Your starting point: a 15-minute local search check

Before you change anything on Google, you need to know where you stand. Otherwise, three months from now, you won’t know what worked.

So in this lesson, we’re going to take a snapshot of your business on Google. Fifteen minutes, free tools, nothing to buy.

You’ll need your phone, a computer if you have one, and page one of the free workbook: the starting-point scorecard.

If you already manage your Google Business Profile, sign in to the Google account you use for it. If you don’t have a profile yet, or you can’t log in, that’s fine. You can still do every step except step four, and you’ll pick that up after Lesson 2.1.

And keep this page safe. In the very last lesson of the course, we’ll do this check again and compare.

Step one: search like a customer. Pick three searches a real customer would type.

One: your main service, plus “near me”. Two: your main service, plus your town, suburb or neighbourhood. And three: something more specific that you’d like more of, like “emergency dentist”, “boiler repair”, or “gel nails”.

Now, two things make this tricky. Google’s results change depending on where you are, and some results are personalised. So do this on your phone and, if you can, from where your customers are, not just from behind your own counter. A private or incognito window keeps your signed-in history out of it. Either way, Google still uses your location, and it tells you which one: scroll to the very bottom of the results page, and you’ll see the location it’s using. Make sure it’s the area you mean.

For each search, write down three things. The businesses in the map results, in order. Whether you’re there, and where. And if you’re not, tap “more places” and count down until you find yourself. If you’re not in the first twenty, just write “not found”. That’s fine. It’s a starting point.

One search is a snapshot, not the whole picture. In Module 5, we’ll check a whole area at once.

Step two: search for your business by name, and look at your profile as if you’d never heard of yourself. There are ten checks on the scorecard. Tick each one that’s right.

One: the name matches your sign, with nothing added. Two: the category under your name is the most specific one for what you are. Three: the address, or the area you serve, is right. Four: today’s hours are right, and so are the hours for your next holiday, whether that’s Thanksgiving, a bank holiday or ANZAC Day. Five: the phone number works. Call it from another phone. Does someone answer? Six: the website button opens the right page, and it works on a phone. Seven: the first photos are real, recent, and show what you actually do. Eight: your star rating. And nine: your number of reviews. Just write them down. And ten: the date of your newest review, and whether you’ve replied to the last five.

Don’t fix anything yet. Write it down. Some changes, especially to your name, address or category, can lead Google to ask you to verify your business again. So we’ll make those changes carefully, in Module 2.

Step three: go back to your main search and open the top three businesses in the map. For each one, note five things: their star rating, their number of reviews, how long ago their newest review was posted, the category shown under their name, and roughly how many photos they have.

You’re not copying anyone. You’re looking for gaps. If they all have three times your reviews, that’s Module 3. If they all use a more specific category than you, and it’s genuinely true for your business too, that’s Module 2. And if they had a review this week and your newest is from last year, you’ve just found one of your quickest wins.

If you’d like a number to aim for, our free review gap calculator works out how many reviews you’d need to catch the business above you. It’s linked on this page.

And while you’re looking: if one of them seems fake, or has keywords stuffed into its name, make a note. In Module 2, I’ll show you how to report it properly, once, with the facts.

Step four is for anyone who can sign in to their profile: your numbers. On a computer, go to business.google.com and click “Performance”. In the Google Maps app, tap “Business”, then “See more” next to Performance.

Choose the longest period it offers, and write down six numbers: calls, messages, bookings if you take them, direction requests, website clicks, and profile views. Then open the list of searches. These are the words people actually typed to find you. Copy the top five onto your scorecard. We’ll use them in the next lesson.

Two quirks, so you don’t panic later. Google counts each person’s profile view only once a day. And the searches list updates at the start of each month, so it won’t move in the middle of the month. That’s normal.

Last step: give your profile a score. Open our free Google Business Profile score, tick the things that are true today, and write the score in the box on your scorecard. It runs in your browser, and nothing you tick is sent to us.

If you’d also like a report on your rating and reviews next to the businesses near you, there’s a free reputation snapshot too. That one asks for your name and email, because it sends the report to your inbox. It’s optional.

So that’s your starting point: three searches, ten profile checks, the top three compared, six numbers, and one score.

Your task is to finish page one of the workbook today, and keep it somewhere you’ll find it again. In the next lesson, we’ll take the searches you’ve collected and choose the handful that matter most to your business.

And if you’d like to see where you show up across your whole area, not just from one spot, our free audit includes a rank map. It’s optional. Everything in this course works without it.