Journal · 8 September 2026

A Google Business Profile checklist for Derbyshire businesses

A practical checklist for setting up and maintaining a Google Business Profile, with the mistakes we see most often on Derby and Derbyshire listings.

Independent shop owner checking a phone behind a shop counter

For most local businesses, the Google Business Profile is the most visible thing they own online. More people see it than see the website, and for many searches it is the only thing a customer looks at before calling or visiting.

Here is the checklist we work through for new local clients, with notes on the mistakes we see most often around Derby and Derbyshire.

1. Ownership and access

Make sure the business owns the profile, through an account the business controls. We regularly find profiles owned by a former employee or a previous agency.
Add other people as managers rather than sharing a password.
Check for duplicate profiles, especially if you have moved premises or changed name. Duplicates split reviews and confuse Google.

2. Name, address and service area

Use your real business name as it appears on your signage and paperwork. Adding keywords or town names to the business name breaks the guidelines and can lead to suspension.
If customers visit you, show your address. If you travel to customers and do not receive visitors, hide the address and set a service area instead.
Keep the service area realistic. Listing every town in the East Midlands does not make you appear in all of them.

3. Categories

Choose the most specific accurate primary category. This has a big effect on which searches you appear for.
Add secondary categories only for services that are a genuine part of the business.
Look at the businesses that rank well for your main searches and note the categories they use. Free browser extensions can show these.

4. Services and products

Fill in the services list, using the words customers use. Add short descriptions.
Retailers can add products with prices and photographs.
Keep this consistent with your website, which should have a page for each important service.

5. Hours

Set normal hours accurately.
Add special hours for bank holidays, Christmas and seasonal changes. This is the most common failing we see on Derbyshire visitor businesses, especially those whose hours change between summer and winter.
If you are appointment-only, say so.

6. Contact details and links

Make sure the website link goes to the most relevant page. For a multi-location business, link each profile to its own location page, not the home page.
If you use an appointment or booking link, check that it works on mobile.
Your name, address and contact details should match your website exactly.

7. Photographs and video

Add a logo and a cover photograph, then real photographs of the premises, the team at work (with permission), products and completed jobs.
Avoid stock images. People can tell, and they do not build trust.
Add new photographs regularly. Customers can also add their own; check them from time to time.

8. Description

Write a plain description of what you do, who you serve and where. It does not need to be long.
Do not include links, prices or promotional claims; those belong elsewhere.

9. Reviews

Ask every satisfied customer for a review, at the moment they are happiest: when the job is finished, the treatment is done, or the order has arrived.
Make it easy with a short link or a QR code at the counter.
Reply to every review, briefly and personally. For a negative review, acknowledge the issue, avoid arguing, and offer to talk offline.
Never offer incentives for reviews, never write reviews yourself, and never pay for them. Google removes fake reviews and can restrict or suspend profiles that collect them.

10. Posts and updates

Posts can share news, offers and events. They have a modest effect on rankings but can help persuade people who are looking at your profile.
Seasonal businesses benefit most: events, new menus, opening changes.

11. Questions and answers

Check whether people have asked questions on your profile and answer them.
Inaccurate answers from members of the public are common, so keep an eye on this section.

12. Monitoring

Check your profile monthly for suggested edits from Google or the public. Sometimes your hours, category or website are changed without you noticing.
Look at the performance data: searches, calls, direction requests and website clicks. Compare month to month and year to year.

When the profile is not enough

If your profile is complete and accurate and you still do not appear where you expect, the issue is usually prominence (reviews, links, website strength) or competition from businesses much closer to the searcher. Our article on why map rankings change across Derby explains this in more depth.

Our local SEO service covers all of the above and the work needed beyond it.

The checklist in one table

Print this or copy it into a spreadsheet and work through it once a quarter.

Area	Check	How often
Access	At least two people in the business are owners or managers	Yearly
Name	Matches your signage and real trading name, no added keywords	Yearly
Address	Matches your website and directories exactly	Yearly
Service area	Reflects where you really work	Every six months
Primary category	Most specific category that fits your main service	Every six months
Secondary categories	Only those that genuinely apply	Every six months
Services and products	Complete, with short descriptions	Every quarter
Hours	Correct, including special hours for bank holidays	Monthly and before each holiday
Phone and website	Correct and tracked where possible	Every quarter
Photographs	New photographs added, old misleading ones removed	Every quarter
Description	Accurate and plain	Yearly
Reviews	All new reviews replied to	Weekly
Questions	New questions answered	Weekly
Performance	Calls, direction requests and website clicks recorded	Monthly

Suspensions and edits you did not make

Profiles in Derbyshire, as everywhere, sometimes change without warning. Google accepts edits suggested by the public, and occasionally applies its own. A wrong phone number, a moved pin or a changed category can quietly reduce enquiries. Check your profile monthly, and if something has changed, correct it and keep a note of when.

Suspensions are rarer but more serious. They are most often triggered by changes to the business name, address or categories, or by an address Google considers ineligible. If your profile is suspended, do not create a new one. Follow Google's reinstatement process, provide the evidence it asks for, such as photographs of signage, utility bills or business registration, and keep a record of everything you submit.

Multiple locations

If you have premises in, say, Derby city centre and Belper, each location can have its own profile, provided each is staffed and open to customers during stated hours. Each profile should link to its own location page on your website, not to the home page. Keep the categories consistent unless the services genuinely differ between sites.

Practitioners and departments

Some businesses, such as law firms, dental practices and estate agents, can have profiles for individual practitioners or departments under Google's rules. This can help or hurt. If you go down this route, make sure the main practice profile stays the strongest and that individual profiles do not compete for the same searches.

Tracking what the profile does

The performance figures in the profile show calls, direction requests and website clicks. Add a tracking parameter to the website link so visits from the profile show up separately in your analytics. Record the monthly figures somewhere you can compare year on year, because seasonal patterns in Derbyshire, particularly for visitor businesses, can be large.

For why your ranking varies across the city, see why your map ranking changes across Derby. For the full monthly programme, see local SEO.