A one-time Google Business Profile optimization service that audits the profile, fixes categories, services, attributes, hours and description to Google's own catalogue, uploads photos, publishes a month of posts and reports the before and after on a map grid.
$899 for one Business Profile, paid once. No monthly fee.
What it is
A Google Business Profile optimization service is a one-time project that brings a profile up to what Google asks of it: the right categories, complete and accurate details, photos and posts.
Google's tips to improve local ranking start with the profile itself. Google says businesses with complete and accurate info are more likely to show up in local search results, and that local results are mainly based on relevance, distance, and popularity.
GBPcentral's optimization does that work once, on one profile, in four weeks. It follows Google's guidelines for representing your business: the name reflects the business's real-world name, and the categories are the fewest it takes to describe the core business.
An optimization is not a ranking promise. Google says there's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google. For the same work done every week, see the monthly GBP management packages.
What is included
The GBP optimization includes 9 pieces of work on one profile, done in four weeks and recorded with your order.
Health score, answer-engine audit and a map grid read before any change
The fewest categories from Google's list that describe the core business
Services, attributes, description, hours and service area completed to Google's catalogue
Up to 10 photos from your material prepared and uploaded
4 posts written and published, one a week
Your name, address and phone checked on the main directories, with the list of fixes
Duplicate listings of the business found and reported
A review request link and message set up for you to send
The health score and the map grid read again four weeks after the work starts
Cost
Google Business Profile optimization costs nothing in fees from Google, so the price of the service is the price of the work: $899 for one profile, paid once.
Google says you can add or claim your business at no charge. Its third-party policies require a company that charges a management fee to tell its customers that Business Profile is a service provided at no extra cost, in writing before it manages the profile, and to show the fee on its invoices. GBPcentral says it here, in its Managed Services Agreement, and on the invoice.
The fee is paid when you order, before any work. Every order is reviewed within 2 business days: a declined order, or one you cancel before the start date, is refunded in full. Once work has started, the fee is not refunded.
For a profile that was never set up properly, or has fallen behind Google's catalogue.
$899 For one profile, paid once.
For several profiles, place one order for each.
How it works
The GBP optimization runs in five steps, and nothing on the profile changes until the order is accepted and the start date arrives.
Posts are published under the approval setting you choose when you order: each one waits for your approval, or you approve the way they are written once. Every change made to the profile is reported to you within 48 hours. The full terms are in the Managed Services Agreement.
Google's rules
Google's guidelines for representing a business on Google set the rules an optimized profile follows, and the optimization works to each of them.
Google says your name should reflect your business's real-world name, as used consistently on your storefront, website, stationery, and as known to customers. Unnecessary information in the name could result in a suspension.
Google asks a business to choose the fewest number of categories it takes to describe its overall core business.
Google says businesses with complete and accurate info are more likely to show up in local search results, and asks for the address customers visit, the hours, the category and details such as parking or Wi-Fi.
Google says the business description should give useful information on services and products, and that no links of any type are allowed in it.
Google says there should only be one profile per business. The duplicate listing check finds any other listing of the business.
Google's tips say photos and videos show customers what you offer, and that replying to reviews shows you value their feedback.
Read Google's guidelines for representing your business and its tips to improve your local ranking.
Who it is for
The GBP optimization is for a business with a verified profile that was never set up properly, or that has fallen behind Google's catalogue of categories, services and attributes.
Google says you need to verify your business to edit your business info, so the profile must be verified first. If you want the profile worked every week, the monthly GBP management packages start at $549 per location per month and begin with the same starting audit and profile build-out, paid by their setup fee. The optimization does not commit you to them.
Questions
Google's own tips to improve local ranking start with the profile: verify the business, keep the business information up to date, respond to reviews, and add photos and videos. Google's guidelines add that the name should reflect the business's real-world name, and that a business should choose the fewest categories it takes to describe its core business. The optimization does that work on one profile in four weeks: categories, services, attributes, description, hours, photos and four posts, with a before and after report.
Four weeks from the start date. The starting audit comes first, the categories and profile details are done in the first week, the four posts go out one a week, and the before and after report closes the work four weeks after the start. Every order is reviewed within 2 business days before a start date is set.
The work ends with the before and after report, and GBPcentral removes any access it holds within 7 business days. The profile stays yours. If you want the work kept up, the monthly packages do it every week; the optimization does not commit you to them.
Google charges nothing for a Business Profile: Google says you can add or claim your business at no charge. What costs money is the work. GBPcentral's Google Business Profile optimization service is $899 for one profile, paid once before the work starts, with no monthly fee. If the order is declined, or you cancel before the start date, the payment is refunded in full.
Google says businesses with complete and accurate info are more likely to show up in local search results, and that a profile whose info isn't accurate might not show up for relevant searches in the area. Google also says there's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking. An optimization makes the profile complete and accurate; it cannot promise a position.
Free: do the work yourself in your Business Profile, following Google's guidelines. One-time: the optimization brings one profile up to Google's guidelines and catalogue in four weeks for $899. Monthly: GBPcentral's management packages do the work every week, from $549 per location per month. Software: GBP management software such as GBPcentral starts at $49 per month, for a business that wants to do the work itself with GBPcentral's tools.
No. You stay the owner of the profile and invite GBPcentral as a manager under People and access. Google's third-party policies say all end customers must retain ownership or co-ownership of their Business Profile at all times. GBPcentral never asks for your password, and removes its access within 7 business days of the work ending.
Nobody can promise that. Google says local results are mainly based on relevance, distance, and popularity, and that there's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google. The optimization works on what a business controls: a complete, accurate profile in the right categories, with photos and posts. The before and after report shows the map grid before the work and four weeks after it starts.
Next step
$899, paid once, for one Business Profile: the work done in four weeks and a before and after report. Or run the free audit first and see where the profile stands today.
Paid once. Reviewed before work starts. You stay the owner of your profile.
