The Singapore SME Guide to Google Business Profile (And Why It Matters More Than Your Website)

Here's a question worth sitting with: when was the last time you searched for a product or service and clicked through to a website before deciding where to go?

If you're honest, the answer is probably "not often." You scan the map. You look at the star rating. You check if they're open. You might glance at the photos. Then you decide.

That's Google Business Profile doing its job, and it's doing yours too, whether you've paid attention to it or not.

For SMEs with a physical presence, GBP is now the most important local marketing asset you own. More visible than your website in local searches. More trusted by first-time customers. And, unlike most digital channels, completely free to use well.

The problem? Most businesses claim their listing, fill in the basics, and move on. Then they wonder why the competitor down the road keeps showing up above them.

This guide fixes that.

Why GBP Outranks Your Website for Local Searches

When someone searches "aircon servicing near me" or "best laksa Tampines," Google doesn't show a list of websites. It shows a Local Pack: three business listings with a map, ratings, hours, and photos. Those three spots get the bulk of the clicks.

Ranking in the Local Pack and ranking your website are different games. Your website competes on content quality and backlinks. Your GBP listing competes on three factors: relevance, prominence, and proximity.

Relevance is how well your profile matches what the searcher is looking for. This is mostly about your business category, the services you list, and the words you use in your profile description.

Prominence is how well-known and trusted your business appears online. Reviews, review count, responses, the quality of your photos, how often your listing is updated. All of this feeds prominence signals.

Proximity is how close your business is to the searcher, or to the area they're searching in. You can't move your shopfront, but you can influence relevance and prominence.

Most SMEs only control one of the three without realising it. They set an accurate address (proximity, handled) and leave prominence and relevance untouched.

1. Get Your Categories Right

The single most impactful GBP setting most SMEs get wrong is their primary category.

GBP has hundreds of categories, and they're surprisingly specific. The difference between "Restaurant" and "Hawker Centre" or between "Marketing Agency" and "Digital Marketing Agency" matters. Google uses your primary category to decide which searches you're eligible to appear in.

Action: Check your primary category now. Is it the most specific accurate option available? Then add secondary categories for every service line that brings in revenue.

A hair salon, for example, might use: Hair Salon (primary), Beauty Salon, Nail Salon. A GP clinic: Doctor (primary), Medical Clinic, Family Practice Physician.

Don't stuff categories with services you don't actually provide. Google picks that up through reviews and content over time.

2. Fill Every Section (Including the Ones You've Ignored)

The basics (name, address, phone, hours) are table stakes. The sections most SMEs leave blank are where competitive advantage hides.

Services and products: List every service with a description and price range. These descriptions are indexed and affect relevance for long-tail searches. A renovation contractor who lists "HDB kitchen renovation," "landed property bathroom remodel," and "condo feature wall" separately will outperform one with a single "Renovation Services" entry.

Business description: 750 characters. Use them. Describe what you do, who you serve, and what makes you different, in plain language that your customers would actually search for. No corporate speak.

Attributes: GBP has a long list of attributes: wheelchair accessible, free Wi-Fi, serves alcohol, women-led business, and many more. These don't just inform customers. They make you eligible for filtered searches ("restaurants near me that serve halal food").

Hours: Update these. Public holiday hours, extended Lunar New Year hours, late-night Saturday. If a customer shows up and you're closed when your GBP says you're open, you've lost them permanently.

3. Photos That Actually Do Something

A GBP listing with photos gets significantly more direction requests and website clicks than one without. What surprises most business owners is that not all photos perform equally.

Stock photos do nothing. Google's visual recognition can identify them, and so can your potential customers. Real photos of your actual space, your actual team, your actual products build the trust that converts browsers into customers.

What to upload:

• Exterior photos (taken from the street, showing your signage). These help customers recognise you when they arrive.
• Interior photos (natural light if possible, not taken in portrait mode)
• Product or service photos showing what customers are actually paying for
• Team photos: faces build trust faster than almost anything else

Quantity matters. Listings with 10+ photos dramatically outperform listings with 2-3. Set a quarterly reminder to add new images.

One detail most people miss: customers can add photos to your listing too. Monitor these. A blurry, unflattering photo from three years ago might be the first thing a new prospect sees.

4. The Review Strategy That Actually Works

Reviews are the single biggest prominence signal in GBP's algorithm. More reviews, higher average score, and active responses all push you up in local rankings.

The problem is most businesses treat reviews passively. They wait and hope. The ones that dominate local search treat it as a system.

The timing rule: Ask for a review at peak satisfaction, not at checkout. For a restaurant, that's when the customer compliments the food. For a service business, it's the moment after you've solved the problem. That's when people are most likely to follow through.

Make it frictionless: Send a direct link to your GBP review form via WhatsApp. The URL format is: https://g.page/r/[YOUR_PLACE_ID]/review. Most customers won't search for your business and click through three pages to leave a review. Remove every step you can.

Respond to every review. The positive ones, briefly and warmly. The negative ones, promptly and professionally. Your response to a negative review is not for that customer. It's for every future customer who reads it. A business that handles criticism well is more trustworthy than one with a perfect score and no responses.

One important caveat: don't incentivise reviews. Google prohibits it, and savvy customers can spot it. The reviews you want are genuine, and they come from customers who genuinely had a good experience, which means the review strategy starts with the product or service itself.

5. GBP Posts: The Underused Weekly Signal

GBP lets you publish posts that appear directly on your listing: announcements, offers, events, new products. Most businesses post once when they discover the feature and never again.

The value isn't in the posts themselves. It's in the freshness signal they send to Google. A listing updated regularly looks like an active, well-maintained business. One last updated 14 months ago looks like a business that might not exist anymore.

One post a week is enough. Promotion running? Post it. New menu item? Post it. Hired a new team member? Post it. It doesn't need to be polished. It needs to be current.

6. The Q&A Section: Your Secret Weapon

The Q&A section of your GBP listing lets anyone ask a question, and anyone can answer it. Which means if you don't manage your own Q&A section, someone else might answer incorrectly.

The smart move: seed your Q&A section with the questions customers actually ask you most. "Do you serve halal food?" "Is there parking nearby?" "Do you accept PayNow?" "Do I need an appointment or can I walk in?"

Write the question, then answer it as your business. Google allows this. Your answers will show up before any customer-submitted responses. You're essentially building a mini-FAQ directly on your Google listing, right where customers are looking when they're deciding whether to visit.

7. Track the Right Numbers

Most GBP owners check their star rating and not much else. GBP's built-in analytics show data that's actually useful:

• Discovery searches vs. direct searches: Discovery means people found you by searching for a category ("Japanese restaurant Clementi"), not your name. A high discovery rate means your relevance signals are working. A low one means work on categories and descriptions.
• Direction requests: Are people actually planning to visit? This is a strong buying-intent signal.
• Phone calls: How many calls came from your GBP listing specifically.
• Website clicks: How much traffic GBP is sending to your site.

Track these monthly. If direction requests are high but phone calls are low, consider whether your phone number is easy to find and click. If discovery searches are low, revisit your categories and description.

Why This Matters More Right Now

With Deliveroo exiting Singapore this week and the broader trend of delivery platforms squeezing margins, more F&B businesses are rebuilding direct customer relationships. GBP is one of the most powerful ways to do that.

A customer who finds you on Google Maps, walks in, and has a great experience is a customer you own. No commission. No algorithm deciding whether to show them your restaurant next week.

If you're in F&B, retail, services, or any business where location matters, your GBP listing is your most cost-effective front door. The businesses that treat it seriously are the ones consistently appearing in the top three local results.

The ones that don't? They're the ones wondering why a competitor they've never heard of keeps showing up above them.

What to Do This Week

1. Log in to your GBP listing and audit your primary and secondary categories
2. Fill in every blank field: services, products, attributes, description
3. Upload at least 10 high-quality real photos if you don't have them already
4. Set up a direct review link and start sending it to satisfied customers via WhatsApp
5. Post one update: a promotion, a staff photo, anything current
6. Seed your Q&A section with the five most common customer questions

If GBP is one of several local SEO gaps in your digital presence, Magnified can run a full audit and build a system that keeps your profile ranking consistently. Get in touch with our team.