Google Business Profile: The Small Marketing Task Making a Big Difference
TL;DR
Your Google Business Profile still matters, and it needs to be kept up to date.
In this article, we look at how travellers actually plan their trips, why Google remains important in the age of AI, and how to maintain your Google Business Profile without creating a mountain of extra work.
And, of course, we’ll explain how Keeps can help.
Before we go any further, think about the last trip you took.
Did you wake up one morning with a destination in mind, go straight to Booking.com, make a reservation and, almost by magic, arrive at your destination?
Probably not.
The reason is simple: that isn’t how people plan trips. Yet when we market tourism businesses, we sometimes act as though every booking follows this neat, linear journey.
The booking maze
The traveller’s path from inspiration to arrival is complicated and highly personal.
One day, they’re scrolling through Instagram to work out which neighbourhood they want to stay in. The next, they’re Googling restaurants nearby. Then doubt creeps in, so they ask ChatGPT whether the neighbourhood is really safe, or whether ordering a drink with ice is likely to end in food poisoning.
There is nothing linear about the process. It also changes from one destination to another.
Travellers use different channels at different points in their journey, depending on what they’re trying to decide and which questions they need answered.
As the number of touchpoints grows and new technology develops, the booking journey becomes ever more complicated. Unfortunately for those of us trying to reach travellers, it makes our job a lot harder.
Google: the travel companion that never really left
There is, however, one touchpoint that tends to follow travellers throughout the entire search and planning journey:
Google.
Travellers explore neighbourhoods on Google Maps. They use Google Search to find accommodation, restaurants and things to do. Your Google Business Profile appears in those searches with your photos, opening hours, location and reviews.
Then, once travellers arrive, they use that same profile to find directions and make their way to you.
Google’s products are so deeply woven into the travel experience that we barely notice how often we use them.
AI hasn’t replaced Google, but it has changed the game
There has been plenty of discussion recently about how AI is changing travel search.
People increasingly use tools such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini to plan trips, while declining website traffic from traditional Google searches has understandably caused concern among tourism businesses.
But that doesn’t mean Google has become irrelevant.
Available data suggests that AI tools have not replaced traditional search. According to an analysis published by PhocusWire using Similarweb data, 95% of monthly ChatGPT users also use Google in their search.
What appears to be changing is the job people give each platform.
Travellers are increasingly turning to AI during the early stages of planning, particularly for inspiration, research and complicated questions. But when they move closer to making a purchase or booking decision, they often look elsewhere.
Google still plays a central role at precisely those high-intent moments.
Outdated information at exactly the wrong time
Creating a Google Business Profile is usually high on the to-do list when a business first opens. We know it matters. Then time passes, other tasks take priority and the profile slowly slips out of view.
A wrong opening time here. An old photo there.
Meanwhile, travellers continue to see the profile, often at the very moment they’re deciding where to go, which company to trust and who to book with.
Keeping up with the newest marketing platforms and trends is important. But we shouldn’t neglect a touchpoint as valuable as Google Business Profile simply because it looks like a small administrative task.
Your Google Business Profile needs regular care
It isn’t enough to list your business on Google and hope for the best.
Your profile needs to be maintained. Its information needs to be checked, its images refreshed and its details kept accurate.
At this point, you may be thinking:“Oh, great. Another task for my to-do list.”
And yes, it is another task. The good news is that you don’t need to inspect or update your profile every day.
You just can’t forget about it completely.
Build it into your routine
At Keeps, we’re firm believers that successful marketing, especially in businesses where a small team has to do many different jobs, is largely about systems and routines.
We all know we should publish regularly on social media. But unless we make time for it and create the right workflow, it tends to buried by the day-to-day workload.
Your Google Business Profile is no different.
Without some kind of routine, we may not think to update it until a customer ends up miles away because we misspelled an address.
When should you update your Google Business Profile?
We like to divide Google Business Profile work into two categories:
Updates made whenever something changes
Regular maintenance
Whenever something changes in the business
Your profile should always reflect the latest and most accurate information about your business.
Remember to update it whenever you change:
Opening hours
Your telephone number or website address
Your location or accessibility information
Services, facilities or amenities
Seasonal availability
Anything else guests need to know before booking or visiting
In destinations where businesses can be far apart, few things are more frustrating than arriving at a locked door because someone forgot to update the opening hours. It is even worse when the next option is another long drive away.
Most businesses already have some kind of process for managing operational changes, even if it exists only in someone’s head.
The easiest approach is to add Google Business Profile to that existing process. If a change needs to be made on your website, booking page or brochure, it probably needs to be made on Google too.
Regular maintenance
Regular maintenance is not only about preventing customers from receiving incorrect information. Accurate information is the minimum. A well-maintained profile can also help customers choose your business.
Google says that businesses with complete and accurate information are more likely to appear in relevant local search results. It also recommends regularly adding new photos and videos.
The features available vary by business category. Restaurants may be able to display menus, for example, while service businesses can list individual services. Google provides category-specific guidance for Business Profiles.
Every business, however, can keep its description and images up to date.
Your profile should therefore be treated as an important customer touchpoint, not something you complete once and never look at again.
Maintaining it doesn’t need to take long. A few recurring calendar reminders can be enough.
Once a week: reviews
Travellers can leave ratings and reviews on your Google Business Profile, and it is generally good practice to respond to them.
You don’t necessarily need to reply the moment every review appears. But you probably don’t want a negative review sitting unanswered for weeks.
Set aside a few minutes each week to read and respond to new reviews.
Once a month: a quick check and a new photo
Spend 10 to 15 minutes each month checking your profile:
Make sure the core information is correct
Review any changes suggested by users
Add a recent photo
Look for anything else that needs attention
Some months, this will take two minutes. Other months, it may take fifteen.The more regularly you check the profile, the less work each check is likely to require.
Peak seasons, holidays and temporary closures
Incorrect information causes the most friction when your normal service changes temporarily.
Depending on the business, you may need to add or update:
Special opening hours
Temporary closures
Seasonal services
Seasonally relevant photos
Booking links for temporary offers or experiences
Just remember to change everything back when the period ends. Last Christmas’s opening hours are not particularly helpful in July.
Once or twice a year: get a fresh perspective
Once or twice a year, ask someone else to review your profile. A colleague, guest, friend or family member can help you determine whether:
The profile still represents the business accurately
The photos are outdated or create the wrong expectations
The list of services is still correct
The description needs to be revised
Important information is missing or difficult to understand
Sometimes other people notice what has become invisible to us.
Managing Google Business Profile through Keeps
As we mentioned earlier, Google Business Profile is easier to maintain when it is part of the tools and workflows you already use.
That is why we built a Google Business Profile integration into Keeps.
With Keeps, you can update business information and opening hours, manage photos, respond to reviews and monitor traffic and other performance data. Instead of giving every employee or contractor direct access to your Google account, your team can manage the profile through the same system they already use for other marketing work.
You can also publish approved images directly from your Keeps media library. That means less searching through folders and less risk of someone uploading an outdated or unapproved photo.
Google Business Profile management is included in Keeps Core and Core+ subscriptions.
Google Business Profile isn’t a magic solution
A perfectly completed Google Business Profile will not fill every room or sell out every tour overnight.
It isn’t a magic switch that will transform your business on its own. But leaving it outdated can still do real damage.
At Keeps, we sometimes compare this kind of task to toilet paper in a hotel room.
When you check in, you probably don’t stop to admire the fact that there is toilet paper in the bathroom. You’re unlikely to leave a glowing review about how brilliantly it was provided.
But if it’s missing when you need it, you will certainly notice.
Google Business Profile is similar. It follows guests throughout their journey and often becomes most important at a critical moment.
By maintaining the profile and updating it regularly, you help travellers find you, trust you and ultimately choose you. You also give Google clearer, more current information to work with.
It may be a small task, but it is one worth remembering.
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