When someone finds your business on Google, they want to know quickly whether you offer the thing they need. Does this clinic do teeth whitening? Does this salon do keratin? Does this gym have personal training? If your profile can't answer that, they move to the next result. Your services and products sections are where those answers live.
Services vs products
- Services are the work you do: root canal treatment, hair colouring, home tuition, property consultation, kundli matching.
- Products are things you sell: a cake, a supplement, a pair of glasses, a gift hamper. Products show with a photo, name, category, description and optional price.
Many businesses need both. A salon offers haircuts (a service) and sells hair care products. A clinic offers consultations and may sell dental care kits. Which sections appear in your profile editor depends on your business category.
Setting up services
- Open your Business Profile while signed in and go to edit your services.
- Google suggests services based on your categories. Tick the ones you really offer.
- Add custom services for anything missing.
- For each important service, add a short description: what it is, who it is for, how long it takes.
- Add a price only if your pricing is fixed and you are happy to show it. You can leave it blank.
Write descriptions for real people, not search engines. "Professional teeth cleaning to remove plaque and stains. Takes about 30 minutes. Recommended every six months." is far more useful than a string of keywords.
Setting up products
- Go to the products section of your profile editor.
- Add a clear, real photo of the product. Avoid stock images.
- Give it a simple name and pick or create a product category, such as "Cakes" or "Hair care".
- Write a short description and add a price or price range if you want.
- Add a button, such as a link to order or learn more, where the option is available.
Start with your best-selling or most-asked-about items. Ten well-presented products are better than fifty with blurry photos.
Why this matters now
Google removed the old questions and answers section from Business Profiles, so customers have fewer ways to ask you something directly on your profile. A clear services list, along with your description and posts, does much of that job instead. It also helps Google understand what your business actually does, which matters when someone searches for a specific service rather than your business type.
Examples that work well
- Dental clinic: consultation, teeth cleaning, fillings, root canal treatment, braces and aligners, kids' dentistry, each with one or two lines of description.
- Gym: membership plans, personal training, group classes, diet consultation.
- Restaurant: list signature dishes and party orders as products, with real photos.
- Real estate agent: buying, selling, renting, property valuation, documentation help.
- Coaching centre: each course or class as a service, with the batch format explained.
Common mistakes
- Listing services you don't actually offer, hoping to appear in more searches. Customers who call and are turned away tend to leave poor reviews.
- Copying the same description into every service.
- Showing old prices that you no longer honour.
- Never updating the list when you add or stop a service.
Keep it fresh
Review the list every few months, and whenever you launch something new. A new product photo or service is also a good subject for a Google post, which gives customers one more reason to look at your profile.
We can set it up for you
Building and maintaining your services and products list is part of every Google Business Profile management plan. Book a free profile check and we'll show you what is missing from yours.