Your Google Business Profile is the single biggest factor in whether you appear in the map results when someone searches for your trade nearby. It is free, most trades set it up badly, and fixing it takes about 20 minutes. Here is exactly what to do.
Claim it, verify it, and check for duplicates
Search your business name on Google Maps. If a profile exists that you did not create, claim it rather than making a new one. Duplicate profiles split your reviews and confuse Google about which one to rank.
Verification usually happens by video or postcard. Do it properly once, because an unverified profile barely ranks at all.
Get the category ruthlessly specific
The primary category is the strongest signal on the whole profile. "Plumber" beats "Contractor". "Emergency electrician" exists as a category and converts like nothing else if you offer callouts.
Then fill in the services list under that category. Every service you add is another search you can match: boiler installation, fuse board replacement, end of tenancy cleaning, event security. Google matches these against real searches word for word.
Name your towns, not your region
A profile that says "Devon" competes with every trade in the county. A profile that lists Plymouth, Plympton, Plymstock, Saltash, Ivybridge, and Tavistock matches searches from each of those places specifically.
List every area you genuinely cover and no more. Google cross-checks where your reviews and jobs actually come from, and padding the list dilutes the areas that matter.
Real photos and recent reviews do the selling
Profiles with real job photos get dramatically more calls than profiles with a logo and nothing else. Before and after shots, your van, your team on site. Ten photos is a good floor, and adding one a month keeps the profile visibly alive.
Reviews work on recency as well as volume. Five reviews from the last two months beat twenty from 2023. Build the ask into the end of every job: a text with a direct review link while the customer is still delighted costs nothing and converts far better than an email a week later.
The Q&A section is yours, so use it
Anyone can ask and answer questions on your profile, including competitors and confused strangers. Beat them to it: post the questions customers actually ask (Do you do emergency callouts? Are you insured? Do you quote for free?) and answer them yourself.
These answers also feed the AI systems that increasingly summarise local businesses. Clear, factual Q&A on your profile is one of the easiest ways to control what AI search says about you.
- Choose the most specific category possible: "Electrician", never "Contractor"
- List every town you genuinely serve, not just "Plymouth and surrounding areas"
- Photos of real jobs outrank stock images, aim for ten or more
- Reviews from the last 60 days matter more than old ones, ask at job completion
- Answer the Q&A section yourself before a stranger does it for you
Questions, answered
How long until profile changes affect my ranking?
Category and service area changes can shift results within days. Reviews and photos compound over weeks. Expect visible movement inside a month if the profile was thin before.
Do I need a website if my Business Profile is good?
The two work together. The profile wins the click, the website wins the job. Google also ranks profiles higher when they link to a fast, relevant website covering the same services and areas.
Should I pay someone to manage my Business Profile?
Setup is genuinely a one-afternoon job you can do yourself with this guide. Ongoing management makes sense once you are competing for rankings across several towns, which is part of what a local SEO retainer covers.
What if I work from home and do not want my address shown?
Set the profile to a service-area business. Your address stays hidden and you list the towns you cover instead. Ranking works the same way.
