If you run a plumbing, HVAC or dental office in Medford or anywhere in South Jersey, your Google Business Profile is probably the page people see before your website. This Google Business Profile audit checklist gives you 12 fields to check, each with a plain pass or fail test. Do it in one sitting this fall, before January 2027 budget talks start. Then you can decide what to fix from facts, not a hunch. It is part of our wider guide to local SEO for home service businesses. One caution up front: no field below comes with a ranking promise, and we will not make one.
Before you start: set up a 30-minute audit
You need three things open: your profile while signed in as an owner, your website's footer and contact page, and a blank sheet with 12 rows. Add a column for "what Google shows," "what we want," and "pass or fail."
Then view your profile the way a customer does. Search your business name in Google Maps on your phone, not logged in to your business account. What you see there is what counts. Staff often audit the edit screen and miss what the public sees.
Write down the date you audit. When you change something later, log the change and the date in the same sheet. Without that log, you cannot tell which edit mattered when something moves. Our SEO and content work starts with a baseline like this, because everything after it is guesswork without one.
Google's own Google Business Profile Help guidelines are the rulebook for fields 1 to 7. Keep that page open as you go.
Fields 1 to 4: name, address, phone and website
These four fields tell Google and customers who you are and how to reach you. They are the most common source of quiet errors, because they get typed once and then drift across the web.
1. Business name
Google says your name should reflect the real-world name used on your signage, website and stationery. It also says unnecessary information in the name is not permitted and could lead to a suspended profile.
Pass: the name matches your truck lettering, invoices and website header exactly. Fail: it carries a town, a service or a phone number you added to catch searches, such as "Smith Plumbing Medford NJ 24 Hour Drain Cleaning" when the van says "Smith Plumbing."
2. Address
The same guidelines say P.O. boxes and mailboxes at remote locations are not acceptable, and a rented virtual office is not eligible for a profile. Address lines should hold location details, not keywords.
Pass: either the address is a real place where you work and meet customers, or the address is hidden and you list only a service area (see field 5). Fail: a UPS Store box, a suite number that does not exist, or a home address you do not want the public to see.
3. Phone number (the "NAP" check)
NAP means name, address, phone. The test is consistency: the three should read the same everywhere a customer might find you. Check your website footer, contact page, Facebook page, Apple Maps listing, Yelp and any directory you remember signing up for.
Pass: one primary number, formatted the same way, on the profile and the website. If you use a call-tracking number, the number customers see first is the one on file everywhere and the tracking number sits as an additional number. Fail: an old office line on one site, a cell number on another, or a number that rings to nobody after 5 p.m.
Make one real test call from a phone you do not use for work. Time how long it takes a human or a working voicemail to pick up. A number that reads correctly but goes unanswered is a fail for the business even if it passes for the sheet.
4. Website link
Click it from the profile on a phone. Pass: it loads in a few seconds on mobile and lands on the page that matches the profile, usually the homepage for a one-location business or the location page for a multi-location one. Fail: a redirect chain, an old domain, an "http" address that throws a browser warning, or a landing page that does not mention the town.
Fields 5 to 8: service area, categories and services
This group tells Google what you do and where. Overstatement here is the usual problem: too many towns, too many categories, too many services you do not really sell.
5. Service area
Google's Google Business Profile Help page on service areas sets several limits. You can list up to 20 service areas. You cannot define the area as a radius. The overall boundary should stay within about two hours of driving time from where you are based. It also says that if you do not serve customers at your address, you should remove the address and enter only the service area.
Pass: every listed town or ZIP code is one your dispatcher would send a truck to today, at the price you quote. Fail: a list built from every town within a "feels close" distance, including ones where you decline jobs. For a Medford-based shop, the two-hour limit reaches well past Philadelphia and most of the Shore, so your real dispatch map is the tighter limit. Use that.
6. Primary category
This is the single most important label on the profile. Google's guidelines say to choose categories as specific as possible while staying representative of your main business.
Pass: the primary category names the work that earns most of your revenue. Look at last year's invoices, not at the work you wish you did. Fail: a broad label such as "Contractor" when your revenue is mostly water heaters, or a category chosen because it sounds like what people search.
7. Secondary categories
Google's basic guideline is to use the fewest categories needed to describe your core business. It adds that categories should not be used as keywords or to describe attributes.
Pass: each secondary category is a separate line of work you staff, price and schedule. A dental office might list a distinct specialty it truly offers. An HVAC company might list a second trade it runs a crew for. Fail: a category you added once as an experiment, or one for a service you subcontract and do not control.
8. Services list
The services section of the profile is where you name the individual jobs. We cannot point you to a Google rule on exact wording, so this test comes from our own reading of how customers search and call, not from a Google requirement.
Pass: each listed service uses the words a customer uses on the phone ("water heater replacement," "emergency AC repair"), has a one-line description, and matches a page on your website. Fail: internal jargon, services you no longer offer, or a list that does not match your price sheet or booking options.
If your jobs and call outcomes live in a CRM, export the last 12 months of job types and sort by count. That list is a better services list than a brainstorm. It is also the kind of data we connect in the home service CRM work we do, where calls, estimates and invoices sit in one record.
Fields 9 to 12: hours, photos, questions and duplicates
The last group covers proof and housekeeping. These are the fields people check before they call.
9. Hours, including holiday and special hours
Google lets you set main hours, special hours for holidays or other temporary periods, and separate hours for different features. Pass: hours match what happens in real life, including your after-hours emergency line if you have one, and the Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and New Year's Day entries are set before the dates arrive. Fail: listed as open when the phone goes to voicemail, or no special hours set for the holidays about to hit.
10. Photos and video
Google's Google Business Profile Help page on business photos lists the technical limits. Files should be JPG or PNG, between 10 KB and 5 MB, with a recommended size of 720 by 720 pixels. The minimum is 250 by 250. Photos should be in focus and well lit, with no significant alterations or excessive filters or AI. It suggests at least three exterior photos, and for work, at least three photos representing the services you offer. Photos only show if the business is verified.
Pass: at least three recent photos of your building or vehicles, at least three of your crew doing real jobs, and nothing older than your current branding. Fail: a stock photo, a logo as the only image, a photo of a van with the old name, or a photo showing a customer's house number or face without permission. Check the public view for photos customers uploaded, too.
11. Questions and answers
This field has changed, and we do not want to guess. Google for Developers says the My Business Q&A API was discontinued on November 3, 2025, after Google said it was updating the Q&A functionality. That affects software that read or posted questions. We have not confirmed how the questions area appears on every profile as of October 9, 2026, so check your own.
Pass: either the questions area on your profile shows no wrong or unanswered items, or it does not appear for you and your website's FAQ answers the five questions your office gets asked most. Fail: a visible question with a wrong answer from a stranger, such as a price or a service you do not offer. Keep a written list of those five questions from your front desk or dispatcher. It will feed your service pages either way.
12. Duplicates and who has access
The guidelines say not to create more than one page for each location, in one account or several. Individual practitioners, such as dentists, may have their own pages under separate rules. Pass: a search for your business name and old name shows one profile per location, and your account's owner list contains only current staff and one agency you chose. Fail: an old profile from a prior address, a former employee or past web vendor holding owner access, or a doctor's page nobody on staff has seen.
Score it and decide what to fix first
Count the fails. A short table keeps the sheet honest:
| Field | Pass test in one line |
|---|---|
| 1. Name | Matches signage and invoices, nothing added |
| 2. Address | Real location, or hidden with a service area |
| 3. Phone | Same primary number everywhere, answered |
| 4. Website | Loads fast on mobile, lands on the right page |
| 5. Service area | Only towns you dispatch to today |
| 6. Primary category | Matches the work that earns most revenue |
| 7. Secondary categories | Each is a staffed, priced line of work |
| 8. Services | Customer wording, one line each, matches site |
| 9. Hours | True hours, holiday hours set ahead |
| 10. Photos | Recent, real, at least three of each type |
| 11. Q&A | Nothing wrong visible, FAQ on the website |
| 12. Duplicates and access | One profile per location, current owners only |
Fix in this order. First, fields that make the profile wrong for customers: phone, hours, address. Second, name and categories, because Google's guidelines tie name violations to suspension risk. Change those one at a time and log each change with its date. Third, services, photos and service area, which are slower and need input from the people who do the work.
What this audit cannot tell you
A pass on all 12 fields does not mean more calls. Competitors, review counts, the distance between the searcher and your office, and how Google weighs each factor are outside this sheet, and we do not know how they will interact for your business in 2027. What the audit does is remove avoidable errors and give you a dated baseline.
It also does not check whether calls from the profile become booked jobs. For that you need to know where each caller came from and what happened next, which is an attribution question rather than a profile question. That is the work our digital marketing team does when connecting search, call and CRM data. If you are not sure the profile is worth more budget next year, run the audit first and compare call counts before and after, using the same method each month.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should a Google Business Profile audit checklist include?
At minimum: business name, address, phone, website link, service area, primary category, secondary categories, services, hours, photos, questions and answers, and duplicate or access checks. Give each field a pass or fail test against a real source, such as your signage, invoices and dispatch map. Record the audit date so later changes can be compared against a baseline.
How often should I audit my Google Business Profile?
Once a year is a reasonable minimum, with a quick check whenever you change your phone number, hours, address, services or staff. We chose the year-end window because budget decisions for January 2027 are often made in the months before it. That timing is our suggestion, not a Google requirement.
How many service areas can a Google Business Profile have?
According to Google Business Profile Help, you can set up to 20 service areas, defined by cities, postal codes or other areas rather than a radius. The overall boundary should stay within about two hours of driving time from your base. Only list places you actually serve.
Should I use many categories on my Google Business Profile?
No. Google's guidelines say to use the fewest categories that describe your core business, and not to use categories as keywords. Choose one primary category that matches your main revenue, then add a secondary one only where you run a distinct line of work.
Next step
If you want a second set of eyes on your 12 fields, we can run this audit with you and set up call and lead tracking so you can see what the profile produces. We work with South Jersey and Philadelphia metro businesses, and with clients nationwide. Send us your sheet and we will tell you which fails to fix first.
Sources
Every outside claim in this article links to where it came from. These open in a new tab.
- My Business Q&A API was discontinued on November 3, 2025developers.google.com