A Google Business Profile produces leads when four things are true: the profile is complete, it is current, it has recent reviews, and a person or a system picks up when someone taps Call. Most owners fix the first three and lose the lead on the fourth.
This guide covers seven settings worth the time, a 15-minute weekly routine, and one thing that most older guides get wrong: Google removed chat in 2024 and began replacing Q&A with an AI answer button in late 2025, so two items on the usual checklist no longer work the way they did.
What a profile does and does not do
The profile is the box that shows up on Google Search and Maps when someone looks for your kind of business or your name. It carries your name, category, hours, photos, reviews and a Call button. People tap Call, Directions or Website, and those taps are your leads.
Google says local results are based mainly on relevance, distance and prominence. You can improve relevance (categories, services) and prominence (reviews, a complete profile). You cannot change distance. Nobody can promise you a ranking, so be wary of anyone who does, and judge this channel by calls, not by where you appear.
The profile also will not fix a slow business. If calls ring out, a great listing just sends more people to a voicemail box.
Settings one and two: categories and services
Your primary category is the biggest relevance signal you control. Pick the one that matches the job you most want, not the broadest. "Plumber" beats "Contractor." Add secondary categories only for work you actually do, such as "Drain cleaning service" or "Water heater installation service."
Next, list every service by name, with a one-line description and a price or a price range where you can. A customer searching "water heater replacement" should see those words on your profile. Use the real name of your business too. Google's guidelines prohibit adding keywords to the name that are not part of it, and profiles that do it risk suspension.
Settings three to five: hours, photos and posts
Set regular hours and special hours for holidays. An open-now profile gets called. A profile that says closed when you are open loses the call. If you offer emergency service, say so in your description and hours.
Add real photos: the van, the crew, a finished job, the front of the shop. Add two or three a week after jobs, with the customer's permission if a home is recognizable. Stock photos and photos of a logo on a white background do little.
Use Posts (Google's updates on the profile) for a seasonal offer, a before-and-after, or a note about same-day availability. They are not magic. They show a business that is alive, and they take two minutes.
Settings six and seven: questions and contact routes
Google shut down the chat feature on business profiles on July 31, 2024, so there is no message button to set up or answer. In December 2025 Google announced it would phase out the public Questions & Answers section on Maps and replace it with an Ask button that gives AI-written answers based on your profile answers and reviews. The rollout was described as ongoing, so check what your own profile shows.
What that means in practice: customers are now more likely to get their answers from your profile data instead of from a thread of neighbor replies. Fill in every attribute that applies (wheelchair access, online appointments, emergency service, payment types), write the service descriptions in plain sentences, and answer any questions Google still shows you in your dashboard.
For contact routes, the number that matters is the one on the Call button. Make sure it is a line that is answered, not a landline in a drawer. Add a website or booking link that works on a phone. Check the profile on your own phone every month, because that is what most people see.
Reviews: ask everyone, answer everyone
Google's policies do not let you pay for reviews or offer discounts for them, and they do not allow review gating, which means asking only customers you think will be happy. Ask every customer. A plain text after the job works: "Thanks for having us out today, Mrs. Alvarez. If we did a good job, a quick Google review helps a lot: [link]." Get the link from your profile's share options.
Reply to every review, short and specific. For a five-star: "Thanks, Mrs. Alvarez. Glad the water heater is working. Call us any time." For a two-star: "I'm sorry the arrival window slipped. I'd like to fix it. Please call me at the office number and ask for Ramon." A calm public reply to a bad review is read by the next customer more than the reviewer reads it.
The calls the profile brings: do the arithmetic
Open Performance in your profile and note the calls for last month. Suppose it shows 90 calls for a three-van plumbing company, and your phone log says about 20 of them rang out while the crew was on jobs. If one in three of those missed callers would have booked a job at an average of $340, that is about 7 jobs, or roughly $2,380 a month, walking away from the one channel you already paid for with time.
These numbers are an example, and you should use your own. The pattern is real, though: people searching for a plumber call two or three companies, and the first one that picks up usually gets the job. If you want the longer argument, read answered on the second ring and why 62 percent of calls go unanswered.
The fixes, cheapest first: return every missed call within 10 minutes, set your phone to forward to the person who is not on a ladder, or let an AI worker answer the number you already have. Rocketship answers the number you already have through call forwarding, takes the caller's details, and can book the job. Launch includes 30 voice minutes a month, Frontier 80 and Mission Control 150, so use your missed-call count to pick: 20 missed calls at about two minutes each is 40 minutes, which is more than Launch covers.
A 15-minute routine for Monday morning
- Minutes 0 to 5: reply to every new review. Read each one before you answer.
- Minutes 5 to 9: upload two photos from last week's jobs and check hours for the coming holiday.
- Minutes 9 to 12: publish one post, such as an opening this week, a seasonal reminder or a finished job.
- Minutes 12 to 15: open Performance, write down calls and website taps, and call back anyone who got no answer.
Once a quarter, spend 20 minutes rereading categories and services, and check that Google has not suggested a change to your hours or address that you did not make. Those suggested edits happen, and a wrong address costs you calls.
Where this fits with the rest of your local leads
The profile catches people who are already searching. Other channels catch the ones who are not: lead generation for local business lists the full set, and two good free ones are Nextdoor recommendations and Facebook pages and groups. If you run a trade business, Rocketship for home services shows how outreach, follow-up and answered calls fit together, and the AI workers page lists what each one does.
A listing only turns into leads if the call gets picked up. Rocketship finds the buyers, emails them from your own Gmail, follows up, and books the meeting on its own. Plans that get you customers start at $24.99 a month (Launch), and every monthly plan starts with a 7-day free trial, card required. Answering your existing number is included; a dedicated line is $5 a month.