Google Business Profile for gyms: the settings that move you into the map pack

In short. The map pack is decided mostly by relevance, distance and prominence, and the setting you control that moves relevance the most is your primary category. Choose one precise primary category (Pilatesstudio, Yogastudio, Sportschool), add secondary categories only for what you genuinely teach, and fill the services list with the class names people actually type. After that, keep the profile alive with current photos, a reply under every review, and a post every few weeks, since posts stay visible for around six months. The old Q&A box is being absorbed into Google's AI answers, so the text in your reviews, services and description is what gets read back to searchers.

Someone stands outside on the Nieuwe Binnenweg with twenty minutes to spare and types "pilates in de buurt" into their phone. Three profiles come up in a box with a map above them. Almost nobody scrolls past that box, and the studio four doors down from where they are standing is not always one of the three.

That box is the map pack, and it is the most valuable piece of screen real estate a studio can occupy in the Netherlands. It is also the only part of Google you can influence by filling in a form correctly. This note is about which fields in your Google Business Profile do real work, which ones are housekeeping, and which are close to theatre.

What actually decides who lands in the map pack?

Google says local results are based on three things: relevance, distance and prominence. Relevance is how well your profile matches the search, distance is how far you are from the person searching, and prominence covers how well known you are, including how many sites link to you and how many reviews you have.

Distance you cannot change without moving your studio. Prominence moves slowly, over months, through reviews, links and mentions. Relevance is the part you can fix this afternoon, and most studio profiles are leaving it half filled.

That is the honest hierarchy. Categories and services feed relevance. Reviews feed both prominence and the words Google sees attached to your name. Photos and posts mostly affect what happens after someone has already found you, which is not nothing.

What Google Business Profile category should a gym or studio use?

The primary category is the single most important choice on the profile. BrightLocal calls it the most important local ranking factor for appearing in the local pack, and in our experience changing it is the fastest way to see a profile move, up or down.

Pick the most precise category that describes what you mainly sell. A reformer studio in Kralingen that runs eighteen Pilates classes a week is a Pilates studio, not a gym. If you choose the broad category, you compete with every chain in the city on a term you will never win, and you stop matching the search that would actually bring you a client.

The Dutch category names

If you manage your profile in Dutch, the list shows Dutch labels. Start typing in the primary category box and you will see options like Sportschool, Fitnesscentrum, Yogastudio, Pilatesstudio, Personal trainer, Bootcampcentrum and Boksschool. The English versions of the same entries are Gym, Fitness center, Yoga studio, Pilates studio, Personal trainer and so on.

These are labels for the same underlying category, so switching your account language does not change how you rank. Do not waste an evening on it. Do type three or four different words into the box (pilates, yoga, bootcamp, kickboks) to see what exists, because the list changes over time and categories get added and retired.

Secondary categories

Google lets you add extra categories alongside the primary one, and the guidance is to use them for services you genuinely offer at that address, the way a supermarket with a bakery adds Bakkerij. BrightLocal notes you can hold one primary and up to nine secondary categories. Use four or five, not nine.

For a Rotterdam studio teaching mat and reformer Pilates plus small group training, we would set Pilatesstudio as primary, then add Fitnesscentrum, Personal trainer and possibly Yogastudio if yoga is actually on the timetable. Adding a category for a class you teach once a month is how profiles end up ranking for the wrong thing.

One rule people trip over: Google asks that independently owned departments inside your building get their own profile. If the juice bar in your reception is run by someone else, it needs its own listing rather than a Café category on yours.

Do services and the description do anything?

Services are underused. This is a free text field where you can list "proefles reformer pilates", "duo training", "privéles", "zwangerschapsyoga", each with a short description. Google also gives category-specific features here, and health and beauty businesses can add a booking button and maintain a services list.

We treat the services list as the place to write the words a person types that never fit on your homepage. Keep each description to two sentences, in plain Dutch or English depending on who you teach, and make sure the wording matches what your website says.

The business description (750 characters) is not a strong ranking signal in anything we have seen. It is, however, read by people and increasingly quoted by AI assistants, which is a separate topic we covered in how fitness studios get recommended by ChatGPT. Write it as a clear sentence about who you teach, where, and what happens in a first class.

What photos should a studio upload, and how often?

Take twelve photos on your phone in one morning: the street entrance as someone approaches it, the door, the reception desk, the changing room, the equipment, a class in progress with permission, and you. The entrance photo matters more than the pretty one, because a first-timer on the Oudegracht is trying to work out which door is yours.

Refresh a few every month. We do not have proof that photo recency moves rankings, and we would not claim it does. What we do see is that a profile with recent, real photos gets clicked instead of the one with a 2019 stock shot of a squat rack.

Avoid images with text pasted over them and avoid anything that looks like an ad. Google's own product photos on profiles are a different feature, and for studios they add little.

Is the Q&A section still worth filling in?

Less than it was. The customer questions box has been disappearing from many profiles, and Google introduced Ask Maps in March 2026, a Gemini-powered conversational answer that draws on your answers and relevant reviews instead of showing a long list of old questions.

The practical reading: seeding twenty fake questions into Q&A is no longer a tactic worth your evening. Answer whatever is genuinely sitting there, because unanswered questions get answered by strangers. Then put those same answers on your website, where both Google and the assistants can read them.

How should you reply to reviews?

Reply to all of them, ideally within a few days. Google states plainly that more reviews and positive ratings can help your local ranking, and replies are the one part of the review system you fully control.

Write the reply in the language of the review. Name the specific thing: the class, the teacher, the neighbourhood. "Fijn dat de proefles op dinsdagochtend goed beviel, Marije. Tot bij Lisanne op de reformer" does more than "Thank you for your feedback".

For a one or two star review, answer once, briefly, without arguing, and offer to continue by email or WhatsApp. Future readers are the audience, not the reviewer.

Asking for reviews is its own discipline, and the moment that works is right after a good first class, not by email three weeks later. We wrote about the surrounding mechanics in local SEO for boutique fitness studios in the Netherlands.

How often should you post on your Business Profile?

Posts last longer than most people think. BrightLocal reports that Google Business Profile posts stay active for around six months and now display in reverse chronological order, with the most recent handful shown in the carousel and the rest behind a link.

So a post every two to four weeks is plenty. Use them for concrete things: the September intro course, the changed Sunday schedule, closing during the kerstvakantie, a new teacher starting. Link each post to the page that lets someone book, not to your homepage.

We do not believe posts move rankings much, and we have not seen convincing evidence that they do. They are merchandising for someone already looking at your profile, and that is a fine reason to keep doing them.

What we would do first this month

1. Open your profile and check the primary category. Set it to the most precise match for what you mainly teach, in the language you manage the account in.
2. Trim secondary categories down to what you actually offer weekly. Remove the leftovers.
3. Write six to ten services with two-sentence descriptions, using the class names people search, including the Dutch ones.
4. Confirm the basics: opening hours including public holidays, the exact street address with house number, a phone number that reaches a human, and the booking link.
5. Upload twelve fresh phone photos, starting with the street entrance.
6. Answer every open question in Q&A, then move those answers onto your website FAQ.
7. Reply to every review from the past year, in the reviewer's language, naming the class or the teacher.
8. Schedule one post for the next intro course and put a reminder in your calendar for three weeks later.

That is roughly two hours of work, and it is the cheapest visibility a studio can buy. Nothing here needs an agency.

If the weak link turns out to be the website your profile points at, the first design is free and you only say yes if you like it: see the free website rebuild. If you would rather understand how the pieces fit before talking to anyone, our FAQ lays it out.