When someone near you needs a plumber, an accountant or a good lunch spot, they rarely start on your website. They type what they need into Google, look at the map and the handful of businesses under it, and tap "Call" on one of them.
That little box with your name, stars, hours and phone number is your Google Business Profile. For a lot of local businesses it is the busiest front door they have, and most owners set it up once and never looked at it again.
The good news: it's free, you control it, and most of what makes it work is a couple of hours of plain housekeeping. Here is what I'd do this week.
How Google decides who shows up
Google says it ranks local results on three things:
- Relevance. Does your profile clearly match what the person searched for?
- Distance. How close are you to the searcher, or to the area they named?
- Prominence. How well known and trusted are you? Reviews, your website and mentions around the web all feed this.
You can't move your shop closer to every customer. But relevance and prominence are mostly in your hands, and that is where the steps below come in.
Step 1: Get the basics exactly right
- Claim and verify the profile. If you haven't, nothing else matters yet. Search your business name on Google and follow the prompts to claim it.
- Use your real business name. Don't stuff in extra words like "Best Plumber Philadelphia." It's against Google's rules and can get the profile suspended.
- Match your name, address and phone everywhere. Same spelling and the same number on your profile, your website, Facebook, Yelp and anywhere else you're listed. Mismatches make Google less sure who you are.
- Use a phone number someone answers. It sounds obvious. Call it yourself from another phone and see what a customer hears.
Step 2: Pick the right category
Your primary category is one of the strongest signals you control. Pick the most specific one that describes your main line of work, such as "HVAC contractor" rather than just "Contractor." Then add a few secondary categories for the other work you really do, and stop there. Five honest categories beat fifteen hopeful ones.
Step 3: Fill in everything Google gives you
An empty profile tells Google, and the customer, very little. Go through each section and fill it in:
- Services. List each service in the words customers use. "Water heater replacement," not "domestic hot water solutions."
- Service area. If you go to customers, list the towns and neighborhoods you actually cover.
- Hours. Keep them current, and set holiday hours ahead of time. Nothing loses a customer faster than showing "Open" when you're closed.
- Description. A few plain sentences: what you do, who you do it for, where, and what makes you different.
- Website link. Point it at a page that makes calling or booking easy.
Step 4: Add real photos, and keep adding them
People want to see who is coming to their house or who they are walking in to meet. Skip the stock photos. Add your storefront or trucks, your team, your work and before-and-after shots. A few new photos every month shows the business is alive.
Step 5: Make reviews a habit, not an accident
Reviews do double duty. They help you show up, and they help the customer pick you once you do. The trick is to ask every time, not just when you remember.
- Get your review link. Google gives you a short link from inside the profile. Save it on your phone.
- Ask at the happy moment. Right after the job is done or the customer says thanks. Send the link by text the same day.
- Never pay or bribe for reviews, and don't buy them. It breaks Google's rules and customers can usually tell.
- Answer every review. Thank the good ones by name. For a bad one, stay calm, don't argue, and offer to make it right offline. Future customers read your replies as closely as the review.
Step 6: Post updates and answer the phone like it matters
You can post updates on your profile: a seasonal offer, a finished project, a new service. It takes five minutes and keeps the profile fresh.
Then look at what happens after someone taps "Call." A great profile that sends calls to a voicemail box nobody checks is just an expensive way to annoy people. Know who answers, how fast, and what happens to missed calls.
Step 7: Check the numbers once a month
Inside the profile, Google shows how many people called, asked for directions or clicked through to your website. Write those three numbers down on the first of every month. If they go up after you make changes, keep going. If calls rise but jobs don't, the problem is how calls get answered and booked, not Google.
A one-hour checklist
| Check | Done? |
|---|---|
| Profile claimed and verified | ☐ |
| Name, address and phone match the website exactly | ☐ |
| Most specific primary category chosen | ☐ |
| Every service and service area listed | ☐ |
| Hours and holiday hours current | ☐ |
| At least ten real photos | ☐ |
| Review link saved and sent after every job | ☐ |
| Every review answered | ☐ |
| Calls, directions and website clicks written down this month | ☐ |
Your profile and your website work as a team
Your profile gets you found. Your website is where many people decide whether to call. If the site is slow, hard to read on a phone or hides your number, you lose people your profile worked hard to bring in. If you're not sure how yours holds up, ask for our free website check-up. And if you run a trade business, where every missed call is a missed job, here's what business consulting for tradesmen covers.
Start with one free conversation
More calls only help if each job makes money. Book a free BOI Snapshot and we'll look at the whole picture, from how customers find you to what you keep from each job, and name the two or three places to start, whether we work together or not.