Google Business Profile or website: what does a tradesperson really need?

A customer searches “plombier Senlis” (plumber Senlis) on their phone. The first thing they see of you is your Google Business Profile: a name, some stars, a button to call. They only see your website if they want to know more before picking up the phone. Both are useful, at different moments. The question is which one to fix first in your case.

What your Google Business Profile does

The Google Business Profile (in French its official name is « fiche d'établissement Google », and many people still say “Google My Business”) is what shows up in Google Maps and Google Search. According to its page “Get started with Google Business Profile”, it lets you manage how your business shows up on Maps and Search at no charge.

Google explains on its help page “Tips to improve your local ranking on Google” that three things decide where you appear: relevance, distance and prominence. Relevance is how well your profile matches what the person typed. Distance is how far you are from them. Prominence is how well known your business is.

On that same page, two sentences are worth reading for every tradesperson:

• “Businesses with complete and accurate info are more likely to show up in local search results.”
• “There's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google.”

If someone calls to sell you “the top spot on Google Maps”, you know what to tell them.

On reviews, Google is just as clear: “More reviews and positive ratings can help your business's local ranking.” You can reply to every review, and your replies are public. A customer who is hesitating often reads your replies as closely as the reviews themselves.

If you work at your customers' premises and don't receive them at yours, Google has a setting for that. You can hide your address and set your service areas by city or postcode, up to 20 areas. Google advises staying within about two hours' drive of your business.

Finally, you can post on your profile: news, offers or events. Google archives these posts after six months, unless you give them a specific date range.

What the profile cannot say for you

The profile is built to give the basics quickly. For anything more, it runs out of room.

According to the page “Edit your Business Profile”: “Do not exceed 750 characters in the description field.” That is a little more than this paragraph and the next one put together. A roofer who does tiles, slate, zinc work, Velux windows and loft insulation has no room to explain each service, their lead times and their area in detail.

The customer has precise questions. Do you do flat roofs? Do you work on Saturdays? Do I need a quote before you come? Where can I see jobs you have already done? The profile answers some of them with photos and opening hours. For the rest, you need a page to write it down.

And the profile stays on Google's side. You manage it, but Google sets the rules, the layout and what appears next to your name, competitors included.

What a website adds

A website is your own page, and it does well what the profile does badly.

First, it explains. One page per main service, the towns you cover named one by one, the questions your customers ask on the phone, with the answers. These are the texts Google reads to decide when to show you. They are also the ones ChatGPT or Google can quote when someone asks them for a tradesperson nearby.

It also shows your real jobs in photos, before and after, with the town and the type of work. A customer who is about to spend several thousand euros wants to see what you have already done.

Finally, it reassures: your name, your address, your insurance and qualifications if you have them, a number that gets answered. The customer sees that the business really exists and knows who to call back after the job.

The website also helps the profile. In the same help article on local ranking, Google lists among the prominence signals the number of websites that link to your business. The football club you sponsor, your supplier, the town hall that lists local tradespeople: to link to you, they need an address to point to. The profile, for its part, lets you add your website address, which then appears on your profile.

Where to start, depending on your trade

Profile or website, everyone ends up needing both. But the order changes with the way your customers choose you.

Emergency call-outs: plumber, electrician, locksmith

With a leak at 10 pm, nobody reads three pages. The customer calls the first nearby name with good ratings. Here, the profile comes first: the right category, accurate hours (including special hours for public holidays), a number that gets picked up, recent reviews. The website comes next, for planned work such as a bathroom or a fuse box to replace. On that point, we go into detail on what a website for a plumber needs (in French).

Big jobs: roofer, mason, carpenter, landscaper

The customer asks for three quotes and compares. They look at your past work, check that you work in their town, try to understand how you work. The profile brings them in, and the website is what convinces them. Here, start with the website if the profile already exists and holds up.

Neighbourhood shops: hairdresser, barber, restaurant, pet shop

The customer looks for your hours, your address, photos, and reads the reviews. The profile does most of the work. The website is for booking appointments, the menu, the price list. For salons, we have gathered what matters on the page website for a hairdresser (in French).

Both must say the same thing

One trap comes up often: a profile and a website that contradict each other. An old number on the website, a different address on the profile, summer hours never changed back.

Google asks for “complete and accurate” information. When two sources give two numbers, the customer no longer knows which one to call. Check that the business name, address and phone number are written exactly the same way everywhere: profile, website, Pages Jaunes (the French Yellow Pages), Facebook, quotes and invoices.

One hour to check your profile this week

Take your phone, search for your trade and your town, and look at what a customer sees. Then go through the list:

1. Is the profile verified in your name? Google says verification improves your chances of showing up in results.
2. Does the primary category match your exact trade?
3. Are the hours right, including public holidays and time off?
4. If you travel to your customers, are your service areas filled in?
5. Do you have recent photos of real jobs or of your shop?
6. Have you replied to every review, including the less good ones?
7. Does the website field point to a page that works and that belongs to you?

If you tick everything except the last point, the website is what you are missing.

Our advice

Start with the profile, because it costs nothing and it is what people see first. Fill it in completely, reply to reviews, keep the hours up to date. As soon as your customers compare before calling you, or the profile runs out of room to explain what you do, add the website.

That is what we do at opencream.studio for tradespeople and shops in the Oise: showcase website design with the Google Business Profile included, texts written with you, a domain name in your name. The website belongs to you, and the subscription has no minimum term.

For a free quote, call 03 75 29 85 41 or write to us from the website.

Good work deserves to be found.