Google Business Profile optimization used to be a one-afternoon job. Fill in the fields, upload a logo, move on. The profile does more work in 2026, and Google reads it differently. The old Q&A section is gone, and Google has started answering questions about businesses with AI that draws on your profile and your reviews. A thin profile gets you thin answers.
For a business in Sherman, Denison or anywhere else in Texoma, the profile is often the first thing a customer sees, before they ever reach your website. Here’s what to get right this year.
Fill in everything, then check it every quarter
Most owners stop at name, address and phone. Finish the rest:
- Your real business name, exactly as it’s on your truck and your sign. Stuffing it with “Best Plumber Sherman TX” breaks Google’s guidelines and can get the profile suspended.
- Service areas by city. List the towns you actually drive to, not “North Texas.” Showing up in a second town takes more than a checkbox, though, which is why you might rank in Sherman but not Denison.
- Hours, plus special hours for holidays and weather closures.
- A phone number a person answers, matching the one on your website.
- A website link to the right page. If you have a page for each service or city, use it.
- The description. You get 750 characters. Say what you do, where and for whom, in plain words.
- Services and attributes. Add each service with a short description, and check every attribute that’s true.
Then put a reminder on your calendar to look at it every three months. Hours drift. Numbers change. The public can suggest edits to your listing, and now and then a wrong one sticks.
Choose categories like a customer would
Your primary category matters more than anything else you pick. Use the plainest term Google offers for what you are: “Plumber,” “Roofing contractor,” “Hair salon.” Picking something broad to seem bigger usually backfires.
Secondary categories are for your other real lines of work. A lawn care company that also does landscaping and irrigation should add both. If you’d turn the job down, leave the category off.
One quick check: search your main service in Google Maps and open the top three results. The primary category shows under each business name, and you might spot a better fit than the one you chose.
Photos and video on a schedule
Photos are some of the most-viewed parts of a profile, and a stale set makes people wonder if you’re still open. Upload real work every week or two. The job, the crew, the truck, and the building from the street so people recognize it when they pull in.
Short video works here too. A 20-second clip of a finished job next to your reviews says more than a logo. Phone footage is fine. Blurry isn’t, so shoot three and keep the best one.
Reviews carry more weight every year
BrightLocal’s 2026 Local Consumer Review Survey found that 97% of consumers read reviews for local businesses and 74% look for reviews from the last three months. Recency counts. Fifty reviews from 2021 don’t tell anyone how you’re doing now.
Ask every happy customer, in person or by text, using the direct review link from your profile. Don’t pay for reviews or trade discounts for them. Google’s policies prohibit it, and the reviews can be removed.
Then answer every one. The same survey found 89% of consumers expect owners to respond, and half said they’re unlikely to use a business that replies with generic templates. Use the customer’s name and mention the job. For a bad review, stay calm, keep it short and offer to talk by phone.
It adds up faster than owners expect. Cole’s Pest Control in Bossier City, a client of ours, went from 32 to 45 Google reviews between late May and July 2026, every one of them five stars. We wrote more about building that habit in why online reviews are the new word of mouth.
Google Business Profile optimization for AI answers
This is the part that changed. Google began phasing out the public Q&A section on Business Profiles in 2025 and is moving toward AI answers inside Maps, built from your profile details, posts, photos and what reviewers wrote.
So the questions you used to answer in Q&A need a new home. Put them in your service descriptions, your business description, your posts and an FAQ page on your website. If someone asks Maps whether you work Saturdays or come out to Whitesboro, the answer has to exist somewhere Google can read it.
Reviews feed this too. “They fixed our tankless water heater in Denison the same afternoon” tells the AI, and the next customer, what you did, where and how fast. You can’t write reviews for people. You can ask them to mention what the job was.
The same groundwork helps ChatGPT, Gemini and Google’s AI Overviews describe you correctly: the same name, address and phone everywhere, a clear list of services and towns, and a website that says the same thing your profile does. Our AI search optimization work starts there.
Posts are useful, not magic
Don’t expect profile posts to move your rankings much by themselves. They do give people something current to look at, and they give Google more words about what you do. A seasonal offer, a new service, a photo of a job finished this week. Once a week is plenty. Once a month beats nothing.
Read your performance numbers monthly
The Performance section in your profile dashboard shows calls, website clicks, direction requests and the searches people used to find you. Look at it once a month, like a diagnosis.
Lots of views and few calls usually means your photos, rating or reviews aren’t convincing people. Lots of website clicks and few calls points at the website. And if nearly every search term is your business name, you’re only being found by people who already know you.
That last one is common, and fixable. Our Google Business Profile management covers the weekly work: photos, posts, review replies and the monthly numbers.