How plumbers get more calls from Google: Maps, reviews and Local Services Ads

Set up your profile for a business that goes to customers

• Address: Google's guidelines say service-area businesses should hide their address. Only show it if customers genuinely visit you there during your hours. Never use a virtual office or P.O. box.
• Service areas: list the towns and areas you actually cover, up to 20.
• Categories: “Plumber” as your primary category, plus any additional categories Google offers that genuinely describe your work.
• Services: every job type people search for, such as boiler or water heater repair, blocked drains, leaks, bathroom installs and emergency call-outs.
• Hours: only show “Open 24 hours” if someone really answers at 3am. Being open at the time of search is a top-five ranking factor, but wrong hours lead to angry calls and poor reviews.
• Photos: your van, your team and real before-and-after photos of jobs.

Never let a call go unanswered

Customers with a leak call several plumbers and book whoever answers. BrightLocal's 2026 research found 75% of US consumers decide which local business to use in under 30 minutes.

If you run Google Local Services Ads, missed calls now cost you too. From 1 October 2026, Google charges for missed calls during business hours when the caller stays on the line for more than 20 seconds, as well as for some follow-up calls.

• Use missed-call text-back, so anyone you can't answer gets a text within seconds asking how you can help.
• Set a voicemail greeting that says when you'll call back.
• Check your call settings in Local Services Ads so calls ring a phone someone will pick up.

Ask for a review after every job

1. Send a text with your direct Google review link once the job is done and paid for. Job and invoicing tools can trigger this automatically.
2. Ask every customer, not just the ones who seemed pleased.
3. Don't tell customers what to write or ask them to name the engineer, and don't set your team review targets. Google's policies don't allow either.
4. Reply to every review. For complaints, apologise, don't argue, and offer to come back and look at it.

Local Services Ads: worth it?

Local Services Ads appear above other results for searches like “emergency plumber”, and you pay per lead rather than per click. Businesses go through Google's screening and verification first. In October 2025 Google merged its earlier badges into a single “Google Verified” badge and ended the money-back guarantee for new bookings.

Google says ad ranking depends on your bid, how likely you are to produce a lead and your profile quality, including your rating, number of reviews and response time. So the same habits that win on Maps, plenty of recent reviews and fast answers, also make these ads work better.

Your website

Give each main job type its own page, with the areas you cover, typical prices or call-out fees, and real photos. A dedicated page per service is the top local organic ranking factor in Whitespark's survey. Put a click-to-call button at the top of every page: 73% of US consumers start local searches on a phone.