Published October 2026 · By SM Web Development
In part 1 we covered how Google decides who shows up. This part is the to-do list. Most of it costs nothing but an evening or two, and you can do it yourself.
Google says local results come down to three things: relevance, distance and prominence. You can’t move your shop. Everything below works on the other two.
1. Set up your Google Business Profile properly
When someone in St. Albert searches “furnace repair near me” on a cold January night, the map results are often the first thing they see. That’s your Business Profile. Treat it like a second website.
- Primary category. Pick the one that describes your main work as closely as possible, like “Plumber” or “Roofing contractor”. Add a few secondary categories only if you really do that work.
- Service area. If you go to the customer, list the towns you cover, such as Edmonton, Sherwood Park, Spruce Grove and Leduc. If customers don’t come to your address, Google asks you to hide it.
- Hours. Keep them accurate, and add holiday hours. If you take emergency calls, say so.
- Services. List each one you offer, in the words customers use.
- Photos. Add real ones: your truck, your crew, finished jobs, before and after shots. Add a few new ones every month or so.
- Description. Say what you do, where, and answer the two or three questions every caller asks.
- Posts. Short updates work well: a furnace tune-up reminder in the fall, or a note after a hailstorm that you’re booking roof inspections. They show people you’re active.
Use your real business name. Stuffing extra words into the name, like “24/7 Emergency Plumber Edmonton”, breaks Google’s rules and can get your profile suspended.
2. Ask for reviews, and reply to every one
Reviews are the part of prominence you control most. The trick is making it a habit, not a campaign.
- Ask at the end of the job. The customer is happiest when the leak is fixed and you’re packing up. Ask in person.
- Send a short link the same day. Your Business Profile can give you a direct review link. Text it, so they can leave a review in a minute on their phone.
- Reply to every review. Thank people by name and mention the job. For a bad one, stay calm, keep it short, and offer to sort it out offline. Future customers read your replies as much as the reviews.
Never buy reviews, write your own, or offer a discount in exchange for one. And don’t only ask the customers you think will be happy. Google’s rules forbid both, and fake or filtered reviews can be removed or get your profile flagged.
3. Give each service and each town its own page
Your website still matters. Google reads it to work out what you do and where.
- One page per main service. Furnace repair, furnace replacement and air conditioning are different searches, and each deserves its own page.
- One page per town you want work from. If you want more jobs in Sherwood Park, a page about plumbing in Sherwood Park gives Google, and the homeowner, something to find.
The catch: don’t copy one town page and swap the name. Google’s spam rules call out near-identical pages for different cities. Make each one useful. Mention the neighbourhoods you work in, the kind of homes you see there, the jobs you’ve done nearby and how quickly you can get out. A roofer’s Leduc page and Spruce Grove page should read differently, because the work does.
For examples of how this looks for a trade, see our pages for plumbing and heating and roofing companies.
4. Keep your name, address and phone number the same everywhere
Your business details show up in more places than you think. Google compares them. So do customers.
Write down your exact business name, address and phone number once, then check each place it appears:
- Your website and your Business Profile
- Facebook, Instagram and any other social pages
- Your trade association listing
- The Better Business Bureau
- Local directories and your chamber of commerce
- Supplier “find a contractor” pages
If you’ve moved or changed numbers over the years, old listings are often still out there. Fix them, or ask the site to.
5. Earn local links that are real
Part 1 explained why links from other sites matter. Here’s where a trades business actually gets them:
- Suppliers and manufacturers. Many list certified installers. Ask to be added.
- Associations. Your trade association, the chamber, BNI or similar groups usually have member directories.
- Sponsorships. The minor hockey team or community league you already support may list sponsors on its site.
- Local news. Helping after a hailstorm or a cold snap, or giving homeowners useful advice, can get you mentioned in a local story.
Skip anyone offering hundreds of links for a fee. They don’t help, and they can hurt.
6. Make the site easy on a phone, and fast
Most of these searches happen on a phone, often in a hurry. Someone with water on the basement floor won’t wait for a slow page or pinch and zoom to find your number.
Check your own site on your phone. Does it load quickly? Is the phone number a tap away at the top? Can someone ask for a quote without typing an essay? See making sure your website looks great across devices for more.
7. Check it’s working
You don’t need fancy tools. Three free checks cover it:
- Google Search Console. It shows which searches you show up for, and which pages people click.
- Your Business Profile Performance page. It shows calls, direction requests and website clicks from your profile.
- Ask every caller. “How did you find us?” takes five seconds. Write it down. After a few months you’ll know what’s paying off.
When it’s worth getting help
You can do everything above yourself. It’s worth bringing in help when:
- The basics are done and you’ve stopped seeing new calls
- Your site is slow, hard to use on a phone, or hard to update
- You want service and town pages but don’t have time to write them well
- Search Console shows errors you don’t understand
We’ve built websites for Edmonton businesses since June 2016, and our care plans cover the monthly upkeep that keeps this working.
Want to know where you stand?
Get a free website review. We’ll look at your site on a phone, the way your customers do, and tell you the three things we’d fix first.