Google Business Profile Setup for Home Service Companies: The Complete Foundation

When someone searches “plumber near me” or “AC repair [your city],” Google shows a map with three businesses at the top. That’s called the local pack, and it’s where the calls come from. Getting into that top three isn’t luck. It’s the result of having your Google Business Profile and your website set up correctly.

This guide covers exactly what you need in place to give yourself the best chance of ranking. No fluff, just the foundation that actually matters.

Part 1: Your Google Business Profile

Getting verified the right way

Before anything else, you need to verify your business. Google won’t let you fully manage your profile until you prove you’re a real company at a real location.

For most home service businesses, video verification is the standard method. You’ll record a video showing your business location, your signage, your vehicles, your equipment, and sometimes documentation like invoices or insurance certificates. This needs to be done in one clean take during daylight hours.

If you operate from home and don’t want your address public, you can set up as a Service Area Business. This hides your physical address and just shows the areas you serve. The catch is that Service Area Businesses are at a disadvantage for ranking compared to businesses with visible addresses. Google weights proximity heavily, and without an address to anchor your location, you’re competing with a handicap.

The one scenario where Service Area Businesses do reasonably well is when the business name itself contains the location. Something like “Austin Emergency Plumbing” or “Boca Raton Dumpster Rental” can partially compensate for the lack of a physical address because Google recognizes the geographic relevance in the name.

If your verification gets rejected, the most common issues are NAP inconsistencies (your name, address, or phone number doesn’t match across the web), virtual office traces, or low-quality video footage. Fix the issues and reapply.

Choosing your categories

You can select up to ten categories, but don’t.

Your primary category is what matters most. It’s what Google looks at first when deciding whether to show you for a search. Choose the most specific category that describes what your business fundamentally is.

For plumbers, this is straightforward. About 94% of plumbing companies use “Plumber” as their primary category because that’s what they are.

For HVAC companies, it gets trickier. “HVAC Contractor” is the obvious choice, but it’s technically more of a commercial term. Residential heating and cooling companies might do better with “Air Conditioning Contractor” in summer and “Heating Contractor” in winter. You can change your primary category anytime, so seasonal adjustment is a legitimate strategy.

For secondary categories, only add what directly describes your core business. If you’re a plumber who also does water heater installation, add that. If you sometimes help a customer hang a TV, don’t add “TV Mounting Service.” More categories doesn’t mean more visibility. It usually means diluted relevance.

The test is: “Would I want to be known as a [category] business?” If yes, add it. If no, it belongs in your services section instead.

Writing your business description

You get 750 characters to describe your business. Most companies waste this on generic corporate language that says nothing.

Use this space to tell people what you do, where you do it, and why they should choose you. Include your primary service areas. Mention specific services. If you’ve been in business for 20 years or you’re family-owned or you offer 24/7 emergency service, say that.

This isn’t the place for keyword stuffing, but naturally including terms like your city names and primary services helps Google understand your business better.

Setting up your services

The services section is where you list everything you offer. This is separate from categories. Categories define what type of business you are. Services describe what you actually do.

Be thorough here. Every service you offer should be listed with a description. “Drain cleaning” as a service with no description is fine, but “Drain cleaning: Professional clearing of clogged drains, including kitchen sinks, bathroom drains, and main sewer lines” is better.

Google uses this information to match your business to searches. If someone searches for “sewer line repair” and you have that listed as a service with a description, you’re more likely to show up than a competitor who only has “Plumber” in their categories.

Adding photos that matter

Profiles with photos get significantly more engagement. Google’s data shows 42% more requests for directions and 35% more clicks to websites. But the photos need to be relevant.

Upload pictures of your team, your trucks, your equipment, and your completed work. Before and after photos are particularly effective for showing the quality of your work. Avoid stock photos. People can tell, and it makes your business look less legitimate.

Photos also appear in image search, which is a bigger deal than most people realize. When you upload a photo tagged with your business name and service, you’re creating another opportunity to be found.

Make uploading photos part of your regular routine. Every job is a photo opportunity. Have your techs snap pictures of completed work. Add them to your profile weekly.

Posting updates

Google Business Profile has a social media-like posting feature. You can share updates, promotions, events, and news directly on your profile.

Most contractors ignore this completely. That’s a mistake.

The posts themselves might not get much direct engagement. Most people won’t see them. But Google sees that you’re actively using your profile, and Google rewards active profiles with better rankings.

Post something at least once a week. It doesn’t need to be long. Three hundred words or less is fine. Share a seasonal tip, announce a promotion, highlight a completed project, introduce a team member. The content matters less than the consistency.

Managing reviews

Reviews affect your rankings directly. More reviews and better reviews push you higher in local search results.

But it’s not just about collecting reviews. How you respond matters too.

Respond to every review, good and bad. For positive reviews, thank the customer and mention the technician’s name if you can. Keep it genuine and brief.

For negative reviews, stay calm. Thank them for the feedback, acknowledge the issue, and offer to make it right offline. Your response is less about that one unhappy customer and more about the hundreds of potential customers who will read it later. A professional response to criticism builds more trust than you’d expect.

If you get a review that appears fake, respond by saying you can’t find any record of them as a customer. This signals to both Google and future readers that the review may not be legitimate. Don’t engage with the details or get into an argument.

Getting more reviews requires actively asking. The best time is right after a successful job when the customer is happy. Make it easy by sending them a direct link to your review page. The review generation guide covers systems for making this consistent.

Setting up Q&A

Your profile has a Q&A section where anyone can ask questions and anyone can answer. Most businesses leave this empty, which is a missed opportunity.

Seed the section with your own frequently asked questions. Think about what customers ask you most often. Do you offer free estimates? What areas do you serve? Are you licensed and insured? Do you offer financing? Add these questions yourself and provide the answers.

This serves customers by giving them information upfront. And it helps your SEO by adding relevant content to your profile that Google can index.

Part 2: Your website pages

Your Google Business Profile doesn’t exist in isolation. Your website and your profile work together. Google uses your website to verify and understand your business, and the optimization of your site directly affects your map pack rankings.

Here are the pages you need.

Homepage

Your homepage should target your primary service area. If you’re based in Austin, your homepage should make it clear that you serve Austin. The title tag, the main heading, and the content should all reinforce this.

A common mistake is trying to target too broad an area on the homepage, like “Serving all of Central Texas.” That’s fine as supporting information, but your homepage should anchor on your primary city.

Include your main phone number prominently. Make sure your business name, address, and phone number on the website exactly match your Google Business Profile. Even small variations can cause problems.

Service pages

Create a dedicated page for each major service you offer. Not a single page that lists all your services, but individual pages.

“AC Repair” gets its own page. “AC Installation” gets its own page. “Furnace Repair” gets its own page. Each page should have unique content describing that specific service, ideally with photos of related work.

These pages should be optimized for [service] + [location] keywords. If AC repair in Austin is important to your business, your AC repair page should include Austin naturally in the content, title tag, and headings.

Service area pages

This is where most contractors fall short.

If you serve multiple cities or neighborhoods, you need individual pages for each one. Not a single “Service Areas” page that lists ten cities with a paragraph each, but dedicated pages.

“Plumbing Services in Round Rock” gets its own page. “Plumbing Services in Pflugerville” gets its own page. Each page should have content specific to that location.

These pages help Google understand exactly where you operate. When someone searches “plumber in Round Rock,” you want a page on your site that specifically targets that query. A generic service areas page won’t compete with a dedicated location page.

Include an embedded Google Map on each location page. Mention local landmarks or neighborhoods if relevant. Add testimonials from customers in that area if you have them.

This can feel like a lot of pages to create, but they’re the foundation of local SEO. The contractors who dominate map rankings in multiple cities almost always have location pages for each one.

About page

Your about page builds trust. Include your company history, your team, your credentials, and your values. Photos of real people on your team make your business feel human.

If you’re licensed, bonded, and insured, say so prominently. If you’ve won awards or have notable certifications, include them. This isn’t bragging. It’s giving potential customers reasons to trust you.

Contact page

Make it easy to reach you. Phone number, email, contact form, physical address (if applicable), and hours of operation.

Embed a Google Map showing your location or service area. Make sure the contact information on this page exactly matches your Google Business Profile.

Your footer appears on every page of your site. Include your NAP (name, address, phone) in the footer so it’s consistent across your entire site.

Consider embedding your Google Business Profile widget in the footer. This shows your star rating and review count on every page and creates a direct connection between your website and your profile.

Putting it together

The businesses that rank in the local pack aren’t doing anything magical. They have their Google Business Profile set up correctly, they maintain it actively, and they have a website that supports and reinforces their local presence.

This is the foundation. Without it, nothing else you do for local SEO will work as well as it should. With it, you’re positioned to compete.

Set up your profile following the guidelines above. Build out the essential website pages. Then maintain your profile with weekly posts, regular photo uploads, and consistent review responses.

If you’re making the common mistakes that tank local rankings, the local SEO mistakes guide covers what to fix. For GBP optimization specifically, there’s more detail on the tactics that move rankings once your foundation is solid.

Pipeline Research Team