Leaving service descriptions blank is one of the most common Google Business Profile mistakes, but a wrong primary category, wrong contact details, missing website pages and too few reviews can cost more calls. IvI SEO's wrong-before-untidy order puts a local phone number and the primary category ahead of photos, and IvI SEO's Local Signal Ratings, Jack's scores for 33 local ranking signals, rate those two 10 out of 10, against 4 for the number of photos.
For UK local businesses with a Google Business Profile, as of October 2026, the ten mistakes below are numbered in the order to fix them, not ranked by how common or how harmful each one is. The rule behind the numbers is simple: fix what's wrong, like a dead number, an old address or a duplicate listing, before what's just untidy, like "St" against "Street". Untidy still gets done: later, not never.
As for the ratings: they're my scores out of 10 for 33 local ranking signals, judgement from client work, not a test. Nine signals score 10, the number of reviews among them, and reviews still sit at number 9. So don't read the order as an importance ranking. The full chart of all 33 signals is here.
How to check yours: Check your Google Business Profile for mistakes by confirming it's verified and comparing every detail with your website: the name, number, address, hours, primary category and services. Open the profile by signing in to the Google account that manages it and selecting Edit profile on Google Search or Maps. Have the profile open in one tab and the website in another, because a lot of this is spot-the-difference. Each of the ten mistakes below says how to spot it.
Write down what's wrong as you go, and where you spotted it. The back of an envelope will do. Nobody needs a glossy audit report to see that the profile and the website disagree.
Found a few? Don't fix them in the order you found them. Some can cost you a call today, and some can wait, so start at number 1.
1. An unverified profile
An unverified Google Business Profile is less likely to show up in search results because verification tells Google you're authorised to represent the business. If your profile isn't verified yet, verifying it is the first job. To spot an unverified profile, sign in to the Google account that manages it and check the verification status. Editing a Google Business Profile needs owner or manager access, so a business that doesn't manage its listing yet has to claim it or request ownership first.
Verification goes first for a simple reason: it's the cheapest fix on the list. Hardly a thrilling start, I'll admit.
Once the profile's yours and verified, check that the details on it actually reach you.
2. Dead phone numbers, old addresses and wrong hours
A dead or old phone number on a Google Business Profile loses you the job because anyone ringing it gets nobody, or somebody else. If the opening hours are wrong, the profile might not show for an "open now" search at all. Fix the number, address and hours in Edit profile, so the number rings the business and the address and hours match the website. In the editor, blue text marks details Google has changed. Answer any suggested-edit notice within four days, because Google may publish the edit if nobody responds and your website supports it. Search any old phone number, old address or previous business name to find where outdated details still show.
Picture someone (a made-up customer) with water coming through the kitchen ceiling, ringing the number on your profile. If it's dead, they don't try again tomorrow. They ring the next plumber on the map, and that's a lost job. A missing full stop in your address? They'd never notice.
As I put it in the post on NAP consistency (NAP being your name, address and phone number), a wrong phone number and a missing full stop aren't the same problem. If you're already logged in fixing the number, tidy the rest while you're there.
Blue text deserves a slow read, not a glance. Some suggested edits can go live without prior review, so check every blue detail, not only the ones that came with a four-day notice. No notice doesn't mean no change. (Why Google changes your business information has the full story.)
One catch if you're changing a lot at once: edits that significantly change a business on Google Maps may be rejected, so a big change to a Google Business Profile in one go needs proof behind it, such as official documents and a website that already shows the new details.
Then search the old number on its own, without the business name tacked on. A number search catches listings where the name was typed differently, the ones a name search walks straight past.
Sometimes, though, the wrong details aren't on your profile at all. They're on a second one.
3. Deleting a duplicate instead of merging it
Deleting a duplicate Google Business Profile loses its reviews because removing a profile deletes everything on it, while an approved merge combines the reviews. A second Google Business Profile for the same location breaks the one-profile-per-location rule, so leaving it alone isn't the answer either. Before removing anything, check the duplicate for reviews and for who manages it, then merge it rather than deleting it. To find a duplicate, search the business's phone number on its own, which can turn up a second listing where the name was typed differently.
A duplicate looks like the obvious thing to delete. Resist the urge. Deleting a duplicate can't be undone and takes its reviews with it, which is why the checks come before the delete button, not after. My rule for duplicates fits on a sticky note: "Remove last, not first."
A second profile breaks one rule. The business name has rules of its own.
4. Keywords stuffed into the business name
Adding keywords to a Google Business Profile name can get the profile suspended because a profile has to show the real business under its real-world name. Google reserves the right to suspend access to Google Business Profiles for businesses that break its guidelines, which cover the business name, the address and duplicate profiles. So a rule break can put the Google Business Profile itself at risk, not only its ranking. The fix for a keyword-stuffed name is changing it back to the real one, not adding more. To check, open Edit profile and compare the name with the business's signage and website. A keyword that's genuinely part of the real name is fine.
Not sure whether yours counts as stuffed? Look for service or location words that aren't in the real name. Real name, nothing bolted on.
Suspension is something Google may do, not a certainty for any one mistake. And it isn't only Google looking. Anyone can suggest an edit to a Google Business Profile they don't own, and a profile that breaks the rules can be reported, whether by a customer, a passer-by or the competitor down the road.
IvI SEO has seen keyword-stuffed profiles stay up, so suspension isn't a certainty, but one staying up for someone else doesn't mean yours is safe. The catch is that you only ever see the survivors. A stuffed name that came down isn't on the map any more for you to spot. So I still won't advise it, because "might be fine" isn't a plan for the profile your phone calls come from.
If the worst does happen, a suspended profile can be appealed, but an appeal is a second look, not a promise.
The name isn't the only part of the profile with a rule behind it. The address has one too.
5. Your home address on show, or a virtual office
A business that customers don't visit should hide the address on its Google Business Profile because a home address on show invites people to turn up at the door. A virtual office is out too, because the address must be where the business actually operates, not one rented for post. The fix is to hide the real address and set a service area: up to 20 named towns, cities or postcodes you genuinely cover, no further than about two hours' drive from your base. In Edit profile, check whether the address shows and whether the service area is a list of named places you really cover.
A virtual office, if you haven't come across one, is an address a business rents but doesn't operate from. PO boxes or mailboxes at remote locations aren't acceptable either. An address that only takes the post isn't a shortcut, just the wrong address.
(For the full detail, settings included, there's a whole post on hiding your address.)
That's the last of the details that are flat wrong. From here it's about showing up for the right searches, starting with the category.
6. The wrong primary category
A wrong primary category on a Google Business Profile can keep it out of the searches it should show for because the category tells Google what the business is. Pick the most specific primary category, using the fewest categories that describe your core business. Check the categories in Edit profile: a broad primary category, or a pile of extras, needs fixing.
The primary category scores 10 in my ratings, so it's worth a second look even if you're sure you got it right when you set the profile up. There's a longer answer on how the category fits into how Google ranks local businesses, but the short version fits on a beer mat: say what you are, not everything you do.
The category tells Google what you are. Your website has to back it up.
7. No website pages behind the profile
A Google Business Profile with no website pages behind it can cost calls because nothing backs up the services and towns it lists when a customer checks before ringing. The fix is a website link on the profile and a page on the website for each main service that names the towns the business covers. To check, compare the profile with the website's footer, contact page and service pages, and note any service or town the website doesn't mention. A website link on a Google Business Profile and website pages that match its services and towns both score 10 out of 10 in IvI SEO's Local Signal Ratings, Jack's judgement of 33 local ranking signals.
No website at all? You can still check the profile against your signage and paperwork instead. What you can't give it is a website link, or pages that match its services and towns, and that's the backup you lose (why the website backs up the profile). Paperwork lets you check the profile. It doesn't let a customer check you out.
Then there's the mistake hiding in plain sight, under every service you've added.
8. Services with blank descriptions
Leaving Google Business Profile service descriptions blank can hurt the profile's ranking because Google matches searches against a profile's details, and an empty box leaves less to match. Google ranks local results partly on relevance, and complete, detailed business information helps it match a profile to a search. The description box only appears when you click back into a service under Edit services, so open every one and fill it in. An IvI SEO rewrite of a York electrician's service descriptions on 5 June 2026 coincided with the electrician's top-3 Google Maps points for "emergency electrician wigginton" going from 13 to 26 of 35 by September, while the business's website gained matching service pages.
Why does it get missed? Setting a service up only asks for its name and a price. In IvI SEO's audits, most profiles stop right there and leave the description blank, because nobody knows it's there. So blank service descriptions are one of the most common Google Business Profile mistakes, and it isn't laziness, just a box that keeps itself to itself. If yours have nothing under them, here's how to add service descriptions.
Now the honest bit about that York result. Calls made straight from the electrician's profile were 3 in August, the same as July, so the ranking gain didn't show up as more calls off the profile. Website visits from the profile were up 88% in August against July, which sounds grand until you see the total: 17. More people were clicking through to the website for a proper look first. Still a win, just not the phone ringing.
The descriptions weren't the only thing that changed, either. Over the same months, the electrician's website gained a full set of service pages matching the services on the profile. Two new reviews came in as well (8 to 10), and that was the only other change to the profile itself. So I'm not claiming the descriptions did it alone. A profile and a website that describe the same services back each other up, which is rather the point.
Then the small print. It's one keyword, on one profile, for one business. And the test rewrote the descriptions rather than putting a blank profile next to a full one, so it shows what better descriptions coincided with, not what blank ones cost you. A good sign, not proof.
(Quick explainer on those points: a rank grid checks where a business shows on Google Maps from points spread across an area, so "26 of 35" means the profile was in the top 3 at 26 of the 35 points checked.)
Zoom out and the same logic covers the whole profile. An incomplete Google Business Profile can hurt ranking for the same reason: less for Google to match. In practice, that's a profile with services but no descriptions, a services list that leaves out jobs the business does, missing hours, or a vague primary category. Nobody outside Google knows how much weight each section carries.
My own ratings don't oversell it either. Profile completeness overall is a 7 and keywords in service descriptions are a 5, my judgement from client work, not a test. Completeness is worth doing. It just isn't a magic fix.
That 5 is why blank descriptions sit eighth. Writing them is one of the first things I do on every profile, but they don't jump ahead of anything that's wrong.
If you want every scan, the method and the bits that didn't improve, the full York test has the lot.
Service descriptions take minutes. The next one takes months, so it needs starting now.
9. Too few reviews
Too few Google reviews can hold back a Google Business Profile in local results because reviews are part of prominence, how well-known a business is. More reviews and positive ratings can help a business's local ranking. The fix is to send every customer one honest request for a review straight after the job, not only the ones that went well. Then reply to every Google review, good or bad. Unanswered reviews are easy to spot: any review with no reply under it.
Ninth isn't a verdict on how much reviews matter: the number of reviews scores 10 in my ratings. Reviews sit here because you can't fix them in an afternoon, however keen you are. They build over months, from asking every customer after every job. A couple of new reviews every month beats twenty in one week and then nothing.
So don't save them for when everything else is done. Start asking now, alongside the rest. If you want the whole picture on asking and replying, here's how Google reviews help local SEO.
Which leaves the last one on the list, and it's last on purpose: photos and posts.
10. Stock photos and never posting
Stock photos and never posting on a Google Business Profile can make it look neglected because real photos of the work and recent posts show customers the business is real and active. Swap stock images for photos of your own work, your van and your team. Once a week is a sensible minimum for posting, though no test shows that posting more often helps rankings. Both are tidy-ups: once the profile's details are right, check the photos for stock images and look for a recent post. In IvI SEO's Local Signal Ratings, Jack's scores out of 10 from client work, the number of photos sits at 4 and how often you post at 6.
Last doesn't mean pointless. Photos matter to customers: real photos make the profile look like a real business run by a real person (not a stock model grinning at a clipboard). My score for photos has a condition attached: "as long as you have enough to show off your work". So get enough real ones up, then stop fretting about the count.
Posts earn their place for a similar reason: they show customers the business is active. If you're still not sure posting's worth the bother, the full case for posting is here.
That's the list, start to finish. You can do every bit of it yourself, or hand it over.
Want someone to check your Google Business Profile for mistakes?
You can get help checking a Google Business Profile for mistakes, or do the same checks yourself. Going through the profile's details and services, and comparing them with the business's website, is part of IvI SEO's local SEO service. Whoever does the checking, the rules don't change: the real business name, a phone number that rings the business, and details that agree with the website. Neither route can promise higher rankings or more calls. Running the checks yourself is a perfectly sensible option.
Doing the checks yourself won't cost you a penny. The checks and the order to fix things in are all on this page, and none of it needs a paid tool, just owner or manager access to the profile and your website open in another tab. (Giving the whole list away for nothing is probably a mistake too. That one's mine.)
Help suits owners who'd rather spend that time on paying jobs, or whose own check turned up more loose ends than they fancy chasing. On my side, that means going through the profile, every service and the website side by side, then fixing things in the same order this page gives you, alongside the rest of your local SEO.
Here's how I can help, or put the kettle on and work through the checks yourself.
Either route beats leaving it as it is.