Your Google Business Profile: the thirty-minute fix most shops in Marbella skip

Google Business Profile is the panel that appears when someone searches for your business or for businesses like yours: name, photos, opening hours, reviews, map pin, phone. For a shop or bar in a tourist town it is, by a distance, the most visited "web page" you have, and it is free. Most profiles in Marbella were created automatically by Google years ago and have never been claimed by the owner, which means wrong hours, old photos and unanswered reviews.

Claiming it takes ten minutes: search for your business, click "Own this business?" and verify by phone, postcard or video. Then spend twenty minutes on the things that matter.

Hours. Set regular hours and, critically, special hours for holidays and the days you close in winter. A visitor who walks to a closed door because Google said "open" leaves a one-star review.

Photos. Ten real photos taken on a phone in daylight: the front from the street (so people recognise it), the interior, five dishes or products, the terrace. Replace them each season. Google shows profiles with recent photos more often.

Categories and attributes. The primary category must be right (a "cafetería" that is really a "restaurante" loses lunch searches). Add attributes that visitors filter by: terrace, dog-friendly, card payments, wheelchair access, languages spoken.

Reviews. Answer every review, including the good ones, within a few days, in the language the reviewer wrote in. For a bad review, one calm sentence acknowledging the problem and inviting the person back does more for the next reader than any defence. Never argue.

Posts and the menu. Upload the menu as text, not only as a photo, so Google can read it; a short post a week about a new dish or a seasonal change keeps the profile active.

Finally, make sure name, address and phone are identical on Google, on your door and on any website or social account. Mismatches confuse both Google and customers.