Google Business Profile setup and management for home service companies

• Setting up a new profile, or claiming the one you already have, and taking you through Google's verification
• A service-area setup that keeps your home address off the map
• The right main category, plus extra categories only where they describe real work
• Each service you want calls for, listed by name in the words homeowners use
• Hours that say plainly whether you take emergency calls
• Photos from your own jobs, crews and trucks
• Posts through the year that match the season and your schedule
• The same business name, address and phone number on your website and the directories
• A review request after every job, and a reply to every review
• A monthly count of calls, website visits and direction requests from the profile, matched to booked jobs

Many owners already have a profile they never made. A former employee set it up, an old agency created it under its own email, or Google built one from public information. We find what exists first, then move it into a Google account your company owns, with you as the primary owner and anyone else added as a manager. If there is no profile, we create one in that account.

Google decides which verification methods it offers you. They can include a phone call or text, an email, a live video call or a recorded video, and Google says its review can take up to five business days. Companies that work at customers' homes are often asked for a recorded video, and we tell you exactly what it needs to show before you film it. The guides for plumbers, HVAC companies and electricians walk through each trade's setup.

If customers never come to your address, Google's guidelines say to hide it and show the area you serve instead. A plumber running the business from a home office is the very example Google uses. You still give Google the address privately for verification, and homeowners see your towns instead of your house.

Google allows up to 20 service areas, says the whole area generally shouldn't stretch more than about two hours of driving from where you are based, and doesn't let you draw a radius. We list the towns where you would really send a truck on a busy day. A list of every town you have ever driven through brings in calls you have to turn down, and some of those turn into bad reviews.

For most companies the main category is the plain name of the trade: Plumber, HVAC contractor or Electrician. Google asks for the most specific category that describes your main business and as few extra categories as possible. It also warns that adding or editing a category may mean verifying the business again, so we settle your categories once and leave them alone.

The services list is where the detail goes. We add each job you want more of as its own service, such as drain cleaning, water heater replacement, AC repair, ductless mini-splits, panel upgrades or EV chargers, and give each one a short description in the words a homeowner would use on the phone. Those services should match the pages on your website, which is where our SEO work comes in.

Your hours should tell the truth about emergency calls. A profile that says open 24 hours needs someone to pick up at 2 a.m. If you don't take night calls, we list your real hours and say so, and we post holiday hours before the holiday arrives.

Photos come from your own work: your trucks with your name on them, your crew in uniform, a new water heater with clean piping, a labeled panel, a condenser set level on its pad. We keep house numbers, license plates and customers' faces out of the frame. Posts go up when there is something true and useful to say, such as a town you have just started serving or a reminder before the first freeze.

Google has been replacing the old questions and answers section on many profiles with answers it writes from your profile, reviews and photos. So we put the answers to the questions your office hears every week into your services, your description and your posts, where Google can find them.

Your business name on Google should read exactly the way it reads on your trucks and invoices. Google says unnecessary words in a business name aren't permitted and can get a profile suspended, so "emergency" and your town belong in your services and service area instead of your name.

The phone number has to be under your business's direct control, and Google recommends a local number. We check that your name, address and phone number match on your website and the directory sites where homeowners and Google look you up, and we fix the old listings that still show a number you no longer answer.

Reviews are the part of a profile that goes stale fastest. We set up a review request that goes to every customer once the job is done, in a way that takes them a few seconds. Google's review policy rules out two habits: offering anything in return for a review, and asking only the customers you expect to be happy. So every customer gets the same request.

We reply to the reviews that come in, the good ones and the hard ones. A calm, honest reply to a complaint tells the next homeowner more than the complaint does. Your rating and number of reviews also count toward where your Local Services Ads show. How to get more Google reviews without being pushy covers the habit, and follow-up after the job covers what comes after the review.

Google's Performance view counts taps on your call button, website clicks and direction requests. It can't tell you whether anyone answered or whether the call became a job, so that part has to happen in your own records.

We put a call tracking number your business owns on the profile as the main number, with your regular number listed as an additional phone, which keeps the number under your direct control the way Google requires. We tag the website link so your analytics can separate visits that came from the profile. Then your office marks the source of every new customer, and each month you see how many booked jobs came from the profile. When calls ring out, a text back from your business number gives you a chance before the homeowner dials the next company.

Google suspends profiles that break its guidelines, and it doesn't always say which rule. The usual causes for a home service company are extra words in the business name, a home address showing when customers don't visit, a service area far bigger than you really serve, or two profiles for the same business.

We help you find the cause, fix it, and prepare one appeal through Google's appeals tool with documents whose business name and address match the profile, such as your business registration, license or a utility bill. You get one appeal, so it goes in complete. Google makes the decision, and Google says not to create a new profile while you wait. When we find a duplicate listing, we report it to Google and ask for it to be removed, so your reviews and calls stay on the one profile you control.

Most profiles are complete on the day someone sets them up and drift out of date after that. Each month we add photos from jobs you finished nearby, put up posts that fit the season, reply to new reviews and update services, hours and holiday closings. We also check for changes you didn't make, because Google and the public can suggest edits to a profile. Then we send you the month's calls, website visits and direction requests next to the booked jobs they became.

The profile stays in your company's name the whole time, so the reviews and the history stay with your business. The rest of what we do is on all our services.