Tune Google Business Profile for AI local recommendations
Work the surfaces AI assistants read for local queries: keep name, hours and phone identical everywhere, copy the primary category from the top local pack results, request reviews that name the service, city and result, answer real questions on the profile and site, and earn mentions on other people's pages.
Why this matters
Consistent name, hours and phone, the right primary category and customer-worded reviews get you named.
Before you start
- Google Business Profile verified
- Access to the site's page templates or CMS
- A list of the main directories and citation listings for the business
How to apply it
Make name, hours and phone identical everywhere General best practice
Compare the business name, opening hours and phone number on the Google Business Profile, the site footer, the contact page and the main directory listings. Change each source that differs so all of them match exactly.
Check: The name, hours and phone strings read identically on the profile, the site footer and each main listing page.
Set the primary category from the local pack
Search the main service query plus the city, open the top three local pack results, and note the primary category each one shows. Pick the category that at least two of the three use as the profile's primary category.
Check: The profile's primary category matches the category shown by at least two of the current top three local pack results for the main query.
Ask for reviews that name service, city and result
When requesting a review, ask the customer to mention the service they bought, the city and the outcome. Do not script the wording beyond that.
Check: The newest reviews contain the service term and the city name in the customer's own wording.
Reply to reviews like a human, bad reviews first
Write short, specific replies without repeating service or city keywords, and work through the lowest-rated reviews before the recent positive ones.
Check: Every review rated below four stars has an owner reply that contains no repeated keyword string.
Answer the questions Google already shows
Collect the questions shown on the profile and in the question suggestions for your service queries, then answer each one on the profile Q&A and in a section of the matching site page.
Check: Each collected question appears with an answer either in the profile Q&A or on a live site page.
Put reviews on your site and build service plus city pages
Publish review quotes as HTML text on your own pages, then create one page per service and city combination, built by hand before any templating.
Check: A live URL containing the service and city returns the review text in the HTML source, not only in an image.
Get named on other people's pages
Pitch inclusion in local lists, directories and community threads where your business belongs, so third-party pages mention the name, service and city.
Check: A brand-name search returns at least one third-party list or directory page that names the business and its service.
Track real prompts by hand every week
Choose three to five prompts a customer would actually type, ask them in the assistants weekly, and log the date, the prompt and whether the business was named.
Check: The log holds at least four weekly entries per prompt with a named or not-named result.
This happens outside your codebase
Work through the steps above on the named site or dashboard, then record the result in your agent session. There is no repository edit for this tip.
Source: @vengeonsp on 2026-10-18 · original post · report an error