Most owners set up their Google Business Profile once, verify it, and never open it again. The profile keeps showing up, so it feels finished. It isn't. A profile that hasn't changed in a year looks the same to a customer as a business that closed and nobody told Google.
What does Google mean by an "active" profile?
An active profile is one where the facts are current and something new appears on a regular rhythm: hours, photos, replies to reviews, the occasional post. Google doesn't publish a score for this. What it does publish is that the profile's information should be complete and kept up to date. In practice, "active" means a stranger can tell, in five seconds, that someone is minding the store.
Does posting on Google actually help you rank?
Posts are not a proven ranking factor, and anyone who tells you three posts a week will lift you to the top is guessing. What posts do is give the person already looking at your profile a reason to trust it. A post from last week answers the question "are they still open?" before it's asked. That is a conversion job, not a ranking job, and it's worth doing on that basis alone.
What makes a profile look dormant?
Four things, and none of them takes long to fix:
- Hours that are wrong once a year. Holiday hours are where most profiles slip. A customer who drives over on a holiday and finds the door locked doesn't come back.
- Photos that are all from setup day. If the newest photo is three years old, the place in the photos may not be the place they'll walk into.
- Reviews with no replies. One reply to an unhappy review does more than ten unanswered five-stars, because it shows how you behave when something goes wrong.
- A description that says nothing. "Quality service at competitive prices" could be anyone. Say what you do, for whom, and where.
The Google Business Profile checklist walks through each field in order.
How often should you post?
Once a month is enough for most local service businesses, and it's what I run on my own profile and on client plans. Weekly is fine if you genuinely have something to say each week. The mistake is the burst: ten posts in a week, then silence for a year. A steady, boring rhythm beats an enthusiastic sprint.
The mistake I made on my own profile
In September, Google removed one of my posts because it had my phone number in the text. Phone numbers in posts are a common reason for removal; the number already lives on the profile, so Google doesn't want it repeated. I fixed it and posted a corrected version the same day. Google then turned off posting on my profile.
What got me flagged was speed. Reposting nearly the same content right after a rejection looks like someone trying to slip past a filter. The lesson I took, and now apply to every client: when Google rejects something, stop. Read the reason, wait at least a week, and come back with something genuinely different.
What should a monthly profile routine look like?
Twenty minutes, once a month:
- Check hours, including any holiday in the next 30 days.
- Add two or three new photos of real work, real staff or the real space.
- Reply to every new review, good or bad, in your own words.
- Publish one post that answers a question customers actually ask.
- Read the profile on your phone the way a stranger would.
If that's twenty minutes you don't have, it's the core of my monthly SEO plans. The prices are on the pricing page.
FAQ
Is a Google Business Profile free?
Yes. Creating and managing the profile costs nothing. You only pay if you choose to run Google ads, which are separate.
Can a profile be suspended for being inactive?
Inactivity alone isn't a listed reason for suspension. The risk is quieter: wrong information drives customers away, and edits other people suggest can be applied to an unattended profile without anyone noticing.
Should I post the same thing on Google that I post on social media?
You can reuse the idea, but rewrite it. Keep phone numbers, email addresses and social handles out of the post text; use the post's button for the link instead.
How long until changes show up?
Edits to hours or the description usually appear within a few days. Changes in how often you're shown take longer, often weeks, so judge the routine over a few months rather than a few days.
If you want a second set of eyes on your profile, send me the link and I'll tell you what a stranger sees.