For most tradespeople, the Google Business Profile is the first thing a new customer sees - before your website, before your van, often before they have decided who to ring. Getting your Google Business Profile right as a tradesman is the highest-return hour you can spend on marketing, and most trade profiles are about half-finished.
This is the trade-specific version. If you have not created a profile yet, start with our guide to getting on Google Maps, then come back.
Categories: be specific, not broad
Your primary category is the strongest relevance signal on the profile. Google asks you to choose as few categories as possible to describe your core business, and to pick what the business is rather than every task it does. Choose the most specific one available, then add secondaries for genuine other core services.
| Trade | Sensible primary category | Possible secondary categories |
|---|---|---|
| Plumber doing mostly boilers | Heating contractor or Boiler supplier | Plumber, Gas engineer |
| General plumber | Plumber | Drainage service, Bathroom remodeler |
| Domestic electrician | Electrician | Lighting contractor, EV charging station contractor |
| Roofer | Roofing contractor | Gutter cleaning service |
| Tree surgeon | Tree service | Landscaper, Gardener |
| Builder | Builder or General contractor | Home improvement store is wrong - pick services, not unrelated types |
Service areas and your home address
If customers do not come to you, hide your address. Google's own example is a plumber working from home. Then add service areas - towns, postcode districts or areas - up to 20. Keep them to where you genuinely work, and within roughly two hours' drive of your base, which is the limit Google's guidelines set.
A service-area business can only have one profile for its whole area. Do not set up separate profiles for Exeter, Exmouth and Crediton; that is a guideline breach and a fast route to suspension.
Services: list the actual jobs
The services section is where you tell Google - and customers - exactly what you do. Many trades leave it blank or accept the defaults. Instead, add the jobs customers actually search for, in their words, with a one-line description each:
- Plumber: boiler repair, boiler installation, leak repair, bathroom fitting, blocked drain clearance, outside tap installation.
- Electrician: consumer unit replacement, EICR, rewires, extra sockets, outdoor lighting, EV charger installation.
- Roofer: slipped tile repairs, flat roof replacement, chimney repairs, fascias and soffits, gutter repairs.
- Tree surgeon: tree felling, crown reduction, stump grinding, hedge cutting, emergency storm clearance.
Photos: real work beats stock every time
Customers look at photos to decide whether you are real, tidy and competent. Stock photos of smiling models in hard hats tell them nothing. Take your own:
- Before and after shots of finished jobs, taken from the same angle.
- Your van with the signwriting visible.
- You or your team at work, in workwear.
- Tidy work areas - dust sheets down, tools organised. It sells more than you would think.
- Close-ups of the details you are proud of: neat pipework, a clean consumer unit, straight pointing.
Hours, emergency cover and contact details
Set hours you actually answer the phone. If you do emergency call-outs, say so in the description and services - and only if you genuinely pick up at 2am. Add special hours for bank holidays and Christmas. A customer who rings during your listed hours and gets no answer will not ring back.
Use a phone number that is answered, ideally the same one on your van and website. If you miss calls on jobs, a text-back or a clear "leave a message and we'll call within the hour" voicemail rescues a lot of enquiries.
Posts, questions and reviews
Updates (posts) let you share a recent job, a seasonal reminder ("book your boiler service before winter") or a change to your hours. They are not a ranking cheat code, but they show the business is active, and a recent photo of a finished job is useful to anyone comparing trades.
Google has been winding down the public questions-and-answers section on profiles in favour of AI-generated answers drawn from your profile, website and reviews. If you still see it, answer the common questions there. Either way, put those answers on your website's FAQ page - that is where they will keep working.
Reviews are the part of prominence you most influence. Ask every customer, send a direct review link, reply to every review, and never offer anything in exchange. Our guide to getting more Google reviews covers the rules in detail.
Keep it maintained
A profile is not a one-off job. Update hours, add photos every few weeks, reply to reviews within a day or two, and check nobody has suggested an edit that changes your details. If you would rather hand this off, our Google Business Profile management bolt-on is £29/month - but it is entirely doable yourself with twenty minutes a week.