Check: Business category and profile accuracy. Evidence required: A current screenshot or export of the Google Business Profile, plus the company's approved business name, categories, hours, phone information, website destination, and service details.
Pass condition: Controlled fields accurately describe the real garage door company and the services it actually offers. Fail condition: Important profile information is wrong, outdated, misleading, or unsupported by operations.
Severity: High when incorrect information can prevent a customer from reaching or understanding the business. Owner: Local SEO or marketing owner, with operations confirming factual details. Corrective action: Update only the fields that are inaccurate or incomplete.
Do not choose categories simply to chase keywords, and do not claim that profile completeness guarantees Local Pack placement. Validation step: Recheck the live profile after processing and compare branded and service-query visibility over time without attributing every movement to a single edit.
Check: Service-area representation. Evidence required: The company's actual operating footprint, dispatch rules, and current profile service-area settings. Pass condition: The stated service area matches where the company genuinely provides service.
Fail condition: The profile or website overstates coverage or relies on nominal markets the company does not meaningfully serve. Severity: High when customers can be misled about availability. Owner: Operations defines coverage; the local SEO owner maintains the profile and website information.
Corrective action: Align profile and website service-area information with real operations. Use dedicated location pages only for genuine locations with useful location-specific information. Validation step: Confirm that sales and dispatch teams agree with the published coverage and review queries by location for relevance.
Check: Products and services information. Evidence required: Current service list, repair capabilities, opener or door product information the company is authorized to discuss, and the visible profile entries.
Pass condition: Entries are useful, accurate, and consistent with the website. Fail condition: Products or services are fabricated, duplicated, outdated, or stuffed with keywords. Severity: Medium to high depending on the misinformation risk.
Owner: Marketing maintains entries; service and sales teams verify facts. Corrective action: Keep descriptions concise and factual, and remove unsupported claims. Do not assume that adding every possible product or service creates eligibility for specific searches.
Validation step: Compare profile information with the live service pages and confirm that customers are not being routed to unavailable services.
Check: Review-request process. Evidence required: The current request workflow, templates, eligibility rules, and a sample of recent review invitations. Pass condition: Eligible customers are asked consistently for honest feedback without incentives, discouraging negative feedback, or selecting only satisfied customers.
Fail condition: The process gates reviews, pressures customers, or routes feedback differently based on sentiment. Severity: Critical when the process violates platform policy or undermines trust. Owner: Customer experience or marketing owner, with management approval.
Corrective action: Standardize a neutral request process and remove any sentiment screening. Responses should remain professional and avoid exposing sensitive customer information. Validation step: Audit the request flow from completion of service through the public review option and confirm that the same neutral process applies to eligible customers.
Check: Profile Q&A and customer-facing answers. Evidence required: Live questions and answers plus the company's approved service, availability, and policy information. Pass condition: Answers are accurate, current, and useful to customers.
Fail condition: Answers promise availability, pricing, or service conditions the company cannot consistently support. Severity: Medium. Owner: Marketing drafts; operations verifies facts. Corrective action: Correct inaccurate answers and answer recurring questions in plain language.
Do not treat Q&A activity as an official ranking factor. Validation step: Recheck the live profile and confirm that answers match the website and current operating policies.
Reference: The source previously framed Map Pack visibility around a top 3 placement. Treat that as a historical editorial example, not as a pass condition or guaranteed outcome.