How to add services and keywords to your Google Business Profile

1. Where services and keywords go on your profile
2. Why a longer service list isn't always a better one
3. What AI assistants did when a listing didn't name the job
4. How to set up your service list, step by step
5. Questions owners ask
6. How we got these numbers
7. Sources
8. See it on your own website

Where services and keywords go on your profile

Owners usually arrive at this with one of two questions. How do I add my services to my Google Business Profile? And how do I add keywords so Google shows me for more jobs? They have the same answer. The words that help are the names of jobs you really do, written where Google asks for them.

Google may let businesses in certain categories, like service businesses, show what they offer directly on their profile ¹. When a local customer searches for something you offer, that service may be highlighted on your profile. In the Google Maps app, customers can see your full list under "Services" ¹. For a contractor, that list is where a specific job, like toilet installation or panel upgrades, gets written down.

How to add services

Google's own steps are short ¹:

1. Go to your Business Profile.
2. Select Edit services.
3. Tick the suggested services you actually do. Google offers suggestions tailored to your business type. A plumbing business might see options such as "Install faucet" or "Repair toilet" ¹.
4. If a job isn't on the list, select Add more services, then Add custom service, and type its name.
5. Select a service to add details such as a description and a price.
6. Select Save.

If your business has distinct kinds of work, you can group services under more than one business category and add services within each ¹. Custom services that break Google's policy are rejected automatically. Google says not to put prices or phone numbers in custom service names ¹.

Where keywords belong, and where they don't

A profile has several text fields, and Google treats them differently. Putting job words in the wrong one can hurt you.

• Business name: your real-world name, exactly as on your truck, invoices and website. Google gives "Midas Auto Service Experts" as an example of a name with service information it doesn't permit. Adding unnecessary information to your name could get your profile suspended ².
• Categories: as few as possible, describing what your business is. Google's test is whether the category completes the sentence "This business IS a". It says not to use categories as keywords ² and not to pick a category for every product or service ³.
• Services: one entry for each job you do. This is where the full list belongs ¹.
• Business description: Google says to use it for useful information about your services, plus your mission and history. It must not focus on promotions or prices, and it can't contain links ².
• Service descriptions and prices: short, factual details for each job, added inside the services editor ¹.

So the answer to "how do I add keywords" is not a list of search terms. It is a complete, accurate service list, with each job named the way your customers would say it.

Why a longer service list isn't always a better one

A trade label leaves the customer's job unanswered

Google says local results depend partly on relevance: how well a Business Profile matches what someone is searching for. It asks businesses to give complete and detailed information so it can make that match ⁴. A homeowner rarely searches for "plumber" alone. They search for a water heater install, a slab leak or a sewer camera inspection. Your category says you are a plumber. It doesn't say which of those jobs you take.

Services fill that gap. They also feed other parts of your profile. When customers review a service business, Google may ask them which job you did. The choices come from your service list, your website or a standard list for your type of business ⁵. A missing service can mean a review that just says "plumbing" instead of the job a future customer is looking for.

A service you don't do is a claim you'll have to answer for

It is tempting to tick every suggested service, or to add jobs because a competitor lists them. Resist that. Google asks businesses to be upfront and honest in the information they provide ². Under federal law, advertising must be truthful, and advertisers need evidence to back up their claims ⁶. Florida goes further for licensed trades. Its contracting law forbids advertising yourself as available to do contracting work without the required registration or certification ⁷. If a job needs a license you don't hold, it doesn't belong on your profile.

There is a practical cost too. A service you list is a promise. Customers call expecting it, and an AI assistant that reads it may pass it on. Every call you have to turn down is wasted time for both of you.

Stuffing in keywords doesn't help

Some advice says to fill services and descriptions with every possible search phrase and town name. Google's web spam policies describe keyword stuffing as filling a page with keywords in an attempt to manipulate rankings. Its examples include blocks of text listing the cities a page is trying to rank for ⁸. Those policies are for websites, but the Business Profile rules point the same way. Google doesn't allow description content that is irrelevant or has no clear link to your business ².

Write each service once, in plain words. "Tankless water heater installation" is a useful service. Five rewordings of it are clutter.

Experts and Google don't say the same thing

Google doesn't say how much your service list affects ranking. It says only that services may be highlighted ¹ and that complete information helps it match you to searches ⁴. Local search consultants go further. In Whitespark's 2026 survey of 47 local search experts, the presence of Google's suggested services scored as the 22nd most important of 187 signals for map rankings ⁹. The same experts scored profile services far lower for visibility in AI answers. There, they put a dedicated website page for each service near the top ⁹.

That survey is expert opinion, not Google data, and the experts say they have no special access to how Google ranks businesses ⁹. Still, it points the same way as our own research: list the job on your profile, and explain it on your website.

Your profile is not the only copy of your services

Google builds profiles from several sources: what you enter, crawled web content such as your own website, licensed data from other companies and what users contribute ¹⁰. Google can even write a draft business description for you with AI, using your profile and other sources such as your website. It tells owners to review that text for accuracy ¹¹. If your website and profile list different jobs, Google, customers and AI assistants may each see a different version of your business.

What AI assistants did when a listing didn't name the job

Between September 2 and October 14, 2026, we asked ChatGPT, Claude and Google AI Mode to recommend a local contractor 47,209 times. Of those, 41,561 named a specific job. We asked about 147 jobs across HVAC, plumbing, electrical and roofing, in 560 wordings, in towns around Tampa Bay, Florida. Each question ran in a fresh conversation with web search on. These are observations of answers, not experiments. They show what happened, not what causes a recommendation.

Google AI Mode's business cards showed the trade, not the job

Google AI Mode showed business cards in 81% of its job answers. Each card carries the business's Google rating and its category. Of the 25,957 cards we recorded, 73% carried one of just four broad trade labels: Plumber, Electrician, Roofing contractor or HVAC contractor. For plumbing jobs, 83% of cards simply said "Plumber". Yet every one of these questions named a specific job.

So the card alone can't tell a customer whether you do the job they asked about. Something else has to: your service list, your description, your reviews or your website. AI Mode also leans hard on Google's own listings. In 74% of its job answers, its links opened a Google business listing rather than a website. We can see the answers AI Mode gave, but not which parts of a profile it read to write them.

Claude said when a business's listing didn't mention the job

Claude searches the live web and grounds its answers in what it finds ¹². In 565 of its 14,467 job answers (3.9%), Claude said that a business's listing, page or site didn't mention the job asked about, or mentioned other work instead. In 79% of those answers, it told the customer to ask or confirm before booking. We found these sentences with word rules and checked a random sample by hand: 20 of 20 were sorted correctly.

Its listing doesn't name specific services, so ask whether it does dedicated circuits.

It lists water heater replacement and tankless installs, but I didn't see repair mentioned, so ask.

Its listing only mentions portable generator installs, so ask whether they do whole-home standby units.

ChatGPT did this in only 4 answers. Google AI Mode's count was 0. That doesn't mean they found every job listed. Claude tends to tell the customer what it couldn't confirm, and the others mostly don't. In Claude's words, a "listing" may be a Google listing, a directory page or a company's own site. We often can't tell which one it read.

Sometimes no business at all had the job written down. In 283 job answers, Claude said it couldn't find a company whose pages mentioned the exact job. ChatGPT and Google AI Mode almost never said so, in 4 and 1 answers. The business may well do the work. The assistant just couldn't see it, so it named businesses with a warning to check, or told the customer to call and ask.

Claude also noted missing prices

The services editor has a price field ¹. In 451 job answers (3.1%), Claude said it couldn't find or confirm a price or how a job is priced. ChatGPT said so in 50.

The page didn't list pricing, so ask what a tune-up costs and what the plan includes.

A price is only worth listing if you can stand behind it. A firm diagnostic fee, a starting price or a flat rate for a routine job may work. A number you would change on the phone will cause more trouble than it saves.

What our earlier study found

Before this research, we studied assistant conversations from late July to August 2026 across eight trades. We recorded the reasons assistants gave for naming or leaving out each business. Four bear on the services you list:

• Being a specialist in the specific job asked about came up in 440 conversations and cost a business its place in 184.
• Doing the full range of work in a trade came up in 284 conversations and cost a business its place in 46.
• Published prices, flat fees or a stated diagnostic charge came up in 366 conversations and cost a business its place in 49.
• Claims found only on the business's own site, treated as unconfirmed, came up in 186 conversations and cost a business its place in 67.

One conversation can involve several reasons, so these counts overlap and should never be added together. Read together, they suggest assistants want two things: proof that you do the specific job, and a sense of the range of work you take on. Your own claims count for more when other sources, such as reviews and listings, back them up. None of this proves that adding a service would change who gets named.

How to set up your service list, step by step

Set aside an hour. Have last year's invoices or job records open, along with your website and your license details.

1. Write down every job you did in the last year, the ones you want more of and the ones you turn down. Mark any that need a license, permit or certification, and check that you hold it. A job you don't do, or aren't licensed for, comes off the list here ⁷.
2. Check your categories. Choose one primary category that says what your business is, as specifically as Google's list allows ². Add others only for real parts of your business, not for every service ³.
3. Open Edit services. Tick each suggested service you do, and untick any that don't fit ¹.
4. Add custom services for the jobs that are left. Use the words a customer would use, such as "sump pump installation", not trade shorthand. Make one entry per job, and keep prices and phone numbers out of the names ¹.
5. Give each important service a short description. Say what the job includes and what it doesn't, such as "repair and replacement of residential water heaters, gas and electric, including tankless". Don't promise a time or result you can't keep.
6. Add a price only where you would quote it the same way to every caller ¹. Leave the field empty rather than guess.
7. Make your website match. Use the same job names on your site, and give your most important jobs their own page that explains the work. Google builds profiles partly from your website, so the two should agree ¹⁰.
8. Rewrite your business description in plain sentences: what you do, your main jobs, who you serve and how long you've been at it. No links and no sales offers ². If you use Google's AI suggestion, check every word before you save it ¹¹.
9. Check the result the way a customer would. Open your profile in the Google Maps app and look at the Services list ¹. Then ask ChatGPT, Claude and Google AI Mode for your job in your town, and read what they say about your business.
10. Put a reminder on your calendar every few months. Google lists keeping your Business Profile information up to date among its tips for its AI features ¹³. Add new jobs when you start doing them, and remove ones you've stopped.

What to avoid

• Job names or towns added to your business name ².
• A category for every service you offer ³.
• Services you don't do, or aren't licensed to do ⁷.
• Long lists of towns or repeated phrases in your descriptions ⁸.
• Prices you can't honor, and prices or phone numbers inside service names ¹.

A complete service list won't guarantee that Google or an assistant names you. Nobody can promise that. What it does is put the answer to "do they do this job?" in writing. Google, customers and AI assistants can then find it.

Questions owners ask

How do I add services to my Google Business Profile?

Open your Business Profile while signed in to the account that manages it and select Edit services. Tick Google's suggested services that you actually do, or choose Add more services and then Add custom service for a job that isn't listed. You can add a description and a price to each one. Select Save, then check the Services list in the Google Maps app.

How do I add keywords to my Google Business Profile?

Add them as services, not as extra words in your name or categories. Google says unnecessary information in a business name isn't permitted and could get a profile suspended. It also says not to use categories as keywords. Instead, list each job you do as a service, in the words customers use, and describe your services plainly in your business description.

Do services on Google Business Profile help my ranking?

Google doesn't say exactly. It says services may be highlighted when customers search for them, and that complete, detailed information helps it match your profile to searches. Local search experts surveyed by Whitespark in 2026 rated Google's suggested services as a fairly important signal for map rankings. Treat that as expert opinion, not Google's word.

How many services should I list on my profile?

List every job you actually do and want to be hired for, and nothing you don't. There is no reward for a long list of rewordings or jobs you would turn down. One clear entry per job, with a short description, is enough. Remove services when you stop offering them, and add new ones when you start.

Should I put prices on my Google Business Profile services?

Only where you would quote the same price to every caller, such as a flat diagnostic fee or a routine job. Google's services editor has a price field for each service, but it rejects prices placed inside custom service names. A wrong or outdated price causes more trouble than no price, so leave the field empty if you aren't sure.

Do my Business Profile services help me show up in ChatGPT or AI answers?

They can help Google AI Mode, which in our recorded answers mostly linked to Google's own business listings. ChatGPT and Claude mostly linked to contractors' own websites. Claude sometimes told customers when a business's listing or page didn't mention the job asked about. So list each job on your profile and explain it on your website too.

See it on your own website

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Source: Merchant Context: the current website offer · checked 2026-10-14.

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