How Google Business Profiles Drive Home Service Leads: Data From Real Businesses
By the numbers: From October 1, 2025, to October 1, 2026, we tracked 35,729 organic leads across 10 pest control and lawn care companies. Google Business Profiles generated 21,732 of them (61%), including 17,304 of 26,607 phone calls (65%). GBP was the top call source for every one of the 10 companies.
Why Do Google Business Profiles Carry So Much Weight for Home Service Companies?
Google Business Profiles (GBPs) are important because they're usually the first organic result a local searcher sees. For searches like "pest control near me," Google typically places a map of nearby businesses above the regular website results, and customers can call straight from it without ever opening a website. For a pest control or lawn care company, that combination matches how people actually buy.
Home service searches are local by nature. Someone with wasps by the front door or brown patches spreading across the yard needs a company that serves their address. For searches like that, Google often shows a map with a short list of nearby businesses, called the local pack. Those listings are GBPs, and each one shows a star rating, review count, hours, and a call button.
That puts the deciding information and the action in one place. A homeowner can compare three companies, see who is open, and tap to call in under a minute. On a phone, that is far less work than clicking through to a website and hunting for a number.
For local searches, your GBP is often the first thing a customer sees and the fastest way for them to call you.
The Importance of "Near Me" Searches
"Near me" searches punch well above their weight. As part of our study of 10 Coalmarch Marketing pest control and lawn care clients, we pulled 12 months of Google Search Console data for the website link on each company's GBP. That shows which searches led people to click from the profile through to the website. Across all 10 companies, "near me" searches made up about 20% of non-branded searches but drove about 33% of non-branded clicks.
A few other findings stood out:
- Most profile clicks come from people who already know the company.About 72% of website clicks from the profiles came from searches that included the company's name . Among people who didn't know the company yet, roughly one in three found it through a "near me" search.
- Broad searches get seen; "near me" searches get clicked. Searches like "pest control" and "exterminator" earned more impressions than "near me" searches. But "near me" searches produced nearly five times as many clicks.
- The pattern held for every company. For all 10 clients, "near me" searches earned a bigger share of clicks than their share of searches.
Search Console only shows clicks to the website. Calls placed directly from the profile don't appear in this data at all, so these numbers understate how much "near me" demand flows through GBPs.
"Near me" searches were 1 in 5 non-branded searches but 1 in 3 non-branded clicks from GBPs to the website.
How Much of a Home Service Company's Leads Come From GBPs?
GBPs drove 61% of organic leads across our 10 clients: 21,732 of 35,729. Calls leaned hardest toward the profile at 65%, while website forms split almost evenly, with 49% coming from profile visitors.
For the companies we studied, the GBP was the single biggest source of organic leads.
How Did We Measure This?
We measured GBP leads by giving each profile its own call tracking number and tracking where every website form submission came from. The data covers 10 Coalmarch Marketing clients from October 1, 2025 to October 1, 2026, a full 12 months, so seasonal swings even out.
Here's how we counted each type of data in the study:
- Calls: Each GBP had its own tracking number, separate from the website's number. For companies with more than one profile, calls from all of their profile numbers were combined.
- Forms: Every form was submitted on the website. A form counts as a GBP lead when the visitor reached the website from a profile, and as an organic lead when the visitor arrived from regular organic search.
- Organic only: Paid channels like Google Ads and Local Services Ads, plus direct and referral traffic, are not included. This comparison is strictly GBP versus organic website search.
- "Near me" data: Search Console data covers the top 1,000 searches per client that led to the website link on their profile, with company-name searches separated out.
One limit is worth knowing. Some calls counted under the website's number likely came from people who found the business on its profile, clicked through to the website, and then called. Those calls count toward the website here, so the true GBP share is probably a little higher than 65%.
These are our clients, not an industry-wide benchmark. Company size varied widely, too. The largest company had about 14 times the lead volume of the smallest, and GBPs still drove the most calls for every one.
Separate tracking for profiles and websites let us compare the two directly, and if anything, the GBP numbers are underrepresented.
Breakdown of the Data
Companies are sorted by GBP share of calls. All forms were submitted on the website; the chart shows whether the visitor arrived from a GBP or from regular organic search.
The calls tell the clearest story. GBPs produced more calls than the website for all 10 companies, with a share ranging from 54% to 70%. Eight of the 10 companies got the majority of their combined leads from their profiles. The two exceptions still got 46% and 49% of their leads that way, driven mostly by heavy form volume from organic search.
Every company got most of its organic calls from its GBP. Forms were the only place the website held its own.
Why Does GBP Drive More Phone Calls Than the Website?
A GBP drives more phone calls because it removes every step between finding a company and calling it. Across our 10 clients, profiles generated about two calls for every one call from the website.
The pattern held regardless of company size. The share of calls from GBPs ranged from 54% to 70%, with a median of 65%. That was true for the smallest company in the group and for the largest, which had about 14 times the lead volume.
The reason comes down to effort. From the local pack, a searcher taps "Call" and the phone rings. Through the website, that same person has to click through, wait for the page to load, and find the number. Every extra step is a chance to back out or call a competitor instead.
Urgency makes the gap bigger. Someone with a mouse in the kitchen or wasps at the front door wants help now, not a site to browse.
A GBP also works like a mini website that lives right in the search results. It shows the company's services, hours, photos, and a description of the business, so a homeowner can learn what they need without visiting the actual website. Reviews add social proof. A star rating and dozens of recent reviews from neighbors answer the biggest question a new customer has, which is whether this company can be trusted, before they ever pick up the phone.
A GBP gives customers everything they need to decide, plus a one-tap way to call.
Where Does the Website Still Win?
The website wins on form leads, because every form lead in our data was submitted on the website. All 9,122 forms came through client websites. The only difference was how the visitor got there: 51% arrived from regular organic search, and 49% clicked through from a GBP.
That makes the profile and the website a pair, not competitors. GBPs sent 4,428 people to client websites who then filled out a form. A profile that ranks well but points to a slow or confusing website loses those leads.
Organic search sent more form leads than profiles did for four of the 10 companies. Form submitters tend to be in research mode. They're comparing companies, asking for a quote, or browsing after hours, and they want service details and plan options before they talk to anyone.
The website also reaches people a profile can't. Local pack rankings depend heavily on how close the business is to the searcher, so a profile struggles to show up across a wide service area. Service pages and location pages can rank in towns the profile doesn't reach, and they're the only way to show up for research searches that never trigger a map.
Your GBP and your website work as a team. The profile brings people in, and the website closes the form leads.
What Happens When a GBP Goes Down?
When a GBP is suspended, the company's biggest source of organic calls is at risk until Google reinstates it. In our data, the typical company received about 35 leads a week through its profile, so even a two-week outage puts roughly 70 leads in jeopardy.
The weekly figure is a yearly average, which means a suspension during peak season costs more. A profile that goes down during spring termite swarms or the start of lawn program signups is missing its busiest weeks, not its slowest ones. Calls lost during that stretch don't come back once the profile is restored.
Competitors fill the gap, too. When a profile drops out of the local pack, the next company on the list takes its spot and the calls that come with it. Some customers will still find the business through its website or by searching its name, but the profile's share of new customers is exposed for as long as it's down.
Based on our study, a suspended GBP puts about 35 leads a week at risk for a typical company, and more during peak season.
Why Do Legitimate Home Service Profiles Get Suspended?
Legitimate companies usually get suspended for setup mistakes, not spam. Google's guidelines for representing your business say profiles that don't follow the rules can be suspended, and several of those rules trip up service-area businesses in particular.
- An address that appears residential. In our experience, a profile can be suspended when Google suspects its address is a residence, even when the office is legitimate. Small offices in converted houses or mixed-use buildings are especially vulnerable.
- Adding keywords or cities to the business name. Google's guidelines state that including unnecessary information in the business name could result in suspension. "Smith Pest Control | Termite & Mosquito Experts Raleigh" breaks that rule unless it's the company's real-world name on its signage and paperwork.
- Fake or incentivized reviews. Google's prohibited and restricted content policy bans paid reviews, reviews offered in exchange for discounts, and selectively asking only happy customers to leave one.
- Duplicate profiles. Google allows one profile per business location. An old profile someone created years ago, or a new one made for a city the company doesn't actually staff, can cause problems for the real one.
Most suspensions come from setup issues that a careful review can catch before Google does.
What Does Getting a Suspended GBP Reinstated Involve?
Getting a suspended profile reinstated means filing an appeal through Google's official appeals tool and proving the business is real and matches its listing. Google explains the process on its fix suspended or disabled profiles page.
- Fix the problem first. Google tells owners to make sure the profile follows every guideline before appealing.
- Submit the appeal. The appeals tool shows the suspended profile, the reason for the suspension, and the policy Google says was broken.
- Add evidence. Google lists official business registration, a business license, tax certificates, and business utility bills (electric, phone, water, or internet) as evidence that can strengthen an appeal.
- Wait for a decision by email. If the appeal is denied, Google allows a request for an additional review with new evidence.
The details matter. Google advises checking that the business name and address on every document match the profile exactly. Google also warns against creating a new profile for the same business while an appeal is under review.
When Google removes a profile, Google says the public can't reach it, and the owner can't manage it. Every day of back-and-forth with Google is another day the company's biggest call source is offline.
Reinstatement takes the right documents, details that match exactly, and time your profile spends offline.
Why Does a GBP Need Someone Watching It?
A GBP needs active monitoring because it can change or go offline without the owner doing anything. Google's own guidelines say it decides how to display a business's address based on the business's information and information from other sources.
The cost of a slow response adds up quickly. At about 35 leads a week for a typical company in our data, every week a problem goes unnoticed puts dozens of leads at risk. A suspension caught in two days is an inconvenience. One caught a month later is a lost season.
Call tracking is one of the best early warnings. When a profile has its own tracking number, a sudden drop in calls on that number can show up before anyone notices a problem with the listing itself. That's the same tracking that made this study possible.
Ownership matters, too. Google reinstates a removed profile through its owner's account, so the business, not a former employee or past vendor, should own it. A profile owned by someone who has left the company can turn a quick fix into a long one.
The faster someone spots a problem with your GBP, the fewer leads you lose.
How Coalmarch Marketing Helps Protect Your GBP
At Coalmarch Marketing, we manage GBPs for pest control and lawn care companies every day. We set up profiles to follow Google's guidelines from the start, track profile calls separately so problems surface fast, and handle the appeal if something goes wrong. If you're not sure who owns your profile or whether it's set up correctly, reach out to our team, and we'll take a look.
