PMU
Google Business Profile checklist for PMU studios
Your Google Business Profile is doing more selling than your website for most first-time visitors, because it is what shows up before anyone clicks through. A profile that is fully built out — accurate categories, a steady stream of photos, and recent, specific reviews — consistently outperforms a "set it up once and forget it" listing, even when the underlying studio quality is identical.
The checklist below is ordered roughly by impact: the fields that move a listing the most, first.
Categories and services
Your primary category should be the closest match Google offers to what you actually do — for most PMU studios that is "Permanent make-up clinic" or the nearest cosmetic-tattoo category available in your region, not a generic "Beauty salon" that dilutes your relevance for brow-specific searches. Add secondary categories for every distinct service you offer (microblading, ombré/powder brows, lip blush, scalp micropigmentation if applicable) so you surface for searches specific to each technique, not just the studio name.
Fill in the Services section itemised by technique with a short description and, where your plan allows, a price range. Vague or missing service listings are one of the most common reasons a well-reviewed studio still under-performs a newer competitor in the map pack.
Photos: quantity, recency, and healed results
Google's own guidance and third-party studies agree on this: profiles with more photos, updated more recently, get more clicks and more direction requests. The specific mix matters for PMU — include healed-result photos (not just fresh, still-swollen post-procedure shots), a few photos of the studio space itself so first-timers know what to expect walking in, and photos of your team so the business feels like real people, not a franchise template.
Aim to add new photos at least monthly. A profile that hasn't added a photo in six months signals — correctly or not — a business that may not be actively operating, which is exactly the wrong impression next to a competitor posting weekly.
Reviews: volume, recency, and response
A 4.9 average built from reviews eighteen months old reads as less trustworthy than a 4.7 average with reviews from the last two weeks — recency signals an active, currently-good business. Ask every satisfied client for a review at the point they see their healed result (usually the touch-up appointment), when satisfaction is highest and the memory is freshest.
Respond to every review, positive and negative. A thoughtful, specific reply to a critical review (acknowledging the concern, describing what changed) does more for a prospect's trust than another five-star review with no studio response at all — it shows someone is actually running the business day to day.
Posts and Q&A
Google Business Profile Posts (updates, offers, and events) keep a profile looking active and give you another surface to answer common questions directly — "does microblading hurt," "how long does ombré brows last" — before a prospect even reaches your website. Posts have a short shelf life in Google's interface, so this only works with a regular cadence, which is exactly the kind of ongoing task RankShark automates rather than leaving to a studio owner's already-full week.