Google Business Profile for dog walkers

Why this is worth an hour

When somebody in your area needs a walker, most of them type a phrase like dog walker near me and take whichever nearby result looks like a real person who is still in business. A Google Business Profile is free, and it is the only listing in that result you own outright.

Nobody can promise you a position, so the goal here is narrower and completely inside your control: be the most complete, most accurate, most obviously alive profile in your circle.

Set it up as a service-area business

You drive to the dog. You do not have customers coming to your kitchen. In Google's terms that makes you a service-area business, and it changes two settings.

The address comes off.Google's help pages say plainly that if you do not serve customers at your business address, you remove your address from your Business Profile. That is the answer to the question most walkers are quietly worried about, and it is Google's answer, not ours.

The service areas go on. Google lets you add up to 20 service areas, set by city, postal code or another type of area. You cannot set a radius around your home. Google also asks that the whole area stay within about two hours of driving time from where the business is based.

Do not use all 20. Use the neighborhoods and postal codes you actually want to work, for the same reason your flyers name one neighborhood. A profile that claims the whole metro tells Google nothing about where you are useful.

Google will ask you to verify the business before it goes live. The method it offers depends on the business, so do what your dashboard asks and do not follow a checklist from a blog.

The name field is not a keyword field

Google's guidelines for representing your business say the name must be your real-world name, the one on your website, your paperwork and your van if you have one, without added keywords, taglines or promotional wording. They also say there should be only one profile per business.

So Maple Street Dog Walking is fine. Maple Street Dog Walking Best Dog Walker Pet Sitting Cheap is a rule break, and a rule break on the one asset you own is a bad trade for any short term gain.

Categories, then services

Google's category help says to pick a specific primary category that best describes what your business is, and to use a few more categories for the other things you are, rather than adding one for everything you sell.

A useful way to think about it: the category says what you are. The services say what you do.

Google says businesses in service categories can list their offerings, that you can create custom services, and that you can add information such as a price and a description to each one. It also says custom service names must not contain prices or phone numbers, so put the price in the price field and the phone number in the phone field.

Write the same menu you use everywhere else. A 30 minute private walk. A 60 minute private walk. A midday drop in visit. An additional dog. If you have not settled that menu yet, the pricing guide builds it from your own costs.

Photos, and what Google will accept

Google publishes the requirements, so there is no guessing:

• JPG or PNG
• Between 10 KB and 5 MB
• 720 pixels tall by 720 pixels wide recommended, 250 by 250 minimum
• In focus and well lit, with no significant alterations or heavy filters

What to shoot, in order: you with a dog, outdoors, on a street a local will recognise. Your leash setup and gear laid out. A dog you walk, with the owner's permission, and always ask first. Your logo, last, because nobody hires a logo.

Skip stock photography entirely. The whole reason a neighbor picks you over an app is that you are a specific person who works on their street, and a stock photo removes the only advantage you have.

Posts, and how often to bother

Google lets you post updates, offers and events, and they show on Search and Maps. Google also says posts older than six months are archived unless a date range is set, which tells you the useful cadence without anyone guessing: something new every month or two keeps the profile visibly alive.

Three post ideas that take five minutes and are not filler:

• Open slots for a specific area. Two midday slots free on the north side this month.
• A seasonal note. Hot pavement, ice melt on paws, holiday week booking cut-offs.
• A real photo from the route, posted with permission, and one sentence about the walk.

Reviews: what you may ask for

Google supports asking. Its help pages describe sharing a review link or a code square with customers so they can leave a review, so a request is not a grey area.

What is prohibited is paying for it. Google treats offering incentives, such as free or discounted goods or services, in exchange for posting a review, changing one or removing a negative one, as fake and misleading content. So a free walk for a review is out. Thanking a client for a referral is a different thing, and the reviews and referrals guide draws that line carefully.

Reply to every review, including the unhappy one. The reply is not written for the person who left it. It is written for the next person reading it.

The ten minute monthly check

1. Hours still right, including any holiday week coming up
2. Phone number and booking link still working
3. Service areas still match the route you actually run
4. One new photo added
5. One post added
6. Every new review answered

Put it on the same weekly hour as your local marketing routine. It is the cheapest ten minutes in the business.

Read next

• How to get your first 10 dog walking clients puts this channel next to the others and ranks them.
• The Meet and Greet checklist is what the profile is supposed to lead to.