive feedback and addressing complaints professionally shows Google, and everyone else reading, that you’re engaged and accountable. According to research from Trust Signals, nearly half of customers give a brand the benefit of the doubt after receiving a genuine apology and explanation — so a thoughtful reply to a bad review can do more good than harm.
Post Regular Updates
Google Posts let you share offers, opening hours changes, new products or seasonal news directly on your profile, where they appear to anyone searching for your business. Beyond the immediate value of the update itself, posting regularly signals that your listing is actively maintained, which tends to work in your favour when Google is deciding which profiles to trust.
Add Genuine, High-Quality Photos
Profiles with a strong set of photos — logo, cover image, interior and exterior shots, and pictures of products in use — consistently outperform bare-bones listings in the SERPs. Google recommends images between 720 and 250 pixels square, saved as JPG or PNG, and free from heavy filters or watermarks. Real photos of your premises or team tend to convert better than stock imagery, since they give searchers a genuine sense of what to expect.
Prioritise the Customer Experience
Ultimately, everything above serves one purpose: helping the right customer find accurate, useful information about your business as quickly as possible. Keep your opening hours current, be upfront about price changes or temporary closures, and use messages and reviews as a channel to resolve problems rather than ignore them. A profile that consistently gives people what they need tends to earn better visibility over time, keywords or not.
Keep Reviewing Your Profile
Search habits shift, new competitors appear, and your own business changes — so treat your Google Business Profile as a living part of your marketing, not a one-off task. Revisit your categories, description and keyword list every few months to make sure they still reflect what you offer and how people are searching for it.
