The 30-Day Get-Found Plan

Do this

1. Sign in with a Google account the business will keep (Google suggests a business email) and go to business.google.com.
2. Search your business name. Already there and verified by someone else? Request ownership. Not there? Add it. One profile only: Google can suspend duplicates.
3. Start whichever verification Google offers you. If it asks for a video, the shot list is in our Google Business Profile guide.
4. Write down which Google account owns the profile, and keep that login where the business can find it, not only on one phone.

Do this

1. Open your profile and read the name exactly as Google shows it.
2. Compare it with your truck, your invoices and your paperwork. It should match them word for word.
3. Take off anything extra, like “Best Roofer Gurnee” or “Roofing & Gutters 24/7”, and save.

Do this

1. Choose the most specific primary category for what your business is: “Roofing contractor” or “Concrete contractor”, not just “Contractor”.
2. Add more categories only for other trades you really do, as few as it takes.
3. Get it right now: Google says changing it later can mean verifying again.

Do this

1. Customers don’t come to you? Answer No to having a location customers can visit, so your home address stays hidden.
2. List the cities or ZIP codes you want work in: up to 20, within about 2 hours’ drive of where you’re based.
3. Skip the radius (Google doesn’t allow one anymore), P.O. boxes and virtual offices (not accepted).

Do this

1. Set the hours you actually pick up the phone, not the ones you’d like to.
2. Call the number on your profile from another phone. If it doesn’t ring you, fix it today.
3. Closing for a holiday? Add it as special hours, so nobody calls into voicemail wondering.

Do this

1. Open Services and add each kind of job you want calls for: tear-offs, repairs, gutters, storm damage.
2. Give each one a plain line, the way you’d explain it on the phone.
3. Start with the job that pays best, and leave off work you don’t want.

Do this

1. Write the description in 2 or 3 plain sentences: what you do, which towns, how long you’ve done it. No “best”, no lists of keywords.
2. Put your own website in the website field. No site yet? Leave it for now; Day 29 is about that.
3. Check verification. Turned down, or still pending after 5 business days? Tap Review issues, fix what Google says was missing and try again, or try another method on your profile.

Do this

1. In your profile, find the option to ask for reviews and copy the link.
2. Save it where you can paste it fast: a note or a text shortcut on your phone.
3. Download the QR code too, for your cards and invoices.

Do this

1. Write down every customer from the last 3 months, with a phone number or email.
2. Don’t sort them by who was happy. Everyone gets the same ask.
3. Cross off anyone who already left you a review.

Do this

1. Copy the text below, fill in the [brackets] and send it to the first 10 people on your list.
2. Send the rest over the next two days, so it doesn’t read like a mass blast.
3. Never offer a discount, a gift card or anything else for a review.

Do this

1. Use the words below at every final walkthrough, and hand over a card with your QR code.
2. Add the QR code to the bottom of your invoice with one plain line: “An honest Google review helps us.” No offer printed on it.
3. Send the Day 17 text the same day every job wraps.

Do this

1. Open your reviews and answer every one you haven’t, newest first.
2. Say one specific thing about their job instead of the same thank-you every time.
3. Keep it to 2 or 3 lines, and sign it with your name.

Do this

1. Have a bad one? Answer it today with the reply below. None yet? Save it for the day you need it.
2. Own the mistakes that were yours, only yours, and take the details to a phone call. That’s Google’s advice too.
3. Never share their private details, threaten them, or accuse them of something you know is false. FTC staff say those cross the line.

Do this

1. Check your cards, invoices, website and truck for any “review us and save” offer, and take it off.
2. Never write reviews for yourself, buy them, or have friends review work you didn’t do for them.
3. See a fake one on your profile? Report it from your reviews; Google says its evaluation usually takes several days.

Do this

1. On your phone, open your Google profile and tap your website, the way a customer would.
2. Check three things: is there a Call button on the first screen, does that screen say your trade and towns, and did it load fast?
3. Only a Facebook page, no website? Read what that costs you.

Do this

1. Take the 10-point profile checkup in our Google Business Profile guide, and write down your score.
2. Redo Day 25’s search and compare it with your screenshots.
3. Website failed yesterday’s test? That’s the next job. We’ll design your homepage free, so you can see the difference before you pay anything.