Google Business Profile for removalists: a setup guide

When someone searches for a removalist in their suburb, the map results often sit above the regular listings. Those results come from Google Business Profiles. For a removal business that works across a region rather than from a shopfront, the profile is free, and getting its setup right is one of the more useful hours you can spend.

This guide goes through how to set up a profile for a removal business, using Google's own help pages as the rule book. It covers the address and service area, which trips up many movers, plus categories, photos, reviews and how the profile should connect to your website's service-area pages.

Why the profile matters for a removal business

Searches with a location in them are common in this trade. The phrase "removalists near me" alone has a Google search volume of 12,100 a month⁴ in Australia, according to published keyword data. People searching that way want someone close, and Google answers with local results drawn from Business Profiles.

The profile is also where many customers first see your reviews, your phone number and your photos, before they ever open your website. A half-finished profile with no photos and an old number sends them to the next business on the map.

How Google decides who shows up: the three factors

Google's help page on local ranking names three main factors. Knowing them tells you which parts of the profile you can influence and which you can't.

Google's three local ranking factors, and what a removalist controls

Show the diagram as a table

Factor	What Google means	What you control
Relevance	Google says relevance is how well a Business Profile matches what someone is searching for1	Category, services and description
Distance	Google says distance is how far each business is from the customer who is searching1	An accurate service area and location
Prominence	Google says prominence is how well-known a business is, and prominent places are more likely to show up in search results1	Complete details, reviews and replies, photos

Distance is the one you can't change: a customer across the city is further away than one around the corner. The other two are where your effort goes. Google is also plain that there is no way to pay for a better local ranking¹ on Google, so be wary of anyone selling a guaranteed spot on the map.

Address and service area: the part movers get wrong

Most removalists don't have customers walk in. You go to them. Google calls this a service-area business, and its guidelines say such a business should hide your business address² from customers. That matters if you run the business from home: your home address should not appear on the map.

Instead, you set the areas you serve. List the suburbs, towns or regions where you actually take jobs, not every place a truck could reach. If you have a depot that customers can visit, for example to drop off goods for storage, the rules are different and showing that address can make sense.

One profile, not one per suburb

Google's guidelines say service-area businesses should have one profile with a service area², set against the central office or location. Creating extra profiles for suburbs where you have no real base is a common shortcut, and it breaks the rules. If you genuinely operate from two depots with staff at each, that is a different situation from a single base covering a wide area.

Interstate work is worth a mention too. Your service area is where you pick up. Mention interstate routes in your description and on your website rather than listing every capital city as a service area.

Category, hours, description and photos

Google says businesses with complete and accurate info¹ are more likely to show up in local results. Work through every section rather than stopping at the name and phone number.

Category

Choose the primary category that best describes what you mainly do. Google offers several moving and storage options, so pick the closest match for your core work and add secondary categories only for services you really provide, such as storage.

Services and description

List the moves you do in plain words: house moves, apartment moves, office relocations, interstate, piano moves, packing, storage. In the description, say where you are based, the areas you cover and what makes a job with you straightforward, such as written quotes or how you charge. Keep it factual.

Hours and phone

Set hours you actually answer the phone. If you take calls on weekends, say so. A number that rings out is worse than no number.

Photos

Google suggests using photos and videos¹ to show customers what you offer. For a removalist, that means your trucks with signage, your crew in uniform, careful packing, furniture wrapped in blankets, and trolleys on stairs. Use your own photos. Stock images of other people's trucks tell customers nothing about you.

Reviews and replies

Reviews feed prominence, and customers read them closely before choosing a mover. Google suggests asking customers to review through a review link or QR code³, which you can send by text after a job or print on a card left with the customer.

What you can't do is pay for them. Offering free or discounted services in exchange for posting, changing or removing a review is strictly prohibited³ by Google. Ask every customer the same way, whether you expect a glowing review or not.

Reply to reviews, good and bad. Google notes that when you reply to reviews¹, it shows you value the feedback. A calm, specific reply to a complaint often does more for the next customer than the complaint does harm. Our guide to getting more reviews covers timing, wording and handling a bad one.

Linking the profile to your website

The profile has a website field, and what it points to matters. Send people to a page that matches what they searched for, with a quote form close by. If the profile lists local house moves and office relocations, the website should have a page for each. If the service area covers three regions, the website should say what you do in each.

Keep details identical in both places: business name, phone number, hours and service areas. Customers notice when the profile says one thing and the site another. The local house movers page shows the site structure we use for businesses doing mostly local moves, and what a removalist website needs covers the rest of the site.

What to do next

1. Search for your business name and check what the profile shows today, on a phone.
2. If you work from home, hide the address and set a service area of places you really cover.
3. Check your category, services, hours and description, and fill every empty section.
4. Add a set of your own photos: trucks, crew, packing and loading.
5. Get your review link or QR code and ask each customer after the job, the same way every time.
6. Reply to every review you have, starting with the most recent.
7. Point the website field to a page that matches your main service, and make sure the details match.

You can see how the profile and website work together on the how it works page. Our plan builds the website side, including service-area pages that match your profile, for A$249 a month plus A$499 setup, GST may apply. See the pricing, or book a call to talk it through.