Google Business Profile for Quezon City businesses: a 30-minute checklist
The settings that decide whether you show up in the map results for searches near Katipunan, Cubao or Tomas Morato.
When someone searches "dentist near Katipunan" or "cake shop Maginhawa", the map results with three businesses usually appear before any website. What decides who shows up there is mostly your Google Business Profile. Here's the checklist we run for every local client. Most of it takes thirty minutes.
Why the profile matters
Google ranks local results on three things: relevance (does your profile match the search), distance (how close you are to the searcher or the place named) and prominence (how well known you are, including reviews and links). You can't move your shop closer, but you can make the profile complete, accurate and active.
Get the basics right
- Claim and verify. Search your business on Google Maps and claim it, or create a new profile. Google may verify by video, phone, email or postcard; follow the option it offers.
- Use your real business name. Don't add keywords like "Best Dental Clinic QC" to the name. It breaks Google's guidelines and can get the profile suspended.
- Pick the most specific primary category. "Pediatric dentist" beats "Dentist" if that's what you are. Add a few secondary categories for other things you do.
- Set hours, including holidays. Update special hours before Holy Week, Undas and Christmas. Wrong hours are one of the fastest ways to lose a customer.
- Match your website. Name, address and phone should be written the same way on your profile, website and Facebook page.
Address or service area
If customers visit you, show your address and drop the pin on the exact entrance; buildings along Tomas Morato and Timog often sit behind a different street than the pin assumes. If you go to customers (contractors, cleaners, home services), hide the address and set a service area of the cities you actually cover instead.
Photos, services and posts
- Add your logo, a cover photo, the storefront from the street, the inside, your team and your work. Real photos beat stock every time.
- List your services or products with short descriptions and, where you can, prices.
- Write the business description in plain language: what you do, for whom, where. Mention your barangay or landmark if customers use it to find you.
- Post an update every week or two: an offer, a new product, holiday hours. It keeps the profile active and answers questions before people call.
Reviews you can keep up
Reviews help with prominence and with the customer's decision. A routine you can actually keep beats a one-time push:
- Create your review link from the profile dashboard and save it as a short message template.
- Ask after a good moment: a finished job, a delivered order, a happy visit.
- Reply to every review within a few days, good or bad, in your normal voice.
- Never buy reviews or offer discounts in exchange for them. Google removes them and can restrict the profile.
Track what it brings in
The profile's performance view shows searches, calls, direction requests and website clicks. Add a tracking tag to your website link (for example ?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=gbp) so visits from the profile show up separately in your analytics.
Want this done for you, along with the technical fixes on your site? It's the first month of our local SEO plan. And if your photos and posts need a steadier hand, see social media management.
