Google Business Profile for a waterproofing company: categories, services, photos and hours that win the map pack
How to set up a Google Business Profile for a waterproofing company: categories, services with ranges, job photos, Saturday hours, Q&A and posts.
- Categories: the one setting that matters most
- Services: list every one with a price range
- Photos: 30 from real jobs, captioned
- Hours: say when you really answer, including Saturday
- The description and the Q&A
- Posts: twice a week, from the job
- Reviews and the review link
- Keep it consistent everywhere
- Frequently asked
When a homeowner searches "basement waterproofing near me" at 9 p.m. after the rain, the three companies in the map pack get the call. Everyone else is on page two of a list she will never scroll. The map pack is decided by your Google Business Profile, and in this trade most profiles are half built. Across 3,745 waterproofing listings, 41.1% show no hours, 18.8% have no website linked, and 49.9% have fewer than ten reviews. The field is weak. Here is how to beat it.
Categories: the one setting that matters most
Your primary category should be "Waterproofing service." Not "Contractor," not "Foundation," not "Construction company." Google uses the primary category to decide which searches you appear for, and a company listed as "Contractor" is competing with every remodeler in the county for nothing.
Add secondary categories for the work you actually do. The usual set: Foundation repair, Basement remodeler only if you finish basements, Drainage service, Crawl space encapsulation if Google offers it in your region, and Concrete contractor if you pour. Do not add categories for work you do not do. A profile with eleven categories looks like spam to Google and to the homeowner.
Services: list every one with a price range
Under Services, add each line of work as its own entry with a two-sentence description and a price range. Interior drainage system, $4,000 to $12,000. Sump pump installation, $1,200 to $3,500. Battery backup sump, $900 to $2,000. Crawl space encapsulation, $5,000 to $15,000. Foundation crack injection, $500 to $1,500 per crack. Carbon fiber wall reinforcement, $400 to $900 per strap. Exterior membrane and drainage, $12,000 to $35,000. Egress window if you do them.
Google shows these on the profile and uses them to match searches like "sump pump installation cost." Ranges filter out the homeowner who wanted a $200 fix, and they reassure the one who was afraid of $50,000.
Photos: 30 from real jobs, captioned
94.2% of waterproofing companies have a profile photo, so having one does not set you apart. Having thirty real job photos does. Google's own guidance says businesses with more photos get more direction requests and website clicks, and in this trade the photos are the proof.
Shoot the same five frames on every install: the problem before (the water line, the efflorescence, the mold on the joists), the trench or the pit mid-job, the finished system, the cleanup, and the crew lead by the truck. Upload them weekly. Name the files before uploading with the town and the service, "interior-drain-system-dayton.jpg," because Google reads filenames. Add a one-line caption with the town.
Skip stock photos entirely. A homeowner can tell, and so can Google's image matching.
Hours: say when you really answer, including Saturday
41.1% of waterproofing profiles list no hours. Google shows nothing helpful for those, and a homeowner calling at 10 a.m. on a stormy Saturday sees "Closed" or a blank. Only 36.1% show Saturday hours and 25% show Sunday.
List the hours someone actually picks up. If that is 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday, say so. 15.8% claim 24 hours; unless an inspector will really answer at 2 a.m., do not, because a missed "24 hour" call turns into a one-star review. If you are closed Sunday but want the Sunday storm calls, keep the hours honest and turn on missed-call text-back, which the follow-up guide covers.
The description and the Q&A
The description has 750 characters. Use the first sentence to say what you do and where: "We install interior drainage systems, sump pumps, crawl space encapsulation and exterior foundation waterproofing in Akron, Canton and the surrounding counties, with a transferable lifetime warranty on interior systems." Then two sentences on how the inspection works and the financing. No "family owned since" in the first line; Google and the AI engines read the opening for what you do.
Seed the Q&A section yourself. Google allows the business to ask and answer questions. Post the eight questions your inspectors hear most: Is the inspection free? How long does an interior system take to install? Is the warranty transferable? Do you do crawl spaces? Do you offer financing? Interior or exterior, which is right? Do you work in winter? What towns do you cover? Answer each in two or three sentences. Homeowners read them, and so do the AI answer engines.
Posts: twice a week, from the job
Google Posts expire from view after a week or so, which is why most companies post twice and quit. Set a rhythm: Monday a job photo with the town and the problem solved, Thursday a short seasonal note (battery backup check before storm season, winter crack injection, spring thaw booking). Each post gets a "Request inspection" button pointing at your form. It takes ten minutes a week and keeps the profile looking alive, which the map pack rewards.
Reviews and the review link
Reviews are covered in full in the reviews guide, but the profile side is simple. Get the direct review link from the profile dashboard and put it on the crew lead's card and in the job-done text. Reply to every review within a day. Google shows the reply, and a profile where the owner answers looks run by someone.
Keep it consistent everywhere
The name, address and phone on the profile must match the website footer, the Facebook page, the Better Business Bureau listing, and the twenty directories that matter in your state. A suite number on one and not another, or an old tracking number on a directory from 2018, makes Google less sure you are one business. Check them once a quarter.
Frequently asked
I serve six counties from one shop nobody visits. Should I hide the address? Yes, set it as a service-area business and list the counties. Keep the shop as the one real location. Do not create a profile for a town where you have no office; Google removes those and can suspend the main one.
Should the profile phone be a tracking number? Keep your real main number as the primary and add the tracking number as an additional line. Google allows additional numbers. Swapping the primary number breaks citation matching.
How long until profile changes move the map pack? Category, hours and photos take days to show. Review count and the ranking it buys take months. The benchmark report shows the review count to aim for in your state.
Setting all of this up is one of the services in the free 14-day trial, no card, text or call. See the free trial page.
Steven has spent the last several years running growth campaigns for local service businesses, waterproofing companies among them, and builds the benchmark datasets on this site from public Google listings. About the editor