What's the free audit, and what's the catch?

There's no catch. We look at how you show up today when a customer searches for your service: your site, your ranking, your reviews, and what your competitors are doing. Then we show you exactly where you're losing work and what we'd fix first. No cost, no obligation, no pressure to sign anything.

How much does it cost?

We've laid out clear starting points in the pricing section above: a one-time setup from $1,500 and a monthly retainer from $500, depending on scope. Ad spend is always separate and paid straight to the platform. The free audit is where we pin down your exact number, with a plain-English quote before anything starts and no surprises on the invoice.

Am I locked into a long contract?

No. We don't do lock-in contracts. We'd rather earn next month by making this one work. If it's not delivering, you're free to walk.

Do I own everything you build?

Yes, 100%. Your website, your domain, your Google profile, your ad accounts: all in your name, all yours to keep. If you ever leave, you take everything with you.

How fast will I actually see results?

It depends on the lever. A new site can launch in a couple of weeks. Paid ads can start bringing leads almost right away. SEO is the long game: it builds over a few months and then compounds. We'll set honest expectations up front instead of promising overnight magic.

What makes you different from other agencies?

Most agencies only do marketing. We do the marketing and build the software: your site, your automations, even custom apps and AI when you need them, all under one roof. One team, one point of contact, and you always know exactly who you're talking to.

How many Google reviews do you need? An honest answer for contractors

"How many Google reviews do I need?" comes up in almost every first call we have with a contractor. Everyone wants a number. Fifty? A hundred? Whatever the biggest guy in town has?

Short answer: more than the competitor a customer compares you to, and recent. That is the whole game. Everything below is how to get there without buying anything, begging anyone, or getting crosswise with Google.

The number that actually matters

A homeowner searching "roofing contractor near me" is not comparing you to a national average. They are comparing you to the two or three other names sitting next to yours on the map. That comparison takes a few seconds, and it happens before anyone reads a single word of a single review.

If the company above you shows 140 reviews and you show 19, you lose that glance. Not because your work is worse. Because 19 next to 140 reads like the smaller, riskier choice, and a homeowner about to spend five figures does not pick the riskier choice on purpose.

So skip the hunt for a magic number and do this:

Open Google Maps and search your trade plus your city, the way a customer would type it.
Look at the top three results. Write down their review counts and the dates on their most recent reviews.
That is your target. Beat the strongest one, then keep the gap open.

In a small town, 35 reviews might make you the obvious pick. In a big metro, 200 might be table stakes. The number is local and it moves, so check it a few times a year.

Recency and replies matter as much as the count

Two things get ignored in the "how many" conversation, and they carry real weight with the person deciding whether to call you.

Recency. Customers notice dates. A wall of praise from three years ago reads like a business that used to try. A steady trickle of new reviews reads like a business that is booked, working, and still making people happy. As a working rule, we tell clients that a handful of reviews from the last sixty days does more for them than a big stale pile, because the stale pile raises a question the fresh ones answer: are they still this good?

Reply rate. Reply to every review, good and bad. The reply is not really for the reviewer. It is for the next customer scrolling through, and what it tells them is that a real person runs this company and pays attention. Two sentences is plenty: thank them, mention the job. "Thanks Maria, the cedar fence came out great, enjoy it." Do not paste the same sentence under forty reviews. People notice that too.

How to actually ask

Most contractors have far more happy customers than reviews. The gap is not the customers' fault. It is that nobody asked, or somebody asked three weeks later in an invoice footer.

Ask at the moment of peak happiness. For a contractor, that moment is the final walkthrough, when the customer is standing in front of the finished work telling you how good it looks. That is when you say, in person: "Reviews on Google are how people find us. Would you mind leaving one? I'll text you the link so it takes two minutes."

Then the follow-through:

Send the text within the hour, while the job is still the best thing in their day. Use the direct review link from your Google Business Profile, not "search for us on Google."
If nothing happens in a few days, send one friendly nudge.
Then stop. Two asks is a request. Five is a pest.

Automating the ask without being spammy

The manual version works when you run three jobs a month. It falls apart when you get busy, which is exactly when the reviews should be piling up. The fix is to tie the ask to job completion: the job gets marked done in whatever system you use, the review text goes out automatically, one reminder follows, then it stops.

A few rules keep automation from turning into spam:

One ask and one reminder per customer. Ever.
Trigger it off completed jobs only. Do not blast your customer list from 2021.
Text beats email in the trades. People answer texts.
Never offer a discount, gift card, or raffle entry for a review. Google prohibits incentivized reviews, and it poisons the honest ones.

Building this kind of quiet plumbing is part of the automation work we do for clients, but here is the honest note: a disciplined manual habit beats a fancy system nobody turned on. Start by hand this week. Automate when volume makes by hand impossible.

Bad reviews without lawyers or meltdowns

Do enough jobs and a bad review will land. It is not the end of anything. A profile with a strong average and a couple of well-handled one-star reviews often reads as more trustworthy than a suspiciously perfect wall of fives. What matters is the reply.

If you are angry, wait a day. Nothing good gets typed in the first hour.
Reply once, publicly, calm. Acknowledge the frustration, add a sentence or two of plain fact if the story is missing key details, and take it offline: "Call me directly and I'll make this right."
Never argue in the thread. You are not writing to the reviewer. You are writing to the next homeowner deciding whether problems get handled at your company.
If the review is fake, meaning you have no record of any such customer or job, say exactly that in a short reply and flag it through your Business Profile. Removal is slow and not guaranteed, so do not stake your week on it.

And skip the lawyer letter. A defamation threat over a one-star review costs more than the review ever will, and it tends to turn one annoyed customer into a public story.

Never buy reviews. Never gate them.

Buying reviews is the shortcut that ends careers on Google Maps. It violates Google's policies, and enforcement is real: reviews wiped, listings suspended, years of legitimate reputation gone with them. In the US, regulators now treat paid fake reviews as deceptive advertising on top of that. Homeowners can smell them anyway: vague praise, no job details, a reviewer with one lifetime review.

Gating is the sneakier version. That is the "how did we do?" survey where happy customers get forwarded to Google and unhappy ones get routed to a private form. It feels clever. It is also explicitly against Google's review policies, which prohibit selectively soliciting positive reviews and discouraging negative ones. Some review software still sells this as a feature. Do not use it.

The clean playbook is not complicated: know the local number you have to beat, ask everyone at the walkthrough, text the link, reply to everything, and let the quality of the work set the average. It is slower than buying fifty reviews. It is also still standing five years from now.

Reviews are one piece of how contractors get found, alongside your website, your Business Profile, and everything feeding them. Request a free audit and we will show you exactly where you stand against the competitors in your market. It takes 15 minutes, there is no contract to sign, and everything we find is yours to keep.