The Google Business Profile setup that gets home inspectors called first
Categories, service list, hours that match how buyers book, photos, posts and Q and A for a home inspection firm, plus the fields most inspectors leave blank.
Your Google Business Profile is the page a buyer lands on when the agent says "here are three names, look them up." It is also the page an agent checks before adding you to that list. For 35.4% of home inspection companies, the ones with no website linked, it is the only page there is.
Most inspector profiles are half built. 58.8% list no hours. 28.2% publish an email. The average profile has a logo, a phone number and nothing else that helps anyone decide. Below is the full setup, in the order that matters.
Categories: one primary, three or four secondary
Primary category: Home inspector. Nearly every listing in our dataset of 27,687 firms sits in that category, and there is no clever alternative to it. Do not set it to Building inspector, Real estate consultant or Engineer to escape competition; you will simply stop appearing for the search buyers actually run.
Secondary categories are where you claim the ancillary work:
- Building inspector, if you do commercial or new-construction phase work
- Environmental consultant or Asbestos testing service, if you sample
- Pest control service, only if you hold the license and do the wood-destroying organism report yourself
Do not add a category for work you subcontract. Google's guidelines require categories to describe what the business is, and a mismatch is one of the easier ways to draw a suspension.
Then set the business type correctly. Almost every inspection firm is a service-area business with no storefront. Hide the address, set service areas to the counties or cities you actually drive, and cap it at around 20 areas. Listing an entire state does not extend your reach; it dilutes the relevance signal for the town you live in.
Hours, and the Saturday problem
Only 31.6% of inspectors show Saturday hours and 21.7% show Sunday. Meanwhile buyers schedule inspections around a work week they cannot take time off from, which puts a real share of jobs on Saturday morning.
Set hours you will actually answer. If you take calls until 8 p.m., say 8 p.m. If you work Saturdays until noon, say so. A profile showing "Closed" on the day a buyer is trying to book, inside a 24 to 48 hour decision window, sends them to the next name. Add special hours for holidays so the profile never says open when your phone is off.
If you list evening or weekend hours you cannot cover, pair them with missed-call text-back so nobody hits a voicemail greeting. The setup is in the missed calls guide.
The services list, written for search terms
Google lets you add services under your category, and this is the cheapest ranking field on the profile. Add each one with a real description, not a fragment:
- Pre-purchase home inspection ("Full interior, exterior, roof, structure and systems inspection with a same-day report, $395 to $650 depending on square footage")
- Pre-listing seller inspection
- New construction phase inspection
- 11-month builder warranty inspection
- Radon testing ($150)
- Sewer scope inspection ($225)
- Mold and air quality sampling
- Wood-destroying organism inspection
- Pool and spa inspection
- Four-point and wind mitigation inspection, if you are in a coastal state
Ten services with prices does two things. It matches long-tail searches like "sewer scope inspection near me," and it pre-qualifies the caller so you spend less time quoting.
The business description
You get 750 characters. Use them on facts, not adjectives. A workable structure:
"Independent home inspection firm serving Davis, Weber and Salt Lake counties since 2014. InterNACHI certified, state license #1234, fully insured with errors and omissions coverage. More than 3,000 inspections completed. Reports delivered the same evening with photos, video clips and a repair request tool your agent can use. Radon testing, sewer scope, mold sampling and WDO available with the same appointment. Weekend inspections available."
Every sentence answers something a buyer or agent actually asks. Note that the description does not affect ranking much; it affects whether the person reading it calls you.
Photos, and what to shoot
92.1% of inspector listings have at least one photo, so having none puts you in the bottom few percent immediately. The default photo set is a logo and a stock house, which convinces nobody.
Shoot these instead, on a phone, over two inspections:
- You on a roof and in a crawlspace, in company shirt
- The thermal camera in use, screen visible
- Your truck with the door decal
- A laptop showing the report open on a summary page
- A drone shot, if you fly, of a roof you inspected
- Your face, clean headshot, because a buyer is hiring a person
Add two or three a month. Fresh photos correlate with profile engagement and, more usefully, they make you look like a working firm instead of a listing.
Posts and Q and A
Google Posts expire from prominence quickly, so treat them as a low-effort habit rather than a channel. One a week, 100 words, on one of: a defect you found and what it meant, a seasonal note (ice dams in January, AC differential in July), a price or availability update, an agent class you are teaching.
Q and A is more valuable and almost universally ignored. Anyone can ask a question on your profile, and anyone can answer, including a competitor. Seed it yourself with the six questions you get on every call:
- How long does a home inspection take?
- What does it cost?
- Can my agent attend?
- When do I get the report?
- Do you inspect the sewer line?
- Are you licensed and insured?
Answer each in three or four sentences with the real numbers. Then upvote your own answers once from another account you own, which is allowed, so they sit at the top.
The fields most inspectors skip
- Appointment link: point it at your online booking page. In a 48-hour decision window, a buyer who can book at 10 p.m. books.
- Products: unusual for a service business, but it works as a second price list for ancillary services.
- Attributes: identifies as veteran-owned, women-owned, appointment required, online estimates.
- Opening date: an established date reads as stability. New firms should still fill it in.
- Email: 28.2% of inspectors publish one, and agents forward rather than dial. Add it.
Keeping it clean
Check the profile monthly. Google accepts user-suggested edits to hours, categories and even the website link, and service-area businesses get merged or marked closed by mistake more often than storefronts. Turn on notifications, look at the Updates tab, and reject anything you did not submit.
If the profile is suspended, do not create a second one. Duplicates are the fastest route to a permanent problem. Appeal with your license, insurance certificate and a utility bill in the business name.
Frequently asked
Should I hide my home address? Yes, if you inspect at client properties. Set it as a service-area business. A visible residential address can also trigger a verification problem later.
Do Google Posts help ranking? Barely. They help the person reading the profile. Post weekly because it takes four minutes, not because it moves the map pack.
How long until changes show? Category and service edits usually apply within a day. Ranking movement, if it comes, takes weeks, and it comes mostly from reviews. Start with the reviews guide and compare yourself against the benchmark report.
Profile setup and monthly maintenance is one of the services in the free 14-day trial. Text or call (385) 832-6175.