Google Business Profile for tradies: a setup and upkeep checklist
By Seam Media · Updated
For most tradies, the Google Business Profile is the first thing a customer sees. Someone searching for a plumber, electrician or fencer near them is usually shown a map with three businesses before any websites, and many people call straight from that list. A complete, accurate profile is one of the cheapest ways to get more of those calls.
This checklist covers how to set the profile up properly as a service-area business, how to keep it active and which mistakes can get it suspended.
Set it up as a service-area business
If you travel to customers rather than having them come to you, Google treats you as a service-area business. You can hide your address if you work from home, and list the areas you serve instead. Google lets you set up to 20 service areas, based on cities, postcodes or other areas, and says the overall area should not extend more than about two hours' driving time from where your business is based.
Be accurate rather than ambitious. Listing suburbs you rarely visit will not help much and can lead to calls you have to turn away. Keep the areas on your profile consistent with the areas named on your website.
- Hide your address if customers do not visit you.
- Add your real service areas, up to 20.
- Match the areas on your website.
Choose categories and services carefully
Your primary category has a big effect on which searches you appear for, so choose the one that best describes your main trade, such as Plumber or Electrician. Add secondary categories only for work you genuinely do. Then add your services, with short descriptions in the words customers use.
Write the business description in plain language: what you do, the areas you cover and what makes you a sensible choice, such as how long you have been operating or the jobs you specialise in. Leave out links, prices and promotional claims you cannot back up. The description will not win you calls on its own, but a clear one helps customers who have already tapped your listing.
Keep the name honest
Your business name on Google should match the name on your van, invoices and signage. Google's guidelines do not allow extra keywords, suburbs or slogans in the business name, and profiles that add them can be suspended. If your registered business name already includes your trade, that is fine; adding "Best Emergency Plumber Frankston" to it is not.
Use a local phone number or mobile that someone answers, and a website link that goes to a relevant page. If you have more than one profile for the same business, sort it out, as duplicates can confuse customers and Google.
Add photos and keep it active
Upload photos of your own work, your vehicles and your team. Real photos help customers trust that you are a genuine local business, and they are often what makes someone tap your listing rather than the next one. Add new photos as you finish jobs.
Keep your hours accurate, including public holidays, and answer questions customers ask on your profile. Posts and updates are optional, but an active profile with recent photos and reviews gives a better impression than one untouched for years.
- Ten or more real photos of your work.
- Accurate hours, including holidays.
- New photos every month or two.
Build reviews the right way
Reviews help with prominence, which Google lists alongside relevance and distance as the main factors for local results. Ask every happy customer, ideally by sending your review link by text the same day the job is done. Google's help pages suggest reminding customers to leave reviews and sharing a link to make it easy.
Google's policies do not allow incentives such as discounts or free work in exchange for reviews, and treat them as fake engagement. Reply to reviews in a calm, helpful way, including negative ones. A professional reply to a bad review can reassure the next customer reading it.
Check what it brings in
Your profile's performance screen shows calls, website clicks and direction requests over time. Note the calls in your own job records too, so you can see how many become paid work. If you also run Google Ads, keep the two separate in your reporting so you know what each is doing.
Look for patterns rather than single days. If calls drop after you change your categories or service areas, change them back and watch again. If direction requests climb but you do not have a shopfront, check that your address is hidden as intended.
Google Business Profile management, review support and weekly map-pack visibility scans are part of Seam Media's Growth and Complete Growth packages. Our tradie marketing page explains how we look after profiles for trade businesses.
Sources and further reading
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