When someone nearby searches for “painter near me” or “AC repair Spartanburg,” the first thing they often see isn’t a website. It’s the map, with three businesses listed underneath. Those listings come from Google Business Profile, and it’s free.
A lot of local businesses have a profile they set up years ago and never touched again, or one Google made for them automatically. Here’s a checklist to get yours right, based on Google’s own guidelines, which are stricter than most people realize.
1. Use your real business name, and nothing else
Your profile name should be the name customers see on your truck, your sign and your invoices. Google says extra information in the name field “isn’t permitted.” That means no “Smith Painting – Best Painter in Spartanburg,” no phone number and no list of services.
It’s tempting, because stuffing keywords into the name can seem to work for a while. But it breaks the rules, competitors can report it, and a suspended profile disappears from the map entirely. Services and towns have their own places on the profile.
2. Hide your address if you go to your customers
If you’re a service-area business, meaning you travel to customers rather than having them come to you, Google says you should hide your business address. Painters, plumbers, cleaners, landscapers, mobile detailers and most contractors fall in this group.
- Hide the address and add a service area instead: the cities or counties you actually cover.
- Keep the area realistic. Google’s guideline is that it generally shouldn’t stretch more than about two hours’ drive from where you’re based.
- If customers do come to you and you also travel, you can show the address and add a service area.
- Don’t list a home address you don’t want public. Hiding it is exactly what the setting is for.
3. Pick as few categories as possible
Your primary category matters a lot for which searches you show up in. Google’s advice is to “use as few categories as possible” and pick the most specific one for your core business: “Painter” rather than “Contractor,” for example. Add a second or third only if they’re genuinely separate parts of what you do.
4. Fill in the parts most people skip
- Phone number: a local number you control. Google prefers local numbers over call-center lines.
- Website: link to your own site, not a Facebook page if you can help it.
- Hours: your real customer-facing hours, plus special hours for holidays. If you’re appointment-only, say so.
- Services: list each service separately, in the words customers use.
- Description: two or three plain sentences on what you do and where. No links, no all-caps, no promotions.
- Photos: real photos of your work, your team and your vehicles. Before-and-after shots work well for trades. Skip stock photos.
5. Get verified
A profile isn’t fully live until Google verifies that you run the business. These days that’s often done by video. If Google asks for one, plan it before you hit record:
- It has to be one continuous, live recording of at least 30 seconds, made on your phone through the Business Profile app. No pre-recorded or edited clips.
- Show where you are: a street sign, a landmark or the building number.
- Show that the business exists: signage, or for service-area businesses, your tools, equipment or work vehicle.
- Show that you run it: doing the work, opening a business-only area, or a business document that matches the profile name.
- Keep out other people’s faces and anything sensitive like bank or ID numbers.
Google offers other verification methods for some businesses, and the options you see can differ. Use whichever ones your profile offers.
6. Ask for reviews, every time
Reviews are the thing people read most. The businesses with lots of reviews usually aren’t luckier. They just ask.
- Ask every happy customer, right after the job, while they’re pleased. Text them the review link from your profile (look for “Ask for reviews”).
- Reply to every review, good or bad. A calm, helpful reply to a bad review often reassures the next customer more than five good ones.
- Never buy reviews, write your own or offer discounts in exchange for reviews. It breaks Google’s rules and can get reviews removed or your profile suspended.
7. Make your website and your profile agree
Your business name, phone number, service area and hours should match everywhere: your profile, your website, your Facebook page and any directories. When they don’t, customers get confused and Google gets less sure which details are right.
Your website is also where people go next. If the profile gets someone interested and the site is slow, hard to use on a phone or has no clear way to ask for a quote, you lose them. We wrote about what that page needs in what a contractor’s website needs to get estimate requests.
A ten-minute monthly habit
- Reply to any new reviews.
- Add two or three new photos of recent work.
- Check your hours, especially around holidays.
- Look at the profile’s performance numbers to see which searches found you.
- Check nobody has suggested an edit to your details that you didn’t make.
Prefer not to do it yourself? Our Google Business Profile setup is a one-time $100: we set up or clean up the profile, add your photos, hours and services, and link it to your website.