When a homeowner searches “electrician near me,” the three businesses in the map box get the calls. That box is powered by Google Business Profile (GBP) — it’s free, and most contractors set it up badly or not at all. This is the highest-ROI 90 minutes of marketing you’ll ever do.
Step 1: Claim and verify
- Go to google.com/business and sign in with your business Google account.
- Search for your business name first — an unclaimed listing may already exist. Claim it rather than creating a duplicate.
- Verify. For service-area businesses this is often video verification now: expect to show your truck, tools, and license/insurance docs on a video call or recorded clip.
Step 2: Set it up as a service-area business
If you work at customers’ homes, hide your address and define a service area instead (Google allows up to 20 cities/zips). Two rules:
- Keep the radius honest — listing towns you won’t actually drive to dilutes your relevance everywhere.
- Your service area doesn’t change ranking much; you’ll still rank best near your actual base.
Step 3: Categories — the biggest ranking lever you control
- Primary category = your money service. Be specific: “Deck builder” beats “Contractor” if decks are your business.
- Add secondary categories for real services only (“Fence contractor,” “Porch contractor”).
- Revisit quarterly; Google adds categories regularly.
Step 4: Fill in everything
Complete profiles rank better and convert far better:
- Services: add each service with a description and price range where sensible.
- Description: 750 characters — what you do, where, and why you (licensed, insured, X years, warranty). Write for humans; keyword-stuffing does nothing.
- Hours — and answer during them. Google tracks call responsiveness.
- Attributes: licensed, insured, veteran-owned, etc.
Step 5: Photos — the trust engine
Profiles with quality photos get dramatically more requests. The habit that matters:
- Upload 2–3 real job photos every week — before/after shots are king.
- Add your truck, your team, your work in progress. No stock photos, ever.
- Geotagged fresh photos also signal to Google that you’re active.
Step 6: Reviews — the ranking factor you can systematize
Reviews (count, rating, recency, and your responses) are the strongest input you influence:
- Get your direct review link (Profile → “Ask for reviews”) and save it as a text shortcut on your phone.
- Ask at the final walkthrough — in person, then text the link before you leave.
- Reply to every review within a day or two. Thank the good ones by name and mention the job type (“Thanks Sarah — that cedar fence came out great”). That reply text is visible to future customers and reinforces relevance.
- Negative review? Reply once, calmly, with facts and an offer to make it right. You’re writing for the next 100 readers, not the reviewer.
Never buy or fake reviews — profiles get suspended for it, and recovering a suspended profile can take months.
Step 7: Post weekly (2 minutes)
GBP has a posts feature almost no contractor uses. A weekly photo + two sentences (“Finished this 400 sq ft paver patio in Maplewood this week — booking September installs now”) keeps the profile active. Activity correlates with map-pack presence.
What actually moves your ranking
In rough order of impact:
- Proximity to the searcher (can’t control).
- Primary category match.
- Review count, rating, and recency.
- Profile completeness and activity (photos, posts, Q&A).
- Your website and citations backing up name/address/phone consistency.
The weekly 15-minute GBP routine
- Monday: upload last week’s job photos (3 min)
- Monday: one post about a current or finished job (2 min)
- Any day: reply to new reviews (5 min)
- Friday: send review links to this week’s completed jobs (5 min)
Do that for six months and you will pass most competitors in your area, because almost none of them do it.
This week: claim your profile, set your primary category to your money service, and upload your first 10 job photos.