For a local business this listing usually drives more enquiries than the website. Twelve checks, weighted by how much each one actually matters.
For most local businesses the Google Business Profile is the highest-return marketing asset there is, and the majority are half-finished. The factors that move the needle most are choosing the right primary category, collecting reviews steadily rather than in bursts, and replying to every review.
Two things matter more than people expect. The first is recency: a steady trickle of reviews signals an active business far more strongly than a large number of old ones. The second is the primary category, which does more to determine which searches you appear in than any other single setting, and which many businesses set once at signup and never revisit.
Open your profile in another tab and work through them.
Here is exactly what the tool does with your numbers.
Each check carries a weight reflecting roughly how much it influences local visibility and enquiry volume. The weights total 100.
| Check | Weight |
|---|---|
| Claimed and verified | 12 |
| Accurate primary category | 10 |
| Twenty or more reviews | 10 |
| Replying to reviews | 9 |
| Consistent name, address, phone | 8 |
| Ten or more photos | 8 |
| A review in the last 30 days | 8 |
| Posted in the last 30 days | 8 |
| Messaging or booking enabled | 8 |
| Services or products listed | 7 |
| Complete opening hours | 6 |
| Specific business description | 6 |
These weights are our own judgement based on what tends to move local visibility, not figures published by Google. Google does not disclose its local ranking weights. Treat the score as a prioritisation aid rather than a prediction of where you will rank.
Relevance, distance and prominence. You control relevance through your primary category, services and description, and prominence through reviews, activity and the consistency of your details across the web. Distance you cannot change.
Of the things you control, the primary category and a steady flow of reviews carry the most weight for most businesses.
Twenty is a reasonable first target. It is enough for an average rating to look credible and to stop a single bad review dominating. Beyond that, what matters more is that reviews keep arriving.
A business with forty reviews including several from the past month signals active trading far more strongly than one with two hundred that stopped three years ago.
Always, and calmly. Future customers read the reply as much as the complaint, and a measured response that acknowledges the issue and explains what you did often reads better than a wall of five-star reviews.
Never argue, never disclose personal details about the customer, and move the specifics to a private channel. Replying also signals to Google that the profile is actively managed.
Monthly is enough for most small businesses, weekly if you have genuine news. Posts keep the listing active and take up more space in the results panel, which pushes competitors further down.
Consistency beats volume. A short post every month is worth more than a burst of ten followed by silence.
Built by Veris Labs
These calculators are a small, public version of what we do. The Veris Labs suite covers marketing and delivery, and where nothing off the shelf fits, we build it around your business instead.
