How do I optimize my Google Business Profile?
Pick the most specific primary category, fill every field, and keep it moving. The primary category is the single strongest signal on the profile, so Med Spa beats Spa and Plumber beats Contractor. Add two or three secondary categories, no more. Write the description in plain words with the services and the towns you serve. List every service as its own item with a short description. Set hours you actually keep, because being open at the moment of the search is now a ranking factor. Add real photos of your people and your work, never stock, and keep adding them. Turn on messaging and answer it. Post an update every week or two. Match the name, address and phone to your website and every listing exactly, down to the suite number. Then build the review habit, which does more over a year than any single setting. None of this is complicated. It's just rarely done all the way.
Whitespark Local Search Ranking Factors, 2026.
How many reviews do I need to show up in the map pack?
There's no fixed number. What moves the map pack is a steady flow of recent reviews, not a total. The 2026 Whitespark survey ranks review recency and velocity far higher than it did three years ago, so five fresh reviews a month beat 200 from 2022. Look at who is in the pack for your search in your town. In the Stuart marketing pack today the three listings have 219, 85 and 21 reviews, and the one with 21 is there because they're all recent and five stars. Content matters too. A review that says they rewired my panel in Palm City tells Google what you do and where, while great guys tells it nothing. Ask every customer the same week the job closes, make it one tap, and reply to every review, good or bad. Never gate or filter reviews. Since October 2024 that's a federal violation under the FTC rule on consumer reviews.
Whitespark Local Search Ranking Factors, 2026. Stuart map pack counts: Google Maps, November 2026. FTC Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule, effective October 2024.
Why is my business not showing up on Google Maps in Stuart?
Almost every time it's one of four things. The profile location is set somewhere else, the primary category doesn't match the search, the profile is incomplete or unverified, or there's almost nothing backing it up in reviews and listings. Location is the one that surprises people. A service-area business with a hidden address is ranked from the point Google holds for it, and if that point is a home address out west or the center of a wide service area, the business can be 20 miles from Stuart as far as the map is concerned. Check it under Edit profile, then Location, and tighten the service area to the towns you actually work. Then check the category against what people type, finish every field, and compare your review count and recency to the three businesses in the pack. Whichever of those four you're losing on is the fix, and it's usually visible in ten minutes.
Should I list a service area or an address on my Google Business Profile?
List an address if customers come to you, and a service area if you go to them. A storefront, a clinic or a salon shows its address, full stop. A plumber, a detailer or a cleaner working from a truck hides the address and sets a service area, and that's fine, but the service area should be the towns you really cover, not a 50-mile circle. Google ranks a hidden-address business from the location it holds on file, so a home address in the wrong town can quietly cost you the map pack where your customers are. Never list an address where nobody from your business is during open hours, like a PO box or a virtual office. That's the fastest way to a suspension. If you do both, serve customers on site and travel to them, show the address and add the service area on top. And whatever you set, make the website say the same thing.
How often should I post photos and updates on my profile?
Photos every couple of weeks and a post every week or two is plenty, as long as it never stops. Google has been quietly demoting profiles that go untouched for a year, and engagement signals like photos, posts, calls and direction requests have climbed in the ranking surveys. The point is to show Google and the customer that the business is alive. Real photos beat polished ones here: the crew on site, a finished job, the front of the shop, the owner. Posts work best as short updates a customer would care about, a seasonal service, a before and after, a new team member, with a photo and a button. Don't stuff them with keywords. Reply to reviews within a day or two while you're in there. We handle this month to month for clients because it's the part owners always mean to do and never get to.
Whitespark Local Search Ranking Factors, 2026.
