Is Google Maps the New Homepage?

• Your Google Business Profile is becoming your new digital front door. As AI-powered search grows, it’s often the first place potential customers discover your business—not your website.
• A complete, regularly updated profile improves visibility. Businesses with rich, up-to-date Google Business Profiles are more likely to appear in Google Maps, AI Overviews and local search results.
• Small updates can make a big difference. Adding photos, updating opening hours, posting news and responding to reviews can increase clicks, enquiries and customer engagement.
• County Durham businesses should act now. Optimising your Google Business Profile is one of the simplest ways to improve your local online presence and stay competitive as AI transforms how customers search for businesses.

By Leon Howe

Leon Howe, Durham City Incubator Manager at Business Durham, helping startups succeed and scale.

All posts by Leon

The new AI Internet starts on the map, not on your website

We recently ran a number of AI for Digital Marketing workshops with businesses from across County Durham, and there was one practical group activity that proved a major breakthrough for participants. We explored what was possible with their current and future Google Business Profiles together, and many quickly realised just how much untapped potential they had.

Once they’d had a proper look, they stopped treating it as a directory entry they filled in once and forgot about. They started running it like a second website: adding photos, updating opening hours, posting the odd bit of news, completing the FAQs. Clients tell us they genuinely enjoy it once they get going. It’s one of the few marketing jobs that can deliver visible results the very same afternoon.

Why it matters more than it used to

I’ve always been a massive fan of Google Maps for swift online visibility, but even more so now. Profiles that are kept in good order are the ones turning up inside AI Overviews, inside Google’s AI Mode, and in answers from other large language models too. That’s not a coincidence. If your Profile is thin or out of date, the AI has very little to work with. If it’s rich, complete and regularly updated, you become one of the sources it draws upon.

For businesses serving local customers across County Durham, keeping your Google Business Profile up to date is becoming just as important as maintaining your website.

There’s good data behind this as well. BrightLocal’s research this year ranks Google Business Profile signals as the single biggest factor in local search rankings, ahead of your website’s SEO, your reviews and your backlinks put together. Google’s own figures show that a complete profile earns seven times more clicks than an unfinished one, while the businesses sitting in positions one to three on the map tend to have significantly more photos and reviews than those below them.

Google Maps wants to be your front door

Google is investing heavily in Maps, particularly around voice search. Ask it a question out loud rather than typing it, and you get a sense of where this is heading. More people will soon open Maps in the same way they currently open a browser to access the internet.

For a growing number of your future customers, your Google Business Profile could be the very first thing they encounter. Not your homepage. Your Google Business Profile. Leave it half done, and you’ve potentially lost them before your website even gets a look in.

Whether you’re a café in Durham City, a tradesperson covering Bishop Auckland and Chester-le-Street, or a manufacturer selling across the North East, your Google Business Profile is often the first impression people have of your business.

Nearly half of all Google searches now have local intent, and most people check a business online before they ever make contact. For businesses across County Durham, that means your Google Business Profile is helping potential customers decide whether to visit, call or enquire before they’ve even reached your website.

Verified, fully completed profiles generate significantly more direction requests, phone calls and website visits than those left unfinished. Businesses that post regularly and respond to reviews also see a genuine increase in engagement. This isn’t a fringe habit anymore. It’s increasingly how people decide who to do business with.

Let’s get ready for the new Internet

Treat your Google Business Profile the way you treat your website, because for many of your customers, it is your primary online presence.

It’s also one of the simplest improvements any local business can make, with benefits that can often be seen surprisingly quickly.

Rather than me listing every field and setting here, go to your favourite LLM and give it this brief:

“Acting as my expert Google Business Profile consultant and local SEO advisor, I would like you to help me with the following: I need to understand what is possible. Please provide a comprehensive list of all the sections and details that I can add and edit on my Google Business Profile. What are the key strategies for ranking highly on Google Maps? Please present your answer in a table, highlighting the benefits and clever tactics for each strategy.”

Run it, work through what comes back, and start editing.

One last thing. Share this article with other businesses in your network. The more businesses across County Durham embrace tools like Google Business Profile and AI search, the stronger our local business community becomes. Let’s make sure County Durham businesses are visible, competitive and ready for this new era of online search.

Want to improve your digital presence? Durham Startups can help you understand how AI, local SEO and digital marketing fit into your wider business strategy. Call us on 03000 261261 to speak with one of our startup solutions advisors and find out how we can help your business grow in County Durham.