If I could only fix one thing for a tradie's business online, it would be their Google Business Profile. It's free, it takes an afternoon, and it's what most local customers see before they ever reach a website.
What it is
Search for "electrician near me" on your phone. Before the list of websites, Google shows a map with a few businesses beside it: name, star rating, hours, a call button. Each of those is a Google Business Profile. Being on that map is worth more than almost anything else you can do online, because the person searching is ready to ring someone now.
Set it up in your own name
This matters more than any other step. The profile should be created with a Google login that you own and control. I often see profiles that were set up years ago by a web designer or a former staff member, and now nobody can get in to change the phone number.
If someone else manages it for you, that's fine. Google lets you add them as a manager while you stay the owner. If they leave, you remove them and carry on.
Fill in everything
- Category. Pick the one that matches your trade most exactly: "Plumber", "Electrician", "Roofing contractor". This is the single biggest thing that decides which searches you appear in. You can add a few extra categories for other work you do.
- Service area. If you go to customers rather than them coming to you, you can list the suburbs or regions you cover and keep your home address hidden.
- Hours. Your real ones. If you take emergency calls after hours, show it.
- Phone number. The one you actually answer.
- Services. List them in plain words: "hot water repairs", "switchboard upgrades", "blocked drains".
- Description. A few sentences on what you do and where. Write it the way you'd say it to a customer.
Verification
Google will want proof the business is real before it shows your profile to the public. These days that is often a short video you film on your phone, showing things like your tools, your vehicle signage and paperwork with the business name on it. It feels odd. It's normal, and it only needs doing once.
Photos
Add real photos: finished jobs, work in progress, your van, you and your crew. Customers look at them, and a profile with recent photos looks like a business that's still trading. Skip the stock pictures. Everyone can tell.
A habit that works: take two photos at the end of every decent job and add the best ones once a month.
Reviews
Your star rating and the number of reviews sit right next to your name on the map. They're a big part of who gets the call. Ask every customer after every job, and reply to every review. The simple marketing guide for plumbers has more on how reviews fit in with everything else.
Keep it current
A profile isn't something you set up once and forget. Check it every month or so:
- Are the hours right, including public holidays?
- Has anyone asked a question that needs an answer?
- Has Google changed anything? It sometimes accepts "suggested edits" from the public, and they're not always correct.
- Are there new photos to add?
Things that get profiles suspended
Google has rules, and breaking them can get a profile taken down, sometimes without warning. The common ones:
- Stuffing extra words into the business name, like "Smith Plumbing Best Cheap Plumber Parramatta". Use your real trading name.
- Using an address you don't work from, such as a post office box or a virtual office.
- Making more than one profile for the same business.
Getting a suspended profile back can take weeks. It's much easier to stay inside the rules to begin with.
Do you need to pay someone?
Not to set it up. Everything above is free and within reach of anyone who can use a smartphone. Where paying can make sense is the upkeep: adding photos and posts each month, replying to reviews, and keeping watch for changes, if you know you won't do it yourself.
If you're already paying someone to "manage your Google listing", ask them what they did to it last month. And if you're not sure who actually owns your profile, get in touch. We'll help you find out.