Google Business Profile driving handyman leads or just wasting my time?

Man, I've been tweaking my Google Business Profile for months now, adding photos of drywall patches and deck repairs I do around here in the Carolinas, but the leads are mostly tire-kickers wanting free quotes on fixing leaky faucets or hanging shelves with those cheap Home Depot brackets. It's frustrating when you're out here swinging a Milwaukee drill all day and the profile shows up for every little odd job but nothing that pays decent. Someone in the Handyman Nation Facebook group mentioned optimizing with keywords like 'emergency handyman services' helped them, but I'm not seeing it yet. Watched a Tommy Mello video on YouTube about local SEO for service businesses and tried some of that, still crickets on the bigger gigs like kitchen remodel touch-ups. Anyone else dealing with this crap? Feels like I'm pouring hours into it for nada.

Add before/after pics of actual jobs, not just stock stuff, and respond to every review fast, even the bad ones.

Same here, feels like Google's algorithm hates small handymen.

Screw Google, I get all my work from word of mouth after fixing folks' creaky doors.

Ugh, spent two hours updating categories yesterday for cabinet installs and nada.

Those leads are gold if you filter out the cheapos quick.

Damn, I feel your pain, brother.

Relate hard, my profile's been stagnant since I added gutter cleaning services.

Nope, mine's pulling in $500 fence repair jobs weekly now.

Hate when it buries you under big box stores.

Same struggle, tried Google ads on top but it's eating my budget.

We all hate this, but it's free marketing if you grind the keywords right.

Man, the frustration is real with these profiles.

Yeah, pouring time in and getting spam calls instead.

I hear ya, feels pointless some days.

Link it to your site with a booking form, ups my conversions 20%.

Totally get the grind, keep at it though.

Same boat, leads dry up in winter here.

Feels like that all the time.

Optimize for voice search, 'handyman near me' pulls better on mobile.

Why not try Nextdoor too? Less competition for local fixes.

Ugh, yeah the time sink is killer.

Google's screwing all of us small timers with their changes.