Google Business Profile management: what it actually involves, month to month

Most advice about Google Business Profiles is about setting one up. Fair enough — that's the first job. But a profile isn't a set-it-and-forget-it asset. It's more like a storefront: set up once, then kept up on a routine. Here's what that routine actually is, so you can decide whether to run it yourself or hand it off.

The weekly work (15–30 minutes)

• Answer reviews — all of them. Thank the good ones with a line that mentions the job ("Glad the shower rebuild worked out"). Answer the bad ones calmly and factually; future customers read your reply more carefully than the complaint.
• Answer questions. The Q&A section is public, and anyone can ask. If you don't answer, sometimes strangers do — wrongly.
• Check your messages if you've turned chat on. Google watches response time, and a profile that ignores messages looks abandoned. If you'll never answer chats, turn the feature off — that's honest; silence isn't.

The monthly work (30–60 minutes)

• Add photos of recent jobs. Fresh photos signal an active business to both Google and homeowners. Before-and-afters from your phone are perfect; stock photos are worse than nothing.
• Post an update. A finished project, a seasonal note ("booking spring drain field inspections now"), a change in service area. Posts expire from view quickly, so one a month keeps the profile visibly alive.
• Check your services and hours are still true. Stopped offering a service? Remove it. Holiday hours coming? Set them. Wrong hours are one of the fastest ways to earn an angry review.
• Glance at the numbers. Google shows calls, direction requests, and what searches found you. Two minutes tells you whether things are trending up or down — and gives you a baseline for judging any marketing you're paying for.

The occasional work

• Suggested edits. Google lets the public — and its own systems — suggest changes to your listing, and some go live without you approving them. Check your info now and then; if your category or hours changed and you didn't do it, that's why.
• Duplicates. A second listing for your business splits your reviews and can get both suspended. If one shows up, deal with it promptly.
• Suspensions. Rare if your profile follows the rules, but they happen. Here's how to handle one — and why prevention (real name, real address handling, one listing) is the actual fix.

Do it yourself, or pay someone?

The honest math: the routine above is a couple of hours a month, and nobody knows your jobs like you do. If you'll actually do it, do it yourself — this post is the whole playbook.

Pay someone when one of these is true: the profile has been ignored so long that reviews sit unanswered and photos are years old; you're in a suspension or duplicate mess you don't want to learn Google support to fix; or the routine simply doesn't happen because you're on jobs all day — which is the most common reason, and there's no shame in it. Whoever you pay, the test is the same one I gave for marketing spend generally: a plain-numbers report — calls, direction requests, what searches found you — and visible activity on the profile. If you can't see the work, it isn't happening.

Where to start

If your profile has been coasting, don't start with the routine — start with a cleanup pass (the checklist is here), then let the weekly and monthly rhythm keep it earning.

Not sure how yours stacks up? The free Visibility Score includes a look at your profile, or book a free call and I'll tell you straight whether yours needs a cleanup, a routine, or nothing at all.