Google Business Profile optimisation: the SEO checklist for installers

What is Google Business Profile optimisation?

Google Business Profile optimisation means making every part of your profile complete, accurate and active, so Google can match you to the right local searches and homeowners choose you.

Your Business Profile is the panel that shows your business on Google Search and in Google Maps. For an installer, it's often the first thing a homeowner sees when they search for solar panels or a heat pump near them. Creating one is free, and so is running it. That makes it the cheapest piece of digital marketing you have, and unlike paid marketing it keeps working when you stop paying. For most installers, it's also where local SEO starts.

Google says local results are mainly based on three things:

Optimisation works on relevance and prominence. You can't change distance. Google is also clear that "there's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking". So the work is the work: getting the details right, then earning trust month after month.

This guide goes through each part of the profile in the order that matters most for solar, battery and heat pump installers. If you haven't got a profile yet, start with our guide to setting up a Google Business Profile, then come back.

Your GBP optimisation checklist at a glance

Work through these twelve checks in order. The first five do most of the work.

• Your profile is verified and owned by your business.
• Your primary category says what your business is.
• Your business name matches your signage and paperwork, with no extra keywords.
• Your address is hidden if homeowners don't visit you, and your service area is set.
• Every service you fit is listed: solar panels, batteries, heat pumps, EV chargers, servicing.
• Your description says what you do and where, in plain English.
• Your hours are the hours you answer the phone, with bank holiday hours set.
• Your phone number is a local number you answer, and your website link works.
• You have real photos of your own installs, your team and your van.
• You ask every customer for a review and reply to every one.
• You post updates when you have news, a real offer or a finished job.
• You check your performance once a month.

Choose the right categories

Your primary category is the most important choice on your profile. Pick the one that says what your business is, not everything it does.

Google says the categories you choose affect your local ranking. In a 2026 survey of 47 local search experts, the primary category came top of every factor for the map results.

Google's own test is simple. Choose categories that complete the sentence "This business IS a", not "This business HAS a". Use as few as you need to describe your core business, and make the primary one as specific as you can.

How installers should choose

• Type "solar", "heat pump" or "heating" into the category box and read every option Google offers. You can't create your own.
• Make your primary category the most specific one for the work that brings in most of your money.
• Choose a few additional categories for other main lines of work, for example if you fit heat pumps as well as solar.
• Don't add a category for every product. Batteries and EV chargers usually sit better in your services list.
• Look up your main service in your town. The category of each business in the top three shows under its name, which tells you what's already working there.

Your name, address and service area

Use your real business name, hide your address if customers don't visit you, and set a service area that matches where you actually work.

Business name

Google's guidelines say your name should reflect your real-world name, and that adding unnecessary information isn't permitted. So no "Solar Panels Doncaster" tagged on the end, unless that's genuinely your trading name and it's on your vans and paperwork.

Experts rate keywords in the business name highly, which is exactly why people abuse it. Don't. Google says it may suspend profiles that don't follow its guidelines, and a suspended profile disappears from the map. Our guide to a suspended Google Business Profile explains what that involves.

Address

Most installers work at the customer's home. Google's guidelines say a service-area business should hide its address from customers. If homeowners don't come to you, remove the address from your profile. If you have a showroom or office customers visit during opening hours, you can show it. A virtual office isn't allowed unless it's staffed in opening hours.

Service area

List the towns and postcodes you cover. Google allows up to 20 service areas and says the whole area shouldn't stretch more than about two hours' drive from your base. Be accurate: it tells homeowners whether you'll come to them.

List every service and write a clear description

List every service you fit, because homeowners search for the job, not your company name. Then write a description that says what you do and where.

In your profile, choose Edit services. Google suggests services for your category, and you can add custom ones. Include each one a homeowner might look for:

• Solar panel installation
• Solar battery storage installation
• Air source heat pump installation, and ground source if you fit it
• EV charger installation
• Boiler installation and servicing, if you do heating
• Repairs, servicing and system health checks for the systems you fit

Give each service a short description: what's included, who it's for and where you cover. Google's rules say custom service names mustn't include prices, phone numbers, personal information or gibberish, and it rejects ones that break policy.

Your business description

You get 750 characters. Google doesn't allow links in the description, and it shouldn't focus on offers or prices, which belong in posts. Only the first 250 or so characters show before it's cut off, so lead with what you install and where.

Industry research says keywords in the description don't affect local rankings. Write it for homeowners, not for Google.

Hours, phone number and website

Show the hours you actually answer, a local number you control, and a website link that works.

Google's tips say to keep your hours up to date, including special hours. Experts in the same survey ranked "open at the time of the search" in the top five factors for the map results. If you take calls on a Saturday morning, say so. If you don't, don't pretend. A homeowner who calls at 5pm and gets no answer rings the next installer.

Provide a phone number that connects to your business. Google asks for a number, that's under your direct control, and a local number rather than a central call centre wherever possible. Don't use numbers or links that redirect people to someone else's landing page.

Link your website to your homepage, or to the right location page if you have more than one base. Make sure that page shows the same name, number and areas as your profile, so Google and homeowners see the same information everywhere. Consistent details are basic local SEO, and they help Google treat you as the most relevant answer.

Add real photos of your installs

Add real photos of your own work. They show homeowners what you do before they ever pick up the phone.

Google's tips say photos and videos help tell your business's story. Its rules for uploads are simple: JPG or PNG, between 10 KB and 5 MB, ideally 720 by 720 pixels, in focus, well lit and without heavy filters. Videos can be up to 30 seconds, up to 75 MB and 720p or higher. New uploads can take 24 to 48 hours to appear.

Get Google reviews and reply to every one

Reviews help you rank and help homeowners choose. Ask every customer, and reply to every review.

Google says prominence takes into account how many reviews you have, and that more reviews and positive ratings can help your local ranking. The experts in that survey put a high star rating and the number of Google reviews with text in the top ten factors for the map results.

Google's tips also say to respond to reviews. Your reply is public, it shows as coming from the business, and the reviewer gets told you've replied. Thank people by name, mention the job, and answer a bad review calmly with what you'll do about it.

Stay inside Google's rules

• No incentives. Google bans offering payment, discounts or free goods or services for a review.
• No cherry-picking. Google bans discouraging negative reviews or only asking happy customers.
• No reviews from people with a conflict of interest, such as your staff.

The simplest system is to ask every customer at the handover, then send your review link the same day. Our guide on how to get more Google reviews has the wording, the timing and the review link.

Posts, attributes and the new Ask button

Posts and attributes add detail homeowners can use. Fill them in, but don't expect them to do the heavy lifting.

Posts

Google offers three kinds of post: updates, offers and events. Each can carry a photo or video and, for updates and events, a button to your website. Google archives posts after six months unless you set a date range.

Good posts for installers are a finished install with a photo, a real seasonal offer, or a change to a grant your customers keep asking about. Google doesn't say posts improve ranking. Think of them as free marketing on the page homeowners see first: they show you're active, and give people one more reason to call.

Attributes

Attributes are extra facts shown on your profile, such as identity attributes like women-owned. You can set some yourself, and some come from customers. Tick any that are true for your business.

The Ask button

Google has replaced the public questions and answers on Maps with an AI "Ask" button. It answers homeowners' questions from your business information and your reviews, as reported by Search Engine Roundtable in December 2025. One more reason to keep your services, description and replies complete and accurate.

Verify your profile and keep it safe

A verified profile is more likely to appear in search results. Keep it safe by following Google's guidelines and controlling who can edit it.

Google says verification confirms you're allowed to represent the business, which makes it more likely to appear in results. Until you're verified, new photos and posts stay pending and customers can't see them. If you're stuck at this stage, our guide to Google Business Profile verification walks through the options.

• Own the profile from a Google account your business controls, not your web designer's.
• Give people manager access rather than sharing one password.
• Change your name, address and categories rarely, and only to match real changes.
• Keep to the rules on names, addresses and reviews above.

Mistakes that hold installers back

Most weak profiles share the same handful of problems. Each one is quick to fix.

• Keywords added to the business name.
• A home address showing when homeowners never visit.
• More than one profile for the same location. Google allows one per location.
• Stock photos or manufacturer images instead of your own work.
• A discount or prize draw in exchange for reviews.
• A number that diverts to a call centre or a lead company.
• Hours that say open when nobody answers.
• Setting it up once and never touching it again.

How to tell if your optimisation is working

Check your profile's performance once a month: calls, website clicks, direction requests and the searches people used to find you.

The performance report in your Google profile shows calls from the call button, website clicks, direction requests, messages and the words homeowners typed to discover you. The searches figure updates at the start of each month and can take up to five days to appear. Compare month with month, not day with day.

Your position in the map results changes from street to street, so one check on your own phone tells you very little. A local SEO grid tool checks from many points round your base and gives you an average. For a full health check of your profile, use our Google Business Profile audit checklist.

Optimise your Google Business Profile yourself, or get help

You can do all of this yourself with this guide. If you'd rather spend the time on installs, we do it for you.

Our Google Business Profile optimisation service is £247, one-off. It's for installers whose profile was set up once and left: a full overhaul of your services, areas, photos and reviews, done in days. No profile yet? Our set-up is £297.

If you want the profile kept fresh every month, our profile management is £147 a month: posts, photos, reviews and updates, with a plain-English report. If you want the whole region, with a page for every service and town, that's our renewable energy SEO at £495 a month, with no contract. We're two people, not a digital marketing agency, so the person you talk to is the person doing the work.

Google Business Profile optimisation questions