A practical Google Business Profile checklist for home-service businesses

For many local searches, your Google Business Profile shows up before your website. It is often the first impression a customer gets. Here is a simple checklist to work through.

You can do most of this yourself in an afternoon. Work through it in order, and come back to it every few months.

Before you start: who owns the profile?

Make sure you own your profile, not a past employee or marketing company. If you are not sure, sign in with your business Google account and check who is listed as the owner.

If someone else owns it, ask them to transfer ownership to you. Give others access as managers when needed — you can remove it later. Owning the profile means you stay in control, even if you change who helps you with marketing.

The basics

• Business name: Use your real business name. Don’t add extra keywords or city names to it — that can get a profile suspended.
• Primary category: Choose the category that best describes your main service, like “Plumber” or “Roofing contractor.”
• Additional categories: Add only the ones that truly apply.
• Phone number: The number you actually answer (or that texts back when you can’t).
• Website link: Point to your home page or the most relevant service page.

Picking the right primary category

Your primary category has a big effect on which searches you appear in. Pick the one that matches the work you most want, not the widest one. A business that mainly does roof repair and replacement should usually choose a roofing category, even if it also does gutters.

Service area

Most home-service businesses go to the customer. You can usually hide your street address and show a service area instead. Make sure the areas you list match where you really work.

Be realistic. Listing a huge area you rarely serve won’t help you show up there, and it can annoy customers when you turn them down. List the towns, cities or counties where you actually want work.

Hours

Keep your hours accurate, including holidays. If you offer emergency service, say so clearly in your description and services — but only if it’s true.

If your office hours and your working hours are different, use the hours when customers can reach you. Update special hours before public holidays so customers aren’t calling a closed business.

Description

Your description is a short summary of what you do and who you help. Write it for customers, not for search engines:

• What services you offer.
• Where you work.
• What makes working with you easy — for example, clear quotes or tidy work.

Skip the long keyword lists and the links. Keep it honest and easy to read.

Services

List your main services with short, clear descriptions. This helps customers (and Google) understand exactly what you do.

Match the names to the words customers use. “Water heater repair” is clearer than “Thermal appliance solutions.” If a service has its own page on your website, use the same name in both places.

Photos

Real photos beat stock images every time:

• Your team and vehicles
• Before-and-after shots of real jobs
• Your logo and a clear cover image

A few tips:

• Use good light. Daytime photos of finished work look best.
• Keep customers’ faces, house numbers and car plates out of shots unless you have permission.
• Add new photos every so often. Fresh photos show customers you are active.

Reviews

• Ask every customer for an honest review, the same way (more on that in our article on fair review requests).
• Reply to reviews — good and bad — calmly and professionally.
• Never buy reviews or offer rewards for them.

Questions and messages

Customers can ask questions on your profile, and in some cases send messages. Check these regularly. An unanswered question looks the same as an unanswered phone. If you turn on messaging, make sure someone actually reads and replies to the messages.

Match your details everywhere

Your business name, phone number and service area should be the same on your profile, your website, your vehicles, your invoices and any directories you are listed in. Different details in different places confuse customers and can make it harder for search engines to trust your information.

Make a simple list of where your business is listed. When something changes — like a new phone number — update every place on the list.

Link it to your website

Your website and your profile should support each other:

• The profile links to your website.
• Your website lists the same services and service area.
• Your website shows the same phone number and hours.

If you have separate pages for your main services, consider linking the profile to the one that matches your primary category best.

Keep it fresh

Check your profile every month or two. Update hours, add new photos, and make sure your details still match your website.

Watch for suggested edits, too. Anyone can suggest changes to a business profile, and sometimes those changes are wrong. Checking regularly lets you catch them early.

Your monthly five-minute check

1. Are the hours right, including upcoming holidays?
2. Is the phone number right, and does it get answered?
3. Are there new reviews to reply to?
4. Are there new questions or messages?
5. Any new job photos worth adding?

If you’d like a second pair of eyes on your profile, book a call and we’ll look at it together.