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Free guide · Home & field services

The Home Services Lead Playbook: Get Found, Answer Fast, Book the Job

• Set up Google Business Profile the way Google expects service businesses to

  Hide your address and list the areas you really serve

  If you go to customers instead of having them come to you, Google says you should hide your business address. You can list up to 20 service areas by city, ZIP code or similar area, but not as a radius around your shop. Google also says your overall service area shouldn't extend beyond about two hours of driving from where you're based. A virtual office or mailbox you don't actually work from isn't eligible for a profile at all.

• Build a website that turns a search into a booked job

  Write service-area pages that are actually about the area

  Google's spam policies treat multiple near-identical pages aimed at specific cities as doorway abuse. A useful area page says something real about working there: the neighborhoods you cover, common local conditions like older homes, hard water, sandy soil or HOA rules, photos of nearby jobs, and how scheduling works in that town. If you can't write something specific for a town, list it on one main service-area page instead of giving it a thin page of its own.

• Build a website that turns a search into a booked job

  Make the quote form work on a phone with one thumb

  Test your quote form on your own phone. Keep it to name, phone, ZIP code, the service needed and a short description, and put a tap-to-call button with your real number at the top of every page. Tell people what happens next and when, for example: we'll text you during business hours to confirm a time. Add short, descriptive alt text to job photos so screen reader users and search engines both understand them.

• Earn reviews and run Local Services Ads within the rules

  Ask every customer, the same way, every time

  Google lets you encourage genuine reviews, but its policy prohibits offering incentives, discouraging negative reviews, selectively asking only happy customers, and giving staff quotas for a number of reviews or specific wording. The FTC's Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule, in effect since October 2024, also bars incentives conditioned on a review being positive. The simplest compliant system is to send every completed job the same request with your Google review link. This is educational, not legal advice, so ask your attorney about any review program you're unsure of.