A Google Business Profile is the free listing that puts your business in local search results and on Maps. For a trade business it is the single most valuable free thing available, because it is what appears when someone searches for your trade near them. Setting it up properly takes an hour, and most tradies either skip it or fill in a third of it.
It is not a replacement for a website. The two work together, and the profile performs better when it points at a real site with real pages.
What is a Google Business Profile, exactly?
It is the panel of information Google shows about a business: name, category, service area, phone number, hours, photos, reviews and a link to your website.
When someone searches for a trade with local intent, Google shows a small group of these listings above the ordinary results, with a map. That block is where most local trade enquiries start, on mobile especially.
The listing is free. You claim it, verify that the business is yours, and fill it in. Nobody sends you an invoice for it, which is exactly why it gets neglected.
Should a tradie hide their address?
Almost always, yes.
Most tradies work at the customer's place rather than having a shopfront. Google calls that a service area business. You enter your service areas, hide the street address, and the listing shows where you work rather than where you sleep.
Showing a home address when you do not take visitors creates two problems. It publishes your home address, and it anchors you to one point when your actual service area is much wider.
Do not use a virtual office or a mailbox address to get around this. It breaks Google's guidelines, and a suspended profile is far more painful to fix than to avoid.
What category should you choose?
The one that describes what you are, as narrowly as it is true.
The primary category carries the most weight, so a painter should be "Painter", not "Home improvement". You can add secondary categories for the other things you genuinely do, but do not stuff the list with categories you have no business in.
Fill in the services section underneath properly too. Each service you list is another thing the profile can be matched against, and it maps neatly onto the service pages of a website built the way ours are.
What makes the biggest difference once it is set up?
Four things, in roughly this order.
Photos, added regularly. A profile with recent photos of real jobs reads as an active business. Add a few every month rather than twenty once.
Reviews, recent and replied to. This is covered in Google review automation for tradies, and it is the part most tradies neglect for years.
Accurate hours, including whether you take after hours calls. Nothing kills an enquiry faster than a profile that says closed when you would have happily taken the job.
A website link that goes somewhere useful. Pointing at a five page template with no service pages wastes the click. Pointing at a site with a page for that exact service in that exact suburb does not.
Does a profile replace a website?
No, and treating it as one is a common and expensive mistake.
The profile is rented ground. Google owns it, Google decides what it shows, and profiles get suspended, merged or edited by strangers with no warning. You cannot control the layout, you cannot explain your process properly, and you cannot write a page about a specific job in a specific suburb.
The website is yours. It carries the detail the profile cannot, it holds the quote form, and it is where somebody goes once the profile has caught their eye. The two reinforce each other: a profile sends the click, a proper site converts it. Our A$500 Build is designed to be the thing on the other end of that click.
What mistakes hurt a tradie's profile most?
Stuffing keywords into the business name. Calling yourself "Smith Plumbing Best Emergency Plumber Geelong" breaks the guidelines and risks suspension. Use the name on your invoices.
Letting the profile go stale. No new photos, no replies to reviews, hours that were right two years ago.
Multiple listings for one business. Duplicates split your reviews and confuse everything.
Fake service areas covering half the state. If you would not actually drive there, do not list it.
Changing the business name on a young profile, which usually triggers re-verification. Decide the name first.
Frequently asked questions
How long does verification take?
It varies. Some businesses are verified almost immediately, others are asked for video verification or a postcard and wait a week or more. Start it early rather than the day before you need the listing live.
Can I have a profile without a shopfront?
Yes. That is what a service area business is. You hide the address and list the suburbs you work in instead.
Should my website and profile say the same phone number?
Yes, and the same business name and the same service areas. Consistency across the two is basic and it is one of the easier things to get right.
Does Ampliia set up the profile as part of the Build?
The offer on this site is the website, A$500 Setup Fee with a A$100 Deposit to start. Profile setup and optimisation is something we do, and the Discovery Call is the place to bring it up.
Related reading
- Google review automation for tradies
- Why your website needs suburb pages
- Online reputation for trade businesses
- See Builds we have done
How to start
Book a 15-minute Discovery Call. We will go through how people find you now, what the website needs to cover, and what else is worth sorting out.
Link: Book a 15-minute call
Link: See the A$500 offer
Ready for a proper tradie website?
A$500 setup fee. A$100 Deposit starts the Build. 20 to 30+ pages, service and suburb pages, quote form on every page. Full preview in 3 business days.