When someone searches "electrician near me", the map results above the normal listings are decided by Google Business Profiles, not websites. A complete, active profile can put a small business above competitors with far bigger sites. Most profiles are neither complete nor active. Here is the full setup, in the order Google cares about it.
Claim it and verify it
Search your business name on Google. If a panel appears with an "Own this business?" link, the profile exists and needs claiming. If nothing appears, create one at business.google.com. Verification usually means a postcard, a phone call or a video walkround of the premises. Do it under your own Google account, not your web company's; the profile is too valuable to sit in someone else's login. (More on that in who owns your website.)
The primary category decides everything
Your primary category is the strongest single signal on the profile. Be exact: "Emergency plumber" and "Plumber" rank for different searches. Pick the category that matches the work you most want, then add secondary categories for the rest. Do not add categories for work you do not do; irrelevant categories dilute the ones that matter.
Fill in every field, literally every one
- Opening hours, including holiday hours when they change. A profile marked open when you are closed earns the review that starts "Drove twenty minutes for nothing".
- Phone number and website, matching what the site itself says, character for character.
- Service area, if you travel to customers. List the towns honestly; a fifty mile radius you never serve helps nobody, including your ranking.
- Services, each one named and described. These map directly onto searches. An electrician listing "EV charger installation" appears for it; one who leaves services empty does not.
- The description, 750 characters on what you do, where, and for whom. Written for a customer, not stuffed with keywords.
Photos are a ranking and a conversion factor
Profiles with real photos get dramatically more requests for directions and website clicks. Real means your van, your team, your finished jobs, your premises, not stock. Add ten or more to start, then a few each month. Google notices profiles that stay alive.
Reviews: the engine, and the habit
Reviews decide map ranking and customer choice more than anything else you control. Two rules:
- Ask at the moment of satisfaction. Job done, customer happy, send the review link by text there and then. Google provides a short link in the profile dashboard. Make it part of closing every job.
- Reply to every review, good and bad. Replies are public. A calm, specific reply to a bad review wins more customers than ten unanswered good ones, because it shows how you handle a problem.
Never buy reviews and never review yourself. Google removes them, sometimes with the profile attached.
The quiet mistakes that hide you
- A name that is not your name. Adding keywords to your business name ("Smith Plumbing | Best Boiler Repair Guildford") violates the guidelines and risks suspension. The name field is your name, nothing else.
- Duplicate profiles from old addresses or past owners split your reviews and confuse the map. Find them and request removal or merge.
- Inconsistent details. Name, address and phone should read identically on the profile, the website footer and everywhere else you are listed. Mismatches erode trust, Google's and the customer's.
The hour, spent in order
- Claim and verify, in your own account: 15 minutes plus the wait.
- Primary and secondary categories: 5 minutes.
- Every field filled, services listed: 20 minutes.
- Ten real photos: 10 minutes.
- Review link saved into your phone, first three customers texted: 10 minutes.
That hour outranks most of your local competition, because most of your local competition has never done it.