If you’ve been listening to AEO Decoded — my bite-sized podcast where we break down Answer Engine Optimization without the techie waffle — you’ll know I’m obsessed with the small, unglamorous tweaks that quietly move the needle.
Well, here’s one of my favourites, and it’s hiding in plain sight inside your Google Business Profile (that’s the new name for GMB — Google My Business). I’m Gary Crossey, I run Irishguy Design Studio, and this one is so simple most businesses never bother with it.
TL;DR (the fast answer)
The Services section of your Google Business Profile isn’t just a list — it’s a keyword machine. Every service you add (and describe properly) is another doorway into local search. Most people add the service and stop. But if you click on the service you just added, a description box pops up that most folks never find.
That’s the secret menu.
You get 300 characters per service. Use the keyword you want to rank for and your city or town — and use every character wisely.
The secret menu, step by step
- Go to your Google Business Profile and click Edit Services.
- Click Add more services, and add the service you want on your profile.
- Now go back to the Services list and click on the service you just added — and there it is: a description box pops up.
- Write your description. Lead with the keyword you want to rank for, include your city or town, and keep it human.
- Repeat for every service you offer.
That’s it. No plugins, no agency retainer, no code. Just ten minutes of honest work.
Samples: what a good service description actually looks like
Here are three real-world examples. Notice they all lead with the service and the location, then answer the customer’s actual question.
The plumber
Service: Emergency Drain Cleaning — Asheville
Description: Emergency drain cleaning in Asheville, NC. Blocked drains, sewer backups, and clogged main lines cleared fast — 24/7 emergency response, upfront pricing, and no call-out fee for local homeowners.
The web designer (that’s me)
Service: Small Business Website Design — Leicester NC
Description: Small business website design for Leicester, NC and the Asheville area. Fast, mobile-first websites built to load quickly and get found — hosting, SEO setup, and Google Business Profile optimization included.
The dentist
Service: Holistic Dentistry — Asheville
Description: Holistic dentistry in Asheville, NC. Biocompatible fillings, safe mercury removal, and whole-health dental care in a calm, judgment-free practice. New patients welcome.
See the pattern? Service + location + who it’s for + why they should care. Simple sentences. Real words your customers would actually type (or say out loud to an AI assistant).
What services should you add?
Don’t overthink it. Add the services that make you money — especially the ones people search for by name:
- Your money services — the three to five things you actually want more of.
- Service + location combos — “emergency drain cleaning Asheville” style searches. This is where the description box earns its keep.
- The questions customers ask on the phone — every “Do yous do…?” question is a service waiting to be listed.
- The niche stuff — the specialised services competitors don’t bother listing. That’s your unfair advantage.
And resist the urge to stuff. Write for humans first. Google (and increasingly the AI answer engines) reward clarity, not keyword soup.
The impact: why this little box matters so much
Your Business Profile shows up in more places than your website does — Search, Maps, and the local pack (the map and three listings at the top of a local search). Every well-described service increases the number of searches your profile can legitimately match.
Here’s what that looks like in practice, from real profiles we manage:
- Profiles with complete, accurate services sections consistently pull more interactions — calls, direction requests, website clicks.
- When one of our clients tightened up services and descriptions, profile interactions jumped from under 100 to 238 in a month — up 145% year over year.
- Fresh, accurate services (alongside hours, photos, and review replies) is one of the clearest engagement signals Google uses to decide who makes the local pack.
And here’s the AEO angle I never shut up about: when someone asks ChatGPT or Google’s AI Overview for “a plumber in Asheville who does emergency drain cleaning,” the clearer your service data is, the more likely you’re the business that gets named. Extractable, trustworthy, citeable — that’s the whole game.
BonusA quick word on categories — because they're not the same thing as services
People mix these up all the time, so let’s clear it up in about a minute:
- Primary category — the single most important ranking signal on your profile. Pick the one category that best describes your core business. A bakery that mostly sells wedding cakes? If the money is weddings, say so.
- Additional categories — these broaden your reach into related searches. A web designer might add “Marketing agency” or “Graphic designer.” Useful, but they carry far less weight than the primary.
- Services — this is where you control the language. Categories are Google’s fixed menu; services are your own words, your locations, your keywords.
| Categories | Services | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Google’s fixed classification list | Your own keyword-rich descriptions |
| Who controls the wording | Google (you pick from their menu) | You (up to 300 characters each) |
| Best use | Telling Google what your business is | Telling Google exactly what you do, where |
Rule of thumb: get the primary category right, add a handful of honest additional categories, then pour your keywords into the services descriptions. That’s the stack.
What to do Monday morning
- Pull up your Google Business Profile and open Edit Services.
- List your top five money services.
- Click each one and write a 300-character description using the formula above.
- Check your primary category while you’re in there — does it match where the money actually comes from?
- Do one profile audit a month. Freshness matters.
It’s not magic. It’s the same fundamentals as everything we talk about on AEO Decoded — clarity, structure, and telling both humans and machines exactly what you do and where you do it.
Ten minutes. Zero cost. A genuine impact on who finds you. Go on — go click that service and find your secret menu.
Rather not do it yourself? We write service descriptions, manage reviews, and keep your profile posting as part of our Google Business Profile service.