Before you spend a dollar on ads, spend twenty minutes on the thing Google gives you free: your Business Profile. It is the box with the map, reviews, hours, and photos that shows up when someone searches you, and for local searches it gets more clicks than the paid ads above it.
The 20-minute checklist
- Claim and verify it. Unclaimed profiles rank behind claimed ones, period.
- Pick the right primary category and add every secondary category that fits.
- Set your real service area, the towns you actually work, not "United States."
- Add 10 photos. Real ones. Profiles with photos get twice the requests.
- List your services with short descriptions.
- Get 5 reviews. Text your last five happy customers a direct review link.
Why this beats ads
Ads stop the second you stop paying. A completed profile compounds: every review, photo, and post makes it stronger, and it feeds the AI tools people now ask for recommendations.
We do this full setup with every $700 site because a website and a Google profile that agree with each other is exactly what Google rewards. If you want it done for you, that is the easy button.