Your Google Business Profile (GBP) is the listing that appears in Google Maps and in the map box at the top of local searches. It's free, it lets people call or get directions without ever opening your website, and Google leans on it heavily when deciding which nearby businesses to show. Claim it, complete every section honestly, and keep it active.
Why the profile matters
When someone nearby searches for a trade, Google often shows a small map with a handful of businesses before any ordinary website links. Those listings come from Google Business Profiles. For a lot of local customers, that box is where the choice gets made.
- It's prime position. The map results sit near the top of the page on a phone, where it's hard to miss.
- It works without a click to your site. People can ring you, check your hours, read reviews and get directions straight from the listing.
- There's no charge per click. Unlike ads, the calls and visits it sends don't cost you anything each time.
Claiming and verifying it
Search for your business
Look yourself up on Google Maps. A listing may already exist, created by Google or a customer. If so, use the option to claim it rather than starting a second one.
Sign in with a business account
Use a Google account the business controls, not a staff member's personal email that walks out the door with them.
Choose how you serve customers
If customers come to you, show your address. If you travel to them, as most trades do, set it up as a service area business and hide the street address.
Complete verification
Google decides the method, which might be a short video of your vehicle, signage and tools, a phone or email code, or a postcard. Your profile won't fully go live until this is done.
Filling in the details
Treat every field as worth filling. Google can only show you for what it knows you do, and a half-empty profile looks less trustworthy to customers as well.
- Business name: your real trading name, as it appears on your van and invoices. Adding suburbs or keywords to the name breaks Google's guidelines and can get a profile suspended.
- Primary category: the single label that best describes your main trade. This one carries the most weight, so pick it carefully, then add a few secondary categories that genuinely apply.
- Services: list each service separately with a short plain description.
- Service area: the suburbs or regions you actually travel to.
- Hours: keep them accurate, including public holidays and any after-hours availability.
- Phone and website: the same number and business details you use on your website and directory listings, word for word.
- Description: a few honest sentences on what you do, where, and what makes you a safe pair of hands. Mention licences and how long you've traded.
Photos
Pictures are one of the first things people scroll through. Real ones help far more than polished stock shots, because they show the customer who will turn up and what the finished work looks like.
Worth uploading
- Before and after shots of real jobs
- You and your team at work
- Your vehicle with its signage
- A clear logo and a cover image
Leave out
- Stock photography
- Blurry or dark phone shots
- Images with prices or phone numbers written over them
- Anything showing a customer's address or face without permission
Add a few new photos whenever you finish a job worth showing. A steady trickle keeps the profile looking active.
Reviews
Reviews do two jobs: they reassure the person reading them, and Google lists them among the signals it uses to judge how prominent a local business is. Ask every happy customer, make it easy with a direct link, and reply to every review you get, good or bad.
Our Google reviews guide goes through when to ask, what to say and how to handle a bad one.
Posts and updates
Posts are short updates that appear on your profile, a bit like a social media post. They're a simple way to show the business is active and to give searchers a reason to choose you.
- Updates: a recent job with a photo and a line about what you did.
- Offers: a genuine deal with clear conditions and an end date.
- Events: an open day, a trade show stand or a seasonal booking window.
Good topics are practical and local: getting air conditioning serviced before summer, checking gutters ahead of storm season, or a job you've just finished in a nearby suburb. Little and often beats a burst of posts followed by months of silence.
Reading the numbers
Inside your profile, the performance section shows how people found you and what they did next. The figures worth watching:
- Searches: the words people typed before your profile appeared.
- Calls: taps on your phone number.
- Website clicks: visits to your site from the listing.
- Direction requests: mostly relevant if customers come to you.
Compare each month against your own previous months rather than chasing an industry average. A steady rise in calls and website clicks tells you the profile is pulling its weight.
A monthly upkeep list
- Reply to every new review
- Upload a few fresh job photos
- Publish at least one post
- Check hours, holiday closures and your phone number are still right
- Look for edits suggested by Google or the public, and correct anything wrong
- Note this month's calls and website clicks next to last month's
Want to see how your website backs up the profile? Try our free website checker.
