I spent a lot of my career leaning into website SEO and improving how people found our business on Google Search. It’s disappointing to see our previously robust website traffic come tumbling down in early 2026. Not that my website investments have no value today — I’m still assessing that.
Here’s why: when someone asks an AI tool “who’s a good plumber near me” or “best HVAC company in [town],” that tool isn’t crawling your website. It’s pulling from Google Business Profile (GBP) — your info, your photos, and especially your reviews to build its answer. Your website used to come first. Now GBP does.
Google Business Profile (GBP) has been important for service businesses all along, but in 2026 it’s the most valuable piece of your web presence.
- Info — address, phone number, and a summary of your business
- Photos — of your projects, your people, your location, and more
- Reviews — from your clients
- Posts — like social media, with a photo, caption, and website link
GBP consists of three main parts: info, photos, and reviews. There’s also posts.
Let’s start with how to get reviews.
The DIY Approach
I’ve helped clients run outreach campaigns to past clients that go something like this: email a professional request, follow up with a phone call two days later, then conclude with a thank-you and perhaps a second email request. These campaigns were built for high-end contractors who take on maybe 2–5 homes a year. Their clients were busy people, which is why the personal, multi-touch approach mattered.
We always added a simple line: “We’re working on our marketing and would love your help with a review.”
The Automated Approach
Service businesses that work with a high volume of customers will benefit from a review platform like Broadly, Birdeye, ReviewInc, or ReputationStacker. These four are some of the highest-rated tools on the market.
I chatted with my colleague Erika Ferguson of Mr. Rooter of the Oakland-Berkeley Area about how her company generated over 1,000 customer reviews. Every customer is sent an email asking them to rate their last service. If the rating comes back above 8, Broadly automatically routes them to Google to leave a review.
Consistency Matters
Erika Ferguson also told me that consistency matters more than volume.
This is a strong argument for using a review service: it automates the ask, so requests go out steadily instead of in bursts.
I used to ask for reviews every January, when I was tuning up my marketing for the year. I thought I was on top of things, and in a sense I was. But that approach doesn’t hold up today.
If you’re managing reviews yourself, keep this in mind and spread your requests out rather than doing them all at once. A steady drip of fresh reviews throughout the year tells Google and potential customers that you’re active and reliable right now, not just once a year.
The Takeaway
AI tools are answering “who’s good near me” questions straight from Google Business Profile, which means your reviews, photos, and posts are doing more heavy lifting than your website did.
This is part one of a series on building out your Google Business Profile for the AI search era. Next up: photos: what to post, how often, and why they matter more than you’d think.
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Full Orbit Web and Marketing helps businesses and organizations throughout the San Francisco Bay Area grow with better websites, more traffic, and qualified leads. Our reputation for excellence in web design and programming is why clients come to us for redesigns and new website features.
Search is changing fast in 2026, and we’re focused on helping service businesses get the traffic they need right now. That means Local SEO and Google Business Profile optimization, plus newer strategies like AEO, AIE, and GEO. Serving Berkeley, Albany, Oakland, Richmond, Marin and other San Francisco Bay Area cities.