Zum Inhalt springen
GewerbeCheck.at

Getting found on Google

If you do one thing after registering your trade, do this. A Google Business Profile is free, takes about twenty minutes, and for a local business it is worth more than a website, a logo and a social account combined.

Why this comes first A well-kept profile appears in the “Local Pack” — the three map results at the very top — and in Maps, above the ordinary search results. For local searches that is the most valuable position there is, and it costs nothing.
The language decision, before anything else Write the profile in German. Your neighbours search “Friseur in der Nähe”, “Installateur Notdienst”, “Kosmetikstudio 1070” — and so do most of the English speakers living around you, because that is what returns results. A profile written only in English is not ranked lower in those searches. It does not appear in them. This one decision costs international business owners in Austria more customers than anything else on this site.

Set up in six steps

  1. Claim the profile. Search your business name on Google — an entry may already exist, created automatically. Claim it rather than making a second one; duplicates split your reviews and confuse the ranking.
  2. Pick the primary category carefully, in German. This single field does more for your ranking than any other. Look at what two or three established competitors nearby have chosen and use the same term — it is the one people type.
  3. Address, service area and hours. Exact and current. If you work at customers’ premises rather than your own, set a service area instead of an address. Holiday hours matter more than they sound: “are they open?” is the most common local search there is.
  4. Photos — real ones. The premises, the work, the team. Ten good photographs beat fifty poor ones, and stock images are recognisable and cost trust. Images are also the part of your profile that needs no translation at all.
  5. Services and description. List services with the German terms customers use. Three plain sentences of description are enough — then add one line naming the other languages you work in, so international customers recognise you.
  6. Verify. Google confirms the business, usually by postcard, video or phone. Until this is done, the profile barely shows.
NAP consistency — the quiet killer Name, address and phone number must be written identically everywhere: Google profile, your website, Herold, the WKO company directory, social media. Even “Str.” versus “Straße” counts as a difference. Google reads inconsistency as uncertainty about whether you are one business or several, and ranks accordingly. Pick one exact spelling and use it everywhere without exception.

Keeping it alive — ten minutes a week

How hard do you actually have to work at this? That depends on who you are up against. In a dense district you need a genuinely well-kept profile to appear at all; in an open one, a complete profile often puts you near the top by itself. The free market check shows how many competitors your trade has in your district, from official GISA data — which tells you which of those two situations you are in.

Common questions

Should my Google Business Profile be in German or English?

German, with English named inside it. The profile language decides whether you appear when someone nearby searches — and in Austria that search is overwhelmingly in German, including from people who speak English perfectly well. Write the business category, service names and description in German, then add one clear line such as “We serve our customers in English as well.” You are then findable locally and legible internationally. An English-only profile is not ranked lower in German searches; it is absent from them.

I do not trust my German. How do I write the profile?

Copy the vocabulary, not the sentences. Open the profiles of two or three established competitors in your district and note the exact terms they use for their services and category — those are the words people actually type. Use the same ones. For the description, three plain sentences are enough, and having a native speaker read them once costs you a coffee. What you should not do is run a long English text through a translator and paste the result; that reads badly to exactly the local customers you are trying to reach.

Is the Google profile really more important than a website?

For a local trade, yes, and it is not close. The profile appears in the Local Pack and in Maps — above the ordinary search results — and it answers the three things a local customer actually wants to know: are you open, where are you, what do others say. A website is useful later. The profile is useful today, and it costs nothing.

How long until it makes a difference?

Usually a few weeks for the profile to settle and start appearing consistently, longer in a dense district. What speeds it up is completeness and activity: photos, correct hours, answered reviews, occasional posts. What slows it down is an abandoned profile with three fields filled in.

→ Collecting reviews · → Do you even need a website? · → All growth guides

Marketing practice, not legal advice.