CentriWebTo set up a Google Business Profile as a tradie, create it as a service-area business: hide your home address, list the suburbs or regions you actually work in, use your real business name with no added keywords, and pick the few categories that describe what your business is. Then keep it alive with photos of real jobs, a steady flow of genuine reviews and a short monthly check. Most suspensions come from breaking Google’s own rules, so it pays to know them.
This checklist follows Google’s Business Profile guidelines and help pages, which are the rules Google actually enforces. It’s written for sparkies, plumbers, chippies, landscapers and anyone else who goes to the customer rather than the other way round.
Why it matters for tradies
When someone searches “plumber near me” or “electrician Penrith”, the map results with phone numbers and reviews sit near the top of the page. Your Business Profile is how you get into those results. It’s free, and for many tradies it brings in more calls than the website does.
Google’s help page on improving local ranking says local results are based mainly on relevance, distance and prominence, and that there’s no way to request or pay for a better local ranking. You can’t buy your way up the map. You can make sure your profile is complete, accurate and active, which is what the rest of this checklist covers.
Setting it up as a service-area business
Most tradies work from home or a yard that customers never visit. Google calls this a service-area business, and it has specific rules.
- Hide your address. Google’s guidelines say service-area businesses should hide their address. Its service area help page says that if you don’t serve customers at your address, remove it from your profile and enter only your service area.
- Choose your service areas. You can list up to 20 service areas, using suburbs, postcodes or regions. Google no longer lets you set a radius around your base.
- Keep it realistic. The guidelines say your service area shouldn’t extend further than about two hours’ driving from where your business is based. Listing every suburb in the state won’t help and doesn’t match how you work.
- No PO boxes or virtual offices. Google doesn’t accept PO boxes, remote mailboxes or virtual offices as business addresses.
- One profile per business. Without a staffed shopfront, you’re allowed one service-area profile. Don’t create extra profiles for each suburb.
Verification
Google needs to verify that you’re a real business before your profile shows properly. The method is chosen by Google, and its verification help page lists the options. One method is a video recorded on your phone through your profile. Google’s video verification page says it must be captured live in one uninterrupted take of at least 30 seconds. For a service-area business it should show where you operate, your tools or equipment, and that you run the business, for example by recording yourself opening your branded ute or doing a job. Plan the shot before you press record.
Name, categories and services: following Google’s rules
Business name
Use your real-world business name, the one on your ute, invoices and website. Google’s guidelines say not to add taglines, phone numbers, locations or service descriptions to the name, and that including unnecessary information in the name can get your profile suspended. “Smith Plumbing” is fine. “Smith Plumbing Emergency Hot Water Blocked Drains Sydney 24/7” is asking for trouble.
Categories
Google says to use as few categories as possible to describe your core business, and to choose categories that describe what your business is, not the services it offers. An electrician’s primary category is “Electrician”. Add a secondary category only if it’s a genuinely separate part of the business.
Services, phone and website
- Services: list the actual jobs you do, like hot water system replacement or switchboard upgrades. This is where the detail belongs, not in your name.
- Phone: Google’s guidelines say the number should be under your direct control and connect to your business. Use your business mobile or landline, not a call centre.
- Website: link to your own website. Google says not to use links that redirect elsewhere, including to social media pages.
- Hours: set the hours you take calls, and add special hours for public holidays and the Christmas break.
Photos and posts that help
Photos show customers you’re real and that your work is tidy. Google’s photo help page asks for JPG or PNG files between 10 KB and 5 MB, recommends 720 by 720 pixels, and says photos should be in focus, well lit and without heavy filters.
- Your logo and a clear cover photo
- Your branded vehicle
- Before and after shots of real jobs, with no customer faces, house numbers or rego plates
- You and your team on the job, in uniform
- A short video walk-through of a finished job
Updates (posts) are worth a few minutes a month: a recent job, a seasonal reminder like getting the air conditioner serviced before summer, or a note about holiday hours. Keep them factual and local.
Reviews: asking and replying
Reviews feed into how prominent your business looks and, just as importantly, into whether someone rings you or the next tradie. Google’s tips for getting reviews suggest sharing your review link or QR code with customers.
The rules
Google’s prohibited and restricted content policy doesn’t allow:
- offering payment, discounts or free work in exchange for a review
- discouraging negative reviews, or asking only the customers you know are happy
- reviews from current or former staff, or anyone else with a conflict of interest
- posting reviews on a competitor’s profile to hurt their business
Ask every customer, at the end of every job, with a direct link sent by text. Our guide to getting more Google reviews has message templates and covers the Australian Consumer Law side.
Replying
Reply to every review, briefly and politely. Thank people by name and mention the job. For a bad review, stay calm, don’t share the customer’s private details, and offer to sort it out offline. Future customers read your replies as much as the reviews.
Monthly upkeep in 20 minutes
Put a recurring reminder in your calendar for the first Monday of the month and work through this list:
| Task | Time |
|---|---|
| Reply to any reviews you haven’t answered | 5 minutes |
| Add three to five photos from recent jobs | 5 minutes |
| Post one update about a recent job or seasonal reminder | 5 minutes |
| Check your hours, phone, services and service areas are still right, and set holiday hours if needed | 3 minutes |
| Check nobody has changed your details, and correct anything that’s wrong | 2 minutes |
Consistency matters more than effort. Twenty minutes every month beats a big clean-up once a year.
Suspensions and duplicates: how to avoid them
A suspended profile disappears from the map, usually at the worst time. The common causes are breaking the rules above: keywords in the name, a virtual office or PO box address, a shown home address when you don’t receive customers, or more than one profile for the same business.
If you’re suspended
Google’s suspended profiles help page says to:
- make sure your profile follows all the guidelines before you appeal
- submit an appeal through Google’s appeals tool, signed in to the account that manages the profile
- attach evidence such as business registration, a business licence, tax documents or a utility bill, with the name and address matching your profile
- not create a new profile for the same business
Google says an appeal can only be submitted once, so get your evidence together before you start.
Duplicates
Duplicates often appear when someone creates a second profile by mistake, or an old listing is still floating around from a previous phone number. Google’s help page on duplicate profiles and ownership issues explains how to remove a duplicate you created or request a merge. Keep the verified profile and remove the other.
Where to start
- Search your business name on Google Maps and check there’s only one profile.
- Fix your name so it matches your signage, with no added keywords.
- Hide your address if customers don’t visit, and set up to 20 realistic service areas.
- Trim your categories and list your actual services.
- Add ten photos of real work and send a review link to your last five customers.
- Book the 20-minute monthly check into your calendar.
A clean, active profile also helps with showing up in ChatGPT and AI search, because those tools lean on the same business information. If you’d like help setting it up alongside your website and review requests, see how we work with trades businesses, or read more about our marketing work.