Short answer: Yes, most contractors can manage their own Google Business Profile. The setup takes an afternoon and upkeep takes about 30 minutes a week: replying to reviews, posting a job, adding photos, and keeping details accurate. Get help when you know what to do but it keeps slipping, or when you are competing hard for the top spots.
Your Google Business Profile is free, and Google built it for business owners to run themselves. There is no secret back door that only agencies can use.
The real question is not whether you can, but whether you will do it every week when you are busy.
What managing it actually involves
- One-time setup: categories, services, service area, hours, description, photos, and attributes.
- Weekly: reply to new reviews, add one post or a few job photos.
- Monthly: check that hours, phone, and website are still correct, and look at your performance numbers.
- As needed: update holiday hours, respond to questions and messages, fix suggested edits from the public.
If you have not done the setup properly yet, start with our checklist on what information to put on your Google Business Page.
Where owners usually slip
- Reviews go unanswered for weeks, which makes the business look unresponsive.
- Posts stop after the first month.
- Google or a member of the public changes a detail, like hours, and nobody notices.
- The account is owned by an old employee or a past agency, and nobody can log in.
None of these are hard. They just fall off the list when the work gets busy.
Make sure you own it
Whatever you decide, the profile should be owned by you, under an email you control. If someone helps you, add them as a manager. Never let an agency create the profile under their own account. If you ever part ways, you want to keep your reviews and history.
When doing it yourself makes sense
- You are in a smaller market or a less competitive trade.
- You are disciplined about a weekly routine.
- You already have a steady flow of reviews.
- Budget is tight and you would rather invest time than money.
When getting help makes sense
- You keep meaning to do it, and it keeps not happening.
- Competitors in your area are clearly investing and outranking you.
- You want the profile tied into reviews, your website, and tracking, so you can see which calls it brings.
- Your time on the job is worth far more than the cost of help.
A 30-minute weekly routine
- 5 minutes: reply to every new review, thanking people by name and mentioning the job.
- 10 minutes: post one recent job with two photos and the town.
- 5 minutes: answer any messages or questions on the profile.
- 5 minutes: check that your hours, phone, and website have not been changed.
- 5 minutes: send review requests to the customers you finished jobs for this week.
Put it on your calendar at the same time every week, like Friday afternoon. If it gets skipped twice in a row, that is your sign it is time to hand it off.
A good middle ground
Many contractors handle the parts only they can do, like taking job photos and asking customers for reviews, and hand off the rest: posting, replies, monitoring changes, and reporting. That split keeps the profile authentic without eating your evenings.
Related reading
- What Information Should I Put on My Google Business Page?
- How to Optimize Your Google Business Profile for More Calls
- How Often Should I Post on My Google Business Profile?
Want a quick check before you decide? Get a free snapshot of your profile. We will show you what is missing and how much work it would take to fix, whether you do it or we do.
Written by
Mardochee Carries
Managing Director | Brandcastl
Mardochee leads Brandcastl, a Worcester, MA marketing agency that helps local businesses get found on Google and turn searches into booked jobs.
Book a 45-min call with Mardochee
