Your Google Business Profile is free, takes an afternoon to set up properly, and for most local businesses it drives more calls than the website does. It is also the thing I most often find half-finished.

Set it up properly, once

• Verify it. Unverified listings do not rank. Verification is usually by video or postcard and takes a few days.
• Primary category. Pick the most specific one that fits. "Appliance repair service" beats "repair shop".
• Service area. If you travel to customers, list suburbs rather than drawing a giant radius. If they come to you, show the address.
• Services and description. List every service separately, in the words customers use.
• Hours. Keep them true, including public holidays.
• Photos. Real photos of your work, your vehicle, your team. Ten good ones beat a stock library.

Then keep it alive

A profile untouched for a year looks abandoned to Google and to customers. Post something short every week or two: a job you finished, a seasonal reminder, a special. Answer every review, including the difficult ones, calmly and in public. Add the questions customers keep asking to the Q&A section yourself.

The review habit that changes everything

Copy your review link out of the profile, save it as a WhatsApp shortcut, and send it the moment a job is signed off. Five recent reviews beat fifty from 2021. Never pay for reviews; Google removes them and the listing takes the damage.

Connect it to your website

Your business name, address and phone number should match exactly between the listing and your website footer. Link the profile to the most relevant page rather than always the home page: if someone searches for a specific service, send them to that service page.

What good looks like after three months

You appear in the map results for your main service in your own suburb, the photos are current, there are recent reviews with replies, and the insights panel shows people calling and requesting directions. That is the whole goal, and it costs nothing but attention.