Free Google Business Profile audit checklist (no signup)

There is no shortage of "GBP audit" content that turns out to be a four-step list and a contact form. This is not that. Below are the eighteen checks we actually run on every business that comes through our funnel. You can work through them by hand in about forty minutes.

We've grouped them into three sections: profile completeness, visual content, and engagement signals. Each check explains what it is, how to verify it on your own listing, and how to fix it if it's broken.

Section one — Profile completeness

• 1. Primary category is the most specific accurate option Open your GBP dashboard, look at your primary category. If it's a generic parent like "Restaurant" instead of "Mexican restaurant" or "Cocktail bar," that is a fix. Specificity is one of the top three relevance signals.
• 2. All nine secondary category slots are used Google lets you add up to nine additional categories. Each one unlocks new query eligibility. Add every accurate adjacent category — bar, cafe, takeout, delivery, breakfast restaurant, brunch restaurant.
• 3. Business name matches your real-world signage Do not add keywords or city names to your business name field. Google has been issuing manual suspensions for this for two years. The name on your profile must match the name on your storefront and your business filings.
• 4. Address uses the same format as your storefront and other listings Match exactly across Google, Yelp, TripAdvisor, Foursquare, and Apple Maps. We cover this in detail in our NAP consistency guide.
• 5. One phone number, consistent everywhere Use your primary line on every directory. If you need call tracking, pick a provider that forwards transparently rather than displaying a separate tracking number on each listing.
• 6. Hours are accurate and include holiday hours A profile that says "Open" when the door is locked generates one-star reviews. Set holiday hours four weeks in advance. Use special hours for events, soft openings, and weather closures.
• 7. Website link goes to a relevant landing page, not the homepage by default If you run delivery, the website link should point to your delivery page. If you're a venue, link to your reservations page. The default homepage works but a more specific landing page converts substantially better.
• 8. Description fills the first 150 characters with cuisine, neighborhood, and one differentiator Only the first 150 characters appear above the fold on mobile. Use them deliberately. We cover the formula in our description guide.
• 9. All attributes filled in (outdoor seating, takeout, wheelchair accessible, etc) Attributes appear as filter chips in Maps. Restaurants searching for "outdoor seating" only see businesses that have checked that attribute. Every accurate one you leave unchecked is a query you cannot win.
• 10. Services and menu items added For restaurants, add your menu directly to your GBP via the Menu section. For service businesses, list services. Both feed Google's understanding of what you do and what queries you should appear for.

Section two — Visual content

• 11. At least 30 photos, distributed across categories Profile photo, logo, exterior, interior, food, team. Listings with 30+ photos consistently outperform listings with fewer. Our photo guide covers the count and category breakdown in detail.
• 12. A new photo uploaded in the last 30 days Photo recency is a freshness signal. A profile that hasn't received a photo in six months is read as stale. Set a recurring reminder to upload one new photo per week minimum.
• 13. Photos sized 1200x900 (4:3) or 1080x1080 (1:1), under 1 MB each The right size and weight. Smaller compresses badly. Larger loads slow and gets de-prioritized in the carousel.
• 14. No customer-uploaded photos dominating the cover Customer photos are great for trust but you don't get to choose which ones lead. Upload enough of your own that yours stay on top. Customer photos tend to lead with whatever has the most thumbs-up, which is often the least flattering shot.

Section three — Engagement signals

• 15. A new review in the last 14 days Recency matters more than total count. A profile with 60 reviews and one this week beats a profile with 400 reviews and none in three months for local-pack rankings.
• 16. Every review responded to within 7 days Owner responses are a confirmed ranking factor. Respond to positive reviews briefly (two sentences max), and respond to negative reviews carefully (acknowledge, apologize without admitting fault, offer to take it offline). Reviews left without response signal an absent owner.
• 17. A GBP Post published in the last 7 days Posts appear in the carousel below your profile. They expire after seven days for most categories. A continuously posting profile is read as actively operating. Quick posts about specials, events, or seasonal menu items take five minutes and pay back over a month.
• 18. Q&A section seeded with at least 3 owner-answered questions Most owners don't know they can post and answer their own questions. You can. Pre-seeding the Q&A with the three questions you get asked most often (parking, reservations, dietary options) saves your team time and feeds Google additional context about your business.

If you can honestly check all eighteen, you are in the top two percent of Google Business Profiles in any major US metro. We are not exaggerating that number.

How to use this list

Print it. Walk through it once with your manager. Anything that fails gets fixed this week. Set a calendar reminder to revisit the checklist quarterly because items 6, 12, 15, and 17 will drift if you don't.

If you'd rather not do it by hand, our free audit runs all eighteen checks plus twenty-three more — Core Web Vitals, schema markup, AI Overview citability, accessibility, and competitor positioning — in about ninety seconds.