New 2026 Weekly Best Practices Checklist for Real Estate Agent Google Business Profiles: 6 Steps to Google Business Profile Dominance
Some things have changed with Google Business Profiles. Here’s your updated 2026 weekly checklist. And as always, if you can do more, do it. But this is the minimum you should be doing if you want your Google Business Profile to become or stay fruitful and relevant to Google and potential clients.
Do these 6 things weekly and your Google Business Profile will rank better, attract more attention, and get more leads.
The Checklist:
Click to skip to section:
- Get a Review
- Add a Photo or Video
- Post an Update
- Check Settings & Status
- Website Local SEO
- Authority Signals [NINJA LEVEL]
1. Get a Review
Reviews are huge for all kinds of reasons. Make sure you get reviews consistently and reply to all of them promptly. And make sure you don’t break any rules.
Here are some additional review resources:
Protecting Your Reviews [“Review Insurance”]
5 Review Tips:
Gold Standard of Reviews:
The Best Way to Help Ensure a Review Actually Shows Up on Your Profile:
2. Add a Photo or Video (Photos section, NOT Updates or Products)
Keep it simple and classy. Try to get 1 image of the front of the house (like the main picture used for the listing) and 1 image of the smiling client from every sale. Then add those images to your Google Business Profile.
Think of your Photos section as similar to a coffee table book highlighting your past sales. It would be a big hard bound expensive classy book with the feel of a high end architecture or design magazine. There wouldn’t be a bunch of text overlays, me cut out with scissors and pasted on top, contact info, cluttered design elements, etc. It would just be high end classy beautiful pristine images of houses (represents real estate very plainly, is pretty, and peoiple assume you had something to do with the sale even if you don’t put text on it) and smiling faces (social proof similar to reviews and helps convert). Plus selective videos as explained below…
BONUS if you can get a testimonial video and add that to the Photos section as well. And possibly the property drone or walk-through video if it’s high quality and can be edited to fit within the required guidelines.
The ninja move for video in the photos section would be to create a purpose built video(s) specifically for your Google Business Profile. When people view your profile, Google usually replaces your main image or the secondary image with one of your videos. And it autoplays (no sound). So think about what you think would convince people to call you when they see your video. I like to think of video on the Google Business Profile like a 30 second commercials (you are limited to 30 seconds).
Check out my photos section HERE
Video & Photo Guidelines HERE and below…
3. Post an Update (an Update, NOT a Photo or Product)
Again, keep it simple and effective. You don’t need to post multiple times a day or even every day. Once a week is enough to satisfy Google and make you look recent and active enough for people to trust you. And you want to focus on things that help convert, not teach.
And you don’t want to send them off profile down a rabbit hole, even if that rabbit hole is ours. When someone is looking at your profile, whether from a random search or a person who already knows of you and is vetting you, they are there to make a decision and call someone right now. So that’s what we want to encourage. Social proof to help convince them, and always the call button instead of linking out to something.
This method is great for two reasons:
- Super easy to do. I can do it in 60 seconds. Copy and paste the review in quotes. Add the person’s name and what they were (Example: “Derek, Home Seller”). Edit and attach the image. Easy peasy.
- Helps convert.
A couple videos with examples:
4. Check Settings & Status
Click on the “Edit profile” and “Edit services” tabs and scroll/scan through them. You’re looking for any suggested changes from google, any new features that might be available, and any issues. Shouldn’t take more than a few seconds each.
Once a month or so, stop your scroll at the “Special Hours” section in the “Edit profile” tab and make sure you say you are open on the upcoming holidays. I would just be open normal hours 365 days a year including holidays. I’ve never heard an agent say “I got too many listing calls on Christmas.”. On the other hand, agents for sure miss opportunities because their profile basically says “This business might not be open today, we’re not sure because they didn’t tell us” in red. Versus the compeitor that set their special hours and said they are definityely open. And they show as just “Open” in green. Which one do you think people will call on Easter or Memorial Day or Martin Luther King Day etc?
This does two things:
- Google sees that you are in your main settings regularly, and therefore it can trust that your business information is correct and you are on top of your business.
- Avoids any prolonged issues or changes to your profile that you didn’t know about.
5. Website Local SEO
The website that is attached to your Google Business Profile influences the ranking of your profile. The more “Local SEO Optimized” the site is, the more it can help your ranking.
A few very basic tips:
- Having no website is terrible in Google and consumers’ eyes. So at least a minimal website is a must.
- Has to be a website. Cannot be a Facebook Biz Page or something like that.
- Make sure everything is consistent with your Google Business Profile. Primarily: Name, Address, Phone Number, Service Areas, and Services.
- Optimize site for Local SEO (that requires an entire separate article)
- Continually revise, update, optimize, add pages to, and generally work on your website. A website is not once and done. It should get the same amount of ongoing attention as people give to their social media.
6. Authority Signals (NINJA LEVEL)
This is the part most people miss. And it’s the hardest.
Google sees when people are interested in you on the internet. If people are interested in you and clicking on your stuff and spend time on your stuff, then Google will think that people like you and they should show you to more people who are searching randomly. So we have to show Google that people like us and choose us by giving Google the signals it needs.
Here are a few things you can do each week:
- Get people to Google you specifically (Example: “Derek Bicksler, Realtor”) and then click on and spend time on your webhsite and Google Business Profile. They could even like some images and reviews while they are there. Or click the call button and/or directions button.
- Get people to search for “real estate agent near me”, find you in the list (can do for Google Business Profile and Website), and click on you and spend time on your stuff.
- Get people to enter your website specifically into their Chrome browser (Example: “agentderek.com”) and then spend time there scrolling, reading, and clicking on things.
Here are a few things that should be done for initial setup for Authority:
- Make sure all your online profiles are consistent with your Google Business Profile (name, contact info, what you do) and look great. And if the platform has reviews, make sure you have some and have a good rating there. Don’t sleep on other platforms. Google traditional cares about your standing across the internet for ranking you. And now with AI (Gemini or otherwise), the systems are definitely looking at your entire online presence.
- Join Chambers and Local Organizations with strong local web presence in order to get your website link/url on their websites.
- Website with Proper SEO and that is consistent with the Google Business Profile.
⚠️ No More Houses in Products Section
DO NOT add sold homes or home searches or homes for sale to your “Products” section. Google has started policing their “Immovable Property Policy”, which prohibits this. I still add services to my products, but that is mostly a once and done thing that is not ongoing.
Need help ?
