Rewind Series - Google Business Profile — What Contractors Must Know in 2025

Rewind Series: Google Business Profile — What Contractors Must Know in 2025

For years, contractors treated Google Business Profile as a “set it and forget it” listing.

That era is over.

As we head toward 2026, Google Business Profile is no longer just a directory listing — it’s your digital storefront, your trust builder, and one of the strongest drivers of local leads. In many cases, it matters more than your website.

In this Rewind Series episode, we revisited our original 2023 GBP conversation and compared it to what’s working now. Here’s what contractors need to know.

What Still Matters (Even More Than Before)

Some fundamentals haven’t changed — they’ve just become more important.

Homeowners interact with your GBP before your website. Data consistently shows that 60–70% of homeowners engage with your Google Business Profile before ever clicking through to your site.

Reviews are still the #1 trust signal. Google reviews remain the primary place homeowners evaluate contractors. Quantity matters, but freshness, detail, and consistency matter more.

Ownership and access are critical. If you don’t own your listing login, you don’t truly own your digital presence. Contractors still lose profiles every year due to old employees, agencies, or relatives controlling access.

Posting still matters — but not for the reasons you think. Google Posts are less about humans reading them and more about signaling relevance and activity to Google’s algorithm.

What’s Changed Since 2023

Google has dramatically increased how closely it evaluates local intent, activity, and authenticity.

1. Proximity is now the dominant ranking factor

Google heavily weighs where the searcher is, where you are, and whether your service areas reflect real job locations. Contractors should audit service areas quarterly and ensure they match reality.

2. Photos and videos directly affect ranking

Authentic jobsite photos and short videos outperform polished stock images. Contractors should upload 3–5 new photos or videos weekly — straight from the jobsite.

3. Messaging is now mainstream

Homeowners expect to message contractors directly through GBP. Slow responses are publicly labeled by Google and can hurt trust and conversions.

4. Suspensions are more common — and harsher

Keyword stuffing your business name, inconsistent addresses, frequent category changes, or suspicious review spikes can trigger immediate suspension. Stability matters more than ever.

5. Google Posts are tied to ranking relevance

Posting is no longer optional. Consistent updates mentioning services, brands, neighborhoods, and real projects help Google understand what you do and where you do it.

6. Activity frequency is rewarded

Google prioritizes profiles that show steady, ongoing activity — posts, photo uploads, review responses, and updated hours.

7. Review velocity matters more than total count

Google now prefers a steady flow of detailed reviews over a massive total number. Four to six new reviews per month is often more powerful than hundreds of outdated ones.

The 2025–2026 GBP Checklist

Contractors who follow these steps consistently will outperform most local competitors:

  • Upload 3–5 photos or videos weekly
  • Turn on messaging and respond quickly
  • Request 1–2 reviews per week
  • Post 2–3 Google updates weekly
  • Audit service areas quarterly
  • Respond to every review (positive and negative)
  • Maintain stable business information
  • Ensure you are the listing owner

Google Business Profile is no longer passive. Contractors who treat it like an active marketing channel — and not just a listing — will win local visibility heading into 2026.

🎧 Listen to the full episode of Digital Marketing for Contractors for the complete breakdown.

Audio only version of the podcast here.

Podcast Transcript

Welcome to Digital Marketing for Contractors, a podcast for home improvement contractors to help you crush your lead goals and take your business to the next level. Join us each episode as we give you powerful insights and practical tips on the best digital marketing strategies to help you grow your home improvement business. Let’s get started.

Caitlyn Noble: 

Hey everyone, welcome back to Digital Marketing for Contractors Podcasts, the Rewind Series. We are revisiting our most popular episodes of all time and giving you the updated 2025 insights.

Meredith Medlin: 

Yeah, and today we are rewinding one of our oldest and most foundational episodes, originally released in February 2023. It was so old that we were still calling it Google My Business, which yeah, makes me laugh now.

Caitlyn Noble: 

We still kind of do. I don’t even think we introduced ourselves, by the way. I am Caitlin and I have my lovely and beautiful business partner with me. Hello, I am Meredith, said lovely and beautiful business partner. And yes, we are recording this rewind series. Thanks for tuning back in. We’ve already done two. This should be the third. Um, yeah, and long before Google officially rebranded everything into Google Business Profile, which we all like it was GMB, now it’s GBP. Honestly, the amount of change that has happened since February of 2023 has been wild, personally and professionally.

Meredith Medlin: 

Absolutely. So today we’re taking some time to break down what we said in 2023 to tell you what still matters, what’s different in 2025, and what every contractor needs to be doing right now. Make sure you’re keeping the leads flowing.

Caitlyn Noble: 

Oh my gosh. Well, that should have gotten your attention. So what did we say back in 2023 in that original episode? We opened by saying we really want to provide some clarity around the idea of Google My Business, what it is, how it’s meant to help you, and the practical things you can do to take advantage of this free tool.

Meredith Medlin: 

Yeah, and we started with the basics, of course, using the classic example, my personal favorite, pizza. Pizza. Um, if you search pizza restaurants near me, the first thing you see isn’t the restaurant’s website, it’s their Google Business Profile.

Caitlyn Noble: 

Yep, correct. The listing with the photos, hours, reviews, call now, get directions, all of that. You described it perfectly. We described it perfectly. Um in that original episode. So we said if you if you don’t know what Google Business Profile is, it’s that little box that floats on the right hand side of the search with hours, photos, reviews. That’s what Google Business is. I really hope y’all are still listening. I promise we’re gonna get to it.

Meredith Medlin: 

So we emphasized a shift in 2023 towards zero-click searches. Um that’s where homeowners get all the information that they need without even going to your website. Um, basically, somebody gets everything they need from your Google Business profile, and they never even land on your website.

Caitlyn Noble: 

It’s so, so, so important. So this is still relevant. We warned that contractors, you have to have two digital homes. You have to. You have to maintain your website and you have to maintain your Google business profile. Absolutely.

Meredith Medlin: 

Um, we also walked through the basics of setting it up, verifying it, adding services, photos, and we spend a big chunk of time talking about posting updates, adding products and services to it, managing your reviews, and making sure that you don’t lose access to it. Um, specifically if a past employee set it up, your cousin Tanya set it up, whoever set it up, make sure you have access.

Caitlyn Noble: 

And that’s still very relevant. It’s so relevant. We still see it happening. Um, and that is really what that first episode about GBP was focused on. It’s one of our most popular episodes. You can still find it, you can still listen to it. I still think it’s relevant. But what we’re gonna do today is talk about what’s changed. Um let’s talk about what’s still true because a lot of it still matters.

Meredith Medlin: 

Absolutely. So um data continues to show that 60 to 70 percent of homeowners interact with your GBP before your website. I believe it. Yeah. Your your Google Business Profile drives your local presence, which as contractors who have a local service area, you know how important that is. Um, local SEO is equivalent to your reviews, um, how relevant you are, your proximity and your activity on Google Business Profile and your online um NAP consistency. So where your business listing exists, make sure it’s the same everywhere. Address phone number has to be the same. Absolutely. Um, number three, reviews are still the number one trust signal for contractors. That hasn’t changed at all. Um, even as consumers, we know we’re gonna check the reviews before we buy something or we go with a specific company or business. Um, and your Google Business profile, that’s where almost all homeowner reviews live, um if not the majority. So having those reviews and having positive reviews, that’s crucial. And y’all, we have a ton of episodes you can listen about getting reviews. So go listen to that. Um, still true. You must have ownership and access to your listing. Yes. I will say that again. Please make sure you are the owner and you have access to your listing. If you don’t know the login, you really don’t own your digital presence at all.

Caitlyn Noble: 

So no. Um I think we could go into a lot of detail about making sure you own things. I know we’ve gone and done an episode about that too. Uh there’s a lot of different uh levels of ownership for the Google Business Profile. Right. I mean, we will get uh access to our clients and we’ll be, you know, given like view access. Right. You can’t do anything with that.

Meredith Medlin: 

Um edit access, and we need edit access as your agency, but you as the owners, make sure you are the owner. Yes. Um and of course, posting helps. Yes. Um, but now it’s not really for humans, it’s more for Google’s algorithm. Um, yes, your uh reviews are gonna be reviewed by humans that are gonna be prospective prospects for your company. You had to say that. I’m glad I did too. Um but really Google’s algorithm is scanning for your posts, um, not just the content, but also consistency. So true. Are you posting consistently showing Google that you’re an active company on the platform?

Caitlyn Noble: 

Yes, we absolutely post on all of our clients’ Google business profiles. No brainer, you have to do it. For sure. All right, so y’all, we just went through what’s still true about your Google business profile. Um, now we need to definitely talk about why we’re here, and that’s talking about what’s different. We are two weeks out from 2026. Uh, we know that Google Business Profile has drastically changed since the update back in 2023. So let’s talk about the differences. Google is prioritizing local intent more than ever. What does that mean? So back in 2023, proximity mattered. In 2025, it’s basically the number one ranking factor. Google now heavily weighs where the searcher is, where you are, where your service areas overlap, and how often you show proof that you actually work in those areas. Okay, so here’s your action step taking away what you need to be doing. You need to update your service areas quarterly and make sure they match real job locations. You can do that directly in the profile. Right, right. Meredith, what’s the second difference?

Meredith Medlin: 

Second difference is, you know, we told you before, be posting photos, post videos, but now your photos and videos heavily affect your ranking. Um, you know, authentic job site photos are the new important factor when you’re thinking about when you’re when you’re posting any kind of media. So photos and videos, make sure that they’re real raw photos from your job sites. Take a short video when you’re on the job site. Um, when people do this and when we do that for our companies, we see higher visibility, more what you call mat pack appearances, uh, more impressions and more engagement. So, action item um will challenge you to go ahead and upload three to five new photos or videos every week. Yes and do it directly from the job site. Don’t worry about editing, post those raw, unpolished, and real. Um, Google loves to see that, and so do your customers.

Caitlyn Noble: 

And if you listen to our last episode about branding, I mean, this is a theme that we’re gonna keep saying. Please just take the video. When you take the video, don’t only upload it on social, please just upload it to Google Business Profile. Done, done and done. For sure. Okay. Difference number three. What do we mean? Difference number three. Your GBP messaging is now mainstream. What does the word mainstream mean? It’s everywhere. Remember when messaging was optional and half baked? Yeah, we do. It’s not anymore. Nope. Homeowners expect um to message contractors directly through GBP, like texting. And if you don’t respond quickly, Google will label your business as typically slows slow to respond. Yikes. You might as well have a horrible like set of reviews. Yeah. Um, I know that would turn me off from messaging somebody. So if you haven’t done so already, please turn your messaging settings on and assign an internal role. Um, who’s gonna respond to your GBP messages? I’m not saying you’re gonna get a million. Like it’s not like this dedicated job position, but somebody needs to be able to get an alert, which you do via email. This person messaged you, go and respond to them.

Meredith Medlin: 

Absolutely. Um, so next difference we want to talk about is I hate this word. I know Google is cracking down so much harder on violations. Uh, in 2023, we warned you, you know, don’t get cute with your business name. Google will disable your profile instantly. It’s the truth.

Caitlyn Noble: 

It’s still the truth.

Meredith Medlin: 

It really is. And those changes uh are really hard to get past the block that they put on you once you’ve done it. So um unfortunately, 2025, it’s even harsher. Uh we’ve seen businesses get suspended for all kinds of things. A couple of those, um, you’re adding service keywords to your business name, thinking that’s going to help with SEO, uh, switching your address up, inconsistent NAP listings, too many category changes on your GBP, too many owner or admin user changes. Yes. Um, or I know too many reviews, but not just too many reviews. It’s when they come in too quickly.

Caitlyn Noble: 

All of this is true, y’all. We’ve seen all of this happen.

Meredith Medlin: 

All of it. So getting a bunch of reviews back to back to back, um, you know, it can look suspicious to Google. So And it is, you know, it can look fake, it can look like, hey, I just paid a bunch of people to give me reviews. Yeah. It it’s not authentic. Google is honoring authenticity.

Caitlyn Noble: 

So I I think that’s a really good point. And I think I’m not trying to sound like you know an oxymoron, but like you have to get reviews. You have to post content. But we’re talking about going in and like physically changing your listing information. Right. Like, don’t go in and change your business name. Don’t go in and change your address a hundred times. Don’t go in and change your categories. Like it’s it’s a lot, but you do need to post. You do need to get reviews.

Meredith Medlin: 

Right, right. And we, you know, we do have clients and there are many companies that will change locations. If you’re working with an agency, make sure you’re talking to them about your location change. Um, if you aren’t communicating that, things aren’t gonna get updated. Um, so just a pro tip: make sure you’re communicating if you’re changing your location. Um, you’re not gonna get penalized for changing it if you actually move, but just be intentional about it. So um, if you want an action item out of this, once a quarter, go ahead and audit your Google business profile. Um, make sure you have the correct business name, you have a stable address, you’re not moving it around. Um, you have a consistent service category list, and you let’s not change anything weird on your profile. Um, if somebody on your staff has access, let’s try to limit that. Limit that. You know what I mean? Like let’s keep it consistent. Google appreciates that.

Caitlyn Noble: 

Difference number five. I mean, it’s been two years. There’s gonna be a lot of differences. Oh, for sure. Google Post, which we were just talking about, are now tied to your ranking relevance. So you may not like your, I mean, we’re sitting here like saying address, you know, um, put photos, put videos up, you know, make sure your services are correct, make sure your phone number is correct. Down below on your um Google business profile, there’s an option for post. And a lot of people just don’t even see them. Google sees them. Right. So it was nice to have, like we said, you have to now post. Whether I’m telling you somebody’s gonna see them or not, Google is gonna see them and they’re gonna use them to understand what your services are. So make sure your posts are containing product brand names, your service types, neighborhoods, uh, zip codes, you name it, are all gonna help with ranking. Um, so again, we do this, it’s a no-brainer. Post two to three weekly updates on your Google Business profile, which by the way, you can schedule ahead of time about product manufacturers, services, local neighborhoods, real job stories.

Meredith Medlin: 

Absolutely. Difference number six, the Mat Pack algorithm. Now it’s rewarding activity frequency. So, you know, the phrase set it and forget it, that that doesn’t count anymore. Google does not reward that. Google is prioritizing GBB profiles that are showing consistent activity. So that means posting.

Caitlyn Noble: 

That means we’re like, do it, don’t do it, do it, don’t do it.

Meredith Medlin: 

I know, but and and it’s it’s not like a high volume, right? But it’s just consistency. If you’re showing consistent activity, like we said, two to three times a week posting, right? Um, and also posting different kinds of content. Um, you know, post photos, post um videos on the job site.

Caitlyn Noble: 

Um This is important.

Meredith Medlin: 

Yeah, make sure that you’re responding to your reviews. Yes. Um, there is nothing worse than getting an amazing review and then nobody acknowledging it. Yeah. Um, Google wants to see that activity. And responding to reviews, even if they’re negative, um, you have to respond to those too and do it in a professional way. Um, you know, whether it’s positive or negative, a response is critical, and Google will see that as active and responsive, which it will reward. Um, another one that uh you may forget to do, easy to forget, is your hours on your profile. Update those around the holidays. Um, the more accurate your business hours are, the better. So keep those updated.

Caitlyn Noble: 

Google will email you. If you are the owner of that profile, you are going to, or even a manager of that profile, you are gonna get an email. Is this business open for Christmas? So go click in there, don’t ignore the email and just do it.

Meredith Medlin: 

Yeah, treat basically treat your Google business profile like another one of your marketing channels that you check in with weekly. It’s not a static listing anymore. This isn’t 2023, it’s almost 2026. So let’s follow these new best practices. And I think we got one left.

Caitlyn Noble: 

I don’t believe it. Difference number seven the review velocity and quality matter more than total count. Let’s talk about what that means. This is probably gonna be a shock. Google cares less about a thousand reviews, and Google now cares more about are you getting new ones? Like, like just are you getting reviews?

Meredith Medlin: 

Yeah, like okay, I got a thousand reviews, but the last one was in 2024.

Caitlyn Noble: 

Yeah, you’re not a real business.

Meredith Medlin: 

Okay, so I would rather have a hundred reviews and they’re coming in every month.

Caitlyn Noble: 

Yeah, yeah. I mean, yes. So keep getting new reviews. Um, are your reviews detailed? Um, y’all like I can’t say this enough. Yes, getting a review relevant is of course important. If y’all can get your customers to just go into detail and name somebody, talk about, you know, what was specifically done.

Meredith Medlin: 

Um I think there’s some I think a lot of our clients do um rewards for installers when they do a leave behind card to mention what them in the review, what the service was. This is a great way to meet this requirement.

Caitlyn Noble: 

100%. Yeah. So within that detailed review, you’re actually listing what services were um, you know, coming in. And if I if we didn’t say it once, I’ll say it again. Um, are you responding to the rose those reviews? So um, I know Meredith just said, you know, a couple reviews a month. A thousand reviews isn’t the most important thing, but if y’all can get four to six reviews per month steady, not emburst, you’re gonna be super successful and Google’s gonna love to see it.

Meredith Medlin: 

For sure. And we want to make the all-knowing, all-seeing Google happy. We all know that.

Caitlyn Noble: 

All knowing, all seeing.

Meredith Medlin: 

So if you are going to take away one thing from this episode instead of the 75 that we just listed, I liked recapping what happened in the past. Let it be this your Google business profile is now your digital storefront. Yes, it is critical. So almost more than your website, more than your social media, more than your ads, your Google business profile is your digital storefront. Treat it as such. So, Caitlin, what are the 2025, soon to be 2026 GBP must-dos.

Caitlyn Noble: 

Yes, we’ll rename this because we’re gonna post it on our website.

Meredith Medlin: 

2026, baby.

Caitlyn Noble: 

So you got 2026 GBP checklist. Number one, you’re gonna upload three to five photos or videos weekly. Super easy to do. Okay. Those are not as post, those are just where you can add a photo to your profile. You are gonna turn on messaging and you’re gonna respond fast because that’s a lead. You are going to ask for one to two reviews every week. And I’m telling you guys, like, you if you might be listening to this, you’re like, I’m too small, like I don’t get one to two jobs, like I don’t have that. Go back and ask people from the satisfied customers. Yeah, the way back machine, and ask them. Ask them. Um, that that’s super healthy. So now you’re gonna also make sure you’re posting uh two to three updates a week is you know, some kind of wonderful. If you post once a week, yeah, and you’re including brand names, you’re including neighborhoods, you’re calling out services.

Meredith Medlin: 

That’s gonna be a lot more detailed and a lot more consistent than most of your competitors, I guarantee you.

Caitlyn Noble: 

Correct. Um, you’re gonna audit your service areas quarterly, just make sure, you know, you’re not saying that you serve in an area that you no longer do.

Meredith Medlin: 

Or if you’re growing and you have new service areas.

Caitlyn Noble: 

That’s ideal. Let the people know. You have to let people know. Google is not just gonna know. Um, you’re gonna respond to every review. Feel like I already said this, but you have to, no matter what, the good and the bad. Um, you’re gonna make sure you own the listing login. Please just go check. You’re the owner, you’re the owner. Owner, you’re the owner. Um, you’re gonna use categories correctly. Uh, that’s something we didn’t go into too much detail about, but that’s another part of your profile is categories. You’re gonna use that correctly.

Meredith Medlin: 

Yeah. And you know, this is an eight-point checklist, nothing crazy. It’s not. Um, if you check these boxes, you’re gonna outrank like 90% of the local contractors in your area. So let’s get an easy step up. We have the checklist, you can follow it. Where can they find it?

Caitlyn Noble: 

Oh my gosh. It’s uh so easy to find, and it’s a free download, which is even better. So you’re gonna go to our website, fatcatstrategies.com backslash you guessed it, GBP.

Meredith Medlin: 

How are we gonna remember that? I don’t know. That’s a hard one.

Caitlyn Noble: 

Um, so our website backslash GBP.

Meredith Medlin: 

Perfect. It’s got everything you need, all the things to fix, what you can ignore, and very importantly, how to avoid account suspension, because that is not a fun process to have to undo.

Caitlyn Noble: 

No, and it does happen more frequently than we thought. It does, it does. Um, I have another, you know, little thing for you guys as well. Plug, I guess is the right word. Yeah. Um, if you’re listening to this and you’re like, gosh, I’m just struggling to get reviews, I don’t have time to do it. Um, I just don’t want to do it. Yeah. We have a solution. Yeah. Fat Cat Strategies has a service called Review Boost. You can check it out and learn more again at our website, fatcatstrategies.com, backslash one word, review boost, and we will help you get more reviews at a pretty low cost.

Meredith Medlin: 

Yeah, no. And they’re authentic. They’re good. They’re real. There’s nothing sketchy about it. No bots here.

Caitlyn Noble: 

I’m gonna let you kick this one off.

Meredith Medlin: 

All right. Well, I just want to thank all of you for listening for joining us in this episode of our Rewind series. Like we said, GBP has changed a lot since 2023, but it remains one of the most powerful tools you contractors have in your toolbox. Um, you know, next to the wrenches and drills and all of that.

Caitlyn Noble: 

So she went there.

Meredith Medlin: 

Make sure you’re taking advantage of it and make sure you’re subscribed.

Caitlyn Noble: 

Yeah, please subscribe. Um, because next week we’re gonna drop another rewind episode, the best of the best. Um, so you don’t want to miss it. All right. We’ll see you next time. Bye. Bye.

Janet: 

Yeah. So let’s talk about the two big headlines that we’ve been reading and talking about here inside of Fat Cat. And those two headlines come from two different sources. Source number one is the National Association of Home Builders and source number two is the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. So on one hand you’ve got the Home Builders Association that has this actually honestly a little bit gloomy headline coming out of it. It’s not even a little bit it’s just straight up gloomy. So the National Association of Home Builders said that July of 2025 marked the 16 consecutive months of a falling housing market index. So that means every month for 16 months, the index that they track and that kind of tracks like the health of the home building industry, that index is trending down. And we all know, even though I said a lot of words, if you’re looking at a chart, you want the line to go up to the right, not down. And so the home builders are saying lines going down. And in fact, 38% of builders who were surveyed in July reported that they are actually cutting their prices. And that’s the highest percent of home builders reporting on that since they started tracking it in 2022. So that’s on the kind of the negative side of the coin. Now let’s talk about the flip side of that. So that’s the news coming out of the National Association of Home Builders. If we look at one of my favorite sources, which is Harvard has I don’t even know if it’s called a department. I kind of picture it like a magic building. It’s called the Joint Center for Housing Studies. There’s a whole website that anybody can go and look at, and this center does just a ton of analysis and really solid writing, and they put out infographics all about housing in the United States. And that looks at total housing inventory, who owns it, demographics, trends, what’s being built. Part of that Joint Center for Housing Studies includes some really amazing analysis on the remodeling industry, which is what you guys care about. And in fact, they have, this center has what they call LIRA, L-I-R-A. That is the Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity. They look at a bunch of numbers, they crunch them, and then they give us a forecast. That forecast is predicting that Q1 of 2026, we’re going to see an uptick in remodeling activity. Praise. So if we put these two thoughts together, I’d love to get your input on this, Caitlin. It kind of makes sense to me. If we’re not building as many homes, people still want to live and eat inside. That means they’re going to be remodeling more. Right. So to me, as a non-economist, non-math nerd. Sure. I just think it’s totally logical that if you see some sort of crunch in housing, you’re going to see an uptick in remodeling.

Caitlyn: 

Always.

Janet: 

We’ve

Caitlyn: 

been doing this for a long time, Janet. I mean, it’s going to ebb and flow, and that’s what we’ve been telling our clients, too, is, yeah, this year, if you’re listening to it, I mean, and you’re shaking your head, like, this has not been the best year in terms of lead generation, you name it, for just digital presence. A lot has been shaken both, you know, out of our control, in our control, And I think it’s funny that these two headlines do conflict. But I also think that it’s something to look forward to and something we’re coaching as we’re preparing for 2026 is do the legwork now. We know prices have dropped. We know things have slowed down. That means you cannot stop marketing. You cannot stop marketing your business. You just you can’t. And I’m tying it, of course, selfishly back to what we do here. Right. But it’s easy to hold back and pull back when things are not going well. well. We’ve seen many, many, many companies make that mistake. This is not the time to do that. Harvard’s telling us,

Janet: 

yeah, there’s going to be more interest in remodeling. And in fact, I’m just going to go ahead and segue into the next section and look at, there’s some new lists that have come out and a few surveys that I think sort of bolster our argument here that even though things may look a little gloomy on the house building side, there’s room to be hopeful on the remodeling side so what’s the first um what’s the top of the list here when we’re moving into looking at surveys and some lists that have been published

Caitlyn: 

yeah no totally and i’m reflecting back on um i didn’t talk about what i was going to say in the last segment oh do it now but yeah i’ll go ahead and do it so uh my husband works for a fortune 500 company which does help um segue into the next conversation we’re going to have and they do all new builds new home builds. I don’t want to go into too many details. They’re all over the country, right? They’re all over the country, national company, huge company. And they’ve only focused on building homes. And the insulation that goes is one of those things that they do. Yeah, they install

Janet: 

insulation. I know Janet can explain it better than what

Caitlyn: 

I can. They

Janet: 

install, they’re insulation installers, which is really hard to say.

Caitlyn: 

Yeah, no. And so like to tie back to these two headlines, they just made an announcement that they have added on a remodeling division to that portion of their company. Because

Janet: 

they saw their business with new home construction

Caitlyn: 

slow down. 100%. It has. It’s completely slowed down. Again, I can’t give away too much, but they’ve had to go through a lot of different changes as well to adapt to this slower period, which is absolutely accurate. But they’re optimistic about what’s going to come by adding on this remodeling division. So the

Janet: 

conversations that you’re having around your kitchen table mirror what we’re seeing. 100%. 100% that we’re talking about on this podcast and that we see at work. Yes,

Caitlyn: 

yeah, and whether they’re actually happening or I’m just snooping. So anyway, so back to the surveys, and we talked about the Fortune 500. The Qualified Remodeler, if you’re listening and don’t know, you should know, they come out with a list of the top 500 companies in terms of what they install, dollar volume, how many years they’ve been in business, what associations they’re involved in, certifications, etc. So it’s a really, really solid list of companies that ranks the top remodelers every single year.

Janet: 

Yeah, and that list just came out. We love it when that list comes out. Again, listener, if you’re not aware of this list, it’s a great resource. I think it’s a great resource for smaller companies to aspire. You know, you look at some of the bigger companies that maybe you’ve never heard of. Maybe they’re six states away from you. And you can look at their website, look at what they’re doing Maybe learn from companies who’ve blazed a trail ahead of you that are, you know, maybe they’re in the top 15 or 20 or even top 100 of this top 500. We just think it’s such an amazing resource for this industry. We love it when this list comes out. And if you’re not aware of it, go check it out. Go check it out. Qualified Remodeler Top 500. Top

Caitlyn: 

500. It comes out every year. You obviously have to submit information that you have to be willing to share with the world. Yeah. But it did report that there were nearly 25 billion remodeling sales. I’m not even saying that the right way, but like there was about… $25

Janet: 

billion in remodeling was spent in the United States across 2.2 million completed jobs. Correct,

Caitlyn: 

correct. So that’s

Janet: 

amazing. That’s a lot of remodeling activity.

Caitlyn: 

That’s fantastic. And that’s coming just from those 500 companies who submitted, you know, to be on this list. Correct. So beyond numbers, one of the biggest takeaways is how companies are not just doing single services anymore. If you go to that list, which I hope you do, you’re going to see, I mean, I promise you the top 15, maybe the top 50 are offering multiple services like roofing, siding, windows, baths. It’s not just one and done. And this supports, Janet, a couple of other surveys that we have to share.

Janet: 

Well, it does. It doesn’t just support the surveys. It supports some of the trends that we’ve seen in terms of search with the major platforms. But before we get to that, let’s wrap up some of the other surveys. That’s a good point. So we’ve got Qualified Remodeler has published its new list. We’ve got two other headlines that we wanted to share. The American Institute of Architects has recently published a survey that they did with their members. 62% of the architects surveyed report an uptick in adu projects so those are accessory dwelling units yes which to me that kind of goes back to this whole housing thing it does you know if if we’re not building enough houses people got to live somewhere and i think there’s an interest in folks building these accessory dwelling units and renting them out having them be mother-in-law suites correct so if you are a gc and you can build one of these guys maybe there’s an adu in your future

Caitlyn: 

yeah so i think that’s super important and like again as an add-on project like as an add-on service

Janet: 

yes additions so the other survey i wanted to hit on is house h-o-u-z-z the website we all know and love house surveyed 22 000 homeowners through their website and 54 of those surveyed reported that they did some sort of kitchen or bath project in 2024 so that’s over half now That doesn’t surprise me because you’re asking people who are on house, and they’re probably on house because they’re looking at cabinet colors.

Caitlyn: 

Yeah, you’re on Pinterest because you’re trying to plan a wedding. You’re on house because you’re

Janet: 

planning a bathroom remodel.

Caitlyn: 

Yes, but still. So over half of those people still renovated in 2024.

Janet: 

Now, the one thing that also mirrors what we’ve seen is, according to the survey results, the median budget for those projects dropped about $4,000 compared to 2023 so more than half of people are remodeling but they’re spending slightly less on the overall project ties back to what the

Caitlyn: 

hba was saying about builders having to cut their prices yes so that goes hand in hand

Janet: 

yes

Caitlyn: 

um kitchens though remain the most popular

Janet: 

yeah on on house even though you know the architects are telling us that they’re seeing an uptick in adus when people are surveyed on house the number one thing that they want to remodel is their kitchen

Caitlyn: 

Yep. Followed by primary bathrooms. So just a couple of things to note, like in terms of, are you offering those services? Are you thinking about offering those services? Is there, there’s an interest in the market for you to offer those? There is definitely an interest. That’s a great point. So because we’re digital marketers, we obviously love these surveys. We love these resources. Most of them did come directly from pro remodeler linked back to those specific sources. Anyways, we always recommend reference google search trends um that’s where we live and breathe to make a lot of decisions uh from your seo to your pbc to what’s working on your website etc google search trends it’s a free tool you can use it um go find it what we saw uh diy kitchen and diy bathroom searches so somebody who physically goes to google and searches on terms related to doing it themselves correct are way down from COVID peaks.

Janet: 

That doesn’t surprise me. It doesn’t surprise me at all. People were stuck

Caitlyn: 

at home. You were at home. You

Janet: 

were hating your bathroom. You were hating your kitchen. Yeah, I think to me the theme here with all of this, you know, the news coming out of the home builders, the news coming out of the Harvard Center for, you know, looking at remodeling, there’s still projects to be done. Right. But it is not the peak of COVID. No. Where, I mean, during the peak of COVID, we were all stuck at home or so many people who had maybe never worked from home before are suddenly working from home five days a week.

Caitlyn: 

Hating their home.

Janet: 

Hating their home. Their kids are going to school from home. If you’re listening to this and you were in business, then you know it. Yeah. You know that you were as busy as you wanted to be.

Caitlyn: 

That 2021 year was phenomenal. Yes. Yes.

Janet: 

And we were kind of all riding that crest from 2021. Really? Until like mid-2024. What

Caitlyn: 

did it say? Since 2022. That was one of the years when the pricing started to decrease. On new home builds. Yeah, yeah, yeah. On new home builds. Yeah, home builds, yes. Sorry. I’m talking about remodeling. Yeah, sorry. I thought it was… Anyways. Anyways. Lots of numbers. Lots of numbers.

Janet: 

We got a little bit confused. Huge interest. Huge opportunity in the country to make money doing remodeling. That opportunity is still there. But… The leads are going to be a little bit harder to come by. Yes. There’s going to be more competition and your marketing is going to have to be really on point. But the good news is that not as many people are searching on DIY anymore. No. If they’re going to do a project, they want to hire somebody. So that’s kind of like where, you know, that’s our read on the pulse right now. That there’s still opportunities, but, you know, I mean, I’ll just tell a personal story in the middle of COVID it was prices cutting on projects on projects I thought it was on homes 38% of builders reported cutting prices but those are on new home builds just new home builds

Caitlyn: 

yes It doesn’t matter. In our show notes, we’ll have the links to all of these resources.

Janet: 

I would love it for somebody to come on and argue with us about numbers.

Caitlyn: 

I was just reading this like, oh, we’ve just had to cut prices. But anyways, on new home builds. On new home builds. Janet’s going to keep going. We were talking about a personal story about these surveys and the

Janet: 

headlines. So, I mean, the way I relate to… The opportunity and strong remodeling industry in COVID, during the middle of COVID, I personally did this more than once. Sitting at a stoplight, I see a truck with a brand on it, some kind of remodeling service that I need with a phone number. I was taking pictures of trucks on the highway and at stoplights and honestly like if I saw somebody in my neighborhood I’d go marching my happy ass up in the middle of their driveway and trying to distract that contractor while he’s working on somebody else’s job because I literally could not get anybody to call me back you know I had gutters that needed to be replaced my driveway needed to be repaved there were things I wanted done I was calling folks I was filling out forms you were nobody was calling me back listener that day is not today homeowners are not tracking you down at a stoplight to get your phone number so there are still leads out there but you’re going to have to work harder to get them you’re going to have to be a better marketer you’re going to have to have an online presence you’re going to have to have multiple lead sources and all news items that we’re looking at and industry analysts are showing that same thing that there’s still demand there but it’s not the rah-rah that it was in 2020 21, 22, and even like really the most of 2023. Yeah. And so when we look at that top 500 list, the companies that we see performing the best are those more mature companies that might have multiple offerings. Their marketing is on point. They might be running TV ads. They’ve got a canvassing game. They’ve got a strong, they did not

Caitlyn: 

stop their marketing.

Janet: 

They did not stop their marketing. They’ve got a strong call center. It’s, where we see companies struggling the most are those smaller companies that may not have the ability to staff a call center. That’s right. They’re not able to, you know, have that speed to lead reply. They have seen the cost of their third party leads that they’re buying from like Angie’s List and Home Advisor. They’ve seen the cost of those go up and the quality go down. All of those are indicators of a slight cooling in remodeling, but But it doesn’t mean there’s not opportunity there. There’s still opportunity. And some of these studies are indicating that first quarter 2026, it’s going to be a little bit on the uptick.

Caitlyn: 

That’s fantastic. So hunker down, hang tight. We’ll let you guys know if any of those stats change.

Janet: 

Okay, so let’s talk about platforms. And what do we mean by platforms? Platforms are the big tech companies. Meta, which is Facebook and Instagram. Google, we all know Google. And then AI is not really a platform. It’s technology and there’s a bunch of companies out there, but there’s news to share on the platform. On the digital marketing side

Caitlyn: 

of the tools that we are using, that you’re maybe using. Yeah, so Caitlin, what is up with Meta? Well, thank God I was on vacation, to be honest. Yeah, it was super confusing. I think I was it was the Friday right before Labor Day, which is just cruel. And there was a bunch of alerts that went out um through the meta platform advertising platform alerting uh anybody who was advertising like whoa whoa whoa you’ve got to start paying up

Janet: 

front for your ads which okay in 25 years what is how long i’ve been doing it you’ve been doing it say 15 years yeah have you ever seen a digital platform ask for advertisers to pay up front

Caitlyn: 

god no i mean like i’m sitting here thinking of things that i pay up front for it’s certainly not Facebook ads.

Janet: 

No, I don’t even know how that would work because digital ads are based on the activity, whether you’re clicking, whether the ad was displayed to somebody, whether the video was shown. So how do you bill in advance for that?

Caitlyn: 

So you can’t, and Meta took that back, undid it, hit the undo button.

Janet: 

So they made this big stink the Friday before Labor Day, and then come Tuesday, they were like, Like, psych, we didn’t mean any of that.

Caitlyn: 

This is hard. And let’s not do that. We have other things to worry about. So that was a quick thing with meta. I think a takeaway there is, you know, whether it’s you or your agency in the platform and you’re getting alerted from any of these resources that you are paying a lot of money to use, take a beat, pause. A lot of it isn’t as, I’m trying to say this the best way because it’s, it’s not a big of a fire that you think it is. Let the holiday weekend pass.

Janet: 

Yeah.

Caitlyn: 

If it gets shut down, it won’t. I’m just like, I want your

Janet: 

money. They’re not going to shut down your

Caitlyn: 

account. Right, right, right, right. And many times you always see this, this is like a tactic that’s just spam and it’s just bad. So always consult with your agency or somebody before you click and commit to anything like giving Facebook money up front because that’s the last thing Facebook needs.

Janet: 

Just like you don’t want to get scammed by fake people on Facebook. You don’t want to get scammed by the actual Facebook

Caitlyn: 

either. Thank you. Let’s not. Let’s not. Let’s not. Let’s not. Other things with Meta, just to let you know whether you care or you don’t care, they shifted from a min-max spend setting to average spend limits. So this is interesting. I haven’t been as close in the Meta advertising platform, like on the back end, because there’s experts that we have on our team that do that. But that being said, that’s interesting because this is now probably going to hurt performance on peak days, like after storms for roofing contractors. So instead of having those min-max spin settings to just having average, yeah, I’m out here processing out loud kind of the repercussions. I think what it means is

Janet: 

you could have your ads stop showing on a day when you really want them to show because it’s being averaged out over the month rather than allowing to have peaks and valleys throughout the month.

Caitlyn: 

Right, right. You can’t see my face, but I’m trying to process why they would do that.

Janet: 

Yeah, we don’t know.

Caitlyn: 

So instead of optimizing for high engagement days like Janet said, it could actually cap spend which reaches you at a limit. So just keep an eye on that. Yeah,

Janet: 

your spend could get cut off. Let’s say by, I don’t know, 3 o’clock in the afternoon, when your audience likes to come home after work and that’s when you have historically gotten more engagement absolutely yeah so we don’t know what’s what’s up with we don’t know what the hell’s going on with meta but like they made this weird announcement last week and now they’ve got this shift from min budget settings to average which we think could hurt i mean we have roofers who tell us like hey look at the weather totally if there’s an ice storm coming oh yeah you know let’s let’s run ads. Let’s, um,

Caitlyn: 

I’ll, I’ll say this. And I, I mean, we recommend meta to clients with, it’s, it, it’s not, it doesn’t answer everything. It’s not the cure. No, it’s not going to be your end all be all. It’s part of the whole solution. It’s part of the whole solution. And so like, we’re saying what’s up with meta. If you’re on the fence about meta right now, I mean, I don’t think you’re missing a lot. Um, yeah, it’s that, I guess that’s the headline. So,

Janet: 

Yeah. I just, we like to follow what’s going on with the platforms. Yeah, totally. And I kind of chuckled with that whole, like.

Caitlyn: 

That’s insane.

Janet: 

Let’s make a big deal out of it, and then let’s turn around three days later and go, never mind.

Caitlyn: 

I don’t even mean it. What time on Friday? That’s just terrible.

Janet: 

Yeah, right before Labor Day weekend.

Caitlyn: 

Okay, something else that’s really fun, fun, quote unquote fun, that we hear a ton from, and this is critical. This is so, so, so, so critical. Review management. is dominating across industries. This isn’t news. You guys know this. If you’re, again, a remodeling contractor and you don’t have reviews, I am quite unsure how you’re in business. Not to just be… Yeah, but

Janet: 

I think the headline is the platforms, specifically Google, are taking it even a step further. Even more serious. So we know that reviews have been critical to service businesses for years. Have to be. But… There’s a new study coming out of Yext, Y-E-X-T, which is another industry analyst that we follow. Yes. This group studied 8.7 million Google searches to see how local business profiles, those Google business profiles, how they show up across different industries. And what they found is that if you are slow to respond to reviews that can negatively impact whether or not your business shows up in searches on maps and for that Google local business

Caitlyn: 

profile. while so I’m going to say that again because yes I went on a riff about how important it is to get reviews but now not only is it important to get those reviews you have to respond to those and quickly in a timely fashion right like very fast

Janet: 

so this what this what this study is telling us and what’s even weirder about it is it seems to vary by region yeah by region so in the northeast let’s say you’re a painter and you’re in Connecticut. If you take two weeks to respond to somebody that leaves you a review, that’s not going to have as big of an impact on whether or not your painting business shows up when someone searches for a painter. It’s not going to have as big of an impact as if you were in Atlanta. So in the South and the West, if you are slow to respond to reviews, that could make it so that your Google business profile just doesn’t even show up. when people are searching for your services. It’s crazy. And then in the Midwest, what the survey found is that even if you get a review on the weekend and you’re slow in responding, it can hurt your online visibility. Yeah, that’s insane. So we’ll put links to all this stuff in the show notes. I was frankly surprised at this. We’ve always known reviews are critical. We preach it to our clients, get reviews. The news headline here is, Not only get the reviews, but you have to respond to them, both the positive and the negatives, and you have to do it lickety split.

Caitlyn: 

Lickety split. I think the regional side of things and the industry side of things is weird. And I would take that with a grain of salt. Because, I mean, this was published, I just looked, like August 15th, 2025. Google’s going to do Google. They’re going to change what they’re going to change. But please, please, please, please respond to those reviews. We at Fat Cat have several tools that… offer a solution to respond to those quickly um but say you take

Janet: 

that task off your plate

Caitlyn: 

yeah that totally can take that task off your plate um so one reach out to your agency see if they have a a tool that to help you responding to reviews quickly because that’s so critical um if you don’t work with an agency you know it’s not in the budget right now assign a dedicated responder like i don’t know how many reviews you’re getting a day but just make sure you responses.

Janet: 

Yeah, maybe it’s your office manager, the person who answers your phones, or even the person that does your bookkeeping.

Caitlyn: 

I have the joy somehow of receiving an email every single time one of our clients gets a review. So you can have a setting that that person also gets a review or gets an email and they can just click.

Janet: 

Go ahead and have some templated responses that they can copy and paste, make minor edits to because what this search engine journal report is telling us is that the timeliness in your response impacts your online visibility yeah absolutely um

Caitlyn: 

were we going to mention something about

Janet: 

yeah well there was something else here i’m looking at the show notes um you know while we’re doing this this roundup the summer roundup of like things that we’ve happened seen happen with the platform so we know that meta did the weird thing with billing google is doing something where they rank you based on how quickly you respond to reviews And then the third thing that we were going to mention is something kind of interesting that we’ve seen with AI-driven search. So this is either going on something like perplexity or chat GPT where you say like, hey, what’s a reputable exterior remodeling contractor in the Raleigh, North Carolina area or however you phrase that search. Those AI-powered search engines are now favoring companies that have multiple solutions more than they’re favoring companies that only do one thing or specialize in one thing. So for example, if you had a roofing company and the only thing you do is roofing, you don’t do windows, you don’t do gutters, and that’s what your website says, like everything on your website is about roofing and about nothing else. For a homeowner that’s using an AI search engine your company is not going to show up when another company that could be newer, younger, not as reputable, not as established, but they do window replacement, they build decks, they do siding and roofing. Because they offer more services, the AI bots are recommending those companies more so than these one-solution companies.

Caitlyn: 

And let’s bring that back home, and maybe I’ll reference the right stat here. Isn’t that what the survey was saying? That the companies that are doing the best, I’m like making, like summarizing everything, the companies that are performing the best are offering multiple services.

Janet: 

Yeah, that was one of the findings that came out of that Harvard study. Harvard study, yes.

Caitlyn: 

So

Janet: 

like that

Caitlyn: 

tracks. Yeah. So not only is Google preferring you or any AI search. The AI generated search. AI meaning, like I was thinking Gemini AI. Yes, okay. OpenAI, Perplexity, whatever you’re using on search for AI. Those AI

Janet: 

summaries, wherever you’re seeing them.

Caitlyn: 

Your business is showing up if you have multiple services offered. But

Janet: 

not showing up as strongly if you specialize in one service. It’s so interesting. I’m frankly kind of curious about… I mean, we have had such amazing relationships over the past 10 years with companies that only do bathrooms. Yeah. They just do…

Caitlyn: 

Yeah.

Janet: 

I mean, in those companies, like we’re still seeing those companies perform very strongly right now. So I’m just, I mean, it’s a little bit of a head scratcher. Like how does that AI preference for contractors that offer multiple services, what does that mean for one day bathroom contractors? I honestly don’t have an answer to that. Right.

Caitlyn: 

And if you’re looking, I mean, we, I mean, I guess the thing we, I’m not going to riff too much on it, but I guess if you are, are looking for a bathroom remodeling company through AI. I would just be interested to see what shows up.

Janet: 

Yeah, I don’t know.

Caitlyn: 

I know. That’s what we’re, like, I know. Jane’s looking at me like, let’s, this is, yeah.

Janet: 

Yeah, I mean, so my take on that is, again, so Caitlin, what you warned people when we were talking about meta-changing their billing practice, if you get some random email, before you freak out on any news item related to the internet, please take a beat. Please take a beat. It’s changing so fast, and yes, we’re seeing this kind of trend with AI generated search results. But at this moment, I don’t know that those are the predominant search results. People are still using Google the quote unquote old way. Yes. So your Google business profile is still king for now. Yes. As of September the 3rd, 2025. Yes. But it’s just something to watch. Yeah. It’s something to watch and it’s a rapidly evolving story. so

Caitlyn: 

bottom line for the fall I think this was a good long episode lots of updates lots of opinions whether they’re right or wrong you know there are opinions and

Janet: 

yeah

Caitlyn: 

digital marketing is going to change we’re reading the news and chatting about it yeah we’re chatting about it I think Janet already nailed it you gotta make sure to work on your review game no matter what you have to set up a system to generate reviews and respond to those same day if not faster

Janet: 

yeah and you know if we’re if we’re looking at the information coming out of um that harvard center for joint housing studies the prognostication is that remodeling is due for an uptick and a stronger year-over-year performance starting q1 next year yes which is what four months away um so keep marketing keep fighting for those jobs a little bit of sunshine might be uh yeah come into remodeling it will while home builders could still be struggling

Caitlyn: 

yeah

Janet: 

absolutely um well as always we’re here um yeah we’d love to hear feedback if you found this episode helpful or if you’d rather go back us to go back to talking about like one tactic at a time this is sort of a news roundup

Caitlyn: 

news our first news roundup hopefully not the last um but as always please share this with your friend in the industry subscribe it’s so easy to subscribe wherever you listen to your podcast so you do get notified I get a notification every Wednesday morning on my phone that a new digital marketing for contractors podcast has released so you can get that too if you subscribe to us and please speaking of reviews leave us a review that’s all we have until next time until next time y’all thank you thank you

Outro: Digital marketing for contractors is created by Fat Cat Strategies. For more information, visit fatcatstrategies.com.