Google Business Profile: How to Set It Up and Get More Local Calls
A practical guide to setting up and improving your Google Business Profile in Australia: categories, service areas, photos, reviews and how it works with your website.
When someone searches “plumber near me” or “mortgage broker Parramatta”, the first thing they usually see is a map with three businesses underneath. Those listings come from Google Business Profile. For local service businesses, it’s often the biggest single source of calls, and it’s free.
Here’s how to set it up properly and make it work alongside your website.
What Google Business Profile is
Your Business Profile is your listing on Google Search and Google Maps. It shows your name, category, phone number, website, hours, photos, reviews, and either your address or the areas you serve. Customers can call, get directions, visit your website or message you straight from it.
Setting it up
- Go to Google Business Profile and sign in with a Google account you’ll keep long term. Ideally use a business account rather than a personal one, and add a second manager so you’re never locked out.
- Enter your business name exactly as it appears on your signage and paperwork. Don’t add keywords or suburbs to your name; it breaks Google’s guidelines and can get your listing suspended.
- Choose your primary category carefully (more below).
- Add your address if customers visit you. If you travel to customers, choose to hide your address and add your service areas instead.
- Add your phone number and website.
- Verify your business. Google may ask for a short video, a phone call, a text or an email.
Choosing categories
Your primary category is one of the strongest signals for which searches you appear in. Pick the most specific one that describes your core business: “Electrician” rather than “Contractor”, “Mortgage broker” rather than “Financial consultant”.
You can add secondary categories for other services you genuinely offer. Don’t add categories for things you rarely do.
Service areas
Service-area businesses can list up to 20 areas: suburbs, towns, regions or postcodes. List where you actually work. Your listing tends to appear most strongly near your verified location, so listing a huge area won’t make you rank everywhere, but it tells customers where you’ll travel.
Photos that win calls
Profiles with good photos get more attention. Add:
- Your logo and a cover photo.
- Photos of real jobs: before and after, finished work, work in progress.
- Your team, vehicles and premises.
- New photos regularly, rather than all at once.
Real photos beat stock photos every time on a Business Profile.
Reviews: the part that matters most
Reviews influence both your ranking and whether people choose you. The businesses with the most and best recent reviews win a large share of calls.
Ask every happy customer. The best time is right after the job, when they’ve just said thanks. Send a direct review link by text. Most people are happy to help if it takes one tap.
Make it easy. Your profile gives you a short review link. Put it in your email signature, on invoices and in follow-up texts.
Reply to every review. Thank people for good ones. For bad ones, respond calmly, acknowledge the issue and offer to fix it offline. Future customers read the replies.
Don’t buy or incentivise reviews. It breaks Google’s policies and Australian Consumer Law. The ACCC takes fake and incentivised reviews seriously.
Keep it active
- Update hours for public holidays.
- Add new services as you offer them.
- Post updates or offers occasionally.
- Answer questions in the Q&A section.
- Check that your phone number, website and hours are still right every few months.
How your website and profile work together
Google decides which local businesses to show based on three things: relevance (how well you match the search), distance (how close you are), and prominence (how well known and well reviewed you are). Your website feeds all three.
- Consistent details. Your business name, phone and address (or service area) should match exactly between your website and your profile.
- Service pages. A clear page for each main service helps Google understand what you do.
- Area content. Mentioning the suburbs you serve, with genuine detail, supports relevance for those areas.
- Structured data. Code on your site that tells Google your business name, location, hours and services.
- Speed and mobile design. Most local searches happen on phones. A fast site keeps people who click through from your profile.
Every Webralia website includes structured data and consistent business details, and links to your Business Profile. Our guide to local SEO for tradies goes further on ranking locally.
Common mistakes
- Keyword stuffing the business name (“Joe’s Plumbing Emergency Plumber Sydney 24/7”).
- Using a virtual office address you don’t actually operate from.
- Letting the profile go stale with old hours and no new photos or reviews.
- Linking the profile to a slow, outdated website that loses the customer after the click.
Make the click count
Your Business Profile gets the customer’s attention. Your website closes the deal. If your profile is sending people to a slow or dated website, you’re losing calls you’ve already earned.
Start your brief and get a website that turns profile clicks into enquiries.