Google Business Profile optimization: a checklist that fits a service business.
For many local businesses, the profile is what a customer sees first in a search. This checklist covers the parts you control. A complete, accurate profile won’t guarantee a place in the map results, but the rest of your local SEO builds on it.
1. Pick the right primary category
Your primary category has the most weight of anything on the profile. Choose the one that matches your main service, then add secondary categories only for services you really sell.
2. Match your name, address and phone everywhere
Use the same business name, address and phone number on the profile, your website and the directories you appear in. Mismatches confuse both customers and Google.
3. Fill out services and the service area
List each service with a short description. If you travel to customers, set the towns you actually cover instead of a huge radius you can’t serve.
4. Add real photos and keep adding them
Upload photos of your crew, trucks, and finished jobs. Photos of real work look more credible than stock images, and you can add new ones after every job.
5. Ask for reviews after every job
Ask every customer, the same way, soon after the job. Reply to every review, good or bad, in plain words. Never offer money or gifts for reviews, and don’t screen who you ask, since Google’s policies forbid both.
6. Use posts and Q&A
Post an offer or a finished project now and then. Check the Q&A section and answer the questions people ask, in wording that includes the service and your town.
7. Link to the right page and track the calls
Point the website button at the service page that fits, not always the home page. Add tracking to the link so you can see the calls and clicks that come from the profile.