Map-pack and local search for Richmond trades

How Google decides who shows up

Google says local results are driven mostly by relevance, distance and prominence. In trade terms:

• Relevance: does your profile and site clearly say you do the exact job searched for? "Plumbing" is weak. "Hot water tank replacement", "drain camera inspection" and "repiping for 1990s townhouses" are strong.
• Distance: how far your business is from the searcher or the place they typed. You can't move your shop, so the other two factors carry the load.
• Prominence: how well known you look online, judged partly by reviews, links and mentions.

In Richmond, the city is compact enough that a well-built profile can show across much of the island, but a crew based near Hamilton will always find City Centre map results harder than a crew based in City Centre itself. We plan around that rather than pretend it away.

What's included

The work is split into a setup phase and a monthly routine.

Setup (first 4–6 weeks)

1. Profile clean-up: correct primary and secondary categories, services listed one by one, hours that match when you really answer, photos of your own crew and vans, and a description that says what you do and where.
2. Service areas: set by city and postal code, following Google's service-area rules. Up to 20 areas are allowed; for most Richmond crews we list Richmond plus the nearby cities you genuinely serve.
3. Service pages: one page per profitable job type, written for the way Richmond customers describe the problem.
4. Area pages: a small number of pages for the parts of Richmond where you want more work, each with real job examples, not swapped place names.
5. Listings: name, phone and service details made consistent across the directories that matter.

Monthly routine

• A review request process your team actually uses, usually a text sent after the invoice
• Replies drafted for every review
• Profile posts and photo updates from recent jobs
• New or improved pages based on what people searched before calling
• A plain report: calls, texts, direction requests, booked jobs and what changed

Timeline and what to expect

Profile fixes often show some effect within a few weeks. New pages usually take two to four months to settle in Google. A full local search program keeps improving over six to twelve months as reviews accumulate and pages earn trust.

What we won't do is promise a ranking position. Google controls that. We commit to the work, the tracking and an honest monthly explanation.

How results are measured

Rankings are a symptom. Booked jobs are the point. We track:

• calls and texts from the Google profile, using a tracked number
• calls and texts from website pages
• which services and planning areas the enquiries came from
• how many became booked jobs, from your job board or invoice list

If calls rise but bookings don't, the problem is usually response speed or pricing, and we'll say so.

Mistakes Richmond trades make with local search

• Using a virtual office or a relative's address in City Centre. Google's profile guidelines don't allow that, and a suspended profile costs far more than a weaker map position.
• Stuffing "Richmond" into the business name. It breaks the guidelines and invites suspension.
• One generic services page. A page listing twenty jobs ranks for none of them.
• Ignoring reviews in other languages. A thoughtful reply to a Chinese-language review shows every future reader that you serve them too. Our Cantonese and Mandarin service can help with those replies.
• Covering all of Metro Vancouver. If you hate crossing the Oak Street Bridge at rush hour, don't list Vancouver as a service area.

Local search pairs well with paid search for urgent work. Plan prices are on the pricing page, and our guide to planning a Richmond service area goes deeper on areas and drive time.