When someone searches “plumber near me” or “reptile shop Ashford,” the map pack at the top of Google decides who gets the call — and it’s driven by your Google Business Profile, not your website. It’s free, most of your competitors have half-finished theirs, and a proper setup takes about half an hour. Here it is, field by field.

Minutes 0–5: claim and verify

Search your business name on Google Maps. If a listing exists, claim it (“Own this business?”); if not, create one at business.google.com. Verification is usually a postcard, video, or phone check. Do it under an email account the business owns — not your web designer’s. We see businesses locked out of their own listing every year because an old agency holds the keys.

Minutes 5–15: the fields that actually rank

  • Primary category is the single biggest lever. Be exact: “Emergency plumber,” not “Plumber,” if that’s the work you want. Add secondary categories for every real service line.
  • Service areas: list the towns you genuinely serve. Adding half the county dilutes you everywhere.
  • Hours — including holidays. “Might be closed” loses the click.
  • Phone and website: the number you actually answer (see our missed-calls maths) and a site that loads fast on a phone.
  • Services and prices: fill the services section with what you’d want to be found for, in plain words customers use.

Minutes 15–25: photos that aren’t a logo

Real photos of the premises, the team, the work, the shopfront from the street. Ten or more. Listings with real photos get dramatically more clicks than a logo on a white square — and Google can tell a phone photo taken at your location from a stock image.

Minutes 25–30: switch on the compounding habits

Habit one: ask for reviews, every job, the same day. Save your review link (Profile → “Ask for reviews”) as a text template. Reply to every review, including the bad ones — the reply is read by the next hundred searchers, not the one reviewer.

Habit two: post something weekly. A finished job, a new product, an offer. A listing that’s visibly alive outranks a dead one, and it’s exactly the kind of repetitive publishing a content system can do for you on autopilot.

Where it fits

The profile gets you found; what happens next — the site, the booking, the follow-up — decides whether “found” becomes “paid.” The full picture is in why your business isn’t showing up on Google, and if you’d rather it was all just handled, that’s a call.