Managing one Google Business Profile is a few minutes a week. Managing forty of them for clients is a job: access to sort out, hours to update before every holiday, Google quietly changing details, reviews arriving at all hours, and clients asking what any of it is doing for them. Done well, Google Business Profile management is one of the most visible, most valuable things an agency sells. Done badly, it is a stream of wrong opening hours and unanswered reviews with the agency's name on it.
This guide covers what Google Business Profile management actually involves, how to set up access properly, the weekly and monthly routine, and how to run it across many clients without it eating your week.
What Google Business Profile management covers
Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) is the listing that appears in Google Search and Maps for a business. Managing it means keeping five things right and current:
- The core details. Business name, categories, address or service area, phone number, website and hours, including special hours for holidays.
- Photos and content. Logo, cover photo, photos of the work, the team and the premises, plus regular posts.
- Reviews. Asking customers for them, replying to all of them, and dealing with the ones that break the rules.
- Changes Google makes. Google accepts edits from users and its own systems, so details can change without anyone at the business touching them.
- Reporting. Showing the client what the profile is doing: views, searches, calls and website clicks.
For a step-by-step checklist of what a strong profile looks like, see our guide to Google Business Profile optimization.
Set up access the right way
The most common mistake agencies make is logging in with the client's own Google password. Do not. It leaves you with the client's whole Google account, it breaks the moment they change the password, and it makes it unclear who did what.
Instead:
- Keep the business as the primary owner. The profile belongs to the client, and it should stay in an account they control.
- Get added as a manager. Business Profile lets owners add other people with owner or manager access. Managers can edit the profile, reply to reviews and post, which covers almost all agency work.
- Use a shared agency account, not a personal one. If the person who manages profiles leaves, the access should stay with the agency.
- Group multi-location clients. Google's business groups let you manage many locations of one business together and give the right people access to the whole set.
- Write down who owns what for every client, so access never depends on someone's memory.
Getting access wrong also creates suspension risk. Our guide to Google suspensions for agencies covers what triggers them and how to recover.
A weekly and monthly routine
Every week
- Reply to every new review, positive and negative. See how to respond to Google reviews.
- Check for changes Google has made or suggested to the profile, and correct anything wrong.
- Publish at least one post: an update, an offer or recent work.
- Add a few new photos of real work.
Every month
- Review performance: profile views, searches, calls and website clicks, compared with last month.
- Check the review count and rating against the main local competitors.
- Confirm hours, phone number and website are still correct, and that the website link still works.
- Set special hours for upcoming holidays before they happen, not after.
Every quarter
- Re-check categories and the business description against what the business actually sells now.
- Audit the business's details on other directories, since wrong phone numbers and old addresses there confuse customers and search engines alike.
Watch for changes Google makes
Many agencies do not realise that a profile can change without anyone at the business or agency editing it. Google accepts suggested edits from users and can update details based on other information it finds. Sometimes that is helpful. Sometimes it means a client's hours, phone number or category quietly change to something wrong.
Make checking for these changes part of the weekly routine. When Google has changed something, either accept it if it is correct or set the right value again.
Reporting that clients understand
Clients rarely care about the profile itself. They care whether it brings them customers. Keep the report to the numbers that answer that:
- How many people saw the profile
- How many called, asked for directions or clicked to the website
- How many new reviews came in, and the average rating
- What changed this month and why
Pair the Business Profile numbers with what the CRM shows, such as calls answered and bookings made, and the profile stops being an invisible line item. Our agency reporting page shows how that looks across clients.
Managing many Google Business Profiles in Inflowave
Inflowave connects to Google Business Profile for each client workspace, so the routine above happens in one place rather than in forty browser tabs.
- Edit the profile. Update the business name, description, phone number, website, primary and additional categories, regular hours, special hours and opening date from Inflowave. Changes go to Google through the official Business Profile API.
- See what Google changed. When you open a location, Inflowave shows which fields Google has updated differently from what was set, and which edits are still pending, so silent changes do not go unnoticed.
- Photos and posts. Upload, edit and remove photos, and publish or delete posts, for each location.
- Performance. Views, searches, calls and other daily metrics for each location, ready for client reporting.
- Reviews. Every client's reviews in one board, with replies posted to Google, and review requests by SMS, email or QR code. More in reputation management.
- Listings beyond Google. A listings audit checks the business's details across 102 directories, scores how well they match, and has the fixable ones corrected by hand with a link and a screenshot as proof.
Because it all runs per client and per location inside the same CRM, and can be white labelled, Google Business Profile management becomes a service you can sell, report on and scale.
FAQ
What is Google Business Profile management?
Keeping a business's Google listing accurate and active: core details, hours, photos, posts, reviews, watching for changes Google makes, and reporting on results.
Is Google My Business the same as Google Business Profile?
Yes. Google renamed Google My Business to Google Business Profile. People still search for both names.
Should my agency be an owner or a manager on client profiles?
Usually a manager. The client should remain the primary owner, and manager access covers editing, posting and replying to reviews.
How often should a Google Business Profile be updated?
Check it weekly for reviews and changes, post at least weekly, and review the core details monthly and before every holiday.
Can I manage many Google Business Profiles from one place?
Yes. Google's business groups help with multi-location businesses, and tools like Inflowave let an agency manage every client's profiles, reviews and reporting from one login.
