7 Google Business Profile tips that actually win work

When someone searches your trade in your town, the map pack — the three businesses Google shows first — takes most of the attention. What decides who's in it is less mysterious than agencies pretend: mostly, it's whose profile is complete, active and trusted. Here's how to be that profile.

1. Fill in absolutely everything

Hours, services, service areas, description, attributes, opening date. Google rewards completeness, and every blank field is a question a customer answers with "probably dodgy". The description should say what you do, where, and why you — not "quality is our passion".

2. Choose categories like they're bids

Your primary category is the strongest lever on the profile. Be specific — "Roofing contractor", not "Construction company". Then add every honest secondary: gutter services, flat roof specialist, whatever you genuinely do. Each one is a set of searches you become eligible for.

3. Photos: one a week, forever

Google's own data shows businesses with photos get more direction requests and calls — and customers use recency as a proxy for "still trading, still busy". Real jobs only. A phone photo of today's re-roof beats a stock image of a smiling model in a hard hat every single time.

4. Reply to every review — especially the bad one

The reply isn't for the reviewer; it's for the hundred people who'll read it later. Thank the good ones specifically ("glad the flat roof's holding up after that storm"). Answer the bad one calmly, factually, once — future customers are watching how you handle a problem, and calm beats defensive every time.

5. Ask for reviews like it's part of the job

Because it is. The invoice is sent, the customer's delighted, that's the moment — text them the direct review link. Make it a habit on every job and the numbers take care of themselves. Never buy reviews, never fake them; profiles get suspended for it, and suspended means invisible.

6. Seed the Q&A before strangers do

Anyone can ask — and answer — questions on your profile. Get ahead of it: post the questions you hear on every quote ("Do you do insurance work?", "Are you insured?", "Do you charge for quotes?") and answer them properly. It's free FAQ space in the most valuable spot on the internet.

7. Post monthly, minimum

Updates, recent jobs, seasonal reminders ("gutter-clearing season — book before the leaves come down"). Posts signal to Google that the business is active, and give browsers one more reason to pick you. Ten minutes a month.

The pattern you've probably spotted

None of this is clever. It's consistency — which is exactly why most firms don't do it, and why the ones that do sit in the pack. If you'd rather hand the routine to someone who does it every week without fail, that's precisely what our £150/month profile management is: the person who never forgets to feed the profile. Or do it yourself with this list — the free audit will tell you honestly how your profile scores today.