Your Google Business Profile is the listing that appears on Google Maps and in the map box above ordinary search results. For a Vancouver plumber, cleaner, florist or bike shop, it is often the first and only thing a new customer looks at before calling. We set it up correctly, fix whatever is holding it back, and keep it active every month.
This is marketing work only. We don't attend jobs or service anything; we make sure the people who need you can find and trust you.
What it is and why it matters here
A Business Profile is free, but a neglected one costs you work every day. Google explains that local results depend on relevance, distance and prominence. You can't move closer to every searcher, but you can make your profile far more relevant (right categories, full service list, clear description) and more prominent (reviews, photos, activity, a website that backs it up).
Vancouver adds a twist. Many trades and home-service owners run their business from a home or a shared workshop. Google's help page on managing a service area says that if you don't serve customers at your business address, you should remove it from the profile and list your service areas instead. Its profile guidelines also rule out virtual offices that nobody staffs. We regularly see profiles where a home address in Renfrew-Collingwood or Sunset is fully public, which is both a privacy problem and a guideline risk.
Who it is for
- Trades and home-service businesses that travel to customers anywhere in the city.
- Shops, studios and cafés with a storefront on a high street such as Commercial Drive, Main Street or Kerrisdale Village.
- New businesses that have never claimed a profile, or that inherited one from a previous owner.
- Established businesses whose profile was set up years ago and never touched again.
If you are not sure whether your profile is in good shape, search for your business name on a phone and look at what a stranger sees. That two-minute check tells you most of what you need to know.
What is included
Set-up and clean-up
- Confirm ownership and access, and remove old managers you don't recognise.
- Choose a primary category that matches your main money-maker, plus a few honest secondary ones.
- Set service areas by neighbourhood or nearby municipality, and hide a home address where appropriate.
- Write a plain description that says what you do, where, and for whom, without keyword stuffing.
- Fill in services or products with short descriptions and, where it helps, price ranges.
- Add real photos of your work, vehicles, team and storefront; no stock images.
- Check that the name, phone number and website match your site and other listings exactly.
Monthly care
- One or two posts a month about real work, seasonal reminders or offers.
- Replies to every review, written for the next reader as much as the reviewer.
- Answers to questions posted on the profile, and fixes to edits suggested by the public.
- A monthly note showing calls, website clicks, direction requests and which searches found you.
Timeline
- Weeks 1–3: access, verification if needed, full clean-up, first batch of photos and services.
- Weeks 4–8: posts start, review routine begins (see review requests), first reporting.
- Around day 90: we compare calls and clicks with the three months before we started and decide what to change.
How results are measured
We track what the profile itself reports (calls, website visits, direction requests and search terms) and, where possible, what your phone shows. A simple tracking number on the website, kept separate from the profile's main number, lets us tell the two sources apart. We also ask you to note where new customers say they found you. None of these is perfect on its own; together they give an honest picture.
Mistakes to avoid
- Stuffing the business name. Adding "Plumber Vancouver Kitsilano 24/7" to your name breaks Google's rules and can get the profile suspended.
- Listing a fake office. Virtual offices and mailbox addresses are a common reason profiles disappear.
- Choosing too many categories. Ten loosely related categories dilute relevance. Three accurate ones usually beat them.
- Ignoring reviews. An unanswered one-star review from two years ago still sits there, visible to everyone.
- Letting a past agency own it. If someone else is the primary owner, get it transferred now, while relationships are friendly.
The profile works hand in hand with your website and with neighbourhood SEO. See what this costs on the pricing page, or read our guide to setting up a service-area profile if you would rather start on your own.
Frequently asked questions
I work from home. Will my address show on Google?
It shouldn't, if you don't serve customers there. Google's help page on service areas says to remove the address in that case and list the areas you serve instead. We set that up and check it on the live map.
Can you get me into the top three map results?
Nobody can promise that, and anyone who does is guessing. We can make your profile complete, accurate and active, which is what Google says it rewards, and then measure calls and direction requests month by month.
How long does the setup take?
The first clean-up usually takes two to three weeks, including any verification Google asks for. Ongoing care after that is a few hours a month: posts, photos, review replies and answering new questions.
Do I keep the profile if I leave?
Yes. The profile belongs to your business and you remain the primary owner. We are added as a manager and you can remove us at any time.