The Google Business Profile Checklist for Trade Businesses

Your Google Business Profile is often the first thing a customer sees. Before your website, before your signwritten ute, before they ever ring you.

For a lot of trade businesses, it's also half set up and years out of date. Work through this checklist once properly, then keep it tidy. It takes an afternoon, and it gives Google clear information to rank you on.

Categories and services

Categories tell Google what kind of business you are. Get these wrong and you'll struggle to show up for the jobs you want, no matter what else you do.

• Pick the most specific primary category for your main work, such as Roofing Contractor rather than Contractor
• Add secondary categories only for work you actually do regularly
• Fill in the services section with every job you want enquiries for, named the way customers say it
• Add a short, plain description to each service where the option exists
• Look at the categories your top-ranking competitors use for ideas, but only use the ones that are true for you

Revisit your categories every so often. Google adds new ones over time, and a more specific option for your trade may exist now that didn't when you set the profile up.

Your business name should be your real business name. Tacking "Best Plumber Auckland" onto the end breaks Google's guidelines and puts your profile at risk of suspension.

Service areas and address

If customers come to you, show your address. If you go to them, you're a service-area business and you can hide your street address. If you run the business from home, that's usually the right call.

Then set the service areas you genuinely cover. List the towns, suburbs or regions you want work from, and be realistic. Adding places hours away won't make you rank there, and it confuses customers about where you actually work.

Service areas don't override distance from the searcher. We explain why in why you rank in one suburb and vanish in the next.

Hours, contact details and consistency

This is the boring bit, and it costs real jobs when it's wrong. Check each of these:

• Opening hours that match when someone actually answers the phone
• Holiday hours set before public holidays and your Christmas shutdown
• A phone number that gets answered, ideally a tracked number so you know which calls came from your profile
• A website link that points to a working, relevant page, not an old domain
• Business name, phone number and address matching exactly what's on your website and directory listings

That last one matters more than people think. If your website shows one number, your profile shows another and an old directory still has your previous address, you're sending mixed signals to Google and to customers.

Make a list of every directory and listing you're on, including your trade association and old accounts you've forgotten about, and update each one to match.

Photos, posts and questions

A profile with real photos looks like a real business. A profile with a logo and nothing else looks like it might not answer the phone.

1. Photos: upload real job photos, before and after shots, your team, your vehicles and your signage. Skip the stock images.
2. Keep adding them: a few new photos after good jobs keeps the profile looking active and current.
3. Posts: share recent projects, seasonal work or offers. Short and useful beats frequent and empty.
4. Questions and answers: where your profile has the feature, answer common questions yourself, like whether you do after-hours callouts or which areas you cover.

Reviews and replies

Reviews feed into prominence, one of the three things Google says local results are mainly based on. Aim for a steady flow rather than a burst, and reply to every review, good or bad.

Replying shows future customers how you treat people. A calm, professional response to a bad review can do more for your reputation than the review did damage.

JSW Plumbing in Sydney generated 80+ customer reviews as part of their work with us. For the full process, read how to get more Google reviews without being pushy.

Make your profile and website tell the same story

Your profile and your website should agree with each other. If your profile lists hot water cylinder replacement, your website should have a page about it. If your profile says you service a suburb, your site should mention that suburb too.

When the two line up, Google gets a clearer picture of what you do and where. When they don't, you're making it guess, and it may guess in favour of a competitor.

If you'd like a second set of eyes on your profile, our local SEO audit checks it alongside your website and your competitors. For ongoing help with your profile, reviews and rankings, see our local SEO service, or book a call to talk it through.