Real name, one specific category, home address hidden, a service area you actually drive to, and a review request to every customer. Skip the tricks: a suspended profile costs you far more than a slightly weaker one.
First: are you allowed a profile?
Google's guidelines accept two kinds of business: a place customers visit, staffed during your stated hours, or a business that travels to its customers. Most tradies are the second kind, called a service-area business. A rented mailing address you don't work from doesn't qualify.
One profile per business. A duplicate, even an old one you forgot about, splits your reviews and confuses the map. Find it and remove it.
Filling it in, field by field
Business name
Exactly what's on your van and invoices. No services, suburbs or phone numbers.
Smith Plumbing
Smith Plumbing | Emergency Plumber Perth 24/7
Category
As few as describe your core business, as specific as possible. Google's test: it finishes "this business is a…".
Plumber
Plumber, Gas fitter, Hot water service, Bathroom renovator, Drainage service…
Address and service area
No storefront customers walk into? Hide the address. Keep the area within about two hours' drive.
Address hidden, service area: the suburbs you drive to
Home address on show, service area covering all of WA
Hours
The hours you actually answer customers. Google says appointment-only businesses can leave hours blank.
Mon to Fri, 7am to 5pm
Open 24 hours (when you're not)
Description
Factual. Google's guidelines rule out links, prices and promotions here.
What you do, where, since when
"10% OFF this month!! Call now www…"
Phone and website link
Use a local number you answer yourself, not a call centre or a tracking number that forwards elsewhere. For the website, link the page that matches what people search for. On my own profile, the link goes to my Perth web design page rather than the home page, because that's the search the profile shows up for.
Photos
Your own work, your van, you on a job. Before and after shots are gold for trades. Add a few after jobs you're proud of. Stock photos tell the customer nothing and they can usually spot them.
Reviews, by the rules
Google says more reviews and positive ratings can help your local ranking. It also has a strict policy on how you get them.
Do
- Ask every customer, by text, with your direct review link, the day you finish the job.
- Reply to every review, good and bad. Short and specific beats a template.
- Fix the problem behind a bad review, then reply saying what you did.
Don't
- Only asking the customers you know are happy. Google calls it selective solicitation and bans it.
- Discounts, freebies or a draw for reviews. Banned, and the reviews get removed.
- Reviews from family, staff or a friend's account. Counted as fake engagement.
Make your website agree with it
Same name, phone and hours on the profile and on every page of your site. When I checked mine, the website still said I was open seven days, 7am to 7pm. I cut both to the hours I actually work, Monday to Friday.
The profile gets you on the map. Ranking in the results under it is your website's job, covered in local SEO for Perth tradies.
Check it from the dashboard, not Maps
In September 2026 I looked up my own profile on Maps, signed out. No review count, no reviews tab. It looked like they'd been wiped. They hadn't: the signed-out view simply wasn't showing them. Judge your profile from the Business Profile dashboard, signed in, before you panic.
Want it done for you?
I set up and tidy Google Business Profiles for tradies, by the rules above. Prices are on the pricing page, along with the website packages it pairs with.
Questions tradies ask
Not sure your profile is set up right?
Send me the link to your profile and I'll tell you what I'd change.