Guide to Google Business Profiles for Remodeling Contractors
admin | Jan 26, 2022
Want to know the secrets of ranking your remodeling company on Google? Here’s what we discovered when we looked at 85,826 remodeling contractors that rank on Google in the United States.
What is a Google Business Profile?
When a potential client searches online for “kitchen remodeling” or “bathroom remodeler” + [town name], Google normally displays a map with a few nearby companies. This is a portal into Google Business Profile – a free platform for local businesses to get found on Google. Formerly known as Google My Business (or GMB), these profiles appear for local searches, as well as prominently appear when you search for your own brand name.
Ranking on Google for Kitchen & Bath Remodeling
When homeowners are researching potential companies for their remodeling project, one of the first places they turn is Google. From here they can find the leading companies in the area, read reviews, and decide whether to visit their website, contact them, or visit their showroom.
For kitchen & bath contractors, it is crucial that your profile appears when someone does a local search.
To see what it takes to rank at the top of Google, we conducted a nationwide study of 85,826 remodeling contractors in the United States. This includes profiles for the companies that show up at the top of Google in their geographic area.
Here is what we can learn from them:
1. Update Business Information
The most important thing you can do with your Google profile is to make sure it has accurate information on it. I can’t count the number of times I’ve talked to a business owner who says that Google has their old address, wrong phone number, or other inaccurate information.
The best way to update information on your listing is to claim ownership of it. There’s a specific process Google has to verify ownership of the listing; after that you can make updates, correct information, and optimize your listing. According to our study, 22% of remodeling companies have an unverified Google Business listing.
Should I show my address?
You can list a physical address on your Google profile; this makes the most sense if you have a physical store, showroom, or office where clients visit. However, since many remodeling companies use a home address or other non-public location as their office, it is common for contractors to hide their address on their Google profile. According to our study, 72.29% of remodeling contractors hide their address on their profile.
2. Choose the Right Primary Category
Google has over 6,000 categories to choose from for your local profile. You can add up to 10 categories for your listing, but the first one you add (what we call the primary category) matters the most as it can have the biggest impact on search visibility.
Here’s how the top primary categories worked out in our study:
- General contractor – 17.32%
- Construction company – 10.52%
- Kitchen remodeler – 8.95%
- Contractor – 6.97%
- Remodeler – 6.39%
- Bathroom remodeler – 5.94%
- Roofing contractor – 4.19%
- Handyman – 4.02%
- Home builder – 3.16%
- Plumber – 2.92%
- Interior designer – 2.26%
The results look different than some of our recent Google studies (for contractors, roofers, deck builders, plumbers, and HVAC). That’s because, in the remodeling industry, there is a lot more variety in who wants to rank: contractors that specialize in additions & renovations, plumbers that expand their offering to renovations, interior designers, and contractors that handle interior and exterior projects. We also saw a fair bit of flooring companies, home improvement stores, and tile companies that appeared in our study, just outside of the top categories listed.
If you specialize in a certain type of remodeling, make sure you are using the right category. If you fit into several categories, there are a few ways to decide on which category to use as primary:
- Which category drives the most business?
- Which category do you want to grow the most?
- Which category do you have the most capacity for?
- Which category has the weakest competition?
3. Add Photos
In the remodeling space, photos are a crucial part of the sales and conversion process. People want to see your handiwork, the types of projects you do, and if they like your style. While your remodeling website should be the main location for your project gallery, you can also add images to your Google Business Profile. According to our study, the average remodeler has more than 54 images on their Google profile.
If you have a physical location or showroom, make sure you add photos of the exterior and interior. Have photos of your team interacting with clients, your trucks, and on-the-job photos. And be sure to include plenty of professional photos of the completed projects.
Tip: be careful of before photos. While it is awesome to see a space’s transformation, if you do before and after photos wrong, you can create the wrong brand impression. Too many times I’ve seen unlabeled before photos show up high on Google for a remodeling company; to some users, they may think that photo is from a completed project and create a negative impression of your company. Best to put your best foot forward; if you use before & after photos, make sure they are labeled properly or put together into a single image file.
4. Ask for Reviews
One of the most important – and often frustrating – parts of a Google Business profile is reviews. To stay competitive in your local market, you want to have a steady stream of people reviewing your company, yet this introduces the possibility of negative reviews.
What is a good Google star rating for my remodeling business?
Most business owners are surprised to hear that a 5-star rating is not ideal. No company is perfect, so when users see a perfect 5 star rating, they may think you are rigging the system or only asking for positive reviews.
According to our study, the average star rating for remodeling contractors is 4.5 stars. This is in line with a study that found consumers to have more trust and more likely to make a purchase when the review average is between 4.3 and 4.5 stars.
How many reviews should I have on my Google listing?
According to our nationwide study, remodeling contractors have on average 40 reviews. Yet the average does not tell the whole story, as some listings that had thousands of reviews can skew the numbers. When we dove into the numbers, we saw that nearly 60% of remodeling contractors had 5 or fewer reviews, and 26% had 0 reviews. So if you want to be better than 60% of the remodeling contractors in the United States, just get more than 5 reviews.
Tip: Make sure to respond to reviews. Google allows the business owner to respond to reviews. We recommend getting in the habit of responding to every review; use it to thank reviewers for leaving feedback and – in the case of negative feedback – ask them to reach out offline. At best you can diffuse the situation and get them to change their review; at worst you can show future clients that you are active online and care about your reputation.
Google Business Profile Trends for Remodeling Companies
Study based on 85,826 Google Business profiles for bath and kitchen remodelers in the United States.
General Information
- 26% of remodeling contractors do not link to a website
- 7% of remodeling contractors link to a website that is unsecure
- 22.38% of remodeling profiles are not verified
- 72.29% of remodeling contractors have no visible address on Google
- 54.6 – average number of photos on a remodeling contractor profile
Reviews
- 4.5 – average star rating for remodeling contractors
- 40 – average number of reviews for remodeling contractors
- 59.55% of remodeling contractors have 5 or fewer reviews
- 26.29% of remodeling contractors have 0 reviews
Primary Category
- 17.32% use General Contractor as their primary Google Business category
- 10.52% use Construction company as their primary Google Business category
- 8.95% use Kitchen Remodeler as their primary Google Business category
- 6.79% use Contractor as their primary Google Business category
- 6.39% use Remodeler as their primary Google Business category
- 5.94% use Bathroom Remodeler as their primary Google Business category
- 4.19% use Roofing Contractor as their primary Google Business category
- 4.02% use Handyman as their primary Google Business category
- 3.16% use Home Builder as their primary Google Business category
- 2.92% use Plumber as their primary Google Business category
- 2.57% use Cabinet Maker as their primary Google Business category
- 2.26% use Interior Designer as their primary Google Business category
Additional Categories
- 22.17% use Kitchen Remodeler as an additional category
- 20.36% use Bathroom Remodeler as an additional category
- 18.23% use General contractor as an additional category
- 6.38% use Home Builder as an additional category
- 4.16% use Flooring Contractor as an additional category
- 4.11% use Plumber as an additional category
- 4.04% use Cabinet Maker as an additional category
- 3.29% use Interior Designer as an additional category
- 2.75% use Countertop Installer as an additional category