Nobody reads a workshop’s website before calling. They type “garage near me” into a phone, Google puts three cards on a map, and the decision happens right there: are they open, does that photo look like a real place, is this actually a garage. Three seconds. The site never gets opened.
Which is why, before we build a site for anyone, we open their Google profile first. The same things are wrong often enough that this note more or less writes itself.
Start with the hours
Google shows Open or Closed based on whatever was typed into the profile — not on the shutter. Usually it was typed once and never touched again.
That is where the first customer of the day goes missing. The profile says 09:00, the shutter goes up at 08:30 on Mondays, and at 08:40 the phone shows a closed workshop that isn’t. Or the reverse: Sunday sits on “Open” because nobody ever looked at the dropdown, and a phone rings in an empty building.
The fix takes ten minutes. Real hours Monday to Friday, lunch break included if there is one. Saturday only if someone is actually there. The local feria and 15 August go in as special hours, not as a post. And “24 hours” only if it’s true, because Maps will catch it out.
Then the photos, then the category
A profile with no photos looks permanently shut. A profile with stock photos looks like an ad, and people register that before they can say why.
What works is boring. The front of the building with the sign, a car up on the lift, the desk. Taken on a phone, in daylight, no filter. Three or four is plenty, refreshed when the building gets painted or the sign changes — not weekly. If bodywork and mechanics sit in two separate units, take two photos; the customer has to recognise the door when they pull up.
The category is less visible and matters more. Google decides which search you appear in from the primary category, and there is only one. “Auto repair shop” or “Auto body shop” is what people are typing. A workshop filed under “Store” is competing in someone else’s search. Filed under “Software company”, it is competing in none that matter. Diagnostics, air con, glass — those go in the services list, not the category slot.
None of this is workshop-specific
A dental clinic in Valencia, an accountancy in Porto, an installer outside Lyon. Any firm that lives off a “near me” search fails on the same three points, and the profile is free in every case. What decides who gets the call is not an ads budget. It is whether the card tells the truth.
We don’t sell “Google Business management”. Straightening out the profile is part of the groundwork whenever we build a site, because a bookings page is worth nothing while Maps says you’re closed. That groundwork is the web packages: Presence (€3,450) gets the site and the profile telling the same story; Bookings (€5,450, 35–45 days) adds the appointments page; Care (€149/month) starts at launch and can be cancelled monthly after handoff.
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Frequently asked questions
Do I need Google Ads to show up on Maps?
No. The free profile already appears when someone searches for a garage nearby. Ads are a separate product — we don't sell them, and they are certainly not the first step.
Can I use a home address if we go out to the customer?
If there is no premises to visit, set a service area and keep the house off the listing. If there is a unit on an industrial estate, that is the address.
Are parts-catalogue photos enough?
Not on their own. Whoever is looking wants the building, a car on the lift, the sign over the door. A catalogue shot proves nothing.