Google Business Profile Optimization for Painters: Staying Ahead of Google's Constant Updates

Updat­ed as of March 2025 (it does tend to change)

If you’re a paint­ing con­trac­tor look­ing to attract more local home­own­ers, your Google Busi­ness Pro­file (GBP)—for­mer­ly known as Google My Busi­ness (GMB)—is one of the most crit­i­cal tools in your mar­ket­ing arse­nal. While oth­er dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing strate­gies — like paid ads and SEO — take time and invest­ment to yield results, a well-opti­mized GBP can gen­er­ate high-qual­i­ty leads for free with just a lit­tle upfront effort.

Yet, most painters either fail to claim their GBP, fill it with gener­ic infor­ma­tion, or let it sit stag­nant with­out updates. Did you know that 56% of busi­ness­es still haven’t claimed their GBP? This guide will show you how to ful­ly opti­mize your pro­file to increase vis­i­bil­i­ty, improve lead qual­i­ty, and stand out from com­peti­tors. Google con­stant­ly updates its algo­rithm and best prac­tices, so stay­ing informed and mak­ing con­tin­u­ous updates is essen­tial to main­tain­ing visibility.

Why Your Google Busi­ness Pro­file Matters

Your GBP is essen­tial­ly your online store­front. When poten­tial cus­tomers search for ​“house painters near me,” Google pri­or­i­tizes busi­ness­es with strong GBP pro­files in the local map pack. If your pro­file is incom­plete or lacks engage­ment, you’re like­ly miss­ing out on qual­i­fied leads who are active­ly look­ing to hire a painter.

A well-opti­mized GBP helps with:

• High­er Local Rank­ings – Google favors com­plete, active profiles.
• More Clicks & Calls – Home­own­ers can call or vis­it your web­site directly.
• Improved Trust & Cred­i­bil­i­ty – Strong reviews and a pro­fes­sion­al pro­file build confidence.
• Free Vis­i­bil­i­ty – Unlike paid ads, GBP place­ment is organic.

At A David Cre­ation, we’ve been help­ing painters with their mar­ket­ing since 2009, mak­ing us one of the first mar­ket­ing firms to spe­cial­ize exclu­sive­ly in paint­ing con­trac­tors. We con­tin­u­ous­ly stay on top of the lat­est prac­tices and work with our trust­ed SEO part­ners to ensure our strate­gies remain effec­tive and up-to-date.

Step 1: Claim & Ver­i­fy Your Listing

If you haven’t yet claimed your GBP, do so imme­di­ate­ly by vis­it­ing Google Busi­ness Pro­file. Google will send you a ver­i­fi­ca­tion code via mail, email, or phone. With­out ver­i­fi­ca­tion, you can’t make full edits to your pro­file or show up in searches.

Pro Tip: Some paint­ing con­trac­tors for­get that GBP pro­files can be merged or dupli­cat­ed due to past mar­ket­ing efforts. Check for dupli­cates and remove or con­sol­i­date them to avoid confusion.

Step 2: Com­plete Every Sec­tion of Your Profile

Google favors com­pre­hen­sive pro­files. Make sure these sec­tions are ful­ly completed:

• Busi­ness Name: Use your actu­al busi­ness name, avoid­ing key­word stuff­ing (e.g., ​“Smith Paint­ing” instead of ​“Best House Painters Smith Painting”).
• Cat­e­gories: Your pri­ma­ry cat­e­go­ry should be Painter or Paint­ing Con­trac­tor. Add sec­ondary cat­e­gories like Cab­i­net Refin­ish­ing or Pres­sure Wash­ing if you offer those services.
• Ser­vice Areas: List the cities and zip codes you serve.
• Hours of Oper­a­tion: Keep this accu­rate and update it for holidays.
• Phone Num­ber & Web­site: Ensure they match your web­site and oth­er listings.
• Descrip­tion: Write a com­pelling 750-char­ac­ter descrip­tion that high­lights what makes your busi­ness unique. 
  • Exam­ple: ​“With over 20 years of expe­ri­ence, we pro­vide metic­u­lous inte­ri­or and exte­ri­or paint­ing ser­vices focused on qual­i­ty crafts­man­ship and cus­tomer satisfaction.”
• Attrib­ut­es: Add rel­e­vant attrib­ut­es like ​“Vet­er­an-owned” or ​“Women-owned” if applicable.

Pro Tip: If you oper­ate as a ser­vice-area busi­ness, do not list your home address — choose ​“ser­vice-area busi­ness” instead.

Step 3: Upload High-Qual­i­ty Pho­tos & Videos

Google pri­or­i­tizes busi­ness­es that active­ly upload media. Busi­ness­es with pho­tos get 42% more requests for direc­tions and 35% more web­site clicks than those without.

What to Upload:

• Before & After Pho­tos – Show trans­for­ma­tions of homes you’ve painted.
• Team Pho­tos – Fea­ture your crew to build trust.
• Project Pho­tos – Show­case exte­ri­or and inte­ri­or work.
• Videos – Short clips of you paint­ing, explain­ing the process, or cus­tomer testimonials.

Pro Tip(s): Upload at least one new pho­to per week to sig­nal activ­i­ty. You also do not need to use hash­tags or call to actions. Try not to sell your ser­vices! Con­sid­er using Com­pa­ny­Cam to stream­line before-and-after pho­to man­age­ment for your projects.

Step 4: Gen­er­ate & Man­age Reviews

Reviews are one of the top 3 rank­ing fac­tors for GBP. The more high-qual­i­ty reviews you have, the bet­ter your chances of appear­ing in the top 3 list­ings in the local map pack.

How to Get More Reviews:

• Ask Every Hap­py Client – Send a per­son­al­ized fol­low-up text or email with your GBP review link. It is even bet­ter if they can describe their paint project: type of ser­vices, who worked there, etc. 
• Respond to Every Review – Whether pos­i­tive or neg­a­tive, always reply professionally.
• Use Key­words in Respons­es – If a client prais­es your ​“inte­ri­or paint­ing,” men­tion ​“We’re glad you loved our inte­ri­or paint­ing services!”

Rec­om­mend­ed Tools for Automat­ing Reviews:

• Nice­Job – A great tool for automat­ing Google reviews. (I am a reseller of this soft­ware if you wish to give it a try. It is $75 a month. Just email me.
• Boolean – Specif­i­cal­ly designed for painters, allow­ing con­trac­tors to add job crew names and details, mak­ing cus­tomer reviews more per­son­al­ized and detailed. (More expen­sive but very very sol­id platform)

Step 5: Use Soft­ware to Auto­mate & Enhance GBP Updates

For painters seri­ous about rank­ing local­ly and with a mar­ket­ing bud­get, using soft­ware to keep their GBP updat­ed is cru­cial. I recommend:

Lin­da Local – Helps with job site check-ins by tak­ing pho­tos of com­plet­ed work with geolo­ca­tion tag­ging. This ensures Google rec­og­nizes your busi­ness as active in mul­ti­ple locations.

By con­sis­tent­ly updat­ing your GBP with geo-tagged job pho­tos, reg­u­lar posts, and opti­mized reviews, you send strong rank­ing sig­nals to Google, help­ing you stand out.

Final Thoughts

A well-opti­mized Google Busi­ness Pro­file is one of the fastest and most cost-effec­tive ways to boost your paint­ing business’s vis­i­bil­i­ty. How­ev­er, GBP isn’t a replace­ment for your web­site. Instead, both should work togeth­er to estab­lish a dom­i­nant local presence.

Con­sid­er adding loca­tion-spe­cif­ic pages to your web­site to fill in the vis­i­bil­i­ty lim­i­ta­tions of your GBP. A strong web­site, com­bined with an opti­mized GBP, cre­ates a pow­er­house local mar­ket­ing strategy.

By con­sis­tent­ly updat­ing pho­tos, man­ag­ing reviews, and engag­ing with poten­tial cus­tomers, you can turn your GBP into a ²⁴⁄₇ lead-gen­er­a­tion machine for your paint­ing business.

Need Help Opti­miz­ing Your Marketing?

At A David Cre­ation, we spe­cial­ize in mar­ket­ing for painters. From Google Ads to SEO, direct mail, brand pack­ages, automa­tion soft­ware, and brand posi­tion­ing, we help paint­ing con­trac­tors gen­er­ate more leads with­out wast­ing mon­ey.

Get in Touch Today!