A Google Business Profile checklist for service businesses
For many customers, the search for a plumber, electrician or installer starts on Google Maps. Your Google Business Profile is often the first thing they see, before your website and before they call. Here are ten things worth checking this week.
The basics
- Primary category. Choose the category that best describes your main service. It's one of the strongest signals Google uses to decide which searches you show up for.
- Additional categories. Add the other services you genuinely offer, but don't add categories for work you don't do.
- Service area. List the towns and suburbs you actually cover. A huge area you can't reach quickly doesn't help you, and it frustrates customers at the edges of it.
- Services list. Add each service with a short description in plain language, using the words customers search for.
- Hours. Keep them accurate, including any emergency availability. Few things lose trust faster than calling during "open" hours and getting no answer.
What makes customers choose you
- Real photos. Add photos of your team, your vehicles and your finished jobs, including before-and-after shots. Add new ones regularly. Stock photos make a local business look like a call center.
- Reviews. Ask every happy customer, the same day the job is finished, while they're still pleased. A message with a direct link makes it easy.
- Review replies. Reply to every review, good and bad. A calm, helpful reply to a bad review often reassures future customers more than the good reviews do.
The connections people miss
- Website link. Link to the most relevant page on your website, not just the homepage, so customers land somewhere useful.
- Matching details. Your business name, address and phone number should match your website exactly. Mismatches can hurt where you appear in local results.
Keep it current
A Google Business Profile isn't something you set up once and forget. Regular photos, new reviews and quick replies all show Google, and customers, that you're an active local business. Fifteen minutes a week is usually enough to keep it in good shape.
Our free website audit includes your Google profile, and shows you which of these fixes would make the biggest difference.