Google My Business services in New Jersey: what's included and what it costs

If you run a bakery in Montclair, a grooming van in Jersey City or a Pilates studio in Hoboken, your Google listing is often the first thing a new customer sees. Plenty of companies offer "Google My Business services" to look after it. Here's what that work really involves, what you can do yourself, and what it should cost.

Google My Business or Google Business Profile?

They're the same thing. Google renamed Google My Business to Google Business Profile, but most people still search for the old name. It's the free listing that shows your business on Google Search and Google Maps: your hours, phone, photos, reviews and the "Call" and "Directions" buttons.

Creating and managing it is free. Google also says you can't pay to rank higher in local results. What you pay a service for is the time and know-how to set it up properly and keep it active.

What a good service includes

A one-time setup or clean-up usually covers:

• The right categories. Your main category is one of the most important choices on the profile: "Bakery" vs "Cake shop", "Dog groomer" vs "Pet groomer".
• Services, hours and description written clearly, with the towns you actually serve.
• Matching details everywhere. Your name, address or service area and phone number the same on Google, your website, Yelp, Apple Maps and Facebook.
• Photos: what to add and how often.
• A simple way to ask for reviews, like a QR card at the counter.

Ongoing monthly work usually adds:

• Regular Google posts (offers, events, new products), so the profile looks alive.
• Review requests and replies to every review, good and bad.
• Listings on other maps and directories fixed and kept consistent.
• Local pages on your website for the towns and services you want to be found for.
• A monthly report: calls, direction requests, website clicks and searches, so you can see if it's working.

What you can do yourself for free

A lot. If you have an hour, you can claim and verify your profile, choose your categories, fill in hours and services, add photos and start asking for reviews. Our step-by-step Google Maps guide walks through it, including how to ask for reviews within Google's rules.

Where a service helps is consistency. Most owners set the profile up once and never touch it again. Posting, answering reviews and keeping listings in sync every month is the part that slips when you're busy running the business.

What it costs

Prices vary a lot, so compare what's included rather than the headline number. As a reference, here's what we charge at Oddie Studio:

• Free audit: we look at your Google profile and how you show up nearby, and send you what to fix, by e-mail.
• Google Profile Fix-up, $249 once: categories, services, hours and description fixed, a photo and Q&A checklist, and a review QR card.
• Local Starter, $399 a month: everything in the fix-up plus weekly Google posts, review requests and reply drafts, and a monthly report.
• Local Growth, $749 a month: adds listings on Apple Maps, Bing, Yelp and key directories, new local pages and local links.

Monthly plans have a 3-month minimum, because local SEO usually takes about that long to show up in calls and visits, then they run month to month. See the details on our local SEO page.

Red flags

• Guaranteed rankings like "#1 on Google Maps in 30 days". Nobody controls Google's results.
• Fake or bought reviews. They break Google's rules and can get reviews removed or your profile restricted.
• Keywords stuffed into your business name, like "Rosa's Nails Best Nail Salon Hoboken". It's against Google's guidelines.
• They own your profile. You should always be the owner. A service should be added as a manager you can remove at any time.
• Long contracts with no reports. If you can't see what was done each month, you can't tell if it's working.

Not sure where your profile stands? Ask for a free audit and we'll send you a short list of what to fix, whether you work with us or not.

Questions