If you run a service business in Connecticut and you only do one thing for your online presence this month, make it your Google Business Profile. It is free, it is what shows up in the map results when someone searches "electrician near me," and most of the profiles I look at for clients are half filled in. This guide walks through setting one up properly for a business that goes to the customer, which has a few rules of its own.
This is about the profile. The website side, titles and location pages and speed, is covered in Local SEO for CT small businesses.
Claim it, then verify it
Search your business name on Google. If a profile already exists (Google creates them from public data), claim it rather than making a second one. Duplicates cause problems later. If nothing exists, create one at google.com/business.
Verification is where Google confirms you are allowed to manage the listing. Google's local ranking help page says verified profiles are more likely to show in results, so do not skip it. The method Google offers depends on the business. Video verification, where you record a short walkthrough showing your signage, vehicle or tools, is common for service businesses now. A postcard to the business address is the older method. Whatever it offers, finish it the same week.
Service area or storefront: pick the right one
This is the decision that trips up most service businesses, and Google's guidelines for representing your business are specific about it.
If customers do not come to you (a plumber working from a home address, a mobile detailer, a cleaning company), you are a service-area business. Google says you should hide your address and list the areas you serve instead. Running the business from your kitchen does not make your kitchen a storefront, and showing a home address on Google is a privacy problem besides.
If customers come to you (a repair shop, a showroom, an office with staff), show the address. Google expects that location to be staffed and open to customers during the hours you list.
If both (an auto shop that also does roadside calls, a computer repair shop that also makes house calls), Google calls that a hybrid. You show the storefront address and also set a service area.
For the service area itself, Google's guideline is that it should not extend much past about two hours of driving time from where you are based. For most central Connecticut businesses, listing the towns and counties you actually work in is both more accurate and more useful than claiming the whole state. Google has also said distance is a ranking factor, so a wide service area does not make you show up farther away. It just describes where you will go.
Category: the most important field on the profile
Your primary category tells Google what you are. It should be the most specific category that describes your main work: "Electrician," not "Contractor." "Plumber," not "Home services." Secondary categories cover the rest of what you do. Pick a few that are real. Do not add categories for work you do not do to cast a wider net; it muddies relevance and it is against the guidelines.
If your main line of work changed, change the primary category. I see profiles still set to whatever the business did in 2017.
Business name, phone and address, exactly as they appear elsewhere
Use your real business name. Not "Smith Electric | Best Electrician Middletown CT." Keyword-stuffed names are a guideline violation and profiles get suspended for it. The name on the profile, on your website, on your invoices and on your truck should be the same.
Same for the phone number. Use the number you answer. If you use a tracking number for ads, do not put it here.
Services: list them the way customers search
Under Services, Google lets you add specific services under each category, with an optional description and price. Fill this in with the actual jobs you do: "panel upgrade," "generator installation," "EV charger install." This is what matches you to searches, and it is what shows people whether you do the thing they need before they call.
Keep prices honest or leave them off. "Starting at" prices with no explanation generate calls you do not want.
Hours, and special hours
Set real hours. If you take calls until 8pm but only do jobs 8 to 5, your hours are when you take calls. If you are closed for a holiday, add special hours. Google's own advice on the ranking page is to keep hours accurate, and a profile that says you are open when you are not generates one-star reviews.
Photos: real ones, regularly
Google's help page puts it plainly: photos let you show customers what you offer. For a service business that means your truck, your crew, your finished work, you. Not stock photos of a smiling actor holding a wrench. People choose a contractor partly on whether the business looks real, and a profile with six photos from 2019 looks abandoned.
A workable habit: one or two photos from a job each week, taken on your phone, uploaded from the Google Maps app on the spot. Before and after shots of real work are the best content a service business has.
Posts and updates
The profile lets you publish short updates: a seasonal offer, a new service, a job you are proud of. They show on the profile for a while and then roll off. They are not a ranking lever on their own, but they make the profile look active, and an active profile gets more clicks than a stale one. Once or twice a month is plenty.
Q&A
Anyone can ask a question on your profile and anyone can answer, including people who are guessing. Seed it yourself with the five questions you get on the phone every week (Do you charge for estimates? Are you licensed and insured? Do you work weekends?) and answer them. Then check it now and then so a stranger's wrong answer does not sit there.
Reviews: how to get them without getting in trouble
Reviews feed prominence, which is one of Google's three ranking factors, and they are what most people read before calling. Two things to know.
Asking is fine. Paying is not. Google's review policy allows asking customers for reviews and prohibits offering anything in exchange for one, including discounts, gift cards, or a prize drawing. It also prohibits asking only happy customers while steering unhappy ones elsewhere. Google has been enforcing this more aggressively and can restrict a profile over it, so the "leave a review for 10% off" sign is not worth the risk.
Make it easy. Your profile has a short review link. Put it at the bottom of invoices, in a text message after the job, in your email signature. The best time to ask is right after the work is done and the customer is happy. A week later the moment has passed.
Reply to every review. Google's ranking page says replying shows customers you value their feedback, and it is true. Two sentences, by name, specific to the job. For a bad review, stay calm, state the facts briefly, and offer to make it right offline. Future customers read your replies more carefully than the reviews themselves.
Our own profile is the example. We ask every customer for a review after the job, by text, with the link. That one habit is how CT Tech Express got to more than 200 Google reviews at a 5.0 rating, and it is the reason the phone rings from people who have never heard of us before.
Keep it current
A profile is not a one-time setup. Someone should own it. Once a month: check hours, add photos, answer any questions, reply to reviews, and look at the Insights tab to see how many calls and direction requests came from the profile. That number is the honest measure of whether any of this is working.
The bottom line
A complete, verified, accurate Google Business Profile with the right primary category, honest service areas, real photos and steady reviews is the single highest-return thing a service business can do online, and it costs nothing but attention. Pair it with a website that says the same name, phone and services, loads fast on a phone, and gives people a reason to call.
Need the website side handled? I build service-business sites for $500 and host them for $35 a month, built to match your profile and get the phone to ring. See how it works or get in touch. Next, read What a service business website needs to get calls.