Google Business Profile for Contractors: Setup, Video Verification, and the Fields Everybody Skips

Quick Executive Summary

If you don't have a website, you can still show up on Google. Plenty of contractors get most of their work this way.

The thing doing that job is your Google Business Profile. It's the box with your name, your phone number, your reviews and your photos that shows up in the map results. It's free. It takes an afternoon. And for local trades it is usually worth more than the website.

Most contractors have one that's about 60% filled out. That gap is where the jobs go.

Why it beats a website for local work

When somebody searches for a roofer near them, Google shows a map with three businesses in it before it shows a single regular result. Most people on a phone never scroll past that map.

Getting into those three spots is mostly about your profile, your reviews and how close you are to the person searching. Your website matters, but it's not what puts you in the box.

So if you've been putting off marketing because you can't face building a website, start here instead. This is the part that pays first.

Setting it up

Search your business name on Google first. There's a decent chance a listing already exists that Google created automatically, or that a previous marketing company set up and never gave you access to. Claiming an existing one is easier than making a new one and it keeps any reviews already attached to it.

If nothing's there, go to google.com/business and start fresh.

Then work through these, and don't skip any of them.

Business name

Your actual business name. Nothing else. Do not add your city or your services. "Miller Roofing" is right. "Miller Roofing | Best Roofer in Gettysburg PA" gets your listing suspended, and getting it back is a bad month.

Primary category

This is the single most important field on the whole profile. Google uses it to decide which searches you're eligible for. Be specific. "Roofing Contractor" beats "Contractor." "Metal Roofing Contractor" beats "Roofing Contractor" if that's your bread and butter.

Additional categories

Add every one that genuinely applies. Siding, gutters, windows, whatever you actually do. Each one opens up searches you weren't eligible for. Don't add things you don't do.

Service area or address

If customers come to a shop, use the address. If you go to them, switch to a service area business and list the towns and counties you cover. Don't list a service area three hours wide, because Google weights how close you are to the searcher and a huge area waters that down.

Hours

Real hours. If you take emergency calls, set that up properly rather than claiming 24 hours.

Phone number

The number you actually answer.

Services

This is the most-skipped section on the profile and it's the biggest easy win. You can list every service with a short description of each. Most contractors leave it empty. Fill in all of them, and write a sentence or two for each in plain language.

Business description

750 characters. Say what you do, where you work, and how long you've been at it. Write it the way you'd explain it at a supply counter, not like a brochure.

Photos

More than you think, and real ones. Finished jobs, work in progress, your truck, your crew. Skip the stock photography. Homeowners can tell, and a profile with 40 real photos looks like a business that's working.

Products

Trades usually ignore this one. You can use it for the specific things you install, with photos and price ranges if you want.

Video verification, and what to expect

Google will probably make you verify with a live video. This is the part that stalls people, so here's the honest version.

It has to be live. You can't upload something you filmed yesterday. You start a recording inside Google's tool, and you have to keep going until it's done. There's no pausing and no retaking a section.

Nobody can do this part for you. Not us, not any marketing company. You have to be standing at your address with your phone.

Have these ready before you start:

• Something with your business name and address on it. A piece of mail works. So does an invoice or a utility bill.
• Your truck or van, especially if it's got your name on the side.
• Tools, materials, equipment, whatever proves you actually do this work.
• Any signage you've got.

What to film, in one continuous take:

1. Start outside. Show the street, then the building or house number so the address is readable. If you work out of your home, that's fine and extremely common. Show the mailbox with the number.
2. Show the mail or invoice with your business name and that address on it. Hold it steady long enough to read.
3. Walk to your truck. Show the name on it. Show the plate.
4. Open it up and show your tools and materials.
5. Walk inside to wherever you actually do the office side of the work. A desk, a basement, a garage. Show it.
6. If you've got signage, a shirt with your logo, or business cards, show those too.

Keep talking while you film. Say your business name, your address, what you do. Move slowly. Bad light and a shaky phone are the two most common reasons these get rejected.

It usually takes about ten minutes and Google normally comes back within a few days. If you get rejected, you can try again, and the second attempt goes better because you know what they want.

After you're verified

Get reviews, steadily

Reviews are one of the biggest factors in whether you show up in that map box. Steady beats sudden. Five reviews a month for a year does more for you than sixty in one week, which looks bought. Ask every customer, right when the job's done and they're happy.

Reply to all of them

Good and bad. A short reply is fine. Google notices, and so does the next homeowner reading them.

Post every week

You can post updates straight to your profile. A finished job with a photo. A seasonal note. Something you're running. A profile that looks alive gets picked over one that looks abandoned. It's not going to catapult you up the rankings on its own, and anybody who tells you otherwise is guessing. It makes you look like a business that's open.

Answer the questions

Anybody can ask a question on your listing, and anybody can answer it, including people who don't know your business. Check it. You can post your own common questions and answer them yourself, which is allowed and useful.

Keep it current

Holiday hours, new services, a new town you've started covering.

The mistakes that cost the most

Stuffing your business name with keywords. Fastest way to lose the listing entirely.

Leaving the services section blank. Free, takes twenty minutes, and most of your competitors haven't done it.

A service area the size of a state. It weakens you for every town in it.

Four photos. It reads as a business that closed.

Letting an old marketing company keep ownership. If somebody else controls the listing, get it transferred now, before you need it.

Ignoring reviews for months and then asking twelve people at once. Looks bought. Steady wins.

Where this fits

Get your profile finished and you'll start showing up for people searching close to you. That's real work coming in, from a free listing.

The website side is what gets you found by people further out, and for searches that are more specific than what the map box handles. You'll want both eventually. But if you only have one afternoon, spend it here. If your site itself isn't being read by Google, that's a separate problem — we wrote about why your contractor website might not be showing up on Google and how to test it yourself in 30 seconds.

And once you're showing up, the next question is whether you're catching the calls. If homeowners find you but you can't pick up while you're on a job, a missed call text-back system keeps the lead in play automatically.

If you want to see where you currently stand, our free check looks at your profile, whether you're turning up in your own towns, and what's missing. Ninety seconds, no email until you see your score, and it works whether or not you have a website.