When a homeowner types “estate agents near me” into Google, the first thing they see is not a website. It is a map with three agents underneath it. Those three get the calls. Everyone else gets scrolled past.
Which three appear is decided almost entirely by Google Business Profile, the free listing Google gives every business. In the most recent Whitespark Local Search Ranking Factors survey, the profile itself was rated the single biggest factor in who appears in that map pack, ahead of the website, ahead of reviews, and well ahead of links. I have written about why this matters in our complete guide to SEO for estate agents. This article is the practical half: the fields inside the profile that actually move you, in the order I fix them for clients.
Why the profile matters more for agents than most businesses
Estate agency is one of the most local searches there is. Nobody searches “estate agent” on its own with serious intent. They search “estate agents near me”, which Google now handles 40,500 times a month in the UK, or “estate agent near me”, which has grown from 6,600 monthly searches in October 2025 to 22,400 by September 2026 (SE Ranking, Google UK search data, September 2026). Both of those show a map pack. And when Zoopla and YouGov asked 1,006 recent sellers what mattered most in choosing an agent, the top answer was local presence at 20%, with being well known locally at 13% and reputation at 9% (Zoopla and YouGov, June 2025). The map pack is where local presence and reputation are displayed side by side, before anyone clicks anything.
Here is what a properly set-up profile did for one of our clients, an independent agent in a competitive town. In a single month, the profile produced 879 views, 374 website visits and 14 direct phone calls, a total of 456 interactions, which is a 52% conversion from view to action. Another client’s profile produced 198 interactions and 30 phone calls in a month, with no ad spend at all. Those calls are valuation requests, landlords and applicants ringing a number they found on a map.
The nine fields, in the order to fix them
Most profiles I audit have been “claimed” and then left. The owner added a phone number, uploaded the logo, and moved on. Google reads the whole profile, and the gaps are what keep an agency out of the top three. Work through these in order.
1. Primary category
This is the most important single setting on the profile, and the one most often wrong. Your primary category must be “Real estate agency” if you sell, or “Property management company” if lettings is the core of the business. Do not choose “Estate agent” if it is offered as a secondary option only, and never leave it as “Real estate consultant” or “Property investment”, which I see on a surprising number of agencies. Google uses the primary category to decide which searches you are eligible for. If it is wrong, nothing else you do matters.
Add secondary categories for the other things you do: “Letting agent”, “Property management company”, “Real estate appraiser” if you do formal valuations, “Commercial real estate agency” if that applies. Do not add categories for services you do not offer to look bigger. It dilutes the signal.
2. Business name
Use your trading name exactly as it appears on your fascia and website, and nothing else. Adding “Estate Agents in Guildford” to the name used to work and now gets profiles suspended, which for an agency means disappearing from the map for weeks while you appeal. If your legal name and trading name differ, use the trading name that customers know.
3. Address and service area
If you have a branch, use the full address and keep the pin exactly on the building. If you work from home or a serviced office, hide the address and set a service area instead. Set the service area to the towns and postcodes you genuinely cover, not the whole county. A tight, honest service area helps Google trust the listing; a huge one does not extend your reach and can undermine it.
Multi-branch agencies need one profile per branch, each with its own address, phone number and category set. Never run two branches from one profile.
4. Phone number and website link
Use a local landline as the primary number, not a mobile, and make sure the same number appears on your website contact page and footer. Point the website link at the page that matches the profile: the homepage for a single-branch agency, the branch page for a multi-branch one. If you have a separate valuation page, add it as the appointment link rather than replacing the main website link.
5. Services
This is the field almost every agency leaves empty, and it is one of the strongest. Under each category, Google lets you list services with a description. Add every service you offer in the words a customer would use: “Free house valuation”, “Property sales”, “Lettings and property management”, “Landlord services”, “Probate valuations”, “New homes”, “Mortgage advice” if you offer it. Write two or three sentences for each, mentioning the towns you cover. These descriptions are indexed, and they feed the AI answers that Google now shows on around three in ten searches (Ofcom, Online Nation 2025).
6. Business description
You have 750 characters. Use them to say who you are, where you work and what you are known for, in plain English. Name your main towns. Mention how long you have been trading and anything a seller would care about, like a local office, in-house lettings, or your average time to sell if you can back it up. Do not stuff it with keywords and do not put URLs or promotional offers in it, which Google rejects.
7. Photos and video
Google’s own guidance encourages businesses to add photos regularly, and in every profile we manage the months with fresh photos outperform the months without. For an agency: the office exterior with signage, the team, the interior, your board, and a steady stream of property photos. Upload a few new ones every month rather than fifty in one go. Add a short video walk-through of the office if you can. Geotagging is not necessary, but the photos should be yours, not stock.
8. Reviews and replies
Reviews are one of the three biggest ranking factors and the biggest conversion factor, and they deserve their own article, so I have written one: how to get more Google reviews as an estate agent. For the purposes of the profile, the rule is simple: reply to every review, positive or negative, within a few days, using the reviewer’s name and mentioning the town or the property type where it is natural. Replies are content Google reads.
9. Posts and Q&A
Google Posts do not move rankings much on their own, but a profile that posts weekly looks alive, and Google favours profiles that are actively managed. Post your latest listings, sold and let news, market updates and valuation offers. Use the Q&A section to ask and answer the ten questions vendors always ask: fees, tie-in periods, how you market a property, whether you do virtual viewings, what areas you cover. If you do not fill the Q&A, the public will.
The three things that get profiles suspended
A suspension takes you off the map entirely, often for two to four weeks. Avoid the three common causes: keywords added to the business name, a virtual office or PO box used as a physical address, and creating a second profile for the same branch. If you inherit a suspended profile, the fix is to correct the issue and file a reinstatement request through Google Business Profile Help, with proof of the address such as a utility bill or lease.
How long before it works
Category and service changes are usually reflected within a week. Photo and post activity compounds over a month or two. Reviews take as long as it takes to earn them. In our experience, an agency that goes from a bare profile to a complete one, with a reply on every review and weekly activity, sees a measurable change in calls within the first quarter, which is why the profile is always the first job on any Local SEO engagement.
Do it yourself, or have it done
Everything in this article can be done in an afternoon by whoever handles your marketing, and I would rather you did it than paid anyone to. Where an agency earns its fee is the part that follows: the area pages on the website that the profile links to, the review system that keeps the flow steady, the citations that confirm your details across the web, and the monthly reporting that tells you which searches the calls are coming from. That is what our Local SEO for estate agents service covers, and the profile work in this article is the foundation it is built on.
If you would like a second pair of eyes on your profile before you start, book a discovery call, and I will go through it with you on screen.
Sources
- Whitespark, Local Search Ranking Factors survey: https://whitespark.ca/local-search-ranking-factors/
- SE Ranking, Google UK search volume data, September 2026
- Zoopla and YouGov, survey of 1,006 recent UK home sellers, June 2025: https://www.zoopla.co.uk/
- Ofcom, Online Nation 2025: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/
- Google Business Profile Help, guidelines for representing your business: https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177
- EAM client data, Local SEO case studies, 2026
