Winning nearby craft buyers with Google My Business

Running a small craft business in Australia often means juggling a studio space, a weekend stall at the local farmers market, an online shop and the occasional workshop booking. Getting noticed by people within driving distance used to rely on word of mouth and a few flyers at the local library, but Google My Business has shifted the playing field. A well-tended profile now sits at the centre of how local buyers find makers, read reviews and plan their weekend. It adds a layer of trust that even a beautiful website can struggle to match on its own.

Craft shoppers behave a little differently from people looking for a haircut or a plumber. They want to see what the work looks like, they want to feel a connection to the maker, and they often want to know where they can pick something up in person. A profile that answers all of that without sending them scrolling lets them walk straight to your studio.

Laying the foundations of your profile

The first decision sits on whether to set the profile up under your name or the name of your studio. For most Australian makers the studio name tends to land better because that is the label customers recognise from markets like Salamanca in Tasmania, The Rocks in Sydney, or the Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne. The business name field is also the place where a few craft sellers quietly trip themselves up. Stuffing it with keyword phrases such as "pottery ceramics handmade gifts" usually triggers a suspension because Google treats it as spam. Keep the name clean and let the categories and description carry the rest.

Once the name is locked in, the address field matters even if you mainly work from a home studio. A street address — even one that visitors only see by appointment — is what allows the profile to show on Google Maps and in the local pack. For makers who travel, a service-area option lets you hide the home address while still appearing for searches from nearby suburbs, which suits many a one-person operation tucked into a fibro cottage in the suburbs of Brisbane or a shed behind a weatherboard in Adelaide.

Picking the right primary category is the next quiet win. "Handcraft artist" or "Pottery manufacturer" tends to surface the right audience far more reliably than a generic "Shop" or "Art gallery." Secondary categories such as "Gift shop" or "Art school" can pick up the people who are still a few steps upstream from buying. These small text fields shape who sees the listing more than almost any photo or post.

Photography that tells a real workshop story

Photos on a Google profile work differently from images on Instagram. They are the visual evidence that the workshop exists, that the work is made by human hands and that the studio is worth the drive. A handful of warm, well-lit shots tends to outperform a hundred polished product photos, particularly for buyers who are weighing up a trip to a market stall on a Saturday morning.

It helps to mix the kinds of images uploaded. A front shot of the studio or stall, a mid-action image of hands shaping clay or stitching leather, a close-up of the finished pieces and a shot that hints at the broader range all work together. Buyers at places like the Mindil Beach Sunset Markets in Darwin or the South Melbourne Market tend to scan quickly, so variety gives them something to come back to. Avoid the temptation to flood the profile with a hundred near-identical photos of similar bowls; Google's algorithm tends to favour listings that show a steady, slow stream of textures and stories.

Local landmarks in the background also quietly help. A photo taken at a stall with the bridge in the background, a tree-lined high street visible from the front door or a recognisable part of a regional town all help buyers place the studio on a map in their mind. These cues do more work than people realise when someone is trying to decide whether the drive is worth it on a wet Saturday arvo.

Posts that match how buyers plan their weekend

The Posts feature inside Google My Business is one of the most underused tools on the platform. Most craft sellers fill out their profile once and then forget about it, leaving the listing to gather digital dust between market days. Posts have a short life — usually around seven days — which suits the rhythm of a craft business that is constantly rotating stock, listing new workshops or confirming pop-up dates.

A weekly rhythm tends to work better than daily noise. A Monday post about the upcoming Saturday market, a midweek shot of a freshly finished batch and a Friday reminder of where the stall will be give buyers three reasons to remember the studio. Posts work especially well when they answer the questions buyers usually ask first: where, when, what to expect. A line such as "Saturday 8am to 1pm, Salamanca Place, new winter range" tells the algorithm and the customer the same thing at the same time.

For makers who also sell online, posts can gently direct buyers towards the broader shop. A short note about a new range, a reminder of postage cut-off dates, or a quiet link through to a platform comparison guide helps the listing feel current rather than abandoned between market days. It also keeps the profile active in the eyes of Google, which tends to reward listings that are updated on a slow, reliable rhythm.

Reviews from real locals build real trust

Reviews on Google My Business tend to weigh more heavily for craft businesses than for many other categories because buyers want reassurance that the work they are about to pay for is worth the trip. A studio with fifteen thoughtful, recent reviews tends to outperform a slick competitor with two glowing ones and nothing else. The trick is to keep them coming in steadily rather than saving them up for a push after a busy market weekend.

A simple, friendly ask — not a script — tends to work best for most small studios. A short face-to-face chat with a happy customer at the stall, a follow-up email after an online order, or a handwritten note slipped into a parcel can each open the door. People in Australia tend to respond well to a casual ask rather than a formal one, so something along the lines of "If you get a minute, a quick Google review really helps a small studio like mine" usually lands well.

Responding to reviews also matters more than craft sellers sometimes realise. A short, warm reply to every review — good or tricky — signals that there is a real human behind the stall. People planning a purchase often read the replies before they read the reviews, and they pick up on tone far more than on word count. A reply that reads like the maker is genuinely grateful tends to bring more reviews through the door over time.

Using the Q&A and messaging tools wisely

The Questions and Answers section sits quietly under most profiles and gets ignored by most small studios. It can do a surprising amount of work for makers, because it answers the same handful of questions that stallholders get asked every single weekend. Parking, payment methods, custom orders, and workshop availability are all candidates for a quick, public answer that saves everyone time.

Seeding the section with a few of your own questions is a fair move. A studio that quietly asks and answers "Do you take custom orders for wedding gifts?" before the wedding season kicks off turns the profile into a quiet sales tool. Buyers appreciate a listing that already has the answers they were about to type into the search bar.

Messaging through the profile is worth turning on, but it is worth thinking about how it is handled. A reply that lands within an hour during daylight hours tends to be enough for most buyer enquiries. For studios that juggle a full-time job alongside a Saturday stall at the local community market, an auto-reply that mentions the next market day and a phone number keeps the conversation moving without burning out the maker.

Reaching customers beyond your studio walls

Google My Business is not the whole picture, but it pulls its weight when paired with the rest of a maker's marketing. A profile that links naturally into a website, a regular newsletter and a steady stream of social content tends to rank better than a profile that sits alone. A buyer who finds the listing on Google, clicks through to the website, then sees a recent Instagram post of the studio tends to feel far more confident about handing over a deposit.

For makers interested in the supply side of the craft world — particularly those working with clay, fibre or traditional materials — building a network of reliable suppliers is just as important as the storefront. Resources on building a pottery network cover the kind of supplier conversations that small studios tend to put off until they need materials in a hurry. Pairing that kind of supplier groundwork with a tidy Google profile gives a craft business a much steadier foundation than either alone.

Tracking what works and what to tweak

The Insights tab inside Google My Business quietly logs the searches that brought people to the listing, the queries they typed, the photos they viewed, and the actions they took. It is the closest thing most small studios have to a free analytics dashboard, and it answers questions that pure instinct tends to get wrong. A maker who assumes that everyone is searching for "pottery" might find that most of the traffic actually comes from "ceramic wedding gifts" or "handmade serving bowls."

Checking Insights on a monthly basis, the way a small business checks its bank statement, tends to surface patterns that are worth responding to. A photo that outperforms the others, a post that drove a spike in clicks, a suburb that keeps showing up in the searches — all of it is a quiet nudge to lean further into what is working. For a small studio, this kind of regular check-in tends to pay back the time spent many times over.

The real win from a Google Business Profile is how steady the work becomes. Rather than the boom-and-bust rhythm of waiting for the next market weekend to bring in fresh buyers, the listing keeps a slow, reliable stream of enquiries coming through the door. The studios that win locally tend to be the ones that treat the profile like a second workshop — open, well-kept and tended to on a regular schedule rather than dusted off once a year.