Google Business Profile in Summer 2026: How to Update Your Profile Seasonally
• Sunday, 31st May 2026 • Marketing Online •
Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) is often a neglected element of local marketing. Business owners create a profile when they start up, fill in the basic details and forget about it for months or years. Yet an active, regularly updated GBP profile can generate significant customer traffic at no advertising cost.
Summer is a good time to review and update your profile. Seasonal opening hours, new photos from outdoor projects, posts about seasonal services - all of this affects your visibility in local search results.
Why GBP matters - figures worth knowing
Before we get to specifics, a few numbers for context:
- 46% of all Google searches are local in nature (searches with a "near me" intent or including a city name)
- Businesses with a complete and active GBP profile are 70% more likely to be visited by customers
- Profiles with regularly added photos and posts have a higher click-through rate in local results
- 88% of consumers read online reviews before visiting a local business
For small local businesses - gardening, tree removal, catering, carpentry - GBP is often more important than their own website when it comes to generating first contact with a customer.
Priority no. 1 - summer opening hours
Many business owners change their hours in the summer season - longer in summer, shorter in winter. Or the other way round: seasonal holiday closures in August. A customer who sees hours on Google that do not match reality and turns up to a closed door is a customer who will not come back and may leave a negative review.
How to update your hours in GBP:
- Log in at business.google.com
- Select your business profile
- Click "Edit profile" → "Opening hours"
- Update the hours for each day of the week
- Save your changes - they are usually visible within 24-48 hours
For a holiday break: use the "Special hours" feature to mark specific days as closed without changing your normal hours. Set this up in advance - not the evening before your holiday.
Photos - the most important visual element of your profile
GBP profiles with plenty of up-to-date photos have a clearly higher conversion rate. For a service business (gardening, tree removal, carpentry), photos of completed projects are the best proof of quality.
What to photograph in summer:
- Projects in progress - the work in action, not just the finished result
- Seasonal aspects of the work - a garden in full summer, tree removal in beautiful weather
- People (with permission) - a customer pleased with the result, staff in the field
- Seasonal products - new collections, seasonal services
Technical tips for GBP photos:
- At least 10 current photos (no older than a year) on your profile
- Horizontal (landscape) photos work better on the profile card
- Good lighting - natural daylight rather than indoor lamps
- Size: at least 720x720 px, JPG or PNG format
- Do not add logos and text to product photos - it looks like an advert, not a natural photograph
GBP posts - regular activity
Google Posts let you publish short updates directly on your GBP profile. Posts are visible in local results for 7 days (general posts) or longer (event and offer posts).
Types of posts that work well in summer:
- Offer post: "Summer promotion - 10% off tree removal until the end of June" - a specific offer with an expiry date
- Information post: "Home smoking season - order now and collect within a week"
- Project post: A photo of a finished job with a short description - "A beautiful vegetable garden prepared for summer in the Tri-City"
- Question post: Engages followers - "Planning a fence or a gazebo before summer? Message us!"
Ideally: 1-2 posts a week. Minimum: 1 post every 2 weeks so the profile does not look abandoned.
Reviews - managing opinions in summer
Summer is the project season - more customers, more opportunities for reviews. A few rules for managing reviews:
Ask for reviews actively: After a project is finished, send a text message or email asking for a rating. A simple message: "Thank you for your trust - if you are happy, please take a moment to leave a review on Google: [link]". Businesses that actively ask for reviews get 2-5x more than those that wait passively.
Reply to every review: Briefly and warmly to positive ones. Calmly and professionally, without defensiveness, to negative ones. A public reply to a negative review is read by potential customers and builds credibility.
Do not buy reviews: Google detects inauthentic reviews and may suspend your profile. Even asking friends to write a review without real experience is risky.
Questions and answers - an underrated section
The Q&A section in GBP lets users ask questions - and the business owner reply. But the owner can also add questions and answers THEMSELVES (an FAQ on the profile).
Add frequently asked questions in summer:
- "What is the waiting time for completing an order in season?"
- "Do you provide services in [city]?"
- "How quickly do you respond with a quote?"
A good Q&A section reduces the number of phone calls with basic questions and builds trust before first contact.
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