Does Your Google Profile Match the Website

Two tabs, two different businesses

Open your Google Business Profile. Open your website in another tab. Read them like a stranger.

Hours disagree? Phone numbers disagree? Profile’s website button opens a dead page? You are running two versions of the same business. Customers notice. Search notices. Enquiries leak into the gap.

I walk this comparison before I quote. Wrong hours. Old phones. Dead URLs. Names that do not match. Keep both tabs open and follow along.

Start with the website button on the Profile

Tap the blue link that says website. Do not assume.

After a redesign, a domain change, or a DIY move to a new builder, that button often still points at the old address. Sometimes it 404s. Sometimes it lands on a registrar parking page with adverts for the name you thought you owned.

I have tapped a Profile website button that opened a parked domain - the listing looked healthy, the reviews were current, and the click went nowhere a customer could use. A Profile that praises you while sending people into a void is worse than no Profile link at all.

If it fails, edit the Profile URL to the live homepage you actually want people to see. Then check any old domain redirects. Bookmarks and search memory may still use the previous address.

Name - one spelling

Write your trading name exactly as it appears on the site header and on the shopfront or van.

Nicknames on social are fine for posts. They confuse Maps when the Profile says one thing and the homepage says another.

Same for legal trading style versus the short name on the van. Pick the public version. Use it everywhere a customer will check.

A missed apostrophe or an extra “Ltd” that only exists on one side is enough for someone to wonder whether they have the right business. Small, dull, and worth five minutes.

Address - one format

“St” versus “Street.” Missing postcode. A unit number only on one side. Small differences add up when Google tries to confirm you are one place.

If you are service-area only and hide the street address for privacy, say so consistently. Keep the service towns aligned with what the site claims. Do not list half the county on Maps and three streets on the contact page.

Phone - the number you answer

Profile shows a mobile nobody carries anymore. Site shows a landline that rings in an empty office. Or the site uses a tracking number that died when an old marketing contract ended.

Pick the number you answer. Put it on both. Make it tap-to-call on the site. Call it from a different phone to prove it rings.

This is where I see the most quiet damage. Fix it in one sitting.

Utm links and tracking numbers on the Profile website field create another mismatch class. If the tracking number dies, Maps still sends people into silence. Prefer the number you answer.

Hours that match the door this week

Stale hours are a trust tax. Bank holidays left as “open.” A salon that closes Mondays while Maps still sends Monday traffic. A kitchen that stops food at nine while the Profile says eleven.

Walk the week on the Profile editor. Walk the same week on the site footer or contact page. Same sitting.

Special hours belong in both places when you know them. Temporary closures need a post on the Profile and a line on the site - not only a story on Instagram that vanishes overnight.

If you run different hours for the shop and the kitchen, say which set sits on the Profile. Ambiguity creates arguments at the door.

Categories, services and description

Primary category should match the main work the website leads with. A Profile filed under a vague catch-all while the site pushes a specific trade leaves Google and customers guessing.

Secondary categories help when they are true. They hurt when they are wishful.

Services listed on the Profile should appear somewhere on the site. If the Profile promises patio cleaning and the site never mentions it, you have advertised a job you do not explain. The reverse is also messy: a detailed service page for a job the Profile never lists.

The short Profile description is not a novel. Echo the homepage facts: trading name, main services, area you cover. Skip keyword stuffing. Skip all-caps. Skip copying a competitor’s blurb.

Photos, forms, and the other quiet mismatches

A Profile full of recent job shots beside a website full of library smiles feels like two businesses sharing a coat. Align the story. Remove ancient photos that show a logo you retired or a shop you left.

Site contact page lists one inbox while the Profile shows a different one, or only a phone. Decide the preferred path. If the form emails an address nobody checks, fix that before you advertise the URL on Maps.

Booking widgets deserve the same honesty. If the Profile says “book online” and the site button fails, you have invited frustration. Test the path after every site change.

The checklist I run before a quote

I open the Profile as a customer would, not as an editor. Name. Categories. Hours for today. Phone. Address. Website button.

I open the live site. Compare each line. Tap to call. Submit a test form if there is one. Look for old domains the owner still has bookmarked. Ask when the hours last changed in real life versus on the screens.

Mismatches go on a short written list. Some are five-minute Profile edits. Some need site changes. Some need redirects from a domain the owner forgot they still owned. Better to find that before money moves than on launch week.

Reviews still matter. They do not repair a dead website button. They do not fix a phone that rings out.

A five-star review that praises Saturday brunch while the site and Profile both say you are closed Saturdays is a small public fight. Reply carefully. Fix the facts if the review is right and the screens are wrong. If the review is outdated, say what changed and point to the current hours.

Do not buy reviews. Do not copy-paste the same thank-you into every reply. A short honest reply that matches the trading name on the site is enough.

What owners usually skip

Owners update the site and forget the Profile. Or they update the Profile after a row about wrong hours and forget the footer on the site. Or a staff member edits one side from a phone and nobody records the change.

Treat both surfaces as the same source of truth. When something changes in the building - new number, new hours, new URL - both get edited the same day.

Have the Profile link and the live URL ready. Dial 07900 141 380 between jobs if that is easier, or send both links to info@shaunallen.co.uk / the quote form - you will get a written mismatch list before any build talk.