Why Your Google Business Profile Matters More Than Ever — A Guide for Local Businesses
The following is based on a presentation delivered at the Tyne Valley Connections meet-up on the 2nd June by Gary Claven from GaryClaven.com based in Hexham. We had such a wave of positive responses to Gary’s presentation that we have published here for those that missed it.
If you run a local business and you’ve been pouring time and money into SEO, blogging, and chasing backlinks — you might be working harder than you need to. Here’s why Google Business Profile (GBP) is the most underused growth tool available to small and local businesses right now.
The trap most local businesses fall into
It’s a familiar story. The phone isn’t ringing. You Google “how to get more customers.” You land on SEO blogs telling you to write content, build backlinks, and invest in domain authority. Six months and several hundred pounds later, the phone still isn’t ringing.
The problem, isn’t effort — it’s direction. Most local businesses are optimising for a version of Google that is rapidly changing beneath their feet.
The map pack is what matters now
When you search for a local trade on your phone, the first thing you see isn’t a list of websites. It’s a map with three businesses pinned to it — each showing a star rating, a call button, and directions. That’s the map pack, and it sits above every organic search result on the page. On mobile, it fills the entire first screen.
Google ranks those three spots based on three factors: proximity (how close the business is to you), relevance (how well the profile matches your search), and prominence (how active, reviewed, and trusted the profile looks). Proximity is fixed — you can’t move your business. But relevance and prominence are entirely within your control.
There’s also a self-reinforcing dynamic at play. Google tracks what people do after they see the map pack. More clicks, calls, and direction requests means Google keeps promoting that business — so getting into the top three makes it easier to stay there.
AI has made this even more urgent
In May 2026, Google announced what it described as its biggest search overhaul in 25 years. AI Overviews now reach 2.5 billion users monthly. AI Mode has over a billion users, with queries doubling every quarter. Traditional search traffic is predicted to fall by around 25%.
The crucial detail for local businesses: when Google’s AI answers a local question, it pulls its recommendations directly from Business Profiles. A strong, well-maintained profile doesn’t just help you appear in the map pack — it feeds the AI results that are increasingly replacing traditional search entirely.
GBP vs SEO: a straightforward comparison
Traditional SEO takes six to twelve months to show results, requires ongoing investment in content and links, is increasingly squeezed by AI, and is hard to win against larger, more established websites.
GBP, by contrast, can show movement in two to six weeks, is largely free, requires no agency, and actively feeds the new AI-first version of Google. For local businesses, it’s the one channel where the playing field is genuinely level.
What to do: the checklist
Two parts — foundations you do once, and ongoing habits that compound over time.
Do once, get right:
Keep doing, every week:
The bigger picture
GBP alone can and can’t do. Getting visible is only step one. In 2026, the next layer up isn’t traditional SEO — it’s making sure AI engines can find, trust, and recommend you. That means reviews on third-party sites, mentions across the web, and a presence in local community spaces — including, he noted, forums like Hexham Matters.
But none of that matters if the foundation isn’t in place first.
Three things you can do this week
You can find out more about Gary Claven on his website
Download Gary’s full Google Business Profile Presentation here: