Should I list services on my Google Business Profile?
Short answer
Yes. Listing services tells Google and customers exactly which jobs you do, in more detail than a category can. List every service you really offer, name each one the way a customer would, and leave out anything you don't do. The effect on ranking is modest and won't fix a wrong primary category.
Yes, you should list services on your Google Business Profile, as long as every one is a job you really do. Categories say what kind of business you are. Services name the individual jobs within it, and a customer comparing two companies can read them on the listing. Google offers the services field for many home-service categories, but it decides which profiles get it, so check the editing menu on your own profile to see whether it’s there.
What listing services does, and what it doesn’t
A services list gives Google more detail to match against specific searches. As far as anyone outside Google can observe, Google sometimes shows a short note on a listing saying the business provides a particular service, and that note appears to draw on details like these. Google doesn’t document how much weight services carry.
I treat the list as supporting detail with a modest effect. It won’t overcome distance from the searcher or a primary category that is wrong, both of which matter far more to map pack ranking.
Start with Google’s suggestions, then add your own
For many categories Google offers a ready-made set of services. Select the ones you offer first. After that you can usually add your own for jobs its list misses.
- Name each service the way a customer would say it. “Tankless water heater installation” is clearer than an internal job code.
- Use the description for one or two plain sentences on what the job includes.
- The price field is optional. I’d leave it empty unless the price is fixed, because a number a customer can’t rely on starts the job with an argument.
- One entry per job. The same service written several ways adds nothing.
What to leave out
Anything you wouldn’t send a truck for stays off the list. That includes jobs you pass to another company and jobs you turn down, however much search demand they have.
Keep city names out too. An entry such as “drain cleaning Chula Vista” is keyword stuffing, and the profile has a separate field for the places you serve, which is where you set your service area on Google. Sales claims such as “best” or “lowest price” don’t belong in a service name either.
Keep the list and the website saying the same thing
A service on the profile is more convincing when your website describes the same job. A hypothetical plumber in Oceanside who lists slab leak detection on the profile, with no mention of it anywhere on the site, has given Google one source for that claim where there could be two. Matching the two up is part of my work on categories and services.
The reverse matters as well. When you stop offering a job, remove it from both places in the same week.
Check the list after you save it
Look at the public listing afterward, on a phone and signed out of your account. Where services appear varies by device and by category, and Google may review an edit before it shows.
Reread the list every so often even if you have changed nothing. Google edits profiles itself from time to time, using information it finds elsewhere. An entry you didn’t write, for a job you don’t do, should be removed.