A woman in Broulee needs an electrician this afternoon. She picks up her phone, types "electrician near me", and rings one of the first three businesses she sees. She doesn't scroll and she doesn't compare five quotes. That's the whole decision, and some version of it happens dozens of times a day across Eurobodalla.
Those three businesses come out of Google Business Profile, which is free. Most tradies on the South Coast have one. Most of those are half finished. Here's how to get yours the rest of the way.
Google Business Profile beats your website for local jobs
Your website matters, but for "near me" searches on a phone, the map box sits above everything else and takes most of the clicks. It's fed by your profile, not by your site. That's why a sparkie with no website and a complete, verified profile will out-earn one with a nice website and no profile.
It costs nothing but an hour, once, and about two minutes a week after that.
Claiming the profile is easy and most people stop before verifying
Go to google.com/business, sign in with the Google account you want owning this forever (use one you'll still have in five years, not an old one tied to a previous job), and search for your business name. If a listing already exists, claim it. If there's nothing there, create it.
Then you verify it. For a mobile trade that's usually a short video these days: the front of your workshop or home office, your ute with the signage, your tools, your invoice book with the business name on it. Ten minutes, tops.
Until verification is done, the profile isn't showing to anybody. This is the single most common place a South Coast trade stops.
Choosing the shopfront option hides you from every suburb you drive to
Google asks whether customers come to your address or whether you travel to them. This is the setting that quietly kills more local trades listings than anything else.
If you work out of your house in Catalina and you tell Google customers come to you, Google treats you as a shop in Catalina. It shows you to people searching in Catalina and largely stops showing you in Batehaven, Surf Beach, Broulee or Moruya. Your home address also goes up on the internet, which most tradies don't want.
The right answer for a mobile trade is to hide the address and set service areas instead. In the profile that's the "I deliver goods and services to my customers" option, then switching off the display of your address.
Your service area is a list of real suburbs, not a radius you guessed at
Google lets you add up to twenty service areas. Use suburbs, not a distance ring, because a ring drawn from Batemans Bay puts half its area in the ocean.
For a trade based in Batemans Bay CBD, an honest list looks like this: North Batemans Bay, Catalina, Batehaven, Surf Beach, Corrigans Beach, Long Beach, Maloneys Beach, Nelligen, Mogo, South Durras, Malua Bay, Broulee and Tomakin. Add Moruya if you'll drive it. Add Tuross Head and Narooma only if you'll genuinely take a job an hour down the highway on a Tuesday.
Padding the list doesn't help you. Google weighs where you actually get calls, clicks and reviews from, and a customer in Narooma who rings and gets told no is a bad review waiting to happen.
Your primary category does more work than every other field combined
Pick the most specific category that describes what you do. "Electrician" beats "Contractor". "Plumber" beats "Home Improvement". If you're mostly one thing, set that as primary, then add secondary categories for the other services you really offer, like "Air Conditioning Contractor" or "Drainage Service".
Don't stack ten categories hoping to catch everything. The primary one is what Google mostly matches against.
Hours have to be true, including whatever happens on a Sunday
If you don't work Sundays, say closed. If you take emergency calls, say so in the description rather than marking yourself open 24 hours and then letting it ring out at 11pm.
Set special hours for public holidays before they arrive. A profile that says open on Boxing Day earns you a one-star review from someone who drove to your door.
Ten real photos will do more than any logo
Add photos of finished jobs, your ute, your team if you have one, and your own face. Keep adding them, because Google notices a profile that gets updated and customers notice recent work.
Skip the geotagging tricks, they're a myth. Take real photos on the job instead, because those same shots go on your website later.
Asking for a review is a job-finish habit, not a favour you're begging for
Your profile has an "Ask for reviews" button that gives you a short link. Save it in your phone as a text shortcut. Then, while you're packing up and the customer is happy the hot water's back on, tell them you're trying to get found on Google and ask if they'd mind leaving a quick review, then text them the link before you drive off. Same day works. Three days later doesn't.
There are two things to avoid. Never offer a discount or anything else in exchange for a review, because Google removes those and it can take good reviews with it. Never buy reviews either, because on a small local profile they look exactly like what they are.
Reply to every review, including the bad one. Reply to that one the way you'd talk to the customer on the phone: what happened and what you did about it. Everyone reading knows one bad review out of thirty is normal. What they're judging is how you handled it.
Two profiles for one business is worse than one
Duplicate listings split your reviews and confuse Google about which one is real. Search your business name and any old trading name, and report a second listing as a duplicate.
What to do this week
Claim it, verify it, switch to service areas, list your suburbs honestly, set your primary category, fix your hours, upload ten photos, and ask the next three customers for a review. That's the lot, and none of it costs anything.
Google Business Profile setup is included in every site the studio builds, but you don't need to hire anyone to do this. If you get stuck on verification, email me what the screen says and I'll tell you what it's after.