Google Business Profile for tradies: how to set it up and manage it

What a Google Business Profile is, and why tradies need one

A Google Business Profile is the free listing that puts your business on Google Search and Maps, with your phone number, hours, photos and reviews. For a tradie it matters because it’s what shows in the map results when someone nearby searches for what you do.

Say you’re a sparky in Chermside and someone in Aspley searches “electrician near me”. Google shows a map with a few local businesses, each one a Business Profile, and the customer can ring straight from it.

Google ranks profiles on relevance (how well you match the search), distance (how far you are from the customer) and prominence (how well known you are). You can’t change distance, but you can work on the rest. That’s one part of local SEO, which just means making it easy for Google to work out what you do and where. You can’t pay Google for a better spot in the map results. Ads are separate.

Set up your Google Business Profile

Search for your business in Google Maps first. If a profile exists, choose “Claim this business” instead of making a second one. If someone else owns it, ask them for access. They get three days to answer, then you may be able to claim it.

If there isn’t one, go to business.google.com/add and choose “Add your business to Google”. Adding or claiming is free. Use your own Google account, not your web designer’s.

If customers don’t visit you because you work from home or travel to them, you’re a service-area business. Google needs an address it can find to verify you, but your profile is public, so hide it. Go to Edit profile, then Location. Next to “Business location”, choose Edit and turn off “Show business address to customers”.

• Next to “Service area”, choose Edit and add the suburbs, cities or postcodes you really work in, up to 20.
• You can’t use a radius, like “50 km around Chermside”.
• Google says to keep the whole area within about two hours’ driving of where you’re based.
• Google doesn’t accept a PO box, a mailbox somewhere else or a virtual office as your address.

Only hide your address if customers don’t visit you. If they come to a workshop or shopfront during set hours, show it and add your service area too. Make one profile for the business, not one per suburb.

Google Business Profile verification: what to expect

Verification is how Google checks you’re the real business. Google says verified profiles are more likely to show up in results, and your photos stay hidden until you’re verified.

Google picks the method, based on things like your business type and region, and you can’t choose it. It might be a call or text to your business number, an email, a video call or recording, or a postcard with a code. A video check may ask you to show your tools and branded equipment.

For phone, make sure a person answers, because an automated menu can’t receive the code. For a postcard, don’t ask for a second one, as that cancels the first, and don’t change your name, address or category while you wait. Don’t pay anyone to get you verified either. Google says it never charges for that.

Optimise your Google Business Profile

Google Business Profile optimisation just means filling it in properly and honestly:

• Business name. Use the name on your ute, invoices and website. Google doesn’t allow taglines, services or locations in it, so “Smith Electrical” is fine and “Smith Electrical | Best Sparky Brisbane” isn’t. Extra words can get the profile suspended.
• Categories. Pick the most specific main category, like Electrician or Plumber. Google says to choose what your business is, and to add a few extras, not one for every job.
• Services and hours. List the jobs you do and put in your real hours. Add special hours for public holidays.
• Description. You get 750 characters. Say what you do, how long you’ve done it and where, like you would on the phone. No web links, promotions or prices, and don’t pad it with keywords.
• Licence number. The QBCC says its licence holders must show their licence name and number in advertising, including online directories and social media pages. We’d put yours in the description.
• Website. Use the website field, not the description. If yours needs work, see our websites for tradies page.
• Photos. Add photos of real jobs, your crew and your ute. Google wants them in focus and well lit, with no heavy filters, and true to life. Ask the customer before you post photos of their home.

Reviews: ask everyone, never buy them

Google says more reviews and positive ratings can help your local ranking, and customers notice them too.

Ask after every job, while it’s fresh. Google lets you create a review link and a QR code, so text the link or put the code on your invoice.

Google’s review policy rules out these things:

• Paying for reviews, or offering a discount or freebie for one, or to change or remove a bad one.
• Only asking the customers you think will be happy.
• Writing your own, or getting staff, family or anyone who hasn’t used your work to write one.
• Telling people what to write or how many stars to give.

Reply to every review. Keep it short, thank them and mention the job. For a bad one, stay calm, say what you’ll do and don’t get personal. If a review breaks Google’s rules, you can flag it.

Manage your Google Business Profile: posts and access

Posts are short updates on your profile, like a finished job, a new service or an offer. Go to Posts, then Add post. Google archives posts older than six months unless you set a date range, so post now and then.

Keep yourself as the owner. Managers have nearly the same access, but only owners can add or remove people or delete the profile. So anyone who helps you, including a web person, an agency or us, should be a manager. Never let anyone else own it. If you fall out, getting it back means asking them for access.

Add people under More, Business Profile settings, then People and access. Remove anyone who leaves, and turn on 2-Step Verification on your Google account.

Suspensions, duplicates and where to get help

Google can suspend a profile that breaks its guidelines, so the name, address and category rules above matter. If it happens, fix the problem first, then use Google’s appeals tool. Have evidence ready, like your business registration, trade licence or a utility bill, with a name and address that match your profile. Google says an appeal can only be submitted once, and not to start a new profile for the same business.

You can only have one profile per business. Remove a second one you made by mistake, but check you pick the right one. Or ask Google to merge two listings on Maps. If you move, update your existing profile.

Be wary of scams. Google says it never asks for a one-time password or PIN, or for payment to keep, verify or reinstate a profile. Don’t give access to anyone you don’t know.

For anything else, use the Contact us option on Google’s help pages or ask in the Business Profile Help Community.

Questions people ask

How do I create a Google Business Profile?

Search your business name in Google Maps to check there isn’t one. If not, go to business.google.com/add and choose “Add your business to Google”. It’s free.

Can I hide my home address on Google?

Yes, if you’re a service-area business. Go to Edit profile, then Location, and turn off “Show business address to customers”.

How does Google Business Profile verification work?

Google picks a method, such as a call, text, email, video or postcard, and you can’t choose it. How long it takes depends on the method.

You can sort all of this yourself, and it costs nothing. If you’d like a second pair of eyes on your setup, ask us for a free website check. We’ll tell you in plain English what’s working and what we’d fix first.