Google Business Profile without a shop: a guide for trades and service businesses

Who counts as a service-area business

Google sorts businesses into three kinds. A storefront business receives customers at its address. A service-area business "visits or delivers to customers directly but doesn't serve customers at their business address". A hybrid business does both, such as a hairdresser with a salon who also visits clients at home (Google).

Most plumbers, electricians, roofers, cleaning companies, home nurses, mobile hairdressers and consultants who meet clients at the client's office are service-area businesses. Google's guidelines use this very case as their example: a plumber who runs the business from home should clear the address from the profile (Google).

A mailing address you rent but do not work from is a virtual office, and Google does not accept it. A desk in a co-working space only counts with signage, your own staff and customers received there during business hours (same guidelines).

Hide the address, set the service area

If customers do not come to you, remove the address from your profile. Then set where you work: Edit profile, then Location, then Edit next to Service area. Pick a suggested area or type your own, and save. Approved changes can take up to 48 hours to appear (Google). Google's limits:

• up to 20 service areas
• each area is a city, a postal code or another type of area; a radius around your base is not allowed
• the whole area should not be more than about 2 hours of driving from where the business is based

Choose the towns or postal codes where you actually want work.

You get one service-area profile. Do not create one for every town you serve: Google allows one page per location, in one account or several (Google).

The name on your van, and nothing more

The name on the profile must match the name you use in the real world, on your van, invoices and website. Google lists what may not be added and warns that unnecessary information can lead to suspension of the profile: marketing taglines, phone numbers or web addresses, service or product information, location information, hours and words written fully in capitals (Google). "[Your name] Sanitair" is a name. "[Your name] Sanitair Plumber Aalst Dendermonde" is keyword stuffing and breaks the guideline.

Categories

Use as few categories as possible from Google's list, chosen for your core business. Google's test is that a category completes the sentence "This business IS a", never "This business HAS a", and categories may not be used as keywords (same guidelines). An electrician who also installs charging points is still an electrician; mention the extra work in your profile description.

Verification

Google decides which verification methods you are offered, depending on the type of business, public information, region and business hours. The options are a phone call or text, email, a live video call, a video recording and a postcard. Verification reviews take up to 5 business days (Google).

Video recording is open to service-area businesses, and Google says what it wants to see (Google):

• where you operate: street signs or landmarks at your business address; if you work from home, the signs and landmarks in your immediate neighbourhood
• the professional tools, equipment or products you use
• that you manage the business: you doing the work or opening business-only assets, or a business permit, invoice or utility bill

It must be one unedited recording without breaks, at least 30 seconds long, recorded live on a mobile device through your Business Profile. A video made earlier is not accepted. Have the van, the tools and an invoice ready before you press record.

Opening hours

Google asks for your regular customer-facing hours. It also says businesses with varied hours, or that operate only by appointment, should not provide hours (Google). If you answer the phone and take jobs from 8 to 6 on weekdays, enter that. A consultant who only works by appointment leaves the hours empty.

Photos

Without a shop, photos of your work carry the profile. Google's requirements: JPG or PNG, between 10 KB and 5 MB, 720 by 720 pixels recommended and 250 by 250 at least, in focus, well lit, with no significant alterations or excessive filters. Videos can be up to 30 seconds and 75 MB, at 720p or higher (Google). Add a logo, a cover photo and real jobs: a finished bathroom, a roof before and after, your van. Ask the customer before you photograph their home, and keep house numbers and faces out of the picture.

Reviews: ask everyone, reward no one

Customers can leave a review through a Google link or a QR code. They need a Google account, which they can create with an address that is not Gmail (Google). Send the link after every job, to every customer.

Google's policy for contributions forbids (Google):

• offering payment, discounts, free goods or free services in exchange for a review
• discouraging negative reviews, or asking only the customers you expect to be happy (a form that sends five-star answers to Google and complaints to your inbox does exactly that)
• reviews based on a conflict of interest, such as current or former employees, contractors or family
• reviews posted from several accounts by or at the request of one person, and reviews on a competitor's profile meant to harm it

Belgian law adds its own rule when you sell to consumers. Article VI.100 of the Code of Economic Law lists practices that are unfair in all circumstances. Point 26 is posting false consumer reviews or recommendations, or having another person post them, to promote products. Point 25 is claiming that reviews come from people who used or bought the product without taking reasonable and proportionate steps to check it (Justel). FPS Economy asks businesses that show paid or sponsored reviews to say so clearly, and dubious practices can be reported through ConsumerConnect (FPS Economy). This is general information, not legal advice; the official text is on Justel.

When someone suggests an edit to your profile

Other Google users can suggest changes to your profile. Google notifies you about certain suggested edits before they are published, by email or in the product, and you then have 4 days to accept or reject them. Google may also apply some edits without asking you first, where that is needed to meet its guidelines. If you do not respond, Google may publish an update automatically when other public information, such as your website, supports it. Information Google changed is shown in blue (Google).

Check your profile at least every 4 days, reject anything wrong, such as a street address added to a profile that should not show one, and keep your website saying the same as the profile.

If you run a place customers visit, such as a restaurant, our five steps for Google Maps cover that case.

Checklist

1. Address removed if customers do not come to you.
2. Up to 20 service areas, by town or postal code, within about 2 hours of driving.
3. The real-world name, with nothing added.
4. As few categories as possible.
5. Verification video planned: neighbourhood signs, tools, an invoice or permit.
6. Hours entered only if you have customer-facing hours.
7. A logo, a cover photo and real work photos.
8. The review link sent to every customer, with no reward.
9. Suggested edits checked within 4 days.

Our free Google profile check lets you tick the points Google itself recommends and shows what is still missing; it is a self-check and nothing is stored. If you would rather hand the profile over, setting it up and keeping it in order is part of our local marketing service.