Google Business Profile for contractors: setting it up by Google's own guidelines

Why the profile matters for a contractor

When someone searches for your trade plus "near me", the map results with business names and star ratings come from Google Business Profiles. For many homeowners, that map is where the decision starts. Your profile is free, you control most of what it says, and nobody charges you per call that comes from it.

It is also the place where Google is strictest about rules. Google's guidelines say that adding unnecessary information to your business name, such as your town, could get the profile suspended. This guide sticks to what Google's own guidelines say, so your profile builds up over time instead of disappearing one morning.

Setting up as a service-area business

Most contractors are what Google calls service-area businesses: you go to the customer, they don't come to you. Google's guidelines are direct about this: if you're a service-area business, you should hide your business address from customers. If you work from home, that keeps your home address off the map. If you have a shop with permanent signage where your staff receive customers during posted hours, Google treats you as a hybrid business. You can show the address and also set a service area.

A few more rules from the same guidelines:

• The address you register must be a real location you operate from. Google says P.O. boxes and mailboxes at remote locations aren't acceptable, and virtual offices aren't allowed unless they're staffed during business hours.
• Your overall service area shouldn't extend farther than about two hours of driving time from where your business is based. Google's service area help lets you set up to 20 service areas by city, postal code or other area, and doesn't let you draw a radius around your base.
• A service-area business should have one profile for its central office with a designated service area. You can only have separate profiles for separate locations that have their own service areas and their own staff.

Setting a huge service area doesn't make you rank in every town in it. Distance from the searcher still counts. Pick the area you actually serve.

Name, categories and services

Business name. Use the name your customers see on your truck, invoices and website. Google's guidelines rule out adding service or product information, location information or a marketing tagline to the name. "Example Roofing Co." is fine. "Example Roofing Co. Best Roof Repair Springfield" is the kind of name Google says could get a profile suspended.

Categories. Google says to choose the fewest number of categories it takes to describe your overall core business. Pick the most specific primary category that matches your main work. Add secondary categories only for real lines of business. A painter who also does drywall repair might add that; a painter who once fixed a gutter shouldn't add gutters.

Services. Add each service you offer, with a short plain description. Use the words customers use. These entries help Google match your profile to specific searches, which is part of what Google calls relevance.

Phone and website. Google says to use a local number instead of a central call center line whenever possible, and the business has to control the number directly. Its guidelines also rule out numbers and links that redirect or refer people to anyone other than the actual business, so the website link should go to your own site, not a lead-gen landing page. Google lets you add up to two phone numbers besides the primary one, so if you use call tracking, keep your main business number on the profile too.

Hours. Google asks for your regular customer-facing hours, with special hours for holidays. List the hours a customer can actually reach you, and don't claim 24-hour service you don't provide.

How does verification work?

Google asks you to verify before you can edit your business information and interact with customers, and verifying is how you gain ownership of the profile. According to Google's help center, verification methods are automatically determined by Google and can't be changed. The options include phone or text, email, a live video call, a recorded video and a mailed postcard, and Google recommends video recording if you're eligible. Which ones you're offered depends on your business type, public info, region or business hours, and some businesses have to verify more than one way.

For a live video call, Google says to be at your business and ready to show your location (outside signs or a street sign), your branded equipment or the tools you use to serve customers, and proof you manage the business, such as non-sensitive business documents or keys. For a contractor that can mean the lettered truck, the trailer and the gear in it. If you verify by postcard, Google says not to edit your business name, address or category while the code is on its way, or the code won't work. After you complete the steps, Google says verification reviews take up to five business days, and on rare occasions longer.

Photos and posts

Upload photos of your actual work, your crew, your trucks and your equipment. Before-and-after shots of real jobs tell a homeowner more than any stock image, and Google's own ranking tips list photos and videos as a way to show customers your work. Skip stock images and photos with keyword text added on top.

Posts are short updates that appear on your profile: a seasonal service, a new offering, a note about scheduling. Treat them as a way to show the profile is active and to answer timely questions. A post at the start of each season is a reasonable rhythm for most trades. Don't expect posts alone to move rankings.

Reviews: ask everyone, the honest way

Reviews are part of what Google calls prominence, and its ranking help says more reviews and positive ratings can help your local ranking. Google's review policy limits how you ask. The policy says businesses shouldn't offer incentives such as payment, discounts, or free goods or services in exchange for reviews. It also prohibits discouraging negative reviews or selectively soliciting positive ones, and says businesses shouldn't ask for specific content in a review, including content that names a staff member.

That rules out "review gating", where you send a survey and only point happy customers to Google. It also rules out a discount for leaving a review. What's allowed is asking every customer to share their genuine experience.

1. Get your review link from the profile dashboard.
2. Text it to every customer after the job is complete, from your business number.
3. Send one reminder after three or four days if no review has appeared.
4. Reply to every review, good or bad, briefly and professionally. Never post customer details in a reply.

A CRM that sends the request automatically when a job is marked complete makes this happen every time instead of whenever someone remembers.

Mistakes that get contractor profiles suspended or buried

Most of these problems start as well-meant shortcuts. Each one is either against Google's guidelines or works against you:

• Keywords or towns in the business name. It may seem to help for a while, then a competitor suggests an edit or reports the profile, and it gets reviewed.
• A virtual office or mailbox as the address. Google rejects P.O. boxes and mailboxes at remote locations, and a service-area business can't list a virtual office unless it is staffed during business hours.
• Extra profiles for nearby towns. Google allows separate profiles only for real locations with their own staff and service area.
• A lead-generation company's number on your profile. Google requires a number the business controls itself and bars numbers that refer callers to anyone else. A number that routes callers to a marketplace breaks that rule and gives away your calls.
• Letting a vendor own the profile. Make yourself the primary owner and add any agency as a manager. If you part ways, you remove their access instead of asking for your profile back.
• Buying or trading reviews. Google's policy says reviews showing unusual volumes or patterns are treated as rating manipulation and removed. The FTC's reviews rule, in effect since October 21, 2024, also makes a business liable if it buys reviews it knew or should have known were fake. This is general information and not legal advice.

If your profile is suspended, Google says to make sure it follows all the guidelines before you submit an appeal through the Business Profile appeals tool, which shows the reason and the policy involved. Evidence Google lists includes business registration, a business license, tax certificates and utility bills, with the name and address matching the profile. Don't create a new profile while the appeal is under review.

Keeping the profile healthy

Check your profile monthly. People who use Google Maps can suggest edits to your listing, and Google also pulls in information from sources such as user reports and licensed content. Some suggested edits come to you first by email or notification. Per Google's Google updates help page, you get 4 days to respond, and an edit you ignore can go live when your website or other public sources back it up. Look for changed hours, a wrong phone number or new categories you didn't add. Update holiday hours and add new photos as the seasons change.

Your profile works best alongside a website that says the same thing. Google's local ranking help names three factors, relevance, distance and prominence, and states that there's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking. Our guide to local SEO for contractors covers how the profile fits with your site and listings, and how to get more Google reviews goes deeper on the asking part. If you'd like us to set it up or clean it up, that's part of our local SEO work, and a free system quote will tell you what's wrong with yours today.

Frequently asked questions