Local business websites: what Google documents about business profiles and local results

A pub, a clinic, a salon or a plumber usually wants one thing from search: to be found by people nearby. Three separate things get blamed or credited for that. One is the Business Profile on Google. Another is the website. The third is the way Google decides which businesses to list. This article sets out what Google’s own pages say about each. Attributions are to pages we read for this article; our own readings are labelled.

Three different things that get called local SEO

Google’s pages describe three separate objects. The first is the Business Profile, the listing a business manages in Google’s own tools, which feeds Search and Maps. The second is your website, which Google crawls like any other, and where you can add LocalBusiness structured data. The third is the ranking system that picks which businesses to show for a search.

The structured data page does not mention Business Profiles at all. Our reading, not Google’s wording: markup on your site and the details in your profile are two places where the same facts should agree.

How Google says local results are chosen

Google’s help page on improving your local ranking says local results are mainly based on three factors, which together help Google find the best match for a search:

• Relevance is how well a Business Profile matches what someone is searching for. Google says complete and detailed business information helps it match you to relevant searches.
• Distance is how far each business is from the person searching. If the person does not share where they are, Google says it uses what it knows about their location.
• Prominence is how well known a business is. Google says this is also based on information such as how many websites link to the business and how many reviews it has, and that more reviews and positive ratings can help.

The page is plain about the limit on all this: There’s no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google. It adds that Google keeps the algorithm details confidential. The page gives no weights.

Our reading: distance is the one factor a business cannot change without moving, so a closer competitor may be shown first whatever you do.

What the Business Profile guidelines require

Google’s guidelines for representing your business are rules about accuracy, and breaking them can lead to a suspended profile. The ones most relevant to a small business are these:

• Name. Use the business name as it is consistently represented in the real world, on signage, stationery, your website and with customers. Google says not to add marketing taglines, opening hours, phone numbers, web addresses, or service and location information to the name.
• One profile. There should only be one profile per business, because duplicates can cause problems with how information displays.
• Address. Use a precise, accurate address. Post office boxes and remote mailboxes are not acceptable, and a rented mailing address where the business does not operate (a virtual office) is not eligible.
• Service-area businesses. A business that travels to customers is allowed one service-area profile, and Google says such a business should hide its address from customers. Its example is a plumber running the business from a home address.
• Phone and website. Give a phone number or website that represents the individual location, and a local number rather than a call-centre line where possible.
• Categories. Choose the fewest categories it takes to describe the core business.

The business description may not contain links or focus on promotions or prices. Google’s page on adding or claiming a profile says you can do it at no charge, and the verification page says Google decides which verification methods you are offered and they cannot be changed. The options include phone or text, email and a live video call, depending on the business. The tips page explains why verification matters: it tells Google you are authorised to represent the business, which Google says makes it more likely to show up.

What LocalBusiness structured data does on the website

Google’s LocalBusiness documentation (last updated 8 September 2026 when we read it) says Search results may show a knowledge panel with details about a business that matched a query, and a carousel of businesses for searches about a type of business (the page notes the restaurant carousel is limited to a small set of providers). With the markup you can tell Google about business hours, departments within a business, and more.

The requirements are short. Only two properties are required: name and address, with the address given as a postal address with as many of its parts as possible. The recommended properties include opening hours, telephone, a working URL for the location, geographic coordinates, and a price range, which Google ignores if it is 100 characters or longer. Telephone numbers should include the country code and area code. Google says to use the most specific sub-type available, such as Restaurant, DaySpa or HealthClub.

Opening hours get detailed treatment, including hours past midnight and seasonal closures with start and end dates. Add them only if you will keep them true. Google’s general rules apply as well. The page warns that breaking the guidelines can lead to a manual action, and that Google does not guarantee features that use structured data will appear. Our article on what structured data does and does not promise covers those general rules.

Google says LocalBusiness markup can go on any page, though a page with information about the business makes more sense.

The website still has to be found and understood

The page you mark up has to be crawlable and not blocked, and Google recommends testing with the Rich Results Test and the URL Inspection tool. A local site also needs a clear route to each location or service page. We cover orphan pages and internal links and how URLs and links reflect site structure separately. A sitemap helps Google find pages, and, if your site builds its pages in the browser, titles, canonicals and status codes need checking too.

Common traps with local details

• Different facts in different places. A name or phone number that differs between the profile, the site and the markup gives Google conflicting signals. Google’s pages we read do not say how it resolves conflicts.
• Extra words in the business name. Unnecessary information could lead to suspension.
• Hours that are out of date. The tips page says businesses with complete and accurate information are more likely to show up, and that inaccurate information might stop a profile appearing for relevant searches.
• Expecting markup to move the ranking. The ranking page names relevance, distance and prominence. It does not list structured data.

Where this fits at Cultured Digital: the website side of local details

Cultured Digital is a technical SEO consultancy, and structured data is part of that work: schema design and validation, entity understanding and machine-readable site information. Our structured data and entities guide covers the scope, and our Technical SEO service covers crawling, indexing and architecture. The facts we hold about our own services do not describe managing Business Profiles, so we make no claim about that side. If you want to check your own details step by step, our Learn guide on checking your local business details across Google and your website walks through it.