Search "plumber near me" and look at what fills the screen: a map, three listings, photos and review counts. Your homepage is below all of that, and most people never scroll.

Categories decide who sees you

The primary category is the strongest lever in local search. Pick the one that names what you actually sell, add the secondary ones honestly, and resist listing everything you can technically do.

Photos are ranking and conversion at once

Profiles with recent, real photos get chosen more often. Add a few every month from jobs you finish: the van, the team, the before and after. Dormant profiles look closed.

Answer every review, especially the bad one

A calm, specific reply to a one-star review sells better than the five-star ones above it, because it shows what happens when something goes wrong. Silence reads as guilt.

Match your site to your profile

Same business name, same address format, same phone number everywhere. Mismatches make Google less confident about you, and that confidence is the ranking.