Two searches on your phone first. Search your business name and open your profile. Then search your main trade and suburb, say roofer Joondalup, open the map results, and note how many reviews the third business has. That is the bar you are measured against, and nobody else can see it for you.
How does your profile score?
Questions answered: 0 of 12
Answer the rest for your full score. Anything unanswered counts as zero.
Fix these first
The points are our judgement, built on Google's published guidance. Google does not publish weights, so nobody outside Google knows them. Every point is in the table below.
How the score works
Fourteen checks, 100 points, in three groups. The first two follow Google's own words on local ranking. The third isn't about ranking at all: it is whether a view turns into a job. Google publishes the factors but not their weights, so the points below are ours.
| Check | Points | Why it is here |
|---|---|---|
| Primary category | 14 | Relevance. Google says to use as few categories as possible and pick the one that finishes "This business IS a".[2] |
| Services listed | 8 | Relevance. What you list is what you can match a search on. |
| Service area, address hidden | 7 | Relevance, and Google's rules for businesses that go to the customer.[2] |
| Real business name | 4 | Extra keywords in the name aren't permitted and can get a profile suspended.[2] Small points, big risk. |
| Description | 3 | Part of complete information, which Google says makes a business more likely to show up.[1] |
| Review count against your map pack | 20 | Prominence. Google says more reviews and positive ratings can help local ranking.[1] Full marks once you match the business in third place. |
| Star rating | 8 | Prominence. Nothing below 4.0, full marks from 4.7. That line is ours. |
| A review in the last month | 8 | Ours: a profile still being reviewed looks like a business still working. |
| Replies to reviews | 5 | Google says replies show you value feedback and help you stand out.[1] It doesn't say they move ranking, so they score low. |
| Photos of real jobs, last 3 months | 5 | One of Google's own tips.[1] |
| Verified | 6 | Verification tells Google you're authorised to represent the business.[1] |
| Calls answered or texted back | 6 | Not a ranking factor. A view that rings out is a job lost anyway. |
| Hours, public holidays included | 3 | One of Google's own tips.[1] |
| Website button to the right page | 3 | Ours: send the visitor to the work they searched for. |
Two checks are sums, not yes or no. Your review count scores your reviews divided by the third-placed business's, capped at full marks once you match it. Your star rating scores nothing at 4.0 or below and full marks from 4.7, in a straight line between. The fixes list sorts by points lost, so the top line is the one worth the most to you.
What Google says decides the map pack
Google's help page on local ranking names three factors, in its own words:[1]
- Relevance is how well a Business Profile matches what someone is searching for.
- Distance refers to how far each business is from the customer who is searching.
- Prominence means how well known a business is. Google says it is also based on how many websites link to your business and how many reviews you have.
The same page says businesses with complete and accurate information are more likely to show up, and that there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking.[1] Its tips are the ones in the audit: verify the profile, keep hours accurate, respond to reviews and get more of them, and add photos.
Two rules from Google's guidelines catch tradies out.[2] Adding a suburb or keyword to your business name isn't permitted and can get the profile suspended. And if customers don't come to your address, hide it and set a service area, which shouldn't stretch past about two hours' drive from where you are based.
How many Google reviews does a tradie need?
No fixed number. The useful bar is the businesses already showing for your search. If the third roofer in your map pack has 60 reviews and you have 20, you are 40 behind. At four new reviews a month that is ten months, and at eight it is five. That is why the audit asks for their count, not just yours.
How you ask matters. Google's review policy prohibits offering anything for a review: payment, discounts or free work. It also prohibits asking only the happy customers.[3] So ask everyone, and ask on the day the job finishes, with a text that carries the review link. Then reply to what comes back.
What a profile can't fix
Distance. A roofer based in Malaga will struggle to show in the Rockingham map pack however good the profile is, because Google measures from the searcher to you.[1] And a perfect profile still loses the job if the call it sends rings out while you're on a roof.
Those two gaps are what we work on for established roofing, air con and solar businesses in Perth and Peel: ads in your own Google account that reach the suburbs your address can't, every enquiry answered inside a minute, and estimates booked into your diary. Winning the job is yours. Your first 8 booked estimates are free. If you already buy leads, work out what each one costs you per job first.
Frequently asked questions
How do I get my business into the Google map pack?
Can I pay Google to rank higher on Maps?
How many Google reviews does a tradie need?
Can I offer a discount for a Google review?
Should I put my suburb in my business name on Google?
Should a roofer show their home address on Google?
Sources
Checked 10 October 2026.
- Google Business Profile Help — Tips to improve your local ranking on Google. Relevance, distance and prominence; reviews and ratings; complete information; no paid ranking.
- Google Business Profile Help — Guidelines for representing your business on Google. Business names, categories, hidden addresses and service areas.
- Google Maps User Generated Content Policy — Prohibited and restricted content. Incentives for reviews and selectively asking for positive ones.
What a trade click costs in Australia, and the four places the budget leaks.
Free toolLead cost calculatorWhat a shared lead really costs per job you win, next to leads from your own ads.
Missed callsMissed call text back for Perth tradiesThe call your profile sent rings out. A text goes back inside a minute.
More for Perth trade businesses: every article and free tool.