For years Google Business Profiles (GBP) have been treated as digital storefronts, where you would showcase a business with photos, hours, services, reviews, products, and a business description. The goal was to fill out all of the information as accurately and informative as you can, monitor that information for any changes or suggestions from Google, keep it up to date while putting out continuous updates or new photos to give Google recency signals, and then you’re good to go.
Now that old goal of treating it as a digital storefront is starting to feel slightly outdated. Not in a way that totally changes what you may need to do with a GBP on your day to day tasks, but how search engines and LLMs are digesting and showing its information. Google business profiles seem to be becoming less of a profile that is only used to showcase what the business does and where they do it, and more of a structured data source that feeds Google’s entire ecosystem.
Every field you fill out isn’t just for someone who is browsing your listing, but it is now for the search engines as well as the LLMs (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude) because it connects that information to specific searches, and decides when and where to show your business. We’ve always known it mattered to fill everything out accurately and to continuously post to keep it fresh, but the difference now is why it matters and where it is showing.
Your GBP Data Now Feeds Search Engines and LLMs
When you add services, attributes, products, FAQs, and posts, you’re not just optimizing your listing anymore, you’re feeding Google and the LLMs with valuable data, and in return these search engines will show your business information for specific or long tail searches that are highly targeted to whatever the search is. That information can influence how your business appears in the organic search results, AI Overviews, the LLMs, as well as the map based results.
Think about it this way, Google isn’t just showing your profile anymore, it’s pulling the information that is stored in it. For example, a few years ago if someone did a search such as “I got bit by a dog and need an attorney” Google would show three Google business profiles (Usually the closest in proximity to the search in combination with the ones with the highest reviews) that advertise themselves as dog bite attorneys.
Now if you do this search, it is more likely that an AI overview will come up instead of the map pack that includes GBPs, and it will give you a short answer such as “If you were bitten by a dog, the law holds owners strictly liable for injuries, meaning you may be entitled to compensation for medical bills, lost wages, and pain. Contact a personal injury attorney immediately—such as Law Firm 1, Law firm 2, or Law firm 3—for a free consultation, as these work on a contingency basis (no fee unless they win).
The difference here is that Google is providing the user with more information, and specifically Google is only listing the firms that have dog bites listed in their services as well as free consultations and the contingency basis. This is why it is more important than ever to make sure you include these offerings within the GBPs services and/or their business bio, as well as your website.
The New Question to Ask About Your Profile
This shift changes how you should look at your GBP entirely. Instead of asking, “Does my profile look complete?” You need to ask yourself, “Am I giving Google enough structured, accurate, and specific data to understand my business and all of my offerings?” The more clearly Google understands what you do, who you serve, and why you may be relevant for a specific question or search, the more opportunities it has to surface you in searches for your perfect type of client. This is also why partially completed profiles are becoming a bigger liability.
Missing services, vague descriptions, or outdated information don’t just make your listing look neglected, they limit how effectively Google can digest your data, and in return show it for a search that you may have been beaten out for in the past because of review count or proximity.
As great as all of this is, there is one caveat that you should know and you may have noticed. Since the LLMs as well as Google are wanting to provide its users with highly targeted answers to their questions by using AI overviews, it has decreased how often the Map pack (where GBPs are traditionally shown) is being shown.
This is not a bad thing, just another evolution in how search results are being displayed, and what it means is that your GBP may show slightly less actions, such as calls or direction clicks. This is because in the past, where you would have received a call from your GBP, now the information in your GBP is being digested and then shown as an AI overview, and if the user wants to reach out to the business, they will either be given the phone number of your business so they can call right away, or they may click on the AI overview mention of your business and then be taken to the website to where they can find your contact information and call.
This is not a bad thing, it is just a slight change and it only emphasizes the importance of tracking as well as the current search age that we are in, which is increasingly driven by AI and entity based understanding, and your GBP isn’t just a place to present your business. It’s one of the primary inputs that defines it, and the businesses that treat it that way are the ones that are going to win more visibility over time.
