Which category should a garage door company use?
Use the garage door category Google offers, even though its wording leans toward supply rather than repair. Add secondary categories for opener work and commercial doors if you run those jobs. Skip categories for trades you do not staff. Wrong categories pull you into searches you cannot serve and push you out of the repair searches you want.
Should I show my shop address?
If customers can walk in and look at door samples, show the address and keep the hours honest. If you work from a yard or your house, hide the address and set a service area by the towns you drive to. A hidden address still appears in results, and a storefront that is not real risks suspension.
Should I set my hours to 24 hours?
Only if a person answers at 2am. Garage door emergencies are real, but a homeowner who reaches voicemail at midnight calls the next company and sometimes says so in a review. List the hours you actually answer, then describe after-hours repair in your services and posts so callers know what to expect.
What photos matter on the profile?
Real jobs beat manufacturer images. Post snapped torsion springs, off-track doors, replaced cables and rollers, and finished installs shot straight on from the curb. Add albums by door style so someone planning a replacement can picture it on their own house. Include your truck and crew, and add new shots through the year.
Do posts actually do anything?
They keep the profile current and give seasonal messages somewhere to live. Post about spring failures when the cold arrives, tune-ups before winter, opener battery backup, and new door styles as the weather turns. Keep each one short with a tap-to-call link. Posts are not a ranking lever alone, but a stale profile looks closed.
Can you guarantee I show in the map pack?
No, and nobody can. Map results shift with the searcher's distance, your competition, your reviews and how complete the profile is. What we control is the weekly work: accurate categories and services, fresh photos, answered questions, replied reviews, and site pages that match. Call and form tracking shows what the listing is actually producing.
How do reviews fit into this?
Ask every customer once the job is done, whatever they thought of it. A spring replacement takes about an hour, so the request should go out that same day while the fix is fresh. Reply to all of them and name the job type in the reply, so the profile reads clearly as a repair company. We send requests and draft replies.
Do I still need a website if the profile is strong?
Yes. The profile gets you found; the pages close the job. A homeowner with a door stuck shut wants a broken spring page that states same-day availability, the service call charge and the warranty. A homeowner replacing a door wants styles and window options. We build those pages and link them from the matching profile services.