Google Business Profile: The Free Listing That Brings in the Calls

Here's something that surprises nearly every trade I say it to: for most local businesses, that free Google map listing brings in more phone calls than the website does. It costs nothing. And nine times out of ten, when I look at one, it's about a third filled in.

It's the listing with your name, your star rating and a call button that pops up when somebody searches for your trade nearby. On a phone it fills most of the screen before anyone gets anywhere near a website. So it's worth ten minutes of your attention, and most people never give it any.

Why it beats your website

Picture someone standing in their kitchen googling "electrician near me" on their phone. They get a map, three businesses, and a call button. A big chunk of them ring straight off that screen. They never visit a single website. If your listing's thin or out of date or missing, you simply don't exist at the exact second somebody wants to hand you money.

The bits that actually move the needle

Your category does more work than anything else on there, so be specific — "Electrician", not "Contractor". Add secondary categories for the other stuff you genuinely do, but don't cram it with things you don't.

Your service area matters if you travel to customers rather than run a shop. Be realistic with it. Listing half the Midlands doesn't get you shown across half the Midlands — Google's smarter than that and works out where you're actually relevant.

Photos are the most wasted opportunity of the lot. Listings with real, recent pictures get noticeably more clicks than ones with a logo and nothing else. Stick your van up, your team, and above all the finished jobs. Get in the habit of taking two photos on every job — ten minutes a month and the listing looks like a business that's rushed off its feet.

Reviews, and how to actually get them

Reviews affect whether you show up and whether anyone bothers ringing once they've found you. A few things that genuinely work:

• Ask every happy customer on the day, while you're packing the van up. Enthusiasm fades fast — a text with a direct link there and then beats an email next Tuesday every time.
• Reply to all of them, good and bad. It shows there's a human paying attention.
• When you get a stinker, reply calmly. Future customers read your reply far more carefully than they read the complaint, and a measured response does you more good than the bad review did harm.
• Never, ever buy them. Google's good at spotting fakes and the punishment is losing the whole listing.

The rest of it

Keep your opening hours accurate, bank holidays and all, and if you do genuine out-of-hours work, say so — "open now" is a powerful little signal when somebody's got an emergency. Write your description and services for a human, not a search engine, and list the specific jobs as separate services, because people search for jobs ("fuse box replacement") far more than they search for trades.

And keep the thing alive. A listing nobody's touched in two years looks abandoned. Post something now and then — a finished job, a seasonal reminder, a note that you're taking bookings. It doesn't need to be polished. Once a fortnight is plenty.

The daft mistakes I keep seeing

People never claiming the listing in the first place — Google sometimes creates one on its own, and if you haven't verified it you can't edit it and anyone can suggest changes to it. Details that don't match across the web, so your name, address and number should be identical everywhere. Stuffing the business name full of keywords, "Dave's Plumbing Birmingham Emergency 24 Hour Plumber", which breaks Google's rules and can get you suspended. And ignoring the questions section, where any random person can post an answer about your business — so answer them yourself before someone else does.

Do this before you spend a penny on ads

If you're about to start advertising, sort this first. Ads send people looking for reassurance, and the first thing loads of them do is check your Google listing and your reviews. A strong profile makes every pound of ad spend work harder — and it's free, which is my favourite price.

Want me to cast an eye over yours? Drop us a line and I'll tell you what's missing, no charge.