Google Business Profile basics for trades that go to the customer

Your Google Business Profile (the listing that shows up with a map, hours and reviews) is often the first thing a customer sees. For many trades it matters more than the website. A few basics keep it accurate and keep it out of trouble.

Google changes its guidelines from time to time, so read the current ones at Google's Business Profile help pages before you act on anything below.

Service-area business or storefront?

If you travel to customers, you are generally treated as a service-area business. That means you can hide your street address and instead list the cities or areas you serve. If you also see customers at a real shop, you can show that address. Which one you are decides which fields you fill in.

If your business address is your home, it is common and allowed to hide it. Do not put a made-up street address or a mailbox store address and call it an office, because Google can suspend listings it thinks are misleading.

The name has to be your real name

Use the name you operate under, the same one on your truck, invoice and website. Stuffing extra words into the name ("Joe's Plumbing Best Plumber Mission Viejo") breaks Google's rules and is one of the faster ways to get a listing flagged.

Fill in what customers actually look at

• Main category and extra categories. Choose the one that best matches your core work, then add only categories that are true.
• Hours. Keep them current, including holidays. Wrong hours cost you calls and reviews.
• Service areas. List the places you really cover, not the whole county because it sounds bigger.
• Services. Add each service you offer, with a short plain description.
• Photos. Real photos of your work, your vehicle and your crew, taken on a normal phone, beat polished stock images.
• Phone and website. Make sure both match your site exactly.

Reviews and questions

Reply to reviews, good and bad, politely and without arguing. Mention a detail of the job when you can ("thanks for having us out to replace the panel"). A calm reply to a bad review reads well to the next person deciding.

Keep it alive

Check the listing once a month. Add a recent photo, confirm hours, and look for edits you did not make. Other people can suggest changes to your listing, and sometimes wrong ones get through.

What to avoid

• Fake reviews, from you or anyone you paid.
• Multiple listings for the same business.
• A fake address.
• Claiming a business that is not yours.

Each of these can cost you the listing, and rebuilding reviews takes a long time.