Service
Local SEO for builders: the map with three names on it, and how a building firm gets there
“Builders near me” and “builders in <town>” on a phone show a map with 3 firms before anything else. The 3 are chosen from the Google Business Profile: what it says, what customers say on it, and whether the business looks real. A builder is a service-area business, which changes the set-up, and almost every profile we audit was set up wrong once, years ago, by whoever had the login. We fix it as a £200 one-off in 5 days, keep it right from £399 a month, and run the review routine that keeps it in the 3.
Not ready for a monthly retainer? The profile build on its own is £200, one-off. What it includes
What we find
Six things wrong with most builders' profiles
From the profiles we audit. Each one is cheap to fix and each one is costing the map.
- A home address shown on a service-area business
- A builder works at the customer's house. The address should be hidden and the service area set to the towns you take; a visible home address gets the profile suspended and confuses the map.
- 'General contractor' and nothing else
- One category means one set of searches. Add the true ones: home builder, remodeler, kitchen remodeler, masonry contractor. Each is a door.
- No services listed, or 'all aspects of building work'
- Google's predefined services climbed the ranking-factor survey this year. Tick extensions, loft conversions, renovations, groundworks; add your own; put from-prices where you use them.
- Photos of the van
- Ten photos of finished jobs, taken from the pavement, outrank one of the van. Before-and-after pairs are the best content a builder has and almost none use them.
- Reviews asked for once a year
- Three reviews in a burst look like what they are. A review at every handover, with the job and the town in it, is the routine that moves the map.
- A Facebook page as the website link
- The profile points at a page Google reads as evidence for the profile. A Facebook page is not evidence of anything.
The handover routine
Every finished job is a review, if someone asks at the right moment
The moment is the final walk-round, when the client is pleased and standing in the new room. The line is short, the link is on a card and in the text you send that evening, and the ask includes what to mention: the job and the town. No incentives, no gating, no staff accounts, no bursts. A builder finishing four jobs a month has forty-eight reviews a year waiting to be asked for.
The reviews playbookWhat a quarter of upkeep contains
- Categories and services re-checked against Google's updated list
- Service area matched to the towns you actually took jobs in
- New photos from real sites added, captioned; old ones retired
- Questions and answers extended from what customers ask on the first visit
- Competitor profiles with keywords in the name reported
- FMB, TrustMark and directory listings checked for the same name, address and phone
Where the website fits
The map sends the town; the pages send the extension
The profile links to a page, and Google reads that page as evidence for the profile. A profile pointing at a homepage that says “all trades covered” is weaker than one pointing at an extensions page with the town, three photos and a paragraph on price. The profile and the job pages are one system, which is why every tier includes both. The pages side is on SEO for builders; the tiers are on the pricing page.
Questions builders ask us
How long to get into the map pack?
Profile fixes register within a couple of weeks. Whether that is enough depends on the three firms already there. If they have two hundred reviews each, the gap is reviews, and that is months of asking at every handover. The audit says which.
I work across two counties. Is that one profile?
One business, one profile, with a service area covering both, as long as you have one base. A second yard or office is a second profile. Never two profiles for one base; that is the guideline breach that gets both suspended.
My profile was suspended. Can you get it back?
Often, if the cause is fixable: a keyword in the name, a visible home address, a category that does not fit. Weeks, not days, and it needs proof the business is real. We have done it; we do not promise it.
Do posts on the profile help?
For ranking, barely. For the homeowner looking at your profile before they ring, a post with this month's finished job helps. We post real work, not weekly filler.
Only want the profile fixed?
That is the £200 one-off profile build on the pricing page: done in 5 working days, no retainer, and credited against the first month if you start Local within 60 days.
I work from home. Do I have to show my address?
No, and you should not. A builder's profile is a service-area business: the address is hidden, the service area is set to the towns you take jobs in, and the pin is not on your house. Showing a home address is the setting that gets profiles suspended and the one we fix most often.
Can I ask my mates and family for reviews?
Please do not. Google detects reviews from accounts with no history in your area, and a burst of five-star reviews from people who never hired you is the pattern that gets a profile filtered. The routine that works is asking every real customer at the handover, with the link in a text, and replying to each one.
Why does a competitor with a worse site rank above me in the map?
Because the map is decided by the profile, not the site: the primary category, the reviews with their pace and their wording, the distance from the searcher, whether the profile is complete and active. A poor site with a good profile beats the reverse in the map pack. The audit shows the three above you and what each has that you do not.
What do I do about a bad review?
Reply within a day, briefly, without arguing, and say what you would do differently. Homeowners read the reply more than the review. If it is fake, from someone who was never a customer, report it through the profile with the evidence and we chase it; Google removes some, not all.
Do I need a profile for each town I work in?
No. One business with one base is one profile, with the service area covering every town you take jobs in. A second profile for a town where you have no premises is against the guidelines and puts the real one at risk. Two yards or offices is two profiles, and that is the Multi-location tier.
Find out why you are not in the map pack
Send us your firm's name and your town. You get the profile audit, the three builders above you, and what it would take, in plain English.