Fast answer
A contractor business usually isn't showing up on Google for one of two separate reasons: your Google Business Profile isn't strong enough to land in the local map pack, or your website isn't structured to rank in regular organic search — and the right fix depends entirely on which of the two is actually broken. Most owners treat 'not showing up on Google' as a single problem and end up paying to fix the wrong half: a website rebuild when the real gap is an unverified or miscategorised Google Business Profile, or an 'SEO package' when they have no map-pack presence at all. The first move is never a redesign. It's a ten-second test to find out which of the two problems you have.
A contractor calls and says the same thing nearly every time: "We're not showing up on Google." The business is real, the work is good, the phone number is on the site. None of that is the problem. The problem is that "not showing up on Google" describes two completely different failures — and most owners spend money fixing the wrong one.
This is the article I'd hand a contractor before they pay anyone for a redesign or an "SEO package." It separates the two ways you can be invisible, shows you how to tell which one is hurting you, and gives you the fix for each.
"Not Showing Up" Is Two Different Problems
When you search for a trade in a city, Google shows you two distinct things stacked on top of each other:
- The map pack — a small map with usually three businesses pinned beneath it, each with a star rating, hours, and a call button. This sits at the top and takes most of the local clicks.
- The organic results — the regular blue links below the map. These are ordinary web pages ranking the ordinary way.
These are two different systems with two different sets of rules. The map pack is driven almost entirely by your Google Business Profile — the free listing Google gives every business. The organic links are driven by your website. You can be completely missing from one and present in the other.
That's why "we're not on Google" is a useless diagnosis on its own. A contractor with a great website and no profile is invisible in the map pack and fine in the links. A contractor with a strong profile and a thin website is in the map pack and nowhere in the links. The fixes are not the same, and doing the wrong one is how owners burn a budget and see nothing change.
The Ten-Second Test: Which Problem Do You Have?
Before you do anything else, run this on your phone, not your desktop — most contractor searches happen on a phone, and the results differ.
Search your trade plus your city or town the way a customer would: roofer Grande Prairie, electrician Red Deer, concrete Sherwood Park. Then read the result against this:
| What you see | What it means | Where the fix is |
|---|---|---|
| Missing from the map (the 3 pinned businesses) | Your Google Business Profile isn't strong enough to make the local pack | Off-site — the profile |
| Missing from the blue links below the map | Your website isn't structured to rank in organic search | On-site — the website |
| Missing from both | Both layers need work — start with the profile (faster, higher return) | Profile first, then site |
Most contractors I audit are missing from both. But one is almost always the cheaper, faster win — and for a local service business it's usually the profile, because the map pack is where the high-intent "I need someone now" searches land.
Problem 1 — You're Not in the Map Pack
This is a Google Business Profile problem, and it's the half that competitors' generic "fix your website" advice completely misses. The common causes, roughly in the order I find them:
Your profile isn't verified — or doesn't exist. Google won't show an unverified profile in the map pack. Verification for contractors often needs a video walkthrough now, which is exactly the step people abandon halfway. An unfinished verification is one of the most common reasons a real business is simply absent.
Your primary category is wrong. This is the single biggest thing you control, and it's quietly miscategorised constantly. Google uses your primary category to decide which searches you're even eligible for, before distance or reviews enter the picture. A drywaller whose primary category is set to the generic "General Contractor" may never appear for "drywaller near me" — the right category would have entered them in a race they're currently filtered out of. Pick the most specific category that matches what you actually do, then add the relevant secondary ones.
You're a service-area business with no service area set. Contractors usually work at the customer's location, not a storefront. If you haven't told Google which towns and regions you serve, you've left the setting that most directly governs where you can appear blank.
Your details don't match across the web. When your business name, address, and phone read differently on your website, your profile, and old directory listings, Google trusts the listing less. Inconsistent details are a slow, common drag on the map pack.
Your profile looks abandoned. No recent reviews, no posts, no fresh photos. Google favours businesses that look active and open. A profile that hasn't moved in a year reads like a business that might not be there anymore — and for reviews, a steady trickle of recent ones tends to do more for you than a big pile that stopped two years back.
The off-site profile work — category, completeness, consistency, reviews, activity — is exactly what our Local SEO & Google Business Profile work covers, because it's a different job from building the website.
Problem 2 — Your Website Isn't Ranking
This is the other half: your site doesn't appear in the organic blue links. The short version is that Google has to be able to crawl your pages, understand what each one is about, and trust that you serve the area you claim — which usually comes down to crawlable server-rendered pages, one real page per service instead of a single "Services" menu, explicit service-area language, and clean internal links.
I'm keeping this short on purpose, because it's a whole topic of its own and I've written it up properly already. If your test pointed here, read how small businesses actually get found on Google in 2026 for the website side in full, and the SEO Foundations page for what that work involves. The point for this article is only that it's a separate problem from the map pack, with a separate fix.
The Expensive Mistake: Fixing the Wrong Half
Here's where the money gets wasted. A contractor decides they're "not on Google," and the loudest pitch in their inbox is for a new website. They spend on a rebuild — and stay invisible in the map pack, because a new website does nothing for a profile that's unverified or miscategorised. Or the reverse: someone sells them a monthly "SEO" retainer aimed at organic rankings while they have no map-pack presence at all, which is where most of the local searches actually convert.
Match the fix to the problem. If the ten-second test says you're missing from the map, the highest-return work is the profile, and it's often free or cheap to fix. If you're missing from the links, that's website work. If you're missing from both, fix the profile first — it surfaces faster and tends to return more for a local trade — then give the website work time to compound.
One Thing That Can Make It Worse
When owners get impatient, the tempting shortcut is to stuff keywords into the Google Business Profile name — turning "Pardy Electric" into "Pardy Electric | Electrician Grande Prairie." Don't. Adding keywords that aren't your real business name violates Google's guidelines and can get the listing suspended, and a suspension takes you from ranking poorly to gone entirely, sometimes for weeks. It's one of the fastest ways to turn a fixable problem into a much worse one. Earn relevance through the category, services, and reviews instead — the levers that are actually meant to carry it.
Where to Start
Don't start with a redesign, and don't sign a retainer until you know which problem you have. Run the ten-second test first. Then a free audit checks the structural side of the picture against your live site, and the human-review follow-up gives you a plain-English read on where the bottleneck actually is — profile, website, or both — with one clear next step. For more on the contractor side specifically, see Website & SEO for Canadian Contractors; for the first things I check on any contractor site, see three things I check first on a contractor website.
Frequently asked questions
- How do I know if it's my Google Business Profile or my website that's the problem?
- Search your trade plus your city on your phone — 'roofer Grande Prairie' — and look at what Google shows. The map (with three businesses pinned under it) is the map pack, and that's controlled by your Google Business Profile. The blue links below it are organic search, and those are controlled by your website. If you're missing from the map but your site appears in the links, it's a profile problem. If your site is nowhere in the links but you're in the map, it's a website problem. Most struggling contractors are missing from both, but one is usually the easier, higher-return fix — and it's almost always the profile.
- Why does my business show up near my shop but not across town?
- Because for the map pack, distance to the person searching is a real factor, and you can't change it. When someone searches 'electrician near me', Google heavily favours businesses close to where that person is standing. A contractor in north Edmonton may rank well for searchers nearby and disappear for someone searching the same thing in the south end. You can't make yourself closer, so the move is to make everything you can control — category, completeness, reviews, service-area settings — as strong as possible, so you win wherever proximity gives you a fair shot.
- Should I put my city and trade in my Google Business Profile name to show up?
- No. Adding keywords to your profile name that aren't part of your real, registered business name violates Google's guidelines and can get your listing suspended — and a suspension is far more expensive than the small bump you were chasing. It's one of the most common reasons a profile vanishes overnight. Use your real business name, and earn relevance through your primary category, services, and reviews instead. If your legal business name genuinely includes the trade or city, that's fine; inventing one to rank is not.
- How many Google reviews do I need to show up in the map pack?
- There's no magic number, and chasing one misses how reviews actually help. Recency and steadiness tend to matter more than the raw total — a contractor getting a few honest reviews every month often looks healthier to Google than one sitting on a big pile of reviews that all stopped two years ago. Set up a simple habit of asking every satisfied customer and replying to each review, and don't buy or gate them — Google is good at catching that, and the penalty isn't worth it.
- Do I still need a website if my Google Business Profile is showing up?
- Yes — they do different jobs. The profile is what gets you seen in the map pack; the website is what turns that visibility into a booked job and what backs up the claims your profile makes. A strong profile pointing at a weak or missing website loses the customers it earns, and a strong website with a neglected profile never gets seen in local results. For most contractors the two work together, which is exactly why diagnosing which one is failing matters before you spend on either.
- How long until I show up after fixing my Google Business Profile?
- Profile changes tend to surface faster than website changes — often within a week or two once a profile is verified, correctly categorised, and complete. Website ranking moves slower, usually several weeks for new structure to be reflected, and longer for competitive local searches. There's no guaranteed timeline; Google publishes general expectations but doesn't commit to one. The honest version: fix the profile first because it's faster and higher-return, then give the website work time to compound.