Google Is Suggesting Services on Your GBP — Are You Checking?

Dealers, are you actively curating the services listed on your Fixed Ops Google Business Profiles? If not, Google is making those decisions for you.

One of the most underused best practices in automotive digital marketing is setting up separate Google Business Profile pages for each dealership department, Sales, Service, Parts, and Body Shop/Collision. Google actually encourages this approach, though some dealers are still being advised to stick with a single, combined profile.

This multi-department structure is the same model big box retailers have used successfully for years. Walk into a Walmart, and you'll often find a dozen separate GBP listings, one for the main store, plus individual profiles for Grocery, Pharmacy, Deli, Bakery, Optician, and more.

Each department profile is built around a Primary Category that directly matches that department, which is exactly what helps it rank for relevant local searches. A profile with only a matching Secondary Category will never outrank one using the correct Primary Category, so setting this up properly puts the algorithm to work in your favor.

Dealers should be following the same playbook, and many progressive stores already are. But here's where most are still leaving ranking opportunity on the table.

Take a look at the screenshot below. You may have seen this before: Google periodically suggests new services to add to your fixed ops profiles.

Based on the Auto Repair Primary Category your Service department GBP should be using, Google regularly (often monthly) crawls your dealership's website and suggests related services to add to that profile.

Here's the catch, though. As the screenshot shows, Google doesn't always get this right.

It will correctly suggest genuinely relevant fixed ops services, like tire rotations or tire manufacturer rebates, which help your profile rank for local tire-related searches. But Google will also suggest services like "Used Inventory" or "Car Shopping."

This is exactly where dealers need to step in and curate.

Those sales-related terms belong on your Sales GBP, not your Service profile. Adding them to Service creates confusion within Google's Local Search algorithm, blurring the line between what each profile represents and who it's meant to serve.

Say yes to: Tire Rotations, Oil Changes, Brake Service, Alignments, and similar fixed ops services

Say no to: Used Inventory, Car Shopping, or anything sales-related

By curating these suggestions carefully, you're essentially training Google's Local Search algorithm to understand your business correctly.

If your fixed ops departments don't have separate GBP profiles yet, or if no one on your team is currently monitoring Google's service suggestions, our book A Car Dealer's Guide to Google Business Profile, Second Edition covers this in detail and is available on Amazon, along with our other two automotive digital marketing titles.