Guides

The Google Business Profile checklist for a trade

By Ashton Foran, director. Published 14th September 2026.

Ten fields decide how a trade shows up on the map: the website link, the business name, the primary category, the hours, the service areas, the services, the description, the photos, the reviews and the posts. The one most often left empty is the website link. Google says a complete profile is more likely to be shown.

The profile is free. You manage it by searching your own business name on Google while signed in as the owner, through the Google Business Profile app, or at business.google.com. All three open the same editor, and the list below can be worked through in an evening.

Why does Google show one profile and not another?

Google's own guidance on local ranking names three things: relevance, distance and prominence. Complete and accurate profile information helps relevance. Reviews, photos and how well known the business is feed prominence. Distance you cannot change, which leaves the other two as the work. Our guide on getting found on Google covers the rest of that picture.

The three that get skipped

The website link. Checked on real trade profiles in September 2026, "Add website" is still showing on profiles of businesses that have a site, and on others the website button points at an Instagram page. Somebody who found you on Maps then has no way through to your services or your form. Paste your own homepage address into the field and open it once to confirm where it lands.

The business name. Put in the real trading name, with no town and no trade words bolted on the end. Google can suspend a profile for keyword stuffing in the name, so the extra words are a risk rather than a shortcut.

The primary category. This field decides which searches you are eligible for, and the closest match wins. A painter is "Painter" rather than the generic "Painting". An aerial installer wants an aerial or antenna category rather than a telecoms one. Set the primary category to the thing you are known for, then add secondary ones for the rest of the work.

How should the details read?

The hours. Put in the hours you work. "Open 24 hours" on a painter's profile reads as a mistake, and a profile with no hours, or an old "opens soon" date still sitting there, reads as a business that never opened.

The service areas. List the towns you drive to. For a trade with no shopfront this is the field that puts you in front of people searching in those towns.

The services. Add them one at a time, using the same names as the pages on your website. A customer skimming the profile should see the job they need spelled out rather than guessing at it.

The description. One paragraph, plain words, saying what you do and who you do it for. Nobody reads it the way they read your reviews, so keep it short and keep it true.

What keeps a profile looking alive?

The photos. Google shows photos in the results, and photos of your own finished jobs do more than anything stock. Plenty of the profiles we looked at had nothing from the owner at all, only whatever a customer uploaded. Add a few every month from the work you photograph anyway.

The reviews. Review count and score feed prominence, and every one deserves a reply. The link to ask for them lives under "Ask for reviews" inside the profile. The way to build the count, on a habit rather than in bursts, is in our guide on how to get more Google reviews.

The posts. One a month, with a photo of a job and a line about it, keeps the profile reading as a business taking work. It takes two minutes from the van.

Do you have to show your home address?

No. For a business that travels to the customer, which covers most trades, Google offers the option "I deliver goods and services to my customers". Choosing it hides the address and shows your service area instead. A home address on a public profile is a choice rather than a requirement, and plenty have it showing without deciding to.

Verification, and one profile only

Google will not show an unverified profile in full, so verification is what makes the rest of the work count. The owner does it, usually by video, sometimes by phone call or postcard.

Keep it to one profile per business. A second profile created because the first one stalled is a duplicate, and Google removes one of them.

Once the profile is right

One other place is worth the same treatment, and it is free: Bing Places can import what you have already filled in on Google in a few minutes. Apple Maps only lists businesses with premises a customer can walk into, so a trade working from home cannot be added there without publishing the home address, and a shop or a clinic can. If your business runs on a Facebook page, our guide on whether Facebook is enough covers what that leaves on the table.

Common questions

Is a Google Business Profile free? Yes. There is no fee to create one, verify it or keep it updated. You manage it by searching your own business name while signed in as the owner, or in the app.

Can you put your town in the business name? No. The name field takes your real trading name and nothing else. Adding a town or a trade word is keyword stuffing, and Google can suspend a profile over it.

How do you stop your home address showing? Choose the option that says you deliver goods and services to your customers. That hides the address and shows your service area instead, the right setting for a trade that travels to the job.

How often should you post on the profile? Once a month is enough, with a photo of a real job. A recent post tells anybody reading that the business is working, which the description on its own cannot do.

Open your own profile on your phone tonight and read it the way a customer would. If the website link is missing, that one takes thirty seconds, and it is the field standing between somebody on Maps and your contact form.