Google Business Profile optimization, by Google's own rules.

Your Google Business Profile is the box that shows up when someone searches your company name or “plumber near me” on Google Search or Maps. Google is clear about how it picks who shows: local results are based mainly on relevance (how well your profile matches the search), distance and prominence (how well known you are, including reviews and links). It also says “there’s no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google.”

So this guide does not promise rankings. Google decides. These are the inputs you control, and every rule below comes from Google’s own help pages, listed at the bottom.

Step 1: Check you’re eligible, and pick the right setup

Google allows a profile for a business that has a location customers can visit, or that travels to customers. A rented mailing address where you don’t work does not qualify, and P.O. boxes are not accepted.

Three setups cover almost every trade business:

• Storefront. Customers come to you: a dental office, a remodeling showroom. Show the address. Hours are the hours the door is open.
• Service-area business. You go to the customer and nobody comes to your yard or home office: most HVAC, plumbing, roofing and electrical shops. Google says to hide your address and set a service area. You get one profile.
• Hybrid. You go to customers and also have a staffed office or showroom that takes walk-ins during posted hours. Show the address and add a service area.

Google wants one profile per business. A second location only gets its own profile if it has its own staff and serves its own area. Do not make extra profiles for each city you cover.

Step 2: Use your real business name, nothing else

Breaking this rule can get a profile suspended. Google says the name should match how you appear “consistently on your storefront, website, stationery,” and lists what you can’t add: taglines, phone numbers, URLs, hours, service descriptions and location details. In Google’s words, adding unnecessary information “could result in the suspension of your Business Profile.”

Not allowed	Allowed
Ridgeline HVAC, AC Repair Irvine 24/7	Ridgeline HVAC
Best Plumber Costa Mesa, Harbor Plumbing	Harbor Plumbing
Summit Roofing (949) 555-0100	Summit Roofing

If your legal name includes the city or the trade, for example “Costa Mesa Electric Inc.”, it’s fine, as long as that’s the name on your truck, invoices and website. Google may ask for proof like signage or invoices when a name includes special characters or legal terms.

Step 3: Primary and additional categories

The primary category matters most. Google says to choose the most specific option that “best describes your business,” not a general one, and to test each one with “This business IS a,” not “HAS a.” Additional categories are for real departments or service lines. Google says to use as few as possible and not to add one per service.

Start typing your trade in the category field and pick from Google’s list. You can’t create your own. Changing categories later may trigger re-verification, so choose carefully once.

Step 4: Services, description and service areas

Services. Under Edit services, pick from Google’s suggested list for your category, then add custom services for anything missing. You can group them and add a description and price. Google rejects custom service names that contain prices, phone numbers or personal information.

Description. Up to 750 characters, shown under “From the business.” Google asks you to describe what you offer, what sets you apart and how long you’ve been open. No URLs, no HTML, and focus on the business, not promotions or prices.

Service areas. You can set up to 20 areas by city, ZIP code or other area type. Radius circles are not allowed. Google’s tip is to keep the whole area within about 2 hours of driving from your base. List the cities you actually send trucks to, not every city in the county.

Step 5: Hours, special hours and holidays

Google asks for regular customer-facing hours. If you only work by appointment, Google says not to list hours.

• Special hours cover holidays and short changes, up to 6 days in a row. Google asks you to confirm your hours for official holidays even if they don’t change.
• Temporarily closed is for closures of 7 days or more.

Only list “Open 24 hours” if someone actually answers and dispatches at 2 a.m. A profile that says open while the phone goes to voicemail costs you the call and the review.

Step 6: Photos and videos

Google’s specs: JPG or PNG, 10 KB to 5 MB, 720 x 720 pixels recommended, in focus, well lit and without heavy filters. Videos up to 30 seconds and 75 MB. Add a logo and a cover photo, then real work photos. Google says photos should “represent reality,” and they only go live after the profile is verified. Uploads are reviewed and can take 24 to 48 hours to appear.

Before-and-after shots, your trucks, your team in uniform and finished jobs beat stock photos. Get the homeowner’s OK before you post anything that shows their house number or face.

Step 7: Reviews and replies

Reviews feed prominence, and Google says “more reviews and positive ratings can help your business’s local ranking.” The rules are strict:

• No incentives. Google says offering free or discounted goods or services to get, change or remove a review is “strictly prohibited.”
• No review gating. Google’s content policy bans businesses that “discourage or prohibit negative reviews, or selectively solicit positive reviews.” Ask every customer, not just the happy ones.
• Our advice: reply to all of them, including the bad ones. Google asks for useful, professional replies; it doesn’t require one for every review. You must be verified to reply, and Google checks replies before they show.

The full routine, with reply templates and the FTC rules, is in our guide on how to get more Google reviews.

Step 8: Posts, chat and Q&A

Posts. You can publish Updates, Offers and Events from the Posts tab, schedule them and set them to repeat. They show in the Updates tab on mobile and in “From the owner” on desktop. Posts older than 6 months are archived unless you set a date range. A phone number in a post can get it rejected if Google can’t link the number to your business. Google doesn’t say posts affect ranking, so treat them as a way to show current work, not a ranking trick.

Chat. Google turned off Business Profile chat and call history on July 31, 2024. Customers who used to message you there will now call, text or use your website.

Q&A. Google’s help page says Q&A “is available only for select business categories and regions” and that it may change. Check whether it shows on your profile. If it does, answer the questions customers really ask.

Step 9: Keep your name, address and phone the same everywhere

Google’s guidelines ask for a name used consistently in the real world and a phone number under your direct control. It prefers a local number over a central call center number, and it doesn’t allow numbers or links that redirect to a different business or a social media page.

Our practical advice: use the exact same business name, phone number and address (or service area) on your profile, your website footer, Yelp, Angi, your invoices and your truck wrap. When you change your phone or move, update all of them the same week. Google may also call or text your verified number to confirm details, and your answers can update the profile, so make sure whoever answers that line knows it.

Step 10: Get verified, and stay verified

Your profile, photos and review replies only fully work once you’re verified. Google picks the method for you: a video recording, a phone call or text, email, a live video call or a postcard with a 5-digit code. Google says verification reviews take up to 5 business days. Postcard codes usually arrive within 14 days and expire after 30.

Google publishes general video-verification requirements, but what it asks a service-area business to show can vary. Be ready to show your business name on a truck or sign, your tools and equipment, and paperwork such as your license. Big edits, such as a new name, address or category, can bring the “Get verified” button back.

Checklist by trade

HVAC

• Name exactly as on the trucks: “Ridgeline HVAC,” not “Ridgeline HVAC, AC Repair Irvine.”
• Primary category for heating and air conditioning contractors, extras only if you run a real line like duct cleaning.
• Services: AC repair, furnace repair, heat pump install, maintenance plans, each with a one-line description.
• Before summer heat, set special hours for July 4 and say whether you take emergency calls.
• Photos: condenser installs, clean attic work, a tech with gauges.

Plumbing

• Hide the address if you work from home or a yard customers don’t visit.
• Services: water heater replacement, drain cleaning, leak detection, repiping, sewer line repair.
• Service area: the 10 to 20 cities you actually cover, not a 50-mile circle (Google doesn’t allow radius areas).
• Only list 24 hours if a person answers emergency calls at night.
• Post a winter reminder about pipes and water heaters as an Update.

Roofing

• Name check: no “Roof Repair” or “Free Inspection” added after the name.
• Services: roof replacement, repair, inspection, gutters, each in your own words.
• Photos: before and after shots from the same angle, drone shots if you have them, crew safety gear.
• After a storm, use a post with a date range for your inspection schedule, so it archives on its own.
• Ask every finished job for a review, including the one with the delayed permit.

Electrical

• Keep license info off the name. Put “licensed, bonded and insured” in the description if true.
• Services: panel upgrades, EV charger installs, lighting, troubleshooting, generator hookups.
• If you also have a counter that takes walk-in customers, set up as a hybrid.
• Photos: clean panel work, finished EV charger installs, labeled breakers.
• Set holiday hours for Thanksgiving through New Year’s in one sitting.

Dental

• A storefront profile with the office address. Google allows individual dentists their own profile if they see the public at that location. Support staff should not have one.
• Hours are the hours the front desk answers and patients can come in. Set special hours for holidays.
• Photos: the front entrance so patients find you, the waiting room, treatment rooms, the team.
• Replies to reviews must never confirm someone is a patient or mention care. See the dental section of our reviews guide.

Remodeling

• Showroom that takes walk-ins? Hybrid. No place customers come to? Hide the address and use a service area.
• Services: kitchen remodels, bathroom remodels, additions, ADUs, each with a short description of what’s included.
• Use finished-project and before-and-after photos to show the work clearly: finished kitchens and baths, before and after.
• Use posts for finished projects, one a month, with the city and scope.
• Description: years in business, project types and whether you handle design and permits.

Where Ammett fits

Ammett sets up and maintains Google Business Profiles as part of ads and listings: name and category check, services, service areas, hours, photos, the review request flow and replies, plus the same details on Yelp and other listings. See how it fits for HVAC, plumbing, roofing, electrical, dental and remodeling, or start with a free audit of your profile.