What it is
Your Google Business Profile is the box that shows up when someone searches your trade and area. Name, photos, reviews, services, hours.
Most tradesmen set it up once and never touch it again. That’s having a profile.
The one that gets the call is different. It’s updated every week. Fresh photos. Fresh posts. Real answers to real questions. Google notices the difference, and so do customers.
Why it matters
Google now shows AI answers for a lot of local searches. Those AI results show far fewer businesses than the old map listings did, roughly 68% fewer.
That means if you’re not in the top three, you’re invisible. No page two. No scrolling. Just gone.
Small weekly habits are what separate profiles that show up from profiles that don’t. Posting to your profile two or more times a week is one of the strongest signals Google looks at now. It’s quick, and posts can be scheduled ahead.
How to do it
Give this ten minutes once a week.
- Post one update or job photo. Something you did this week.
- Add fresh photos from this week’s jobs. Real photos get around 35% more clicks than stock ones. Before and after shots work best.
- Answer or add one question in the Q&A section. Seed it with 10 to 15 real questions your customers actually ask. Hardly any tradesman does this, and Google’s AI answers pull straight from it.
- Check your services and prices are current. List them with fixed prices where you can. This detail gets pulled into Google’s AI answers too.
- Reply to any new reviews. Takes two minutes.
Mistakes to avoid
Set-and-forget. A profile from three years ago tells Google, and customers, that you might not be around.
Stock photos. Customers can tell. So can Google.
An empty Q&A section. If you don’t answer the obvious questions, someone else fills the gap, or nobody does and the customer moves on.
A profile and website that don’t match. Same name, same number, same services, everywhere. Mismatches cost trust with Google and with AI tools.
Do this now
Open your phone. Find one photo from today’s job. Post it to your profile now.
Write two plain sentences: what the job was, and the town it was in. That’s it.
Dab Labs runs this weekly routine for clients who would rather be on the tools.
Updated July 2026 · All lessons