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When a landlord in Dubai Hills or a buyer moving to Abu Dhabi searches for an agency, one of the first things they often see is not your website. It is your Google Business Profile: the panel with your name, rating, photos, opening hours, phone number and a button to get directions. For many people, that panel is the first impression of your brokerage.

Yet many agencies set their profile up once and forget it. This scorecard helps you check where yours stands in about 15 minutes. Score each of the ten items below, add up the total, and you will know exactly what to fix first.

How to use this scorecard

Open your Business Profile and go through the items one by one. Give each item:

0 points if it is missing or wrong
1 point if it is there but incomplete or out of date
2 points if it is complete, accurate and someone owns keeping it that way

The maximum score is 20. Be honest; the point is to find the gaps, not to feel good.

Part 1: The foundations

1. Business name matches the real world

Your profile name should be the name customers see on your office signage, your trade licence and your website. Google's guidelines ask businesses to represent themselves as they are known in the real world, so avoid adding extra keywords such as "Best Dubai Marina Apartments" to the name. It looks spammy and can put the profile at risk.

Score 2 if: the name matches your branding exactly, with no keyword stuffing.

2. Primary and secondary categories are specific

Google says your categories help it connect your business with people searching for what you do, and that they affect local ranking. Choose the most specific primary category that describes your core business, such as "Real estate agency", and add only a few additional categories that genuinely apply. Google allows up to nine additional categories, but its guidance is to use the fewest needed and never to use categories as keywords. Note that changing categories can trigger re-verification.

Score 2 if: your primary category reflects your main line of business and every secondary category is accurate.

3. Address or service area is accurate

If clients visit your office, show the address. If your team mainly travels to clients, Google's guidelines allow a service-area profile with the address hidden. Either way, the information must be precise. A virtual office that is not staffed during business hours does not qualify.

Score 2 if: the pin is in the right place and the address or service area reflects how you really serve clients.

4. Hours, phone and website are correct

Check your opening hours, special hours for public holidays, your main phone number and your website link. Google may occasionally contact the verified phone number on your profile with automated messages to confirm details, so make sure that number reaches someone who knows what to do.

Score 2 if: all contact details are current and holiday hours are planned in advance.

Part 2: The content

5. Description and services explain what you do

Your description is a chance to say clearly whether you focus on sales, leasing, off-plan, commercial or property management, and which communities you know best. Write it for people, not search engines, and add your main services.

Score 2 if: a stranger could read your profile and understand what you do and where.

6. Photos show a real business

Photos of your office, your team and your branding make the profile feel trustworthy. If you add property photos, make sure you have the right to use them and that they reflect stock you can actually offer.

Score 2 if: you have recent, good-quality photos of your office and team, refreshed at least every few months.

7. Posts are used regularly

Business Profile posts let you share updates, offers and events on Search and Maps, with a photo or video and a button linking to your website. Google reviews posts before they go live, and they will not show while the profile is unverified. If a post promotes a specific property, follow the same advertising and permit rules you apply on every other channel.

Score 2 if: you publish a useful update at least a couple of times a month, such as a market note, a new service or an open-house event.

Not sure how your profile fits into your wider marketing? Book a free 30-minute consultation and we will review it with you.

Part 3: Trust

8. You ask happy clients for reviews

Reviews help new clients decide whether to call you. The simplest system is to ask at a natural high point: keys handed over, a tenancy signed, a sale completed. Send a short message with a direct link to your review form. Do not offer incentives in exchange for reviews, and never write reviews for yourself; both go against Google's policies.

Score 2 if: asking for a review is a standard step after every closed deal, not something done occasionally.

9. Every review gets a thoughtful reply

You must verify your business before you can reply to reviews. Replies appear publicly under the review, shown as coming from the business. Google checks replies against its content policies, usually within minutes but sometimes longer. Thank positive reviewers and keep replies to negative reviews calm, factual and short, with an offer to talk privately.

Score 2 if: reviews are answered within a few days, including the difficult ones.

Part 4: Measurement

10. Enquiries from the profile reach your CRM

This is the item most agencies miss. Calls, website visits and messages that start on your profile should end up in your CRM with a clear source, otherwise you cannot tell whether the profile is worth the effort. Two simple steps help:

Tag the website link. Add UTM parameters to the website URL on your profile so visits are recognisable in analytics.
Capture the source on your forms. If you use Bitrix24 CRM forms on your website, hidden fields can record the traffic source, so a valuation request that started on Google Maps is labelled correctly in the CRM.

For calls, agree how the source is recorded, for example a required "lead source" field when a call is logged.

Score 2 if: you can report how many leads came from your Business Profile last month.

What your score means

0–8: Fix the basics this week. Start with items 1–4. An inaccurate profile can cost you calls you never knew about.
9–15: Solid, but passive. Focus on posts, photos and a consistent review routine.
16–20: Strong. Your next step is measurement. Connect profile leads to your CRM and compare them with other channels.

Where this fits in your marketing

A Business Profile works best as part of a joined-up plan. It supports local search, which we cover in our guide to digital marketing for UAE real estate. It sends people to your website, so the site needs to be ready for them, as explained in what a UAE real estate website needs. And once leads arrive, a nurture sequence keeps the conversation going.

How Closerholic helps

Closerholic helps UAE real estate businesses with digital marketing, websites and CRM. We can audit your Business Profile against this scorecard, tidy up categories, content and review routines, and make sure the leads it produces are tracked in Bitrix24 alongside your portals, ads and website. You get one clear view of which channels bring real enquiries.