How to Get Your Business on Google

If someone needs a sparky, a plumber or a hairdresser, a lot of people pull out their phone and type it into Google rather than asking around. If your business isn't there, they never see you, however good your work is.

Good news: getting on Google isn't complicated, and most of it is free. It's just a handful of jobs nobody ever explains properly. Here's the plain-English version.

First, what "being on Google" actually means

There are three separate places your business can turn up, and they're not the same thing:

• The map: the little map with pins that shows up when someone searches for a tradie or a local business. That comes from your Google Business Profile.
• The blue links: the normal search results underneath. That's usually your website.
• Everything else: your Facebook page, a directory listing, an old ad. You don't control most of it.

You want the first two. They do different jobs, and having both helps you look like a real business rather than a phone number floating around the internet.

Set up your Google Business Profile

Think of your Google Business Profile as your shopfront on Google. It's the panel that shows your name, phone number, hours, photos, reviews and a "Directions" button. It's free, and it's probably the most useful hour you'll spend on this.

Head to business.google.com (opens in a new tab), search for your business name in case a listing already exists, and either claim it or create a new one. You'll need to prove it's really you, usually with a postcard to your address, a phone call or a video. That verification step is the bit plenty of people start and never finish. Finish it.

Filling it in properly

• Business name: exactly what you call yourself. Don't stuff it with keywords like "Dave's Plumbing Best Emergency Plumber Sydney". Google can penalise that, and it looks dodgy.
• Categories: pick the closest primary category, then add a few secondary ones that genuinely apply.
• Service area: if you go to customers rather than them coming to you, set your service area and hide your home address. You don't need your house on the internet.
• Hours: real ones, including whether you actually answer the phone on a Sunday.
• Photos: your work, your van, your team, your shopfront. Ten decent photos off your phone beat one stock image.

How you end up on Google Maps

You don't sign up for Maps separately. Once your Business Profile is verified, you're on the map. Where you show up on that map depends mostly on three things: how close you are to the person searching, how well your profile matches what they typed, and how established your business looks online.

That first one catches a lot of tradies out. Someone searching from the other side of town may not see you at all, even if you'd happily drive there. That's normal, it's not a fault in your setup, and no amount of fiddling changes physics. What you can control is being the obvious choice for the people nearby.

If most of your work comes from a local area, it's worth understanding this bit properly. We've gone through it in detail in how Google Maps works for tradies.

Keep your details identical everywhere

Your business name, address and phone number should match, character for character, everywhere they appear. Google Business Profile, your website, your Facebook page, any directory you're listed in, the invoice template you've used since 2019.

When Google finds three different phone numbers for the same business, it has to guess which one is right. Sometimes it guesses wrong, and a customer rings a number you disconnected years ago. Half an hour tidying this up is time well spent.

The usual culprits

• An old mobile number on a directory listing you forgot about
• "St" on one, "Street" on another
• A trading name on Facebook and a business name on Google
• An old suburb from before you moved

Spell out what you do and where you do it

Google works out what you do by reading what you've written. If you install split systems, repair ducted heating and do commercial fit-outs, say those things in plain words, in your services list and on your website.

"Electrical services" tells Google and a customer almost nothing. "Switchboard upgrades, safety switches, LED lighting and EV charger installs across the Northern Beaches" tells both of them exactly who you are and where you work.

Ask for reviews. Properly.

Reviews do two jobs: they help you turn up, and they help people pick you once you have. Plenty of happy customers will leave one. Often they just never get asked, or they get asked in a way that's too much effort.

• Ask right after you've finished a job and they're happy, not three weeks later.
• Send the direct review link by text. Nobody is going to go hunting through Google for it.
• Reply to every review, good or bad. A calm, decent reply to a grumpy review can go a long way with the next person who reads it.
• Never buy reviews. It can get found out, and it's a quick way to lose a profile you've spent months building.

Do you need a website as well?

Yes, though maybe not for the reason you'd expect.

A Business Profile is Google's summary of you. A website is the bit you own and control. It's where you can explain your services properly, show the jobs you're proudest of, list every suburb you cover, answer the questions you get asked on every quote, and give people somewhere to land that isn't a social feed.

It also gives Google something solid to read. A profile on its own is a name, a number and some photos. A website backs it up by confirming what you do, where you do it and that you're a real, ongoing business. The two together are much stronger than either on its own.

And there's the simple human version: plenty of people will look you up before they ring. A tidy website can be the difference between "yeah, these guys look legit" and a closed tab.

If you're weighing up whether it's worth it, we've laid the two side by side in Google Business Profile vs having a website.

Local SEO, without the jargon

"Local SEO" just means giving Google enough clear, consistent information to be confident about showing you to people nearby. For most tradies it comes down to:

• A verified, properly filled-out Google Business Profile
• A website that says what you do and where, in normal words
• The same business details everywhere
• A steady trickle of genuine reviews
• A page for each main service, rather than one page that lists everything in a blob

You can ignore most of what you'll read beyond that until you've done these. There's an entire industry built on making this sound harder than it is.

What you can knock over yourself this week

1. Claim and verify your Google Business Profile. Finish the verification.
2. Fill in every field: categories, service area, hours, services.
3. Upload ten photos from your phone.
4. Google your own business name and fix any wrong details you find.
5. Text your last five happy customers your review link.

That's a couple of hours all up, it costs nothing, and plenty of businesses never get round to it.

How long does any of this take to work?

Honestly: it depends, and anyone who gives you a number is guessing. A new profile can start showing up fairly quickly. Moving up in a competitive area can take months, and some searches are crowded enough that you may never be first. Being one of the few businesses that turns up at all still puts you in front of the people searching.

Be wary of anyone promising you the top spot. Nobody can promise that, because nobody controls Google's results: not us, not an agency, and not the bloke on Instagram selling an SEO course.

When it's worth getting a hand

The Google Business Profile side is genuinely DIY. Do it yourself, and don't pay anyone a monthly fee to do something that takes one afternoon.

The website is where plenty of people stall, often because the quotes come back at three or four grand and it goes in the too-hard basket for another year.

If that sounds familiar, that's exactly why ONYA exists. We build the website for you, and you pay monthly instead of copping a huge bill upfront. The site, your web address set-up (you buy the domain, about $20–$50, in your name), hosting, the SSL padlock and ongoing care are all handled. It's $0 upfront, from $49/month, and sites are usually live within 7 days of getting your photos and details.

Have a look at how it works, or our example sites (two real client sites, the rest concepts), and if it makes sense, tell us what you do and we'll sort the rest.