You’re losing calls to contractors who rank higher on Google Maps. Not because their work is better.

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They just show up first.

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Here’s the scenario most contractors know too well: you do great work. Your customers love you. You’ve got a truck full of five-star jobs behind you. But when a homeowner three blocks from your last install searches “HVAC repair near me” or “plumber in [your city],” your business is nowhere on the map.

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The competitor who shows up first? Maybe they’ve been in business half as long. Maybe their work isn’t as good. But they optimized their Google Business Profile, and you didn’t. So they get the call.

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This isn’t a small problem. According to BrightLocal’s Local Consumer Review Survey, 83% of consumers use Google to find and evaluate local businesses. For contractors with fewer than 100 reviews, Google Maps rankings drive more calls than word-of-mouth. That’s a hard truth, but it’s one worth sitting with.

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Your Google Business Profile isn’t a digital business card you set up once and forget. It’s your local visibility system. And when you treat it like one, it directly affects your call volume, your estimate requests, and your booked jobs.

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This guide walks you through exactly how to set it up, what to prioritize, and how to keep it working for you every week in about 15 minutes.

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Why Your Profile Isn’t Working

If your phone isn’t ringing like it should, chances are your Google Business Profile has one or more of these problems. None of them are complicated to fix, but all of them quietly cost you calls.

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Your profile is incomplete. Missing categories, no service area defined, outdated business hours. Google treats incomplete profiles as untrustworthy. If you haven’t filled out every section, you’re telling Google’s algorithm you’re not a serious option. Homeowners see sparse profiles and keep scrolling.

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You’re using stock photos or no photos at all. Google rewards profiles with real imagery. A roofing contractor with 30 photos of actual completed jobs will outrank a competitor with a generic stock photo of a house every time. Homeowners want proof, not placeholders.

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You haven’t posted anything in months. Google tracks activity. A profile that hasn’t been updated since last summer signals to the algorithm that this business might not be operating anymore. Active profiles rank higher. It’s that straightforward.

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Your primary category is wrong. This one trips up a lot of contractors. There’s a difference between “HVAC Contractor” and “Air Conditioning Contractor” in Google’s system. If you picked a broad category instead of the most specific one that matches your core trade, you’re competing in the wrong lane. According to Google’s own category guidelines, your primary category should complete the statement, “This business IS a...” and be as specific as possible.

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You’re not responding to reviews. When homeowners leave reviews and get nothing back, Google reads that as inactivity. But more importantly, future customers read it as indifference. Data from BrightLocal shows that 88% of consumers would use a business that responds to both positive and negative reviews, while only 47% would consider a business that doesn’t respond at all.

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Consistent review monitoring and response systems help contractors stay visible while building trust with homeowners researching local providers.

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The Owner’s Operating Checklist (10-Step System)

This is the system. Ten steps. Most of them take less than 10 minutes. Do them once, then maintain them weekly.

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Step 1: Claim and Verify Your GBP

If you haven’t done this, you’re invisible. Go to Google Business Profile, search for your business, and claim it. Google will verify you by postcard, phone, or email. Until that’s done, you can’t control what shows up when someone searches for you. And if a profile already exists that you haven’t claimed, someone else could be editing your information.

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Step 2: Choose the Most Specific Primary Category

Your primary category is the single most important ranking signal in your profile. Don’t pick “General Contractor” if you’re a plumber. Pick “Plumber.” If you do HVAC work, look at the options: “HVAC Contractor,” “Air Conditioning Contractor,” “Heating Contractor.” Choose the one that best describes the majority of your work right now, this season.

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Think of it this way: if 70% of your calls are for AC repair and 30% are for heating, “Air Conditioning Contractor” is probably your best primary category during summer months.

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Step 3: Add Relevant Secondary Categories

Google allows up to 10 categories total, but only add the ones that actually describe services you offer. If you’re a plumber who also does water heater installation and drain cleaning, add those as secondary categories. But don’t add “Electrician” just because you once helped a customer with a light switch. Irrelevant categories dilute your ranking signal.

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Step 4: Write a Keyword-Rich Business Description

You get 750 characters. Use them. Mention your trade, your service area, your specialties, and the types of jobs you handle most. Write it in plain language, the way a homeowner would describe what they’re looking for.

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Example: 

“Smith Plumbing serves homeowners across the greater Dallas area with reliable residential plumbing, drain cleaning, water heater repair, and emergency service. Family-owned since 2012, our licensed team handles everything from leaky faucets to full repiping projects.”

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Step 5: Upload 10+ Real Photos

This is where most contractors leave easy wins on the table. Upload before-and-after shots of completed jobs. Photos of your team on a jobsite. Your truck with your branding visible. A completed furnace install. A clean attic after insulation work. A new roof from the street.

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Real photos from real jobs build trust instantly. Homeowners want to see what your work actually looks like in their neighbor’s house, not a stock image of a wrench. Google also weighs profiles with more photos higher in Maps rankings.

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Aim for at least 10 photos to start, then add new ones after every job as part of your routine.

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Step 6: Set Accurate Service Areas

Most home service contractors are service-area businesses (SABs), meaning you travel to the customer. Google’s guidelines for service-area businesses let you define the cities, zip codes, or regions you serve. You can add up to 20 service areas.

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Set your service area to reflect where you actually do work, not where you wish you did work. Don’t list locations more than two hours from your base. If you don’t serve customers at your office, hide your address. Listing a P.O. Box or a virtual office you never visit violates Google’s guidelines and puts you at risk of suspension.

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Step 7: Add Business Hours and Special Hours

Keep your regular hours current. But just as important, update your special hours for holidays, seasonal changes, or closures. If a homeowner finds your profile on a holiday, sees regular hours listed, and calls to get voicemail, that’s a lost lead and a bad impression.

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If you offer emergency services, note that in your description and consider extended hours.

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Step 8: Enable Messaging and Respond Within 24 Hours

Google lets homeowners message you directly from your profile. Turn this on. But only if you or someone on your team can actually respond within 24 hours. Google tracks your response time and may disable the feature if you’re consistently slow.

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For many contractors, this is a simple way to capture leads that would otherwise call a competitor. Some homeowners prefer texting over calling, especially for non-emergency work.

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Step 9: Post Weekly Updates

Google Posts are free mini-updates that show on your profile. Use them. Share a photo from a completed job. Post a seasonal tip (“3 signs your AC needs maintenance before summer”). Announce a limited-time offer.

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The goal isn’t to go viral. It’s to signal to Google that your business is active and engaged. Two to three posts per week during busy season, one per week during slower months. Each one takes about five minutes.

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Step 10: Set Up a Review Request System

Every job should generate a chance for feedback. Not every customer will leave a review. But if you don’t ask, your review count stagnates, and your competitors who do ask will outpace you on Maps.

The key is consistency: after every completed job, send a quick text or email asking the customer to share their experience. Keep it simple. Keep it low-pressure. Time it while the customer is still happy, ideally within a few hours of wrapping up the work.

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If you want this running on autopilot, an automated review request system designed for contractors (RealWork Labs solution) can trigger review requests tied to job completion without adding another task to your tech’s day.

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Priority Framework: If You Only Fix 3 Things This Quarter

If the full checklist feels like a lot, start here. These three moves will make the biggest difference in the shortest time.

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START HERE: Get your GBP verified and complete every section. Fill in your categories, description, service areas, hours, and photos. A fully completed profile outranks an incomplete one almost every time.

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THEN THIS: Set up a review request system tied to job completion. Reviews are the single biggest trust signal on your profile. Make asking for them a part of your workflow, not something you do when you remember. This is where connecting your existing job management tools to a review system makes a real difference.

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AVOID THIS: Don’t stuff keywords in your business name or buy fake reviews. Google penalizes both. If your business name is “Smith Plumbing,” don’t change it to “Smith Plumbing - Best Emergency Plumber in Dallas TX.” You risk a suspension that could take weeks to resolve.

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Common Mistakes That Kill Your Rankings

These are the errors that silently cost you visibility. Most contractors don’t know they’re making them.

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Using a P.O. Box or unstaffed address. Google requires that service-area businesses either show a staffed address or hide their address entirely. Listing a P.O. Box, a UPS Store, or a virtual office you never visit violates Google’s guidelines and puts you at risk of suspension.

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Choosing broad categories over trade-specific ones. “Contractor” is not a category that helps you rank for anything. “Roofing Contractor” or “Plumbing Service” tells Google exactly what you do and who should see your profile. Be specific.

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Ignoring the Q&A section. Your Google profile has a public Q&A section where anyone can ask and answer questions about your business, including competitors. If you’re not monitoring and answering those questions yourself, someone else might do it for you, and their answers might not be accurate.

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Not adding services with descriptions. Google lets you list every service you offer, each with its own description. Most contractors skip this. But when a homeowner searches “tankless water heater installation,” Google can match that query to the specific service listed in your profile. Without it, you’re invisible for that search.

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Posting once and disappearing. A single Google Post from eight months ago is worse than no posts at all. It tells the algorithm and homeowners that you set this up and walked away. Consistency matters more than perfection. One post per week is enough to stay active.

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Your GBP Is a System, Not a Task

The contractors who get the most calls from Google Maps aren’t doing anything complicated. They’re consistent.

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Think of your Google Business Profile as a 15-minute weekly operating system, not a one-time project. Contractors who build a structured reputation workflow tend to generate more consistent reviews and stronger local visibility signals. Every week, you upload a photo from a recent job. You post a quick update. You respond to any new reviews. That’s it.

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Over time, this consistency compounds. More photos mean more trust signals. More posts mean more activity signals. More reviews mean more social proof. And all of it feeds directly into whether homeowners in your service area see your business first or your competitor’s.

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If you want this system running without adding to your daily workload, tools like RealWork connect to your existing job management software to automatically pull in job photos, trigger review requests, and create location-tagged proof of your work in the neighborhoods where you operate. See how other contractors are running this system.

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The visibility is there for the taking. You just need to show up consistently.

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Frequently Asked Questions

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Q: How long does it take to see results after optimizing my Google Business Profile?

Most contractors notice changes within four to six weeks of completing their profile and starting consistent posting and review activity. Rankings depend on competition in your area, but a fully optimized profile with regular activity will begin outranking incomplete competitors within the first month or two.

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Q: How many reviews do I need to rank in the Google Maps local pack?

There’s no exact number, but consistency matters more than total count. Generating 3 to 5 new reviews per month signals to Google that your business is active and trusted. Businesses with a steady flow of recent reviews tend to rank higher than those with a large but stale review count.

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Q: Can I use my home address for my Google Business Profile?

If you meet customers at your home, yes. If you’re a service-area business that goes to customer locations, you should hide your address and define your service area instead. Listing a home address you don’t want customers visiting can cause confusion and potentially violate Google’s policies.

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Q: How often should I post on Google Business Profile?

Once per week is the minimum for signaling activity. During your busiest season, two to three posts per week is ideal. Each post can be a completed job photo, a seasonal tip, a service highlight, or a customer testimonial. It only takes a few minutes.

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Q: What’s the difference between a service-area business and a storefront on GBP?

A service-area business travels to customers and typically does not display a street address. A storefront has a physical location customers visit. Many contractors are service-area businesses. If you have an office or showroom where customers come in, you may be a hybrid business that shows an address and defines a service area. A business with a physical storefront may rank higher on Google Maps.

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