As a coworking operator, I can pretty much guarantee you have a Google Business Profile.
The question is whether you're using it to its full potential.
And it matters more now than it did a couple of years ago, because as AI search gets bigger and more prominent, Google Business Profiles are becoming an upstream data feed for AI search visibility.
It offers structured, verified, and categorized information about your space, sitting in tidy fields, ready for a model to pull from.
So, let's talk about a few things you're probably already doing with your profile, and eight things you can do to optimize it that you might not be thinking about yet.
What you've almost certainly already done
If you've got a Google Business Profile, chances are you've:
- Claimed and verified it
- Filled in your business name, address, and phone number
- Set your category to something like "coworking space"
- Listed your hours of operation
- Added a website link
- Written a description
- Uploaded a few photos of your location, your meeting space, and your event space
- Collected a few reviews that you've responded to sporadically
In fairness, that's virtually a total and complete profile.
It's also kind of unremarkable.
So, let's get into what you can do to level it up, and why you should bother.
1. List your staffed hours, not your access hours
This is one I see a lot, and it comes from a reasonable place.
Operators list their hours as 24/7 because members can technically sign in with a key fob at any time. It feels accurate. It's also against Google Business Profile rules.
Your hours should reflect when the space is staffed.
Another easy win while you're in there: list your holiday closures and any other closures in advance, so that anytime someone lands on your profile, they're seeing the most up-to-date information.
2. Cut the keywords out of your business name
In a lot of cases, I'll see operators try to stuff keywords into the title of their business. Coworking, plus private offices, plus meeting rooms, plus the neighbourhood, all crammed into the name field.
The better practice is to list exactly what's shown on the signage of your space and in the title of your website.
That's it. There are plenty of other places on the profile for your keywords.
3. Keep your photos recent, and skip two shortcuts
Having recent, refreshed photos is really, really important.
Two things to avoid:
- Stock photography: To be fair, I don't see this happen very often, but it does happen occasionally. The problem is obvious enough: you're showing people a space that isn't yours, and setting an expectation your tour can't meet.
- AI-generated imagery: This one's newer and worth understanding. Most of the AI image generation platforms are now leaving metadata, or even watermarks, on their output to show it's been run through an AI system. Passing AI imagery off as real photography is getting harder.
There's a second problem that has nothing to do with getting caught.
If you're using AI to add furnishings or decor to the spaces on your profile, there's a disconnect waiting when someone sees it looking one way on the internet, then comes in to view the space and finds it looking another way.
In my opinion, transparency and honesty are the best policy here.
4. List your services individually
This is a quick and easy win, and a lot of operators aren't doing it at all.
Testing has shown that adding services to your Google Business Profile has increased ranking within one to three days.
The big thing to consider: the service name is what matters. Don't worry so much about the description. You just want to make sure the service is listed, and listed individually rather than bundled together:
- Hot desks
- Dedicated desks
- Private offices
- Day passes
- Meeting rooms
- Event space
- Podcast studios
- Phone booths
- Virtual mail and mail handling
- 24/7 access
This takes ten minutes of data entry, with results showing up inside a week. That ratio doesn't come along often.
5. Tick every attribute that applies
Similar to services, but different and equally important, are attributes.
These are things like Wi-Fi, free parking, and wheelchair access. Go through and tick whatever applies to your space.
This matters because the way people search using AI is changing. Instead of typing a specific question into Google and getting a specific page served up through SEO, they're having conversations with qualifying factors baked in: I want somewhere with a good vibe but privacy available, fast Wi-Fi, and free parking.
Every empty field is essentially a question that can't be answered about your space.
6. Use all ten categories
You've obviously set your primary category, which is probably something like coworking space.
What you might not know is that you can set an additional nine subcategories, for ten in total.
Worth trying:
- Office space rental agency
- Shared office
- Conference center
- Virtual office rental
Play with these and see what makes sense.
The caveat, because there's always a caveat: don't do anything that's too far out of the realms of reality.
Categories that are tertiary, peripheral, or otherwise relevant to your business are a great call.
Categories you picked because they sounded good are not.
One more thing on process: when you're adding categories, try adding one a week (update: daily is also fine).
I just wouldn't go in there and add nine all in one go.
7. Post video
Video is widely underused on Google Business Profiles.
You don't have to do this all the time, and you don't have to spend a ton of time on it.
Even a monthly 20-second video will do the trick.
This can be things as simple as your kitchen, your communal areas, or a quiet floor.
The key is consistently posting video that shows your space in action.
8. Treat reviews as a system
Reviews are one of the most important things on your profile, and there are a couple of nuances here that are easy to miss. So this one gets a few beats.
Volume and recency are two separate problems
Research has shown that 47% of people skip Google Business Profiles with fewer than twenty reviews. That's the volume problem, and most operators know about it.
The one that gets missed: 74% of people expect to see reviews that have come in within the last three months. A whole wall of five-star reviews from back in 2023 doesn't have the same impact as new and recent ones populating your profile.
Four in a month beats forty in a week
Slow and steady often wins the race here.
When you get a big uptick in volume over a short period and then nothing on the other side of it, it looks spammy. And those reviews are more likely to get filtered and not show up on your profile at all.
So you do the work, ask everyone at once, and end up with less than you started with.
Respond to everything, inside 48 hours
It's not enough to have reviews and a good star rating. You also have to be seen to be proactively responding to those reviews as they come in, and speed is an essential factor.
Your goal should be to get to every review within 48 hours.
Note: The generally accepted best practice is 24 hours, but that’s not always realistic, so 48 hours is fine. Just do the best you can.
Write the response yourself
Here's where it gets a little trickier.
Instead of dropping a canned response onto a review, take the extra second to write something a little more custom.
Studies have shown that 80% of people prefer a business that responds to reviews, and 50% are put off by blatantly templated responses. Which means a copy-paste reply can cost you more than no reply at all.
Automate the ask, not the answer
The good news is that you don't have to be proactively hunting for reviews at every opportunity. This is something you can easily automate over email.
Set up automated emails to members, meeting room bookers, day pass bookers, event space users, and whoever else makes sense.
The key is making it really easy for them. No extra work, no extra clicks. A short note saying you're glad they're part of the space, and if they're enjoying the experience, a review would mean a lot. Then hyperlink the actual review section of your profile, so all they have to do is click, add stars, write a line, and be out of there.
The less friction in that process, the more likely they are to actually leave one.
Ask for a photo while you're at it
Add a line inviting them to include a photo of the space if they have one.
Reviews with photos look a little more authentic, and they give people a view into the experience of being in your space from that member's perspective rather than yours.
Why this is worth your time
You don't have to do all eight this week.
If you only do one, do the services. If you do two, add the attributes.
The great part about all of this is that you probably already have a Google Business Profile, and none of these optimizations and tweaks are going to take you much time at all. Which essentially means you're getting disproportionate value for a minimal amount of effort.
Google Business Profiles are great for SEO and great for visibility on Google. But they're also becoming really good for visibility in AI search, and that's the part most operators haven't caught up to yet.
So, if you haven't made these tweaks, take a little bit of time to do it now and see if it doesn't improve things.
