1. Google Business Profile (10 items)
GBP is the single highest-ROI surface in Canadian local SEO. Every dollar spent on GBP discipline returns more visibility than the equivalent spent on backlinks for most local businesses. These ten items cover the GBP foundation we set on every engagement.
- 1
Profile is verified, claimed, and ownership is in your control
Not in your previous agency's email. Not in a former employee's account. The verified owner email should be a domain-controlled address you can recover.
- 2
Primary category matches your highest-revenue service
Most Canadian businesses we audit have a generic primary category that materially under-targets their best money keywords. Pick the most specific category that accurately describes your most profitable service line.
- 3
Secondary categories cover adjacent service lines
Up to nine additional categories. Each one expands the query landscape you're eligible for — but only choose categories you genuinely deliver. Spammy category stuffing is detectable and gets profiles suspended.
- 4
Service area is set deliberately — not 'all of Canada'
List the cities and neighbourhoods you actually drive to and serve. For storefronts, leave service area empty and rely on the address. For SABs, list 5–20 named cities. Setting 'all of Ontario' on a Toronto-only roofer dilutes your local relevance signal.
- 5
Hours are accurate and special hours are kept current
Stat holidays, Boxing Day, Canada Day. Profile-level hours discrepancies cause Google to demote ranking confidence — and they erode buyer trust on every visit that discovers the mismatch.
- 6
Description uses your category vocabulary, not marketing fluff
750 characters. Lead with the service categories you want to rank for, written in plain prose. No keyword stuffing, no superlatives. Google reads this for entity disambiguation.
- 7
Services menu lists every billable service with its own description
Each service gets a distinct name, optional pricing, and a description that uses query-aligned vocabulary. Service items are ranking surfaces in their own right and are increasingly cited by AI engines for service-specific queries.
- 8
Products section is populated for retailers
Even simple product cards drive secondary impressions and, increasingly, AI shopping graph eligibility. Use real product photography, accurate CAD pricing, and complete attributes.
- 9
Photos are real, recent, and added monthly
Five fresh photos per month, minimum. Photos of staff, work, premises, before/after, and customers (with permission). Photo recency is a measurable Local Pack ranking factor; stock imagery is detectable and demoted.
- 10
Posts are published weekly
Updates, offers, and events. Weekly posting cadence visibly improves Local Pack ranking velocity. Most agencies neglect this surface; the discipline of doing it consistently is itself a differentiator.