To get your business on Google Maps, set up a free Google Business Profile at google.com/business, verify that you own the business, and fill in every section: your trade, the towns you cover, your hours, your services and photos of your own work. That profile is what appears on Maps and in the box of local businesses at the top of Google.

It costs nothing, it takes about an hour, and for most trades it’s the single most useful thing you can do online. Here’s how to do it properly.

1. Check you’re not already on there

Search Google for your business name and town. If a profile already shows up (sometimes Google makes one from other listings, or a previous owner set one up) click “Own this business?” and claim it rather than making a second one. Duplicate profiles confuse Google and your customers.

2. Create the profile

Go to google.com/business and sign in with a Google account you’ll keep. Use a business email if you have one, not a personal one you might lose access to.

Enter your business name exactly as it appears on your van, your invoices and your website. Don’t add extra words like “Best Plumber Norwich”. Google’s rules don’t allow it, and profiles that do it can be suspended.

3. Pick the right category

Your primary category tells Google what you are: Plumber, Electrician, Roofing contractor, Landscaper and so on. Pick the one that best describes your main trade. You can add secondary categories for other work you do, but keep them honest.

4. Set your service area

Most trades work at customers’ homes, not from a shop. Google calls this a service-area business. You can hide your home address and list the towns or postcodes you cover instead (up to 20 areas, within about two hours’ drive, according to Google). Only list places you’ll actually drive to.

Use the address you really run the business from. Google doesn’t allow virtual offices or mailbox addresses, such as your accountant’s office, and profiles using them can be suspended. Even hidden, that address still matters: Google judges how close you are to a searcher partly from it, so listing a far-off town as a service area won’t on its own get you shown there.

5. Verify it

Google needs proof the business is real. Depending on your business it may ask for a short video of your van, tools and signage, a phone call or text, or a postcard to your address. Follow what it offers. Your profile won’t show properly until it’s verified.

6. Fill in everything

Profiles that are complete tend to do better than half-empty ones, and they give customers what they need to pick up the phone:

  • Phone number. One that gets answered, and the same number as on your website.
  • Hours. Real ones. If you do emergency call-outs, say so.
  • Services. List each job you do, with a line about it. This is where you tell Google the work you want.
  • Description. A few plain sentences: what you do, where, how long you’ve been doing it, and any registrations like Gas Safe, NICEIC or FENSA.
  • Photos. Your own work, your van, you and your team. Real photos beat stock photos every time.
  • Website. Link to your site, or to the page for that service.

7. Get reviews

Reviews are one of the biggest things customers look at, and Google’s own guidance says how well known a business is, including its reviews, plays a part in local results. Ask every customer after the job, make it easy with a direct link, and reply to every review, good or bad. We’ve written a whole guide on getting more Google reviews.

8. Keep it alive

Add new photos after jobs, post the odd update, and answer questions people ask on your profile. Keep your hours right over holidays. A profile that’s looked after shows customers you’re still trading.

How Google decides who shows up

Google says local results are mainly based on three things: relevance (how well your profile matches what was searched), distance (how far you are from the person searching or the place they named) and prominence (how well known you are, including reviews and mentions around the web).

You can’t change where a customer lives, but you can make your profile as relevant and trusted as possible. That’s what the steps above are for.

Want it done for you?

Sorting out your Google Business Profile is part of every RareBear trades package, alongside the adverts that bring in enquiries and text them straight to your phone. See marketing for trades for what’s included and how pricing works.