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Free Google Business Profile audit: what Google's AI reads, and how yours scores
Learn the 9 parts Google reads, then check your own listing. Free, no login.
What a Google Business Profile needs in the age of AI answers
When someone asks Google Maps “plumber in Manly who comes out on Sunday”, Google's AI answers from what it knows about each business, and your listing is the part of that you control. Here are the nine parts it reads, and what each one does for you.
Harbour Plumbing
4.7 (38) · “Came out on a Sunday, fixed it fast”
Plumber
Serves Manly, Dee Why, Mosman and nearby
Open · Closes 6 pm · Holiday hours set
02 5550 0000 · harbourplumbing.example
Blocked drains, hot water, gas fitting, leak detection…
Response from the owner · Thanks Sam, glad we could help on a weekend.
- 1
Business name
Exactly what's on your sign. Nothing added.
What Google's AI does with it: Matches you when someone searches your brand. A name stuffed with services or suburbs reads as spam.
Google's rule: Adding services, suburbs or slogans to the name can get the profile suspended.
- 2
Primary category
The single most specific thing you are. "Plumber", not "Contractor".
What Google's AI does with it: Decides which questions you can be an answer to at all. The wrong category makes you invisible for the right searches.
Google's rule: Use as few categories as it takes, and describe the business, not its features.
- 3
Address or service area
A shop shows its street address. A business that travels hides it and lists the suburbs it serves.
What Google's AI does with it: Distance is one of Google's three ranking factors. "Near me" is decided here.
Google's rule: Only show an address customers can walk into, with the pin on the entrance.
- 4
Hours and holiday hours
Regular hours, plus special hours for every public holiday.
What Google's AI does with it: Answers "open now", "open Sunday", "open tonight". Without holiday hours it shows your normal hours and sends people to a locked door.
Google's rule: Missing or wrong hours is one reason Google gives for a profile not showing.
- 5
Phone and website
A local number you answer, and a link to your own website.
What Google's AI does with it: Your website is the second place Google checks. When the site and the profile say the same thing, it can confirm it.
Google's rule: No call-centre, premium-rate or redirecting numbers.
- 6
Photos
At least ten real ones: outside, inside, the team, the work. Two or three new each month.
What Google's AI does with it: People judge the shortlist Google gives them by its photos, and photo activity helps ranking.
Google's rule: No heavy filters and no AI-altered images.
- 7
Reviews and replies
A steady flow, month after month, and a reply to every one.
What Google's AI does with it: Google summarises what reviewers say. "Came out on a Sunday" in a review is how it learns you work weekends.
Google's rule: Never offer anything for a review. Google treats it as fake engagement and can flag the profile publicly.
- 8
Description and services
What you do, for whom and where, in plain sentences. Every service listed on its own.
What Google's AI does with it: Your own words. This is where "gas fitting" or "leak detection" becomes something Google can match to a question.
Google's rule: No links, prices or "50% off" in the description; up to 750 characters.
- 9
Attributes
The yes/no facts: wheelchair access, card payments, parking, free quotes.
What Google's AI does with it: The most direct answers you can give. A search for a "wheelchair-accessible café" only finds cafés that answered that box.
Google's rule: Answer honestly. Changes can take up to 30 days to show.
Three things customers never see, but that can cost you the listing
None of these show on the profile. All of them decide whether you keep it.
- VerifiedUnverified profiles rank lower, can't reply to reviews and can't see their own data.
- Owned by the businessIf a staff member's Gmail or your agency is the primary owner, they hold your listing.
- Only one listingDuplicates split your reviews and can get both suspended.
New in Google Maps
Ask Maps: Google's AI inside Google Maps
People now ask Google Maps whole questions, like “plumber in Manly open on Sunday”, and its AI answers with a short list of places and why. It works from what Google knows about each place, so a detail that isn't written down anywhere can't count for you.
What Google has said
Nov 2025
Google switched off its Q&A API for business profiles on 3 November 2025, saying it was updating how Q&A works.
Mar 2026
Google launched Ask Maps on 12 March 2026 in the US and India. It says Ask Maps draws on Maps' information about more than 300 million places, including reviews.
Aug 2026
In August 2026 Google began rolling it out to more than 150 countries and territories, in English.
Still unknown
Google hasn't published how Ask Maps picks businesses. If personalised recommendations are on, each person's answers can reflect their own searches, saved places and past Ask Maps chats.
Last checked 5 October 2026.
What we saw: When we asked Ask Maps for a marketing agency in Dhaka, it described one by its office size and the name of its own method. It could only repeat those details because someone had written them down: on the profile, the website or in reviews.
What it can draw on
Your profile
Name, category, address, hours, description, services, attributes
123489Reviews
In your customers' own words
7Photos
Of the place and the work
6Your website
The same facts, in more depth
5Other sites
Anywhere else that mentions you
Google names place information and reviews. The rest is our reading, not a list Google has published, though Google does say it builds profiles partly from the web, including your own website.
Do
- Write concrete, checkable facts in your description: what you do, for whom, where, and since when.
- List every service, and answer every attribute that's true.
- Say the same things on your website: a page for each service, and an FAQ with the questions customers really ask.
- Keep your hours right, including holiday hours. Questions like "open on Sunday?" are answered from them.
- Ask every customer for an honest review, and reply to each one. Ask Maps reads what customers say in their own words.
Don't
- Don't ask customers to put keywords in their reviews. Google doesn't allow asking for reviews with specific content. Google's rule
- Don't pay anyone to "get you into Ask Maps". There is nothing to submit: Google reads the profile itself.
Check your listing and we'll write three questions for your business to try in Ask Maps.
What not to do
What gets a Google Business Profile suspended
Google suspends listings and blocks reviews every day, often for things the owner didn't know were against the rules. Red is the wrong way, green is the right way. Tap “Why” to see the reason and its source.
Last checked 5 October 2026. Google changes these rules; the links go to the current version.
Gets the listing suspended
What Google does: Google can suspend or disable the profile. You can lose control of it, and it can disappear from Search and Maps until an appeal gets it reinstated. How Google enforces it (opens in a new tab)
- Google's rule
Adding keywords, suburbs or slogans to the business name
Wrong: Harbour Plumbing | Best Emergency Plumber Manly 24/7
Right: Harbour Plumbing
Why: Google's rule
The name must be the one on your sign, website and stationery. Google says extra words in the name can get the profile suspended. Google's policy (opens in a new tab)
Instead: Use the name on your sign. Services go in Services, the area in the address or service area.
- Google's rule
Using an address you don't work from: a virtual office, a P.O. box, or a coworking desk with no sign and no staff
Wrong: Suite 1204, Virtual Office Tower (a mailbox)
Right: Your real shopfront, or a service area
Why: Google's rule
P.O. boxes, remote mailboxes and virtual offices aren't accepted. A coworking office only counts if it has your sign, receives customers during your hours and has your own staff there during those hours. Google's policy (opens in a new tab)
Instead: Use the place you really serve customers from, or hide the address and set a service area.
- Google's rule
Showing your home address when customers don't come to you
Wrong: 12 Smith St, Dee Why (my house)
Right: Serves Manly, Dee Why and Mosman
Why: Google's rule
A business that goes to its customers should hide its address and show a service area instead. Google's policy (opens in a new tab)
Instead: Clear the address and list the areas you serve, within about two hours' drive.
- Google's rule
Making a second listing for the same place
Wrong: Harbour Plumbing twice, same address
Right: One listing per location
Why: Google's rule
Google allows one profile per location. Departments can have their own, each with a distinct name and category, and so can public-facing practitioners such as doctors and lawyers. Google's policy (opens in a new tab)
Instead: Keep one listing. Ask Google to merge or remove the extra one.
- Google's rule
Listing a business that doesn't operate there, or listing to collect leads for others
Wrong: Manly Plumbing Quotes (we pass leads on)
Right: A business that meets its own customers in person
Why: Google's rule
Lead-generation companies, and businesses that don't meet customers in person during their hours, aren't eligible for a profile. Google's policy (opens in a new tab)
Instead: List only a business that meets customers in person during its hours, at that address or in its area.
Gets your reviews removed or blocked
What Google does: Google removes the reviews that break its rules. For fake, paid or incentivised reviews it can also block new reviews or hide existing ones for a set time, and show customers a warning that fake reviews were removed. How Google enforces it (opens in a new tab)
- Google's rule
Giving anything for a review: a discount, a gift, a free item, cashback or a prize draw
Wrong: 10% off your next job for a 5-star review
Right: How did we do? Leave us a Google review.
Why: Google's rule
Google bans any incentive for posting, changing or removing a review, even for an honest one. Google's policy (opens in a new tab)
Instead: Ask every customer the same way, with nothing attached.
- Google's rule
Asking only the customers you think are happy
Wrong: Review link sent only to happy customers
Right: The same review link to every customer
Why: Google's rule
Google's policy bars businesses that "selectively solicit positive reviews from customers". Google's policy (opens in a new tab)
Instead: Send the same request to every customer, happy or not, and reply calmly to the bad ones.
- Google's rule
Reviews from staff, family or yourself, or swapped with other businesses
Wrong: 5 stars, "Best boss ever" (our receptionist)
Right: Reviews only from real customers
Why: Google's rule
Reviews with a conflict of interest aren't allowed: from employees, relatives, business partners or competitors. Google's policy (opens in a new tab)
Instead: Only customers review you. Staff can hand out the review link, never write the review.
- Google's rule
Telling customers what to write, setting staff review targets, or pressing people to review on the spot
Wrong: Please mention "best plumber in Manly"
Right: Tell us how it went, in your own words
Why: Google's rule
Google doesn't allow asking for reviews with specific content, like keywords or a staff member's name, review quotas for staff, or pressure to review while at the business. Google's policy (opens in a new tab)
Instead: Ask for an honest review in their own words, and let them write it later.
Puts the profile or account at risk
What Google does: Google can reject edits, such as big changes to the name or category, or restrict the whole account, which suspends every profile in it. A careless handover can lose you the listing. How Google enforces it (opens in a new tab)
- Google's rule
Turning an old listing into a new business by renaming it
Wrong: Old Corner Café renamed New Bakery
Right: Close the old listing, open a new one
Why: Google's rule
A new business at an old location should mark the old profile permanently closed. Google may reject big changes to a business's name or category. Google's policy (opens in a new tab)
Instead: Mark the old listing closed and create a new one for the new business.
- Experts have seen
Making lots of edits to the name, address or category in a short time
Wrong: Name, address and category changed in one day
Right: One important change at a time
Why: what experts see
Local SEO experts list bursts of edits to these fields among the most common triggers for a suspension. Source (opens in a new tab)
Instead: Change one important detail at a time, a day or more apart.
- Google's rule
Letting an agency own the profile instead of the business
Wrong: Primary owner: your agency
Right: Owner: you. Agency: Manager
Why: Google's rule
Google says the business must keep ownership. An agency has to hand back control within 7 business days when asked. Google's policy (opens in a new tab)
Instead: Make a business email the primary owner. Give your agency Manager access.
- Google's rule
Giving a verification code to someone who says they're from Google
Wrong: Hi, it's Google. Read me the code we sent.
Right: Google never asks for your code
Why: Google's rule
Google never asks for a code or PIN, and never charges to verify or reinstate a profile. Google's policy (opens in a new tab)
Instead: Never share a code. Hang up and check the profile yourself.
Already suspended?
- Don't create a new listing while you wait. Google treats it as a duplicate.
- Fix what caused it first, using the list above.
- Gather proof with the same name and address as the listing: a business registration or licence, a recent utility bill, and photos of your sign.
- If your whole Google account is restricted, appeal the account first, then appeal the profile once that restriction is lifted.
- Appeal in Google's Business Profile appeals tool. After you submit, you can add your proof; once you open the evidence form, upload it within 60 minutes. Google says a decision can take up to 5 business days.
Fake and paid-for reviews can also break the law, not just Google's rules: for example in the US (FTC rule, from October 2024) (opens in a new tab) and the UK (from April 2025) (opens in a new tab).
See how your listing measures up
Type your business name and suburb. We read what Google shows, ask a few quick questions for the rest, and score all nine parts. Free, no login.
- 1Find your listing
- 2See your score
- 3Get the full report
Questions
What do you check?
The nine parts of your listing that Google's AI reads, plus three things customers never see that decide whether you keep it. We read what we can straight from Google. Google doesn't share everything, so we ask up to four quick questions when we find your listing (twelve if you check by hand), plus one about Ask Maps, all optional. Every detail behind the nine parts is on the full checklist page.
Is it free?
Yes. It's a free Google Business Profile audit (the old Google My Business, or GMB, audit): no account, no card. If you want the full report, we email it to you.
Do you look up my listing?
Yes, from Google itself: we search Google Maps for the name and suburb you give us, and you pick your listing. Nothing is shared with anyone else. No Google listing yet? Answer a few questions by hand instead.
What is Ask Maps?
Google's AI assistant inside Google Maps. It launched in the US and India in March 2026 and began rolling out to more than 150 countries and territories, in English, in August 2026. It answers questions like "emergency plumber open on Sunday near Manly" with a short list. Google hasn't said how it picks. It says Ask Maps draws on information about more than 300 million places, including reviews, and personalises results for each person. The check shows what your profile lets it confirm, and gives you three questions to try it yourself.
What gets a Google Business Profile suspended?
Common causes: keywords added to the business name, an address the business doesn't really work from (a virtual office or P.O. box), a second listing for the same place, and fake or paid-for reviews. Fake, paid or incentivised reviews can also get new reviews paused and a public warning on the profile. The "What not to do" section lists the common ones, each linked to Google's own rule.