What to do on your Google listing — once, daily, weekly

Most “Google listing checklists” are an email form with a PDF behind them. This is the list. You can print it, or leave it here.

Google asks for a listing that is accurate, complete, and up to date. Not “optimised”. Accurate. Those three words are in the representation guidelines and on the page for editing a profile. The rest of this article is just the calendar for those three words.

Screenshot pending: local-seo

Run pnpm screens with the app's local stack up to capture it. The Artifluence Google listing screen, with the fields that need keeping.

Once — and you leave it alone until the business changes

This is the base. If it is wrong, nothing below saves it.

• The name, as it is written on the shopfront and on invoices. No “best pizza Lyon” glued on the end. The name rules are long because people cheat; Google suspends them for it.
• The address, or the service area if customers do not visit a premises. Not both invented. A business without a shop has its own piece: the listing without a shopfront.
• The phone that is answered during the hours you show. A personal number that goes to voicemail at two is a lost customer.
• The primary category, one, the job. Secondaries after that, only if you actually do them.
• The website, if it exists. If it does not, do not put a Facebook page there and hope nobody notices.
• Attributes that are true: accessibility, payments, “by appointment”. Not the ones that look nice.

Artifluence pulls this from the listing. You read it over. You do not “fill it in” every Monday.

Every day — five minutes, before you open

• Today’s hours. A one-off closure, a public holiday, “open until we sell out”. Google has a field for that. A closed door with an open listing is the most expensive lie a local shop tells.
• New reviews. Read, reply, or let the draft go if you trust it. The “how” is elsewhere; the rhythm is here: do not end the day with a 7am review still unanswered.
• A photograph if something changed — the window, the dish, the job. One a day is too much for many businesses. One on the days there is something to show is enough.

Every week — what people see first

• One post on the listing. Google now describes three types: an update, an offer, an event. No more “Covid post”. Posts older than six months are archived unless they have dates. Detail in Google posts in 2026.
• Re-read the cover and interior photos. A blurry 2021 shot at the top of the listing costs more than an hour of work.
• Check the action button (directions, call, book) still goes to the right place.

Every month — what you forget

• Holiday hours coming up. Not Bastille Day on the 13th at 11pm.
• Services and products listed on the profile. If you no longer do gel nails, take it off.
• Links: site, menu, booking. A broken link is worse than no link.
• A pass over the directories where your name, address and phone must match. NAP is that job.

What Artifluence keeps, and what stays yours

The listing, the posts, the review replies: that is the product. You photograph, you read over, you say when you go on holiday.

What the software cannot do: know you closed an hour early because the oven died. That is the morning, before you open, and it is one line on the listing.

The checklist is not a growth lever. It is the difference between a listing Google can show and a listing it avoids.

Sources

1. Guidelines for representing your business on Google (accessed 7 September 2026)
2. Edit your Business Profile (accessed 7 September 2026)
3. Create & manage posts on your Business Profile (accessed 7 September 2026)

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