Google Business Profile for garages: the checklist that fills the bays

The profile decides the map, and the map decides the routine work. The order of importance is: primary category, the words in your actual business name, whether you are open when the driver searches, rating and review count, additional categories, and whether the services and hours are actually filled in. This is the checklist we run on every garage before we touch the website, because it is cheaper and it moves faster.

1. Categories

One primary, several additional. Primary is the one Google uses to decide which searches you belong in. For a general independent: "Auto repair shop". For a test centre: "MOT station". Then add the ones you genuinely do: car service, tyre shop, brake shop, auto air conditioning service, auto electrical service, car battery store, wheel alignment service, vehicle inspection, car detailing if you do it. Every true additional category is another set of searches you can appear in. Every false one is a source of wrong enquiries and a suspension risk.

2. Name, address, phone

The name is your real trading name, as on the sign and the invoices. Not "Smith's Garage MOT Servicing Wrexham". That gets profiles suspended and the reinstatement takes weeks. The address is where the cars come to; if you have two units, that is two profiles. The phone number is the one the desk answers, and it is the same number on the website, the sign and every directory.

3. Hours

"Open at the time of search" is the fifth strongest factor for the map, and "proper hours" climbed sixty-four places in the 2026 survey. Put the real hours in, including Saturday, and use special hours for bank holidays so the profile does not say you are open on Boxing Day. If reception closes at half five and the workshop at six, use the time a driver can rely on.

4. Services, with prices where you can

Go through Google's predefined list and tick everything you do. Add custom services for the jobs the list misses: DPF cleaning, remapping, timing belts, EV servicing. Where you have a fixed price, MOT and interim service usually, put it in. Predefined services went from being cosmetic to a top-25 factor this year, and prices get clicks.

5. Reviews

Count, rating and recency, scored separately. The routine is at the desk when the keys go back, plus the reminder text that evening with the direct link. Two or three a week, steadily. Reply to every review in a sentence or two, especially the bad ones, without arguing. Never buy reviews, never ask staff or family, never send the link only to the customers you think were happy: Google's filters catch bursts and the CMA treats incentivised reviews as an offence.

6. Photos

The reception, the lane, the ramps, the van, the team. Phone photos, taken this year. Stock photos of a gleaming showroom you do not own are worse than nothing. Add a few every month; a profile with recent photos looks alive to Google and to drivers.

7. The link, the description, the questions

• The website link points to the page for the thing you most want to sell, which for most garages is the MOT or servicing page, not the homepage.
• The description says what you do, for which cars, in which town, in plain words. No list of towns.
• The Q&A section is yours to fill: "Do you do MOTs on Saturdays?", "Can I wait?", "Do you work on hybrids?". Answer them before a driver asks.
• Posts are optional. Use them for a real offer or a real change. They do not move rankings much.

The whole pass takes an afternoon with the photos ready. It needs repeating every quarter because Google adds services, hours drift, and reviews stop the week the desk forgets to ask.