A strong Google Business Profile (GBP) can significantly boost your local SEO, visibility on Google Search and Maps, and customer engagement. The “green circle” in the Profile Strength indicator signals that your profile is fully complete, meaning you’ve filled in all essential details and added engaging content. While it’s not a direct ranking factor, a complete profile helps attract more visitors and builds trust. However, achieving that green status often requires more than just the basics—especially for businesses with multiple locations or complex setups. Based on our agency’s experience managing a client’s location, here are some observations and strategies to help you get there.
Ten Steps to Build a Strong Google Business Profile
After researching official guides and community advice, these are the key actions most experts recommend to maximize your Profile Strength:
- Claim and Verify Your Business: Start by claiming your listing on Google and verifying it via phone, email, or postcard. This is foundational.
- Complete All Business Information: Fill in every field, including name, address, phone number, website, hours of operation, and attributes (e.g., wheelchair accessible).
- Add High-Quality Photos and Videos: Upload at least 10-15 clear, relevant images of your storefront, products, team, and interior. Videos under 30 seconds can also boost engagement.
- Write a Compelling Business Description: Craft a 750-character description with keywords that highlight your unique selling points.
- Encourage and Respond to Reviews: Aim for at least 5 recent reviews and reply to all of them promptly to show responsiveness.
- Post Regular Updates: Share offers, events, or news at least weekly to keep your profile active.
- Add Products and Services: List what you offer with descriptions, prices, and images where applicable.
- Enable Messaging: Turn on chat features so customers can message you directly from your profile.
- Monitor Insights: Use GBP’s analytics to track performance and identify areas for improvement.
- Keep Information Updated: Regularly review and update details to maintain accuracy and consistency across Google services.
Following these steps should theoretically get you to 100% completeness, improving your local search presence and customer appeal. In practice, however, some profiles—especially for businesses managed by agencies or with multiple locations—may linger at “incomplete” due to verification issues or overlooked fields.
A Client-Specific Workaround to Get Green Circle of Completeness
While managing a client’s location, we followed the above steps diligently, but the profile didn’t achieve the green circle. After extensive research yielded no clear answers, we noticed Google prompting us to set up a Google Ads account to complete the profile. Although many guides suggest Ads isn’t necessary for Profile Strength, we proceeded by first creating a Google Workspace account using an unused, registered domain (available via a 14-day free trial). Immediately after setting up the Google Ads account, the profile status updated to the green circle, indicating full completeness.
This workaround was specific to our client’s case and may not apply universally—official documentation doesn’t confirm that Google Ads or Workspace is required for all profiles. It’s possible this was due to a unique setup (e.g., agency-managed accounts or multi-location nuances) or a temporary platform issue. We recommend prioritizing the standard steps and using Google’s Profile Strength dashboard for guidance. If you’re stuck, experimenting with additional Google services like Ads might be worth exploring, but consult Google’s support or community forums to verify relevance to your situation.
Common Challenges and Troubleshooting Tips
If your profile isn’t reaching 100% despite following best practices, consider these troubleshooting steps:
- Review Profile Strength Dashboard: Check Google’s suggestions for missing elements, such as additional photos or specific fields.
- Ensure Consistency: Verify that your business details (name, address, phone) match exactly across Google Search, Maps, and your website.
- Test Incremental Changes: Add more content (e.g., posts, reviews, or attributes) and monitor the indicator for updates.
- Check Advanced Settings: Under the three-dot menu > Business Profile Settings > Advanced Settings, look for “Automated calls and texts from Google.” This setting allows Google to update your profile based on public data. It was enabled by default in our case; disabling it helped maintain control over the profile without affecting the green status.
Final Thoughts
Achieving the green circle on your Google Business Profile requires persistence and attention to detail. Start with the core steps, monitor your progress, and troubleshoot any issues using Google’s tools. If you encounter unusual hurdles like we did with our client’s profile, consider exploring additional Google services as a last resort, but always verify with official resources like the Google Business Profile Help Center. Have you faced similar challenges? Share your tips in the comments—we’d love to hear what worked for you!