Google Business Profile
Your local listing on Google. Controls how your service appears in search and maps.
Your Google Business Profile (GBP) is the single most important free listing a care home or home care agency can maintain. It is what appears in the Google Map Pack, which is the set of three local results shown at the top of search results for queries like "care home near me" or "nursing home in [town]". For many families, it is the first impression they form of your home before they ever visit your website.
A GBP listing is created automatically for most registered businesses, but claiming it and actively managing it produces materially different search outcomes. Unclaimed profiles display whatever information Google has inferred from other sources, which often leads to outdated phone numbers, incorrect categories, and a lack of photos. A claimed, complete profile signals to Google that your business is active, credible, and relevant.
The fields that matter most are the primary business category (which determines which searches you appear for), your name, address, and phone number (which must exactly match your Carehome.co.uk listing and CQC registration), your photo set (exterior, interior, team), and your review response rate. Homes that respond to every review, including negative ones, consistently outperform those that refrain from responding in Map Pack rankings. Google treats response activity as a prominence signal.
Profile completeness affects conversion independently of ranking. A family who finds you in the Map Pack and clicks through to an incomplete profile with no photos, no service listings, and unanswered reviews will often contact a competitor instead. Ranking gets you found. The profile gets you contacted. Both require active management.