SEO for trades businesses: show Google and your customers that your business really exists

According to its own figures for 2025, Google removed more than 13 million fake business profiles from Maps; the figure covers all industries, not just the trades. Back in 2023, Google sued an operator who had published more than 350 fraudulent profiles and tried to boost them with more than 14,000 fake reviews.

This gets very concrete with emergency services. The consumer advice centre Verbraucherzentrale NRW warns about fake drain cleaners: at the top of the search results there are often ads for fraudulent providers, sometimes under the name of reputable businesses; many very good reviews may have been bought; a mobile-only or 0800 number is a first warning sign, often with a middleman behind it; a missing Impressum, or one with a different company name, is another. Their advice: compare the Impressum with the business you actually called, and use the guild databases.

Turn that around and you have the plan for this page: much of what consumer advocates look for is exactly what a real business can show. A local number that rings at your place. An Impressum with the same name as the profile. On top of that, proof such as the entry in the Handwerksrolle, and photos and reviews from jobs that actually happened. According to the ZDH, you are one of more than a million trades businesses in Germany, and according to the ZDH business climate report, order books in the second quarter of 2026 covered 8.7 weeks on average. So full order books are not a given everywhere, and whoever is searching should find you and believe you.

The profile name is the name of your business as it appears on your van and on your invoice. Google’s guidelines (German) do not allow additions such as slogans, opening hours, phone numbers, location details or service descriptions in the name. “Elektro Müller” is allowed, “Elektro Müller Emergency 24h Berlin cheap” is not. For the phone number, Google wants a local number wherever possible rather than a hotline or call centre, managed directly by the business; forwarding numbers that do not lead directly to the business, and premium-rate numbers, are not permitted. Put that next to the warning signs of the Verbraucherzentrale and you can see where the two lists overlap.

The hours in your profile are the hours when you actually answer the phone. Google’s guideline requires the regular hours during which customers can reach you; there is no separate rule for on-call or emergency service, and you only enter “open 24 hours” if it is true. On the website, the same local number sits at the top of every page as a call link; according to MDN, mobile devices dial a number linked as tel: directly. For categories, Google’s rule is: as few as possible, as specific as possible, with the test question “This business IS …”, not “HAS …”.

Check it yourself: Call the number listed in your Google profile. Does the call end up with you or with someone you do not know? And is there a word in your profile name that is not on your van?

Your website gets its own page for each core service, not for each town in the service area. Google’s spam policies name multiple pages for individual regions or cities that funnel users to the same page as doorway abuse. “Electrician town 1” to “Electrician town 30” with only the town name swapped falls under that quickly. A page for one town is a different matter if there is real content of its own there: a reference, a second location.

A service page for “custom staircases”, “bathroom renovation” or “re-roofing” contains the process from the site visit to the handover, the service area in words, three to six of your own photos, a note on the cost estimate and a named contact person. Whether the cost estimate costs anything is something you say beforehand; § 632 BGB, the German Civil Code, assumes in case of doubt that it is not to be paid for. For repairs and emergency service you state the call-out fee and the hourly rate; the Verbraucherzentrale Niedersachsen describes exactly that as a mark of reputable providers, and under § 12 Preisangabenverordnung, the German Price Indication Ordinance, you need a price list of your main services or your hourly rates for consumers anyway, except for services that are usually done on the basis of a written quote. Whether and how that applies online is something to clarify with your chamber. How such pages are written is explained under SEO texts.

The photos are the part only you can deliver, and they come with rules. According to the Deutsche Handwerks Zeitung, buildings that are visible from public streets and squares may in principle be photographed and published; views from the ladder, from the roof or by drone not without permission, and you only enter the property with consent, ideally in writing and including permission to publish. House numbers, number plates, names and recognisable people stay out. The Deutsches Handwerksblatt adds for living spaces: no personal items that would allow identification, people never without consent, and manufacturers’ products such as taps or heating systems can touch on trademark and design rights; § 22 Kunsturhebergesetz, the German Art Copyright Act, requires the consent of the person depicted for portraits. The OLG Brandenburg, a German higher regional court, allowed a business to use reference photos of solar installations on the barn roofs of a farm even against the farm’s wishes; with private homes you are better off asking first, and what applies in your case is for your lawyer to clarify.

The same photos belong in your Google profile, according to Google’s specifications (German) as JPG or PNG, recommended 720 × 720 pixels, sharp and well lit, with little filtering. Under “Edit services” you set up your services with a description and, where honestly possible, with a price, as described in Google’s help (German); Google automatically rejects prices or phone numbers in the service name.

Technically, the website gets structured data with the most specific type that schema.org has for your trade, such as Electrician, Plumber or RoofingContractor; joiners use HomeAndConstructionBusiness. According to its own documentation, Google requires name and address; review stars are only intended there for pages that collect reviews about other businesses, and Google promises no ranking advantage for them. The Core Web Vitals feed into the ranking systems according to Google; at the same time, Google shows the most relevant content even when the page does not shine technically. Someone searching in an emergency still needs a page that loads immediately and shows the number at the top. What I check for that is described under on-page optimisation.

Check it yourself: Is there a page on your website just for your most important service, with your own photos on which no house number and no face can be seen?

Portals can bring jobs, but the operator makes the rules there. The Verbraucherzentrale writes that a commission is often charged directly to the tradesperson, and advises consumers to look for the company address and professional qualifications in the profile. How high the commissions are, or how many businesses an enquiry goes to, I have not found in any neutral source, so it is not stated here. Your Google profile and your website remain yours; if you use a portal, then with the same name, the same address and the same number as everywhere else.

I have found no reliable source for average job values per trade, so there is no figure here that looks like an industry benchmark. The calculation is simple: ongoing support from €500 / month costs at least €6,000 a year. Divide that by the contribution left to you per job after materials and wages, and you have the number of additional jobs per year from which the support pays for itself on paper. Revenue is not profit, and whether and when Google brings jobs depends on the competition in your service area and on the state of your profile and website; there is no guarantee for rankings, enquiries or revenue.

If a single larger job a year comes through Google, that can already be enough depending on the trade; with small repairs it is correspondingly more. Calculate with your own numbers, and if the result is too high for you, the audit from €600 or the hour at €50 is the right way in.