# The 25-Point Local Visibility Checklist

ITS DAD LLC — itsdad.io
The first pass I run on a Google Business Profile before I quote any work.

How to use it: work top to bottom. Each point has a "good looks like" line.
Mark a point done only when the "good looks like" is true, not when you have
looked at it. Nothing here is a trick — it is the list of things that have to
be true before anything clever is worth trying.

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## A. Ownership and integrity (1–5)

1. **You own the profile.**
   Good looks like: you can sign in and edit it yourself, not through an
   agency's account or a former employee's personal Gmail.

2. **No duplicate listings.**
   Good looks like: searching your business name, phone number and address on
   Google Maps returns exactly one listing. Duplicates split your reviews and
   your ranking — request removal of the extras.

3. **The listing is not suspended or soft-suspended.**
   Good looks like: the profile appears in a Maps search from a device that
   isn't signed into your account. If it only shows when you're signed in,
   it isn't live.

4. **Name field is your real business name.**
   Good looks like: exactly what is on your signage and paperwork. No stuffed
   keywords, no city bolted on. Keyword stuffing here is the most common cause
   of a suspension.

5. **Address / service area matches how you actually work.**
   Good looks like: a storefront shows its address; a business that travels to
   customers hides the address and lists the areas it genuinely works in — only
   the ones it genuinely works in.

## B. Categories and services (6–9)

6. **Primary category names what you do.**
   Good looks like: the single category a customer would use to describe you.
   This field decides which searches you are even eligible for.

7. **Secondary categories cover the rest — and nothing more.**
   Good looks like: two to five extra categories that each describe real
   revenue. Padding with unrelated categories dilutes relevance.

8. **Every service is listed with a real description.**
   Good looks like: each service you sell is in the services list with two or
   three sentences in plain language, not a one-word label.

9. **Attributes are filled in.**
   Good looks like: payment types, accessibility, appointment requirements,
   and any identity attributes you want shown are all set rather than blank.

## C. Contact and hours (10–13)

10. **Phone number is the one a human answers.**
    Good looks like: a number that rings during your stated hours, not a
    tracking number that has since been disconnected.

11. **Website link goes to a relevant page.**
    Good looks like: the homepage or the matching service page — not a dead
    link, not a link with a broken tracking parameter.

12. **Hours are correct, including holidays.**
    Good looks like: special hours set for upcoming holidays. Wrong hours are
    the single fastest way to earn a one-star review.

13. **Booking or quote path is one tap.**
    Good looks like: a booking link, quote form or call button that works on a
    phone, tested on a phone.

## D. Media (14–17)

14. **Logo and cover are set and current.**
    Good looks like: a square logo that reads at thumbnail size and a cover
    photo showing the actual business.

15. **At least ten real interior/exterior/team/work photos.**
    Good looks like: shot on a phone, in daylight, of your real premises,
    vehicles, team and finished work. Stock photography reads as fake.

16. **Photos are added on a schedule, not once.**
    Good looks like: a handful of new photos every month. A profile that stops
    posting media looks dormant.

17. **A short video exists.**
    Good looks like: 15–30 seconds of the real place or real work. Optional,
    but almost nobody in a local category does it.

## E. Reviews (18–21)

18. **You have a review link you can send in one tap.**
    Good looks like: the short review URL from your profile, saved into your
    phone's text shortcuts.

19. **There is a defined moment when you ask.**
    Good looks like: a named point in your job — invoice sent, job walked,
    keys handed over — where the ask happens every time, not when you remember.

20. **Every review is replied to.**
    Good looks like: a reply on all of them, positive included, in your own
    voice. Replies are public and future customers read them.

21. **Negative reviews get a calm, factual, public reply.**
    Good looks like: acknowledge, state the fact, offer the fix offline.
    Never argue, never mention private customer details.

## F. Ongoing signals (22–25)

22. **Posts go up regularly.**
    Good looks like: something posted at least twice a month — an offer, an
    update, a finished job. Posts expire; a profile with none looks abandoned.

23. **Q&A is seeded and monitored.**
    Good looks like: the five questions you get asked on the phone every week
    are already asked and answered on the profile, by you.

24. **Name, address and phone match everywhere else.**
    Good looks like: your site, your invoices and the main directories all
    show identical details, character for character.

25. **You measure, monthly.**
    Good looks like: a saved note each month of profile calls, direction
    requests, website clicks and searches you appeared for. Without a baseline
    you can't tell improvement from weather.

---

## What to do with a failing point

Fix in order: anything in section A first (integrity beats optimisation),
then categories, then reviews, then media, then posts. A profile with a
duplicate listing and perfect photos still loses to a clean profile.

If you'd rather not run this yourself, I do it as a service:
https://itsdad.io/google-business-profile-optimization

— Brooks, ITS DAD LLC