Google Business Profile

A Google Business Profile is the free listing Google shows for a local company: the map pin, the hours, the photos, the reviews, the button that calls you. For a lot of service businesses it is the homepage that actually gets the call. The website still matters. The listing is what a person sees with their thumb over the phone icon.

Claim it, match the name and address you use everywhere else, and set hours you really keep. Wrong hours create calls you will not answer and reviews that say you do not pick up. Categories should describe the work, not stuff the listing with every neighboring trade. Photos of real jobs and real trucks beat stock art. Posts are optional. Accurate hours and a working phone number are not.

Reviews live here. Ask for them after a finished, paid job, once, with the link. Reply to the unhappy ones in public, briefly, and take the detail offline. The listing also shows how many people called or asked for directions. Treat a rise in calls as a lead-source question: did someone answer, and did the lead get onto the list? A profile that generates rings you miss is an expensive kind of success.

Puffly does not replace the profile. The profile sends people to your phone and your site. Missed-call text back and the lead inbox are what happen after they tap call and you are on a job. Put "Google" as the lead source when that is where they said they found you. Then you can see whether the listing produces jobs or only notifications.

Check the profile when you change a service area, a phone number, or a holiday schedule. An abandoned listing with last year's hours will outrank a careful website and then disappoint the caller. Ten minutes after a change beats a monthly marketing meeting.