Google Business Profile checklist: the 10 fields multi-site teams miss

Most profile checklists die for the same reason: they are too long to use. Someone builds a 57-item document from three blog posts, runs it once, and never opens it again. The team goes back to fixing whatever a customer complained about that week.

Ten fields is a different proposition. Ten can be checked per location, scored, and assigned to an owner. They are also the ten the product audits, so the score and the checklist describe the same work. This guide is the checklist, the standard for each field, and the order to fix them in.

What is a Google Business Profile checklist?

It is a completeness tool, not a ranking tool. A score of 100 means every field is filled to the standard; it does not mean the location ranks first, because distance and competition are not fields.

The ten fields, with the standard for each

Two are decisions rather than text boxes: unanswered reviews and the primary category. They affect the customer more than a description does.

Why these ten, and not fifty

Each item passes one of three tests: a customer uses it to decide, Google uses it to describe the location, or an unanswered item damages trust. Attributes, photo count, questions and posts matter, but they are second-order work.

Most checklists overpromise here. Google's local ranking guidance names relevance, distance and prominence. Filling ten fields improves relevance and gives prominence more to work with. It cannot move the searcher closer.

In the anonymized 23-location demo account, one location shows 70 out of 100 and six of ten items complete. That is a sample, not a target: the missing four appear as four fixes rather than a vague sense that the profile needs work.

Which fields are shared, and which are local

Multi-site teams get into trouble by treating every field the same way. Some should be identical everywhere; some must be local or they are wrong.

A useful rule: if a customer standing outside the door would see something different, the field is local. Parking, access, hours and photos pass that test. The logo does not.

A realistic timeline to a complete profile

Five weeks is realistic for a small estate. It is not a promise for a hundred locations, where photo collection alone can take a quarter.

What not to do with a profile checklist

• Do not treat 100 as a ranking guarantee. It is a completeness score. A competitor two streets closer can still outrank you.
• Do not bulk-edit every field at once. Change one field type across the affected stores, then re-audit. A single mass edit is harder to diagnose when something breaks.
• Do not use one description for every location. Duplicate descriptions are the most visible sign that nobody local reviewed the profile.
• Do not let the checklist become an annual project. Hours and reviews change weekly; the audit is a rhythm, not a launch.
• Do not assign a field to "marketing". Name a person. Shared ownership is how a field stays empty for a year.

The audit template

For each location, record:

1. Store code, name and city.
2. Current score out of 100 and the date it was taken.
3. The missing items, one row each.
4. The owner of each missing item.
5. The fix applied and the date.
6. The re-audit score and date.
7. Any field Google changed independently, with the date.

That table is also the handover document. When a regional manager leaves, the next person inherits what is missing and who was fixing it, instead of a login and a guess.

Checklist before you call a location complete

• Cover photo shows the current exterior and signage.
• Description is at least 250 characters and reads like a sentence.
• Opening date is filled.
• Phone is answered during the hours listed.
• Regular and special hours match the real schedule.
• Website links to the location page, not the homepage.
• Logo is current and not distorted.
• Services are listed and genuinely offered.
• No negative review is unanswered beyond the service window.
• Primary category is the most accurate one, not the busiest.
• The score and the date are recorded for the next audit.

A short list you will actually use

A checklist earns its place by being short enough to finish and specific enough to assign. Ten fields, one score and a named owner per gap will beat a fifty-item document that nobody opens.

If you are still deciding what the profile controls at all, read what a Google Business Profile actually controls first; this checklist assumes that boundary. For a supermarket estate, where holiday hours do most of the damage, the supermarket guide shows the same ten fields under calendar pressure.

The audit is the fastest way to see your own gaps: connect a Google account and the profile score returns a number and a fix list per location. Multi-location management is where the fixes are applied in bulk.

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