There's a guy in Manchester who gets about 40 qualified leads per month from Google. He doesn't pay for ads. Doesn't do fancy SEO. Hasn't spent a penny on marketing in over a year. His secret? He actually bothered to set up his Google Business Profile properly whilst his competitors left theirs half-finished or ignored them completely.
Meanwhile, there are construction firms spending thousands on websites and SEO who don't even show up when someone searches "builder near me" in their own town. Not because they're not good enough, but because they've neglected the single most important piece of free digital real estate Google gives you.
Your Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) is probably the highest-ROI marketing activity you're not doing properly. It's free, it takes a few hours to set up correctly, and it directly influences whether you appear in those crucial local search results that drive most construction enquiries. Yet most contractors either don't claim their profile at all, or claim it and then abandon it with incomplete information and three blurry photos from 2017.
Why Google Business Profile Matters More Than You Think
When someone searches for construction services in your area, Google shows them three businesses in a map pack before the organic search results. Those three spots are prime real estate. If you're in that top three, you're visible. If you're not, you're basically invisible to that searcher, even if you're the best contractor in town.
What determines who appears in that map pack? Your Google Business Profile. Not your website. Not how long you've been in business. Your profile's completeness, relevance, and authority. Google is trying to show searchers the most helpful, trustworthy local businesses, and your profile is how it judges you.
The numbers are stark. Studies show that 46% of all Google searches have local intent. For construction services, that percentage is even higher because people overwhelmingly prefer local contractors. They're not searching "construction company UK" - they're searching "builders in Leeds" or "loft conversion specialist Manchester". These are high-intent searches from people ready to spend money, and your Google Business Profile is your ticket to being visible for them.
But here's what really matters: 76% of people who search for something nearby on their smartphone visit a related business within a day. And 28% of those searches result in a purchase. These aren't people casually browsing - they're people with projects who need contractors now. If your profile isn't properly set up, you're not even in the conversation.
Before we get into advanced optimisation, let's cover the fundamentals that an astonishing number of construction businesses mess up.
First, you need to actually claim your Google Business Profile. If you've never done this, Google has probably already created a basic listing for your business based on information it's found online. But until you claim and verify it, you can't control what it says or add crucial information.
Go to google.com/business and search for your company name. If a listing exists, claim it. If not, create one. You'll need to verify ownership, which Google typically does by sending a postcard with a verification code to your business address. This takes about a week, which is why many contractors never bother, but that week of waiting could save you thousands in wasted advertising spend.
Common mistake: using a home address when you operate from multiple locations or don't have a physical office. If you're a mobile contractor working across a region, you can set up a service area business that doesn't display your address publicly. This is completely legitimate and often more appropriate for construction firms.
Your business name should be exactly what's on your official business registration. Not "Smith Construction - Loft Conversions & Extensions in Leeds". Just "Smith Construction Ltd" or whatever your actual registered name is.
Some contractors try to game the system by stuffing keywords into their business name. Google actively penalises this and can suspend your listing. It's not worth the risk. Your actual services and location information goes in the designated fields - that's what they're for.
Your primary category is crucial. Don't just pick "Construction Company" if you specialise in something more specific. Google has hundreds of categories: General Contractor, Building Restoration Service, Roofing Contractor, Plumber, Electrician, Home Builder, and so on.
Choose the most specific category that describes your main business. Then add additional categories for other services you offer. You can have up to 10 categories, but only add ones that genuinely represent significant parts of your business. Adding irrelevant categories to try to appear for more searches typically backfires because Google values relevance.
For construction firms that do multiple things, this requires some strategic thinking. If 70% of your work is general contracting but you also do roofing, make General Contractor your primary category and add Roofing Contractor as secondary. The primary category carries the most weight.
If you work across multiple towns or a region rather than just one location, you need to set up service areas. This tells Google where you operate and helps you appear in searches from those locations.
Be realistic about your service areas. If you're based in Birmingham and occasionally take jobs in London, don't list London as a service area - you won't rank well for London searches anyway because you're not physically there, and it dilutes your local relevance. Focus on areas you genuinely serve regularly, typically within an hour or two of your base.
You can list service areas by postcode, town, or region. For most construction firms, listing specific towns within your operating radius works well. Don't list more than about 20-30 areas - spreading yourself too thin reduces your relevance for all of them.
This is where most construction firms completely miss the opportunity. They either have no photos, three terrible blurry ones, or dozens of random site pictures with no context or quality control.
Google Business Profile photos get 42% more requests for directions and 35% more click-throughs to websites than businesses without photos. But it's not just about having photos - it's about having the right photos.
What Photos to Include
Start with your logo. This appears in search results and on maps, so it needs to be clear and professional. Not a blurry screenshot of your van. A proper square logo image, minimum 720x720 pixels.
Then add a cover photo - this is the wide banner image at the top of your profile. Use a high-quality photo that represents your business well. A team photo at a completed project works brilliantly. Your van with your branding. A satisfied client standing outside their newly completed extension. Something that builds trust and shows you're a real, professional operation.
For project photos, quality matters more than quantity. Five excellent before-and-after sets are worth more than 50 random site pictures. Show completed work, not just work in progress. Homeowners want to see finished projects that look like what they're hoping to achieve, not half-completed builds or piles of materials.
Take photos in good light. This seems obvious, but so many construction photos are dark, grainy, or taken at odd angles. If you're documenting a project, take proper photos when it's complete. Use a decent camera or a modern smartphone. Make sure rooms are tidy, windows are clean, and the space looks its best.
Team photos humanise your business. People like knowing who might turn up at their house. A professional photo of your team in clean work gear sends a message of competence and professionalism. It doesn't need to be a fancy photoshoot - just decent quality, good lighting, everyone looking presentable.
Aim for at least 20-30 photos to start, but keep them relevant and high-quality. Update regularly with new project photos. Google favours businesses that add fresh content, and new photos count as fresh content.
Don't just upload everything at once and forget about it. Add a few photos every couple of weeks. When you complete a project, document it properly and add the best photos to your profile. This ongoing activity signals to Google that you're an active, current business.
Reviews are massive. Not just for making you look credible to potential clients, but for your actual search ranking. Google uses review quantity, quality, and recency as ranking factors. A construction firm with 50 recent positive reviews will rank higher than one with 5 old reviews, all else being equal.
But here's the thing: most contractors are terrible at getting reviews. They do excellent work, the client is delighted, the project ends, and neither party thinks about leaving a review. The client doesn't know you need them, and you don't want to seem pushy by asking.
Make it systematic. When a project completes successfully and the client is happy, ask for a review. Not vaguely, not "if you get a chance" - actually ask. Most people are happy to help, they just need to be prompted.
Make it easy. Send them a direct link to your review page. You can get this link from your Google Business Profile dashboard. Don't make them search for your business - give them a clickable link they can tap on their phone and leave a review in 30 seconds.
Timing matters. Ask when the work is fresh in their mind and they're most satisfied - usually at project completion or shortly after. If you wait three months, they've moved on mentally and the moment has passed.
Some contractors add a review request to their final invoice email or project completion documentation. Others send a dedicated follow-up message a few days after completion. Both approaches work - the key is having a consistent system rather than randomly remembering to ask.
Respond to every review, positive and negative. Thank people for positive reviews - it shows you appreciate feedback and engage with clients. For negative reviews, respond professionally and offer to resolve the issue. How you handle criticism publicly tells potential clients a lot about how you'll treat them if something goes wrong.
Keep responses brief and professional. You don't need to write essays. "Thanks for the kind words, it was a pleasure working with you" is perfectly adequate for a positive review. For negative reviews, acknowledge the concern, apologise if appropriate, and offer to discuss it privately. Never get defensive or argumentative publicly.
Sometimes you'll get reviews from competitors, people you've never worked with, or disgruntled former employees. Google allows you to flag reviews that violate their policies. If a review is clearly fake (from someone you can prove isn't a client), report it. But understand that Google's bar for removal is high - they won't remove negative reviews just because you disagree with them.
The best defence against bad reviews is having lots of good ones. If you have 50 five-star reviews and one angry one-star review, it barely impacts your overall rating and most people recognise that you can't please everyone.
Posts and Updates (The Feature Nobody Uses)
Google Business Profile lets you create posts - short updates that appear on your profile. Almost no construction firms use this feature, which is precisely why you should.
Posts are visible when people view your profile and can include photos, text, and calls-to-action. They're basically mini-blog posts or announcements. And whilst Google doesn't explicitly confirm this, there's strong evidence that businesses that post regularly rank better in local search.
What to post about? Completed projects are perfect. Show before-and-after photos with a brief description. Announce new services or expanded service areas. Share useful tips related to your trade. Highlight special offers if you run them. The content doesn't need to be revolutionary - it just needs to show you're an active, engaged business.
Posts stay visible for seven days (or longer for events), so posting once a week keeps fresh content on your profile constantly. This takes maybe 10 minutes per week and costs nothing. Yet most of your competitors aren't doing it, giving you an easy advantage.
Google gives you loads of fields to fill in about your business. Fill them all in. Every single one. Completeness is a ranking factor, and it also helps potential clients understand what you do.
You get 750 characters to describe your business. Use them. Explain what you do, where you operate, what makes you different, and what kind of projects you specialise in. Write naturally - this isn't for Google, it's for potential clients reading your profile.
Include your key services naturally in the description. Don't keyword stuff, but do make it clear what you offer. If you specialise in period property restoration or eco-builds or whatever your niche is, say so.
Set accurate opening hours, including any special hours for holidays. If you're closed Christmas Day, mark it. If you have reduced hours over the festive period, update them. Nothing irritates potential clients more than calling during your stated opening hours and getting no answer.
For construction firms, opening hours often means your office hours rather than when you're on site. That's fine - just make it clear. Many contractors put something like "Office hours: Mon-Fri 8am-5pm. Site work may vary - call to discuss urgent requirements" in their description.
List your specific services. Not just "Construction" - break it down. Loft conversions, extensions, renovations, new builds, commercial fit-outs, whatever you do. Each service can have its own description.
This serves two purposes. First, it helps Google understand what you offer and match you to relevant searches. Second, it helps potential clients quickly see if you do what they need. Someone searching for a loft conversion specialist wants to see that you explicitly offer loft conversions, not just general building work.
Attributes are business characteristics like "Identifies as women-owned", "Free estimates", "Licensed professionals", etc. Select all that apply to your business. These appear as tags on your profile and can influence whether people choose to contact you.
For construction firms, attributes like "Free estimates", "Licensed and insured", and "Established in [year]" build credibility. Don't skip this section - it takes two minutes and adds social proof to your profile.
The map pack - those three businesses Google shows with a map in local search results - is where you want to be. Getting there isn't magic, but it does require understanding what Google values.
How well does your profile match what the searcher is looking for? This comes down to your categories, services, description, and photos. If someone searches "roofing contractor Manchester", Google looks at businesses with "Roofing Contractor" as a category operating in Manchester. The better your profile matches the search intent, the higher you rank.
How far is your business from the searcher or the area they're searching for? If someone in Salford searches "builder near me", businesses in Salford rank higher than those in Bolton. You can't change your location, but you can make sure Google knows your exact location and service areas accurately.
How well-known and reputable is your business? This is where reviews, website authority, and consistent information across the web matter. A construction firm with 100 Google reviews, a professional website, and mentions in local news or directories will rank higher than one with none of these things.
Building prominence takes time. You can't manufacture it overnight. But you can consistently work on it by getting reviews, maintaining your website, and ensuring your business information (name, address, phone number) is consistent everywhere you're mentioned online - your website, directory listings, social media, everywhere.
Now let's talk about what not to do, because these mistakes are surprisingly common and surprisingly damaging.
Your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) need to be exactly the same everywhere they appear online. If your Google Business Profile says "Smith Construction Ltd" but your website says "Smith Construction Limited" and your Facebook page says "Smith Construction", Google gets confused about whether these are the same business.
Pick one version of your business name and use it everywhere. Same with your address - if it's "123 High Street" on Google, it should be "123 High Street" on your website, not "123 High St" or "Unit 5, 123 High Street". Consistency matters more than you'd think.
Ignoring negative reviews makes you look unprofessional and uncaring. Even if you think the review is unfair, respond to it. Thank them for their feedback, apologise for their experience, and offer to make it right. Future customers reading reviews judge you as much on how you handle criticism as on the criticism itself.
Your Google Business Profile isn't something you set up once and forget. Markets change, your services evolve, you complete new projects, you get new reviews. Profiles that are regularly updated signal to Google that the business is active and current. Stale profiles with no new photos or posts for years look abandoned.
Set a reminder to review and update your profile monthly. Add new project photos, create a post, check your business information is still accurate. This takes 20 minutes and keeps your profile fresh.
Some contractors think they can game the system by creating multiple Google Business Profiles for the same location under slightly different names or categories. This is against Google's guidelines and will get all your profiles suspended when Google discovers it. One business, one profile.
Trying to cram keywords into your business name, description, or posts in an unnatural way looks spammy and Google penalises it. Write for humans, not algorithms. If your description reads like a list of keywords rather than a coherent explanation of what you do, you're doing it wrong.
Google Business Profile provides detailed insights about how people find and interact with your profile. Use them. These aren't vanity metrics - they're actionable data about what's working.
Check how many people viewed your profile, where they came from (direct search or discovery search), what actions they took (called you, visited your website, requested directions), and which photos they viewed most. This data tells you what's resonating with potential clients.
If lots of people view your profile but nobody calls or visits your website, something's wrong with your profile content or photos. If you're getting lots of direction requests but few calls, maybe your opening hours or contact information isn't clear. Use the data to improve continuously.
Google allows people to ask questions on your business profile, which you (or anyone) can answer. Monitor this section and answer questions promptly. Don't let random people give wrong answers to questions about your business.
You can also seed this section by having someone ask common questions you want to answer publicly. "Do you offer free quotes?" "What areas do you cover?" "Are you insured and licensed?" These are questions potential clients have anyway - answering them publicly saves everyone time and builds trust.
Getting your Google Business Profile right isn't a quick fix - it's an ongoing commitment. But unlike paid advertising where you stop getting results the moment you stop paying, the work you put into your profile compounds over time.
Every review you get makes future rankings stronger. Every photo you add increases engagement. Every post you publish signals activity and relevance. Six months of consistent effort on your profile will put you ahead of competitors who've never bothered, and that advantage persists even if you later reduce your activity.
The construction firms dominating local search results aren't necessarily the biggest or the best - they're the ones who've consistently maintained strong Google Business Profiles whilst everyone else ignored them. There's no secret sauce. Just systematic attention to a free tool that Google is practically begging you to use.
If you do nothing else after reading this, do these five things this week. They'll take maybe two hours total and will immediately improve your local search visibility.
First, claim and verify your Google Business Profile if you haven't already. This is non-negotiable. Everything else builds on this foundation.
Second, complete every single field in your profile. Business description, services, attributes, opening hours, everything. Don't leave anything blank.
Third, add at least 20 high-quality photos. Your logo, a cover photo, team photos, and project before-and-afters. Use the best images you have.
Fourth, contact your five most recent happy clients and ask them to leave a Google review. Send them the direct link. Make it as easy as possible.
Fifth, create your first post. Share a recently completed project with before-and-after photos and a brief description. This shows you're active and gives potential clients something recent to see.
These five actions will put you ahead of most construction firms in your area. Then commit to maintaining it - add photos monthly, post weekly, respond to reviews within 24 hours, and keep your information current. The results will speak for themselves.
Your Google Business Profile is probably the single highest-ROI marketing activity available to construction firms. It's free, it directly influences local search rankings, and most of your competitors are doing it badly or not at all.
The contractors winning local searches aren't spending thousands on ads or hiring expensive SEO agencies. They're just consistently maintaining excellent Google Business Profiles whilst everyone else neglects theirs. It's not glamorous, it's not complicated, and it doesn't require any special expertise. It just requires giving a damn and putting in a few hours of work.
The question isn't whether you should optimise your Google Business Profile. The question is how much longer you can afford to ignore it whilst your competitors don't.
