Best Practices for GMB Optimization

Set a solid foundation with complete business information and description
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Building the perfect listing means starting from the ground up and ensuring that all basic information is up-to-date and accurate. To begin, a quick look through your locations to check that your business name, address and phone number are all correct and consistent with other local citations is a crucial first step.
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NAP consistency plays an important part in GMB rankings and business discovery, without it you're making it harder for people to find you.
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Adding a description to your location pages is also an excellent way to improve your search rankings on Google. You are allowed up to 750 characters to provide useful information on services and products offered, but only the first 250 characters show up before they get cut off in the Knowledge Panel. With that in mind, make sure that you're attentively crafting your business description and putting the most important information and keywords (including your city) toward the beginning of the description.
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Decide on relevant and specific categories
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As one could guess, the categories you choose play quite the role in where you rank, as they are what helps Google decide which searches your listings belong in. Categories are what describe your business and connect you to customers searching for the services you offer.
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As our rule of thumb, primary categories should be targeted, but not obscure, and additional categories should be descriptive, not spammy.
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Read more about Best Practices for Categories
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Upload on brand, high-quality photos
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After you've finished updating all the necessary information to your location pages, you can begin to personalize the visual aspect of your profile.
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Photos are an essential part of optimization as, businesses with photos receive 42% more requests for driving directions to their location from users on Google, and 35% more clicks through to their website than businesses that don’t have photos*.
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Photos, without question, help your listing stand out and give customers an idea of what to expect during their visit. Make sure that the photos associated with each location are both relevant and not overly "stylized".
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Read more about Best Practices for Google Images
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Respond to your reviews
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When it comes to review responses, it seems that both reader and reviewer alike are anticipating one (not a lot of room for debate here), and not only that, but they're also expect one within 24-48 hours after posting.
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Think of review responses as one more opportunity for free advertisement, as it's another chance to reiterate your business proposition and display your commitment to resolving customer complaints.
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Not only is it important to show your customers that you value their feedback, responding to reviews also improves your business's visibility and increases the likelihood that a potential customer will visit your location. Google's interest is in recommending the most reliable businesses to searchers, and what better way to prove that than publicly responding.
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Read more about Best Practices for Managing Online Reviews
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Use Google Posts to raise conversion rates
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​From Google:
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​Seventy percent of people look at multiple businesses before making a final choice. With Posts, you can share timely, relevant updates right on Google Search and Maps to help your business stand out to potential customers. And by including custom calls-to-actions directly on your business listing, you can choose how to connect with your customers.
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Read more about Best Practices for Google Posts