If you run a childcare centre in Australia and parents in your suburb can't find you on Google, you're essentially invisible. That's not being dramatic — it's just how local search works now. Most directors we talk to have a Google Business Profile set up. But "set up" and "optimised" are two very different things. One gets you on the map. The other puts you in front of parents who are actively searching for care right now. Here's the thing — getting your profile to actually work for you doesn't have to be complicated or expensive. As the best childcare marketing agency focused exclusively on the Australian ECE sector, we've seen centres double their monthly enquiries just by fixing a handful of profile gaps they didn't even know they had.
So let's go through 15 things that actually move the needle — none of which require a developer, a big budget, or anything particularly technical.
Table of Contents
-
Claim and verify your profile
-
Nail the business name format
-
Choose the right primary category
-
Add secondary categories
-
Write a description that actually says something
-
Set your hours correctly — including holiday hours
-
Add your services explicitly
-
Upload photos that show real life at your centre
-
Build a review request system
-
Respond to every review — the good and the awkward ones
-
Post weekly updates
-
Use the Q&A section before parents do
-
Add your CCS and fee information clearly
-
Link to a real landing page, not your homepage
-
Track what's actually working
-
Conclusion
-
FAQs
Claim and Verify Your Profile
Sounds obvious, but you'd be surprised. A lot of centres have a Google Business Profile that was auto-generated by Google — and nobody's officially claimed it.
If that's you, the profile might have wrong hours, an old phone number, or photos from Google Street View that look nothing like your actual centre. Go to business.google.com and claim it. The verification process involves either a postcard, a phone call, or a video. It takes a few days but it's worth it.
You can't optimise something you don't control.
Nail the Business Name Format
Your business name on Google should match your actual trading name. Nothing more, nothing less.
Don't stuff keywords in here — "Little Stars Childcare | Best Daycare Sydney NQF Certified" looks spammy and Google knows it. That kind of thing can get your listing suspended, which is a headache you don't need.
Just use your real name. The rest of your profile does the keyword work.
Choose the Right Primary Category
This is one of the biggest things centres get wrong.
Your primary category should be "Child Care Centre" — not "School," not "Educational Institution," not "Preschool" (unless that's genuinely your only offering). Google uses this to decide which searches you're eligible to show up for.
If you're unsure what you've currently got set, go check. It takes 30 seconds to look and it affects every search query Google serves your listing for.
Add Secondary Categories
Once your primary category is sorted, you can add up to nine secondary categories.
Think about what else you actually offer: Preschool, Kindergarten, After-School Program, Vacation Care, Baby Day Care Service. These aren't just tags — they expand the search terms your profile ranks for.
A 60-place centre offering multiple age groups and care types should have at least four or five categories selected. It costs nothing and it's pure visibility.
Write a Description That Actually Says Something
The profile description is 750 characters. Most centres use about 80 of them and say something generic like "We provide quality childcare in a safe and nurturing environment."
That's fine. But it's not doing anything for you.
Use the space to mention your suburb, your NQF rating if it's strong, the age groups you serve, your hours, what makes your centre different, and ideally a line about availability. Parents read this. Google reads it too.
Don't keyword-stuff. Just write like a human being who wants a parent to pick up the phone.
Set Your Hours Correctly — Including Holiday Hours
If a parent checks your hours on a Saturday night and sees you're "open" at 7am Monday through Friday but nothing's listed for school holidays, that's friction. They might assume you're closed.
Set your regular hours. Then go back every few months and add public holiday hours, term break hours, and any other variations. Google has a "special hours" feature specifically for this.
A parent who finds you at 10pm on a Sunday is planning. If your hours are wrong, you've already lost that enquiry.
Add Your Services Explicitly
Google Business Profiles have a Services section that most centres leave completely blank.
Go add them. "Long Day Care," "Sessional Kindy," "Vacation Care," "Occasional Care," "After School Care" — whatever you actually offer. Write a short description for each one.
This content gets indexed. Parents searching "after school care near [suburb]" can find you through it. It's low-effort content that keeps working for you without any ongoing maintenance.
Upload Photos That Show Real Life at Your Centre
Generic stock photos of children playing on swings do nothing. Parents have seen a million of them. What they actually want to see is your centre — your outdoor space, your rooms, your educators, your vegetable garden if you've got one.
Upload at least 10–15 photos when you first optimise. Then add a few new ones each month. Listings with a consistent stream of fresh photos get more profile views than ones that look like they were set up three years ago and forgotten about.
And yes — Google ranks listings partly on photo activity. It's a signal that the business is active.
Build a Review Request System
This is the one that most centres put off forever, and it's probably the highest-impact thing on this whole list.
The number of Google reviews you have — and how recent they are — is a major factor in whether you show up in the top three Local Pack results when a parent searches "childcare [suburb]." A centre with 11 reviews at 4.2 stars is basically invisible compared to one with 68 reviews at 4.8 stars, even if the quality of care is identical.
You need a system, not a hope. Here's what works: send a one-sentence SMS to families within 48 hours of any positive interaction. Something like "Hi [Name], if you've had a good experience at [Centre Name] lately, we'd really appreciate a Google review — it helps other families find us. Here's the link: [direct link]."
That's it. One line. One link. Do this consistently for 90 days and watch what happens to your reviews.
Respond to Every Review — the Good and the Awkward Ones
Responding to reviews is not optional.
When you respond to a positive review, it signals to Google that you're an engaged, active business. When you respond to a negative review calmly and professionally, it actually helps your reputation with parents who are reading — because they see how you handle things.
Don't write a defensive paragraph. Don't ask them to take it down publicly. Acknowledge it, thank them for the feedback, and offer to continue the conversation offline. Short and professional beats long and defensive every time.
Post Weekly Updates
Google Business Profiles have a Posts feature. Think of it like a mini blog that lives on your Google listing.
Most centres never touch it. That's an opportunity.
Post once a week. Share what's happening at the centre: a seasonal activity, a staffing update, a reminder about enrolment availability, a NQF quality area you've been focusing on. These posts stay visible for seven days and send a freshness signal to Google.
You don't need to be a writer. Two sentences and a photo is enough. The consistency matters more than the quality.
Use the Q&A Section Before Parents Do
Here's something a lot of people don't know: anyone can add a question to your Google Business Profile's Q&A section. That includes competitors, random people, and parents with concerns. And they can also answer those questions.
Go seed it yourself. Think about the five or six questions parents ask most often — about your fees, your NQF rating, your age groups, whether you have a waitlist — and add them yourself, then answer them yourself.
This isn't gaming anything. It's just making sure the information is accurate and helpful before someone else puts something there you don't want.
Add Your CCS and Fee Information Clearly
This is specific to Australian childcare, and it matters more than most operators realise.
Child Care Subsidy is genuinely confusing for families who are new to it. If you can include a line in your profile description about your approved daily rate and a note that CCS applies, you're already doing more than most centres.
Parents are often comparing two or three centres, and the ones that make the cost conversation easier tend to get the enquiry. You don't need to put your full fee schedule on your Google profile — just acknowledge that CCS applies and give them a number to call for a gap fee estimate.
Small thing. Real difference.
Link to a Real Landing Page, Not Your Homepage
Your Google Business Profile has a website link. Almost every centre points it to their homepage.
That's fine for brand awareness. But if you're trying to convert enquiries — especially from parents who are searching with high intent — your homepage is the wrong destination. It has navigation menus, multiple messages, and multiple things to click.
A dedicated landing page with one offer (book a tour, submit an enquiry, download a guide) will convert at a significantly higher rate than your homepage. If you've got one set up, use it here. If you haven't, that's a separate project worth doing, but it does make a measurable difference.
Track What's Actually Working
Google Business Profile has a built-in insights section that shows you how many people saw your listing, how many clicked for directions, how many called, and how many visited your website.
Look at this monthly. It tells you whether your optimisation efforts are moving the dial.
If direction requests are going up but phone calls aren't, your profile is getting visibility but something in the enquiry experience is breaking down. If neither is moving, you might have a Local Pack ranking problem that needs more reviews or more consistent posting activity.
Data beats guessing. And this data is free and already sitting there.
Why Market Your Daycare
If you're reading this and thinking "we could do most of this ourselves" — you're right, you probably could.
But there's a difference between doing 15 things inconsistently and doing them as part of a connected system that's actually tracked week by week.
At Market Your Daycare, we work exclusively with Australian childcare centres. We're not a generalist digital agency that also happens to work with childcare clients. It's all we do. That means when we talk about CCS fee communication, NQF ratings, seasonal occupancy dips in January, or how to position a centre in a suburb where G8 is opening a new location — we already know the context.
We've helped centres go from 65% occupancy to fully booked without increasing their ad spend. We've recovered $25,000+ in monthly revenue for a single centre in 45 days. Not by running flashier ads — by fixing the pipeline that was already leaking.
The best childcare marketing agency isn't the one with the biggest team or the fanciest dashboard. It's the one that measures enrolments, not impressions, and stays with you until the rooms are full.
If you want to know where your centre's enrolment pipeline is leaking before you make any decisions, the free Childcare Occupancy Scorecard is a good place to start. It takes three minutes and gives you a personalised diagnosis of all six stages of your pipeline.
No sales call required to see your result. Take it here.
Conclusion
Your Google Business Profile isn't just a listing — it's often the first thing a parent sees when they're comparing centres in your suburb. And unlike paid ads, the work you put into it compounds over time.
You don't need to do all 15 of these things this week. Pick the three or four that are clearly missing from your current profile and start there. Reviews, category, weekly posts. That combination alone moves the needle for most centres within 60 days.
The centres that show up first in the Local Pack aren't always the ones with the best NQF rating or the newest facilities. They're usually the ones that've put in consistent, methodical effort on their profile over the last six to twelve months.
That's not hard. It just needs to actually happen.
FAQs
1. How long does it take for Google Business Profile optimisations to show results?
It varies, but most centres start seeing changes in their Local Pack ranking within four to eight weeks of consistent optimisation — particularly after adding reviews and posting regularly. Some changes, like fixing your category or adding services, can shift things faster. It's not instant, but it compounds.
2. Do I need to pay for Google Business Profile to optimise it?
No. Everything described in this article is free. Google Business Profile itself is free. You don't need to pay for Google ads or any Google product to optimise your listing. The features that matter — reviews, posts, Q&A, photos, services, categories — are all included at no cost.
3. How many Google reviews should a childcare centre aim for?
There's no magic number, but in most competitive Australian suburbs, you need at least 40–50 reviews at 4.7 stars or above to consistently appear in the top three Local Pack results. In less competitive areas, 25–30 can be enough. The review recency matters too — a centre with 60 reviews but none in the last six months looks less active than one with 30 reviews and three in the last month.
4. What's the difference between Google Maps ranking and Google Search ranking?
Google Maps ranking (the Local Pack — the three results that show up with a map pin) is determined by proximity, profile completeness, and review prominence. Regular Google Search ranking is driven by your website's SEO. Both matter for childcare centres, but Local Pack is where most parent searches land first, so it's usually the higher priority.
5. Can a competitor damage my Google Business Profile?
Unfortunately, yes — in limited ways. Anyone can suggest edits to your listing, post in the Q&A section, or leave a review. That's why it's worth monitoring your profile regularly and seeding the Q&A section with your own accurate answers before someone else does. If you receive a fake or malicious review, you can flag it for removal — though Google's process for this is slower than most people would like.
