Most Google Business Profiles have a name, an address, some hours, a few photos, and nothing in the services section.
That last part is the gap, because services are one of the few fields on the profile with measurable ranking effects on a timescale you can actually observe.
The evidence is unusually good here
Local SEO research firm Sterling Sky ran testing on this and found that adding services improved rankings for both explicit and implicit keywords, with changes typically appearing within 24 to 72 hours of the service being added. The effect was verified across multiple industries and markets, though the size varied by niche and region.
Two days is a remarkably short feedback loop for anything in local search. Most of what you do takes months to report. This does not.
Their testing also drew a distinction worth acting on: the effect was strongest with pre-defined services, meaning the ones Google offers you from a list, rather than custom ones you type yourself.
Categories gate everything, so start there
Services are tied to your primary and secondary categories. Which services Google offers you depends entirely on which categories you have selected.
That makes the primary category the decision to get right first, and it is the single heaviest ranking signal on the profile. Multiple local SEO studies put it at roughly 32% of the relevance weight for service-specific searches, and you only get one.
Pick the most specific category that genuinely describes your main work. HVAC Contractor beats Contractor for HVAC searches. Then add every accurate secondary category, because each one opens both additional search queries and additional pre-defined services you can select.
Review categories quarterly. Google adds new ones regularly, and a category that did not exist when you set up the profile may describe you better now.
How to fill the services section
Open your profile, go to the services tab, and look at what Google offers before typing anything.
Take the pre-defined services first. Select every one that genuinely applies. These are the ones the testing suggests carry the most weight, and they are already matched to how Google understands your category.
Then add custom services for anything real that the list missed. Do not invent services you do not perform to catch searches, which is both dishonest and unhelpful when somebody calls asking for it.
Split services rather than bundling them. An HVAC company listing furnace repair, AC installation, and annual maintenance separately matches more searches than one listing "HVAC services." Each entry is a matching opportunity.
Write descriptions for humans. Depending on your primary category you will see one of two formats, an older one supporting descriptions up to a thousand characters with pricing fields, or a newer more restricted version. Either way, clear and helpful outperforms keyword stuffing, and stuffing risks the listing rather than helping it.
Set pricing honestly. The options are typically free, a fixed price, a "from" price, or blank if it varies. The "from" option is useful for a trade, and it is the same argument as publishing prices anywhere else: people want to understand the number, not necessarily the lowest one.
Watch for Google's suggestions
Google periodically suggests services based on what people actually search for near you and how they interact with your profile.
Check for these and accept or reject them deliberately. An accepted suggestion is Google telling you what it already associates with your business, which is useful information independent of the ranking effect. A wrong suggestion left unaddressed can attract enquiries for work you do not do.
Products, if you sell anything at all
The products section is separate and frequently ignored by service businesses on the assumption it is for retailers.
If you sell anything alongside labour, it belongs here. Air filters, water softeners, smart thermostats, replacement parts, maintenance plans. Products appear in your profile panel with photos and prices, and they can capture queries in the product grid that your services never would.
For a business with no physical products, skip it. For one that quietly sells a few things, it is a free listing surface that most competitors have left blank.
Where any of this actually appears
Mainly Google Maps, where users can open a dedicated services section on your listing.
That matters for expectations. You are not adding services to make your search result look better on desktop. You are adding them so that a person on their phone comparing three businesses in Maps can see that you do the specific thing they need, and so that Google has explicit text to match against a specific query rather than inferring from your category alone.
The order of work
Confirm your primary category is the most specific accurate one. Add every legitimate secondary category. Take all applicable pre-defined services. Add custom services for the genuine gaps. Write a short honest description for each. Set pricing where you can. Add products if you sell any. Then check back monthly for Google's suggestions.
That is thirty to sixty minutes for most businesses, it costs nothing, and it is one of the very few things in local marketing where you can plausibly observe an effect inside a week.
Which makes it a strange thing to leave empty, and most profiles do.