Google Business Profile Checklist for Contractors and Med Spas

Local SEO · 8 min read

This Google Business Profile checklist is for contractors and med spas who want their listing to work harder. Your profile is the box that appears in Google Maps and local search with your name, phone number, hours, photos and reviews. For many people it is the first thing they see about you, before they ever reach your website.

Work through it once, top to bottom, then give it fifteen minutes a month. If your profile has been untouched, plan on a couple of hours the first time.

One honest note first. Nobody can promise you a spot at the top of the map. Google ranks local results by relevance, distance and prominence, and says there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking. What you control is whether your profile is complete, accurate and active.

Skip these two outdated tips

Google has changed its profile features recently, so some checklists online are out of date.

• Chat is gone. Google ended chat on Business Profiles on July 31, 2024. Make your phone number and your booking or quote link easy to find instead.
• The old Q&A section is gone. Google retired public Questions & Answers in late 2025 in favor of an AI-powered Ask feature in Maps, and has been testing new ways for owners to supply answers. Google's announcement, as reported there, says the instant answers are based on owners' answers and relevant reviews. Keep your profile details and your reviews clear about what you do, where and when.

Step 1: Claim and verify your profile

Search your business name in Google Maps. If a profile exists, claim it. If not, create one. Google says verifying is what lets you make changes on Maps and Search, and you cannot reply to reviews until you are verified.

Check for duplicates while you are there. Two profiles for one business split your reviews and confuse customers. Ask Google to fix the duplicate instead of creating a third profile.

Step 2: Get the basics exactly right

Business name

Use the name on your truck, sign and invoices. Google's guidelines do not allow taglines, service or location details, phone numbers or hours in the name. "Smith Plumbing" is fine. "Smith Plumbing | Best Plumber 24/7" is the kind of name that can get a profile flagged or suspended.

Categories

Pick the fewest, most specific categories that describe what you are. Google's test: can you finish the sentence "this business is a..." rather than "this business has a..."? Plumber, HVAC contractor and Medical spa show how specific to be. Choose one primary category, then add others only for real lines of business, picking from the list in your own editor.

Phone, website and hours

Use a phone number that a person answers and a website link that goes to your own site. Make both match what your website says. If calls from your listing ring out while you are on a roof, missed-call text-back can send the caller an instant reply. It only texts people who called you, and it should include a way to opt out, such as replying STOP.

Set regular hours, then add special hours for holidays before each one arrives. Do not list 24 hours unless a real person answers at 2 a.m.

Step 3: Choose address or service area

Contractors who go to the customer's property are usually service-area businesses. In that case, hide your address and list the places you serve. Google lets you add up to 20 service areas by city or ZIP code, suggests keeping the whole area within about two hours of driving from where you are based, and does not let you set a radius. Changes can take up to 48 hours to show.

List only places you would really drive to for a job. If an electrician based in Conway also works in Little Rock and North Little Rock, those three belong on the list. Adding every town in the state just invites calls you cannot take. If you cover several towns, our overview of marketing across Central Arkansas shows how to think about the whole region.

Never use a P.O. box or virtual office as your address. Google does not allow them. Med spas are different: people visit you, so show your street address and suite number.

Step 4: Describe your business and list your services

Write a plain description. Say what you do, where you work and what a customer can expect when they call. Skip links and sales slogans. Put the most important sentence first, because the field has a character limit.

Then fill in the services list, and be specific. "Water heater replacement," "drain cleaning" and "leak repair" tell Google and customers more than "plumbing" does. The same idea supports the service and area pages on your website, which we cover in our guide to local SEO for Arkansas home service businesses.

Med spas, keep descriptions factual. Name the services you offer and explain how consultations work. Do not describe outcomes, promise results or use words like "guaranteed" or "permanent." Outcome claims can run into advertising and health-claim rules.

Step 5: Add real photos and short videos

Google accepts JPG and PNG photos from 10 KB to 5 MB, recommends 720 by 720 pixels, and allows videos up to 30 seconds. It wants images in focus, well lit and not heavily filtered. Photos only appear after your profile is verified.

Contractors: add your logo, a cover photo, your crew in uniform, your trucks, work in progress and finished jobs. Ask the homeowner before you post their property, and keep house numbers out of the frame.

Med spas: add your logo, exterior, reception area, empty treatment rooms, products and team (with each person's OK). Photos of identifiable patients can count as health information. Get written authorization first and ask your compliance advisor what your state and ad platforms allow.

Step 6: Post updates on a schedule you can keep

Google offers three post types: Updates, Offers and Events. Posts older than six months are archived unless you set a date range. Ideas that fit a service business include a seasonal reminder (furnace checks before cold weather, gutter cleaning in fall), a finished-job spotlight with the owner's permission, a team announcement or a change in hours.

Med spas should stick to education, events and team news, and leave out outcome claims and patient photos. Pick a pace you will really keep, because two posts a month you publish beat weekly posts you abandon by spring. KEM's Starter plan includes Google Business Profile optimization and four profile posts a month. See the plans and pricing for the details.

Step 7: Give people one clear way to book or ask for a quote

Look for the appointment link field in the contact section of your profile editor. Add the page where people book, request an estimate or schedule a consultation. Point it at a page built for that one action, not a busy home page. A fast, mobile-friendly website with a short form is what turns a profile view into a booked call.

Step 8: Handle reviews on purpose

Reviews feed what Google calls prominence, and Google says more reviews and positive ratings can help your local ranking. They are also what a stranger reads before deciding whether to call you.

• Ask every customer the same way, with the same link. Google suggests sharing a review link or QR code and reminding people they need a Google account.
• Never offer a discount, gift or anything else in exchange for a review. Google's policy bans it, and it also bans selectively asking only for positive reviews.
• Do not screen customers by satisfaction before sending the link, and never write a review for anyone. The FTC's consumer review rule, effective October 21, 2024, bans fake and bought reviews.
• Reply to every review, short and personal, signed with a name.

Our page on building a Google reviews system covers the process, and for the hard ones, read how to respond to negative Google reviews. Med spas should also read how to get Google reviews the right way and never confirm in a public reply that someone was a patient. More on med spa marketing.

Step 9: Keep your name, address and phone the same everywhere

Your website, Facebook page, Apple Maps, Bing Places, Yelp and trade directories should show the same business name, phone number and address (or service area) as your profile. Small differences, like an old phone number or a former address, confuse customers. Write the exact version once and copy it everywhere. KEM's Growth plan includes citation cleanup if you would rather hand that off.

Your 15-minute monthly routine

1. Reply to every new review.
2. Add a few real photos.
3. Publish a post.
4. Check hours for upcoming holidays.
5. Look for edits you did not make, since other people can suggest changes to your profile.
6. Test your phone number and booking link.

A complete profile will not fill your calendar on its own, and no one can promise rankings or leads. It does remove easy reasons for a customer to pick someone else. Not sure how your listing compares with the top local business in your trade? That is what the free snapshot checks, and you can see how we work with home service businesses too.