Trying to fix your Google Business Profile in one sitting is how nothing gets fixed. There are around 40 fields, half of them subtle, and they interact.
A four-week plan, twenty minutes a day, works. Below is the schedule we follow when we onboard a new client. You can run it yourself for free or pay us £299/month to do all of it including a free website. Either way the work is the same.
Week one
Day 1. Audit your current GBP. Take a screenshot of where you currently rank in your town. Write down your primary category. Note your review count. This is your baseline.
Day 2. Primary category. This is the single most important field. Plumbers pick "Plumber". Builders pick "General Contractor". Removal firms pick "Moving and Storage Service". Full category list by trade is here.
Day 3. Add up to 9 secondary categories. A plumber adds Drainage Service, Boiler Supplier, Bathroom Remodeler, Central Heating Service. Each is a new keyword Google associates with your business.
Day 4. Business description. 750 characters. Mention your trade, your area, your years in business, your accreditations, your insurance. Sounds natural. No keyword stuffing.
Day 5. Verify business hours including bank holidays. Set service area to specific towns, not a postcode radius.
Week two
Day 6 to 7. Add 30 to 40 specific services. Not "plumbing" but "boiler installation", "emergency leak repair", "bathroom installation", "power flushing". Each one is a search term you can rank for.
Day 8 to 9. Photos. Upload at least 20. Mix of: van, team, recent jobs (before and after), tools and equipment, premises if you have any. Name files descriptively: kitchen-extension-walsall-2026.jpg, not IMG_4582.jpg.
Day 10. First Google Post. Aim for one a week from this point. Recent job, seasonal offer, useful tip. Posts last 7 days then fall off, but the activity signal counts.
Week three
Day 11. Pull your unique GBP review link from your profile dashboard. Save it somewhere you can paste it daily.
Day 12. Write your post-job text. Short. First names only. Reference the specific job. Include the link. Our exact templates are here.
Day 13. Reply to every existing review. Even the old ones. Even the one-line "great service" ones. Replies are themselves a ranking signal.
Day 14 to 15. Send the review text to the last 5 customers you completed jobs for. Aim for at least 2 new reviews this week.
Week four
Day 16. Pre-populate the Q&A section. Five common questions, posted from your own profile, answered fully. "What areas do you cover?", "Do you offer free quotes?", "Are you insured?", "What's your minimum job size?", "How quickly can you respond to an emergency?"
Day 17 to 18. NAP consistency check. Your business name, address and phone on your GBP must be character-for-character identical to your website, Checkatrade, Yell, Bark, MyBuilder. Inconsistencies cost rankings.
Day 19 to 20. Catch-up day. Anything you skipped, finish now.
Day 21. Check your ranking again. Compare to your day-1 baseline. Most tradespeople see noticeable movement by now.
The work does not stop. GBP is not "set and forget". Keep posting weekly. Keep asking for reviews after every job. Keep adding photos. Keep responding to reviews.
If you would rather not run all of this yourself, this is exactly what our Local SEO Plan at £299/month covers. Full GBP rebuild, 30 to 40 services, all 9 categories, 52 weekly posts written for the year, review tracker, plus a free custom website worth up to £10,000.
Free GBP audit.
We will look at your current profile, identify the five fastest fixes, and send you a one-page report. No obligation.
📞 01902 961078 · Mon–Sat 8am–6pm