Google Business Profile, done properly
For 'electrician near me' the results people actually click are the three on the map. Getting in there is not about your website — it is about a free Google listing that takes about twenty minutes to fill in properly.
It is the highest-return thing a local trade can do online, and most firms half-finish it.
Getting it right the first time
- Category. The single biggest lever. Pick the one that describes what you mainly do, not the broadest one available. Add secondary categories for the rest.
- Service area, not an address, if people do not come to you. You can hide the address and still show the area you cover.
- Hours that are true, including whether you take emergency calls. Wrong hours generate bad reviews from people who turned up.
- Photographs. Finished work, your van, you. Not a logo on a white background.
- Services, listed individually. They are searchable.
- The website link, pointing at the page that matches — a bathroom fitter’s profile should link to the bathroom page, not the front page.
The name field, and the thing not to do
Put your business name in it. Just the name.
Stuffing it — 'Northgate Heating | Boiler Repair Derby | 24hr Plumber' — is against Google’s rules, it gets reported by competitors, and a suspended listing takes weeks to get back. The short-term bump is not worth it.
Keeping it alive
A profile that has not been touched in a year drifts down. Posting a photograph of a finished job every few weeks, and answering the questions people leave, is enough — it is fifteen minutes a month, not a marketing job.
Answer every review, including the good ones. It takes a sentence and it is visible to everybody reading afterwards.
Consistency with everything else
Your name, address and phone number should be identical on the profile, your website, and any directory you are in. Not nearly identical — identical, down to whether it is 'Road' or 'Rd'.
It matters less than it used to, but it is free to get right and it is a genuine signal that the business is what it says it is.
Common questions
Do I need premises to have a listing?
No. Set it up as a service-area business, give the area you cover and hide the address. Google will still post a verification card to wherever you are registered, but the address never shows publicly.
Can I have a listing for each town I work in?
No — one listing per real location. Fake listings for towns you do not have premises in get removed and can take the real one with them. Cover the extra towns with pages on your website instead.
Someone left a review that isn’t even about my business.
Report it, and reply politely in the meantime saying you have no record of the job and asking them to get in touch. Google is slow and inconsistent about removing them, so the reply is doing most of the work — it is there for everyone who reads afterwards.
Is it worth paying someone to manage it?
For most one-person firms, no. The setup is an afternoon and the upkeep is fifteen minutes a month. Where it can be worth it is a firm with several branches, where consistency across listings becomes real work.
Want to see what yours would look like?
Send me a few lines about your firm and within a few days you will have a mock-up of your site, with a price on it. Free.
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