How should a home care agency set up its Google Business Profile?

Why does your Business Profile matter more now?

Because it is the card families see first, in two places. In Google Maps it is your listing. In ChatGPT, in the runs where I recorded the format, the answer to “which home care agencies should I look at” was a ranked row of Business Profile cards with name, star rating and category, followed by the reasons for each pick.

Google's own help pages say it plainly: “Businesses with complete and accurate info are more likely to show up in local search results.” It also says there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking.

What should your business name be?

Your real name, exactly as it appears on your sign, paperwork and website. Google's guidelines say your name “should reflect your business's real-world name” and that adding unnecessary information, such as marketing taglines or service information, isn't permitted. Your registered name on its own is fine. Your name followed by “– Best Senior Care Omaha 24/7” is not.

Should a home care agency show its office address?

Usually not. You go to the client; the client doesn't come to you. Google calls that a service-area business and says: “If you're a service-area business, you should hide your business address from customers.” Instead, list the towns and counties you serve. Google says the overall area shouldn't extend farther than about two hours of driving time.

Name the suburbs too. When I pulled Google Maps listings for Omaha's suburbs, Bellevue and Papillion each returned only four home care results, likely because the Omaha search absorbs them. Few agencies name those towns, which makes naming them a cheap advantage.

Which phone number and website should it use?

A local number you control, and a website link that works. Google asks for “a local phone number instead of a central call center helpline number whenever possible.”

Then click your own website link from the listing, the way a family would. In my check of 160 independent agency websites, five listings pointed at a domain that no longer worked, and five loaded a different company altogether. The full count is in the website findings.

What should the description and services say?

The specific things a family is checking for, each only if true:

• Non-medical in-home care, and which services: personal care, companionship, respite, overnight.
• Dementia or memory care.
• 24-hour or live-in care.
• A free in-home assessment.
• Private pay and long-term care insurance accepted.
• Locally owned.

These are the kinds of reasons ChatGPT gave when it explained why it named an agency. More on what it said. On categories, Google's advice is to use as few as it takes to describe your core business.

Do reviews on the profile matter?

For Google Maps, yes. Google says “more reviews and positive ratings can help your business's local ranking.” In ChatGPT's answers it was less simple: in Lincoln and Kansas City, agencies with more reviews were not named ahead of those with fewer. How to ask for reviews and reply safely.

What should you fix this week?

1. Claim and verify the profile

   Search your agency name on Google Maps. If you can't find it, or someone else manages it, start there.

2. Correct the name, phone and website

   Real-world name only, a local number, and a link you have just clicked yourself.

3. Hide the address and list your towns

   Set it up as a service-area business and name every town and county you actually cover.

4. Rewrite the description and services

   Plain, specific, true: the list above.

5. Set your hours

   The hours someone answers the phone, not the hours care is delivered.