Google Business Profile for trades businesses: set-up, upkeep, typical mistakes

A Google Business Profile is, for many trades businesses, the only place they appear in search at all. It costs nothing and can bring enquiries without an advertising budget. Two habits, however, regularly cause trouble: leaving the home address in the profile, and pressing customers for reviews on site.

Why local visibility counts for trades businesses

When someone searches for an electrician or a plumbing firm nearby, the first glance at Google Maps and Google Search often decides. Phone number, opening hours, photos, reviews and the path to making contact all sit side by side there.

For a small business that is no gimmick. A complete profile can make the difference between a customer finding the business at all and calling the next result. That pays into money: more suitable enquiries without an extra advertising budget. It also saves nerves, because important details do not have to be explained afresh with every call.

An electrical business can show clearly which works it takes on and in which area it operates. A plumbing firm can keep current opening hours, phone number and photos of its work on file. Whoever needs an emergency service on a Friday evening does not search directories for long. They click the entry that looks reliable and is reachable.

Google names three factors for local ranking: relevance, distance and prominence. Relevance means: does the profile match the search? Distance is how far away the searcher is. Prominence means how present a business is elsewhere on the web and in the world – through mentions, directories and reviews, for instance.

More than that Google does not reveal. Percentages and alleged secret formulas from agency surveys therefore do not belong in the calculation. Google publishes no weighting of these factors.

The profile costs nothing – beware of fee calls

The Google Business Profile itself is free. Google describes it as a free way of determining how a business appears in Google Maps and Google Search.

Precisely for that reason, calls and emails demanding money for the entry, the verification or an alleged renewal should raise suspicion. This pattern targets small businesses in particular: someone calls with time pressure, talks of an imminent shutdown or a paid verification and wants an immediate commitment.

There is no reason for it. A business can create and manage its profile itself. For a single location Google documents management directly via Search and Google Maps. business.google.com also continues to be named as a management path.

The business manager is mainly practical when several profiles, Google products or user permissions are to be controlled centrally. For the electrical business with one van and one office desk, an exclusive “dashboard access” is no special advantage. The functions are available to the business itself.

Creating the profile and preparing verification cleanly

When creating the profile, Google asks for the business details and then determines how the profile can be verified. The method cannot be chosen freely. According to Google it depends, among other things, on business type, public information, region and opening hours.

Google currently lists phone or SMS, email, live video call, video recording and postcard. So the postcard is still listed. Whoever claims it has definitely been abolished cannot rely on Google’s current help pages.

If the website is already verified in Google Search Console, instant verification may be possible. Where video is offered, Google recommends it.

For video verification, a neatly edited image film does not count. The recording must be at least 30 seconds long, live, complete and without interruption. A pre-recorded or aborted video does not meet the requirements.

For a business without a shopfront, the video must show three things:

• the location, for instance via street signs and recognisable landmarks;

• the existence of the business, for instance via professional tools, equipment or products;

• the authority to operate, for instance by performing a service or via business documents.

A plumber does not have to film a company sign on his house for this. Tools, measuring equipment, the van or a traceable step of work matter more in this case. Google states up to five working days for checking a video verification.

No shopfront: enter the address first, delete it later

This is where the most expensive mistakes happen. An address is usually needed for initial creation and verification. But that does not mean the address may remain in the finished profile.

If an electrical or plumbing business does not receive customers at that address, Google requires: delete the address from the profile. Not merely hide it. Google itself uses the plumber who runs his business from his home address as the example.

The sequence is thus clear:

1. Enter the address needed for creation and verification.

2. Verify the profile.

3. Remove the address from the finished profile and enter the service area instead.

That protects the home address and follows the representation guidelines. Whoever merely sets the home address to “not shown” but keeps it in the profile is not using the path Google describes.

A service area is not set as a radius. Google allows towns, postcodes or other regions. A maximum of 20 areas per profile is permitted. The whole area should also not lie more than about two hours’ drive from the base.

A long list of postcodes across the country therefore achieves nothing. Distance remains a ranking factor of its own. A business without a fixed location may moreover only keep one profile for its entire service area, not one profile per town.

A rented postal address or a virtual office does not solve the problem either. If there is no actual place of business there, no profile may be created for that address. Offers selling a “business address for Google” thus lead straight into a guideline violation.

Complete details help more than ranking rumours

Google documents a simple relationship: businesses with complete and correct information are more likely to be shown in local search results. For everyday upkeep that means: do not enter the data once and then forget it.

Check in particular:

An example from daily life: an electrical business now also installs charging points, but the profile only carries an old category and there are no current photos. Then the representation no longer matches the business. The consequence is not automatically a poor ranking, but Google and customers receive less clear signals.

Photos and videos supplement the details. They replace no correct master data. Whoever only uploads pretty site pictures but leaves wrong opening hours standing creates new queries instead of fewer.

Reviews: keep Google’s rules and consumer law apart

Reviews help local visibility. Google writes explicitly that more reviews and positive ratings can improve the ranking. That, however, is no invitation to use every review technique.

The first level is Google’s guidelines. They are the contractual rules for the profile. Customers may be asked for a review, for instance via a Google link or QR code, as long as the review rests on an actual experience and no incentive is offered.

Prohibited are payments, discounts, free services or vouchers for reviews. Likewise prohibited: reviews by employees, relatives or other people with a conflict of interest, and manipulating or removing negative reviews.

Particularly important in the trades: asking the customer for a review at handover or while still on site violates Google’s guideline. Google explicitly prohibits urging or pressuring customers to review while they are still on the premises.

The clean alternative is the request after completion, for instance with the invoice email. That gives the customer distance, and they decide without the fitter standing next to them.

The second level is consumer protection law. It runs alongside Google’s rules and is not a matter of the Google account. In the EU – via Directive (EU) 2019/2161 – and in comparable form in other jurisdictions, submitting or commissioning fake reviews is prohibited. Also prohibited is claiming that reviews come from actual customers if their authenticity has not been ensured by reasonable and proportionate means. Whoever publishes consumer reviews must moreover state whether and how their authenticity is ensured.

Both levels must be kept apart. A practice can violate Google’s guidelines without automatically constituting a breach of law. In that case Google can remove reviews or suspend the profile. Conversely, something can look Google-compliant and still be problematic under consumer law.

The text block for the invoice email

Copy this text into the email you send the invoice with. It asks for a genuine review, without pressure and without a reward.

Hello [name],

thank you for your order. If you were happy with our work, or if something could have gone better, we would appreciate your honest review on Google: [review link]

Your feedback helps others find a good tradesperson – and helps us improve.

Kind regards
[business name]