The Google Business Profile Audit Every Contractor Should Run Right Now

Your Google Business Profile is the most valuable piece of real estate your contracting business owns online. It determines whether you appear in the local map pack when a homeowner searches for your services — and it is almost certainly underperforming. Not because the platform is broken, but because most contractors set it up once and never look at it again.

This audit takes about 30 minutes if you do it properly. Run through each step, note what you find, and fix what is broken before you move on. By the end, you will have a clear picture of exactly why your profile is ranking where it is — and a prioritized fix list.

Your primary category is the single most important field on your GBP. It tells Google what type of business you are and determines which searches your profile is eligible to appear in. “HVAC Contractor,” “Plumber,” “Roofing Contractor,” “Electrician” — these are correct. “Contractor,” “Home Improvement,” or anything generic is not.

GBP allows multiple secondary categories, and most contractors leave this entirely blank. Secondary categories expand the search queries your profile is eligible to rank for. A plumber might add: Drain Cleaning Service, Water Heater Installation Service, Sewer Repair Service. An HVAC company might add: Air Conditioning Repair Service, Furnace Repair Service, Heating Contractor.

Your GBP description has 750 characters. Most contractors either leave it blank or write one sentence like “We are a family-owned plumbing company serving the Phoenix area.” That sentence does nothing for your ranking. A complete description should mention your primary trade, your specific service area (city names, not just “the area”), two or three specific services you are known for, and something about your business that builds trust.

Click on your Photos tab. Look at the upload date on your most recent photos. If the most recent upload is more than 30 days ago, your photo recency signal is actively working against you. Photos older than 90 days carry minimal ranking weight. Photos from two years ago — which is what most contractors have — are essentially invisible to the algorithm.

Target a minimum of two new photos per week, every week. Before-and-after photos, job site photos, finished work — any of these work. The subject matter is less important than the consistency and recency.

Navigate to your GBP posts. When was the last one? How many posts have you published in the last 30 days? Businesses that post weekly — four times per month — tell Google they are active. Businesses that post once a month or less are losing ground to those that post consistently.

Go to your reviews. Count the reviews you received in the past 30 days and the past 90 days. Divide the 90-day count by three for your monthly average. Now open the GBP profiles of the two businesses ranking directly above you in your local map pack and do the same count for each of them.

The difference between their monthly review velocity and yours is the velocity gap that is contributing to the ranking gap. If they are getting six reviews per month and you are getting one, that is the core problem. A star rating comparison or review count comparison will not show you this — only looking at recent dates will.

In your reviews, look for any reviews without a response. Count them. Your goal is 100% response rate. Every unanswered review — positive or negative — represents a missed engagement signal and a missed opportunity to demonstrate active management of your profile.

Look at your recent review responses and estimate how quickly you typically reply. If you are regularly responding within 24 hours, your engagement score is healthy. If your responses routinely come a week after the review, the algorithm is marking your profile as slow to engage. Response speed is a ranking input independent of whether the response is good or bad.

Pull up the GBP profile of the business ranking directly above you. Evaluate it across every dimension you just audited your own profile on: primary category, photos recency, last post date, recent reviews (count the past 30 days), and response rate. Build a side-by-side comparison in a notes document or spreadsheet.

The signals where they outperform you are the signals driving the ranking gap. Prioritize those. If their photos are more recent, your photo recency is the problem. If their review velocity is three times higher, velocity is the problem. Do not guess — compare.

An audit is a point-in-time diagnosis. The signals that determine your ranking change every week. The purpose of the audit is to identify what to fix — the purpose of a maintenance routine is to keep the signals healthy going forward. At minimum: one GBP post per week, one batch of review requests per week (after every completed job), and same-day review responses.

If maintaining all of this manually is not realistic with your workload, LocalOutRank automates the entire maintenance cycle. Review requests go out automatically after each job. Posts get generated from your job photos. Review responses are drafted and ready for approval within hours. The signals stay green without ongoing manual effort.