Google Guaranteed Is Now Google Verified: What Contractors Need to Know

What changed, and when

Google announced the change on its blog on 20 August 2025. From October 2025, every Local Services Ads badge was folded into one, Google Verified, which replaced Google Guaranteed, Google Screened, License Verified by Google, and the Money Back Guarantee. Google's stated reason was to have a single badge for all advertisers instead of different badges by category.

The new badge appears alongside the specific verification checks the business has passed, so a homeowner can see what was checked rather than just that something was.

If you already had a badge, you did not have to do anything. Google moved existing verified advertisers onto Google Verified automatically, and it says the change does not affect how Local Services Ads rank.

What happened to the money-back guarantee

The guarantee was the part homeowners cared about most: if a job booked through the ad went wrong, Google would refund the customer up to a limit. That ended with the move to Google Verified. Customers had to file any claim before 7 December 2025, and each claim had to be submitted within 30 days of the job being completed.

This matters if your sales pitch or website still leans on it. Telling a homeowner that Google will back the job is no longer accurate, and a customer who checks will find that out. The badge now says Google checked the business. It no longer says Google will pay if the work goes wrong.

How to get the Google Verified badge

There is no way to apply for the badge on its own. It comes from being approved for Local Services Ads, so the steps are the Local Services onboarding and screening. Google lets new advertisers start running what it calls pre-badge ads once the preliminary checks are passed, while the rest of the screening finishes. Some advertisers are offered accelerated verification instead, which gives them the badge quickly and then 14 days to complete the remaining checks.

Google puts the average time for the full process at three to four weeks. The biggest thing you control is having the documents ready and matching your legal business name before you start.

• Background checks on the business and, depending on the category, the owner or other individuals. Google says these cover identity and criminal history, and that businesses are not charged for them.
• A licence check, but only where local law requires a licence for your trade.
• Proof of insurance. The type and minimum amount depend on your category and location.
• Reviews, where your category requires them.

Requirements vary by trade and by state

Google's screening requirements are set by business type, and by state or province. A plumber and a house cleaner do not go through identical checks, and the same trade can have different licence requirements in two neighbouring states. Google's requirements page for the US lists the checks per category, and it is worth reading the row for your own trade rather than relying on a general summary, including this one.

The badge is not offered in every category. Google's requirements page says it is currently unavailable in dining categories such as restaurants, and lists the checks for each trade it does cover.

Keeping the badge once you have it

Verification is not a one-off. Businesses have to keep passing Google's checks, and falling behind, for example by letting insurance lapse, can cost you the badge or pause your ads.

Reviews keep mattering after approval too. Google says businesses with a lot of negative reviews may rank lower in Local Services Ads or stop showing altogether, which is why the review request after each job is part of running these ads, not a separate marketing task.

The badge after the move to Performance Max

Google is moving Local Services Ads into Google Ads as Performance Max campaigns, starting with some US home-service categories in August 2026; our Local Service Ads guide covers the timetable. For the badge, Google's migration notes say it will depend on business registration and representative checks in select categories, which is narrower than the screening above. If your trade has moved, check the current requirements in your own account rather than assuming the old checklist still applies.

What it costs

Google does not list a separate fee for the badge. You get it by running Local Services Ads, which charge per lead: you pay when a customer contacts you through the ad, not for the badge or for clicks. The background check itself is free.

You may still see pages saying Google Guaranteed costs fifty dollars a month. That figure comes from a 2020 test in which Google offered an upgraded Business Profile with the badge for a monthly fee. It was a pilot, and it does not describe how the badge works today.

Is it worth it for a contractor?

The badge itself is not the point. It sits on Local Services Ads, and those ads are the real decision: they usually appear above the regular ads and the map pack for service searches, you pay per lead rather than per click, and the leads stop the day the budget does. Our guide to Google Local Service Ads covers how they rank and where contractors usually lose money.

What has changed is the pitch. A contractor could once tell a hesitant homeowner that Google backed the job. That is no longer true, so the badge now does less of the selling on its own, and the reviews, response speed, and follow-up behind it do more.