AEO Series #3: Is your Google Business Profile doing enough?
The free half-hour job almost nobody finishes properly.
If you've ever Googled your own business, you'll have seen it. That tidy panel on the right with your name, hours, photos, reviews — the Google Business Profile.
Of all the moves a small business can make this month to get found by AI tools, one is free, takes about half an hour, and almost nobody finishes properly. It's your Google Business Profile — the tidy panel that appears on the right when someone Googles your business name, with your address, opening hours, photos, and reviews.
It quietly does a lot of heavy lifting. Not just for Google. Also for Claude, Perplexity, and Google's own AI Overviews — which all pull from Business Profile data when they answer questions like "who does X in Y town?"
Here's the catch: most profiles are set up once, three years ago, and then left. Half-finished. A bit out of date. Missing the bits that actually matter.
The fields that punch above their weight
Not every field on a Business Profile is equal. These are the ones that matter most for both Google and AI tools:
Business category (and secondary categories). This is the single most influential field for whether you appear in "recommend me a..." searches. Pick the most specific category that fits, not the broadest.
Services / products. List them properly, with short descriptions in plain English. AI tools read these.
Service area. If you serve a region rather than a single shopfront, set the area. Otherwise you only appear to people in one postcode.
Photos. Real photos, not stock. A few of your space, your team, your work — refreshed once a quarter.
Hours (including holiday hours). Nothing kills trust faster than turning up to a "closed today" sign.
Description. The 750-character about box. Write it in your customers' words, not industry jargon. This is gold for AI extraction.
What to do this weekend — 30 minutes flat
If you want to spend half an hour on this and walk away meaningfully better-off, here's the order:
Open your profile at business.google.com
Check your primary category — is it the most specific match for what you actually do?
Add or refine two secondary categories
Fill in the services / products section properly — short, clear, in the language a customer would use
Refresh the description box (write it like you're explaining what you do to a friend, not a search engine)
Add three recent photos
Confirm the hours — including any upcoming closures
That's it. No tools, no tracking, no SEO trickery. Just the boring, foundational thing that nobody finishes.
Why this matters now, specifically
When Claude or Perplexity answers a question like "who does small-business websites in South Wales?", it doesn't just pull from your website. It pulls from your Business Profile, from directories that reference you, from reviews, from anywhere your business shows up consistently.
A clear, complete, recently-updated Business Profile is one of the most efficient signals you can send. It's the kind of thing where a small effort delivers a disproportionate return.
Coming next in this series
Next in this series: whether your website is actually answering the questions your customers are asking. Once AI can find you, the next job is making sure what it finds does the work.
If you'd like a proper look at how your site and your Business Profile are set up together — for both Google and AI search — the new Site Health & AI-Readiness Audit on the Growth Hub does exactly that. WebCare clients, use code WEBCARE15 for 15% off.
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