By Bilal Hashimi ·
Most contractors spend real money on a website and then ignore the one thing that decides whether people find them: their Google Business Profile. It's free, it takes less than an hour to set up properly, and it controls what shows up when someone searches "roofer near me" or "plumber Ottawa" — the map listing, the reviews, the hours, the phone number. Here's how to get it right.
1. Claim (or create) your profile
Go to Google Business Profile (opens in a new tab) and search for your business name. If it already exists — it often does, Google creates listings from public data — claim it and verify ownership, usually by postcard or video verification. If it doesn't exist, create it. Either way, you must be the verified owner. Until you verify, you can't control what shows on your listing, and competitors can suggest edits.
Use your real business name — no keyword stuffing. "Capital Roofing Ottawa" is fine. "Capital Roofing Ottawa | Best Roof Repair Cheap" is not, and Google will suspend you for it.
2. Get the basics exactly right
Name, address, phone number — this is the core of your listing, and it needs to match what appears everywhere else online. If your site says "613-555-0142" and your profile says "(613) 555-0142", that's usually fine — but a different number, an old address, or a misspelled name creates doubt for Google and for customers. Pick one version of everything and stick with it.
Contractors who work from home or visit customers: set a service area instead of showing a home address. List the cities and neighbourhoods you actually serve — Ottawa, Kanata, Nepean, Orléans, Barrhaven, and so on. Then set your business hours honestly. If you don't take weekend calls, don't list them. Wrong hours are one of the fastest ways to earn a bad review.
3. Pick the right categories
Categories are how Google knows what you do. Choose one primary category that best describes your business — "Roofing contractor", "Plumber", "Electrician" — and add secondary categories only if they genuinely fit. The primary category carries the most weight, and getting it wrong is the single most common reason a contractor's profile doesn't show up for the right searches.
Don't add categories for services you don't offer just to cast a wider net. It dilutes your relevance and, again, can get you suspended.
4. Add photos that build trust
Businesses with photos get dramatically more clicks, and for a contractor the photos are doing real work: finished jobs, your crew on site, your truck with the branding, before-and-after shots. Phone photos are fine — clear, well-lit, honest. Upload your logo as the profile picture and a wide shot of a recent job as the cover photo.
Skip stock photos. A customer who recognizes their neighbour's roof in your photos trusts you more than one who sees a generic construction worker from a photo library.
5. Make reviews automatic
Reviews are the fuel of your profile. Google ranks businesses with more recent, higher-rated reviews above otherwise identical competitors, and customers read them before calling. Don't ask for reviews occasionally — build it into your process. After every finished job, send the customer a short text with your review link while they're happy. Google gives you a shareable link right in your profile dashboard.
If a review comes in, reply to it — every review, good or bad. A calm, professional reply to a bad review tells future customers more about you than ten five-star reviews do. For a deeper playbook on this, read my guide to how contractors get more Google reviews (opens in a new tab).
6. Keep the profile alive
A set-and-forget profile slowly sinks. Post updates every week or two — a finished job with a photo, a seasonal reminder (gutters before the Ottawa winter, furnace checks in fall), a limited-time offer. Answer questions people ask in the Q&A section before someone else answers for you. Check that your hours are still right after holidays.
All of this takes maybe thirty minutes a month. The contractors who do it consistently are the ones sitting in the top three map spots.
7. The mistakes that sink most contractors
Here's what I see constantly when I look at contractor profiles:
- Claiming the profile but never verifying it, so they can't manage it
- Picking "General contractor" as the primary category when they're actually a roofer
- An address on the profile that doesn't match their website
- Two photos, both five years old
- Three reviews from 2022, and no replies
- No service area set, so they don't show up in neighbouring cities
Every one of these is a ten-minute fix. None of them requires a website redesign or an SEO consultant.
Start here today
Your Google Business Profile is the single highest-return marketing asset most contractors have — it's free, it's where your customers already are, and most of your competitors haven't done the basics. Claim it, fill it in honestly, add real photos, and make reviews part of every job. Do that this week and you'll already be ahead of most contractors in your area.
We build websites for Ottawa-area contractors that book jobs — see what OneS Automation does (opens in a new tab).