Free checklist · From V5.1 Chapter 22
Google rewards active businesses. Here's the weekly checklist.
The actual weekly Google Business Profile cadence Google rewards in 2026. Owner-runnable in 15 minutes a week, on a six-item checklist — written so you can verify each one on your own GBP today, without any tool more complicated than the dashboard itself.
Weekly Posts + profile freshness
The 5-minute-per-week Post and profile-update routine Google's 2026 algorithm reads as a freshness signal. Inactivity over 30 days = a confirmed visibility drop.
Review velocity + reply system
A trigger-based review request fires after every job. Owner-led replies inside 24 hours feed Google's reply-velocity signal — not just review count.
Reporting that actually shows calls
Call-tracking, GBP Insights, and a 90-day velocity chart. The $50/mo replacement for the reporting layer most agencies hide under impressions charts.
GBP + review velocity = signals AI can't fake.
In April 2026 Google updated local ranking to treat GBP activityas a direct ranking signal. Thirty days without an update is now a confirmed visibility drop. Interaction signals — photo views, review reads, direction requests, GBP-to-site visits — feed back into Map Pack position. That means the agencies running “set-and-forget” GBP management are leaving the strongest 2026 ranking signal — weekly, dated, owner-attributable activity — on the table.
Most local businesses pay $500–$3,000/mofor an agency to operate this weekly. The checklist below lets you do it in 15 minutes — or score whether your agency is actually running it. Every item is something an AI competitor can't manufacture for free: a real photo of a real job, an owner reply to a real review, a Post that names a real customer scenario. Ch 22 GBP Cadence is the load-bearing chapter of the V5.1 Playbook for this reason — the cadence is the moat.
- Weekly Posts — 1–2 per week, real photos, rotating CTA buttons.
- Services & attributes upkeep — 5 minutes every Sunday, keeping the profile fields Ask Maps reads complete and accurate.
- Review request system — trigger-fired, not hand-sent. Floor of 4+ reviews/month for plumbing/HVAC.
- Geo-tagged photo per service call — EXIF GPS intact, not stripped.
- Monthly service-area + service-list edits — 10 minutes the first of each month.
- Tracking that shows calls — CallRail or equivalent ($30–$80/mo) plus GBP Insights.
Send me the checklist.
One email — the PDF lands in your inbox in 60 seconds. We also flag your business in our audit queue so you can run the free audit on the same six categories the checklist covers.
Prefer to grab it now? Download the PDF directly.
We'll never share your email. The cadence in the PDF is the same one we run for our own clients — read the 24-chapter V5.1 framework here.
Score your GBP before you read the checklist
The audit your agency hopes you never run
The free audit checks all six cadence categories above — Posts recency, services & attributes, review velocity, photo recency, service-area accuracy, and call-tracking — against your live GBP and site. No login required. ~3 minutes.
See a sample audit report →Sample audit score · HVAC · Phoenix AZ
Anonymized from a real audit of a US HVAC contractor paying $1,800/mo (within the $500–$3,000/mo range) to a managed agency. Four of six categories at red or amber.
Run the audit before you run the checklist.
The audit tells you which of the six cadence categories are currently dormant on your live GBP. The checklist tells you how to fix each one in 15 minutes a week. Together they replace the reporting layer of a $500–$3,000/mo agency engagement.
Run your free audit at localservicebusinessseo.comOr read the framework first — The V5.1 Playbook (24 chapters).