Key takeaways
- Set up your Google Business Profile as a service-area business with accurate categories and real photos.
- Ask every customer for a Google review after each job, and never offer incentives or filter who you ask.
- Give each main service its own page, and only create area pages where you have real local jobs, photos and reviews to show.
- Put accreditations, insurance and real project photos where customers can see them, because trust is what wins trade work.
When someone nearby searches for the job you do, you want to be the business they trust enough to ring. For a trade, that comes down to a complete Google Business Profile with a steady flow of real reviews, a fast website that works on a phone and has a clear page for each service and the areas you cover, and visible proof of your accreditations and work. Get those right and you rely far less on paid lead platforms.
How people actually find a tradesperson online
Think about what happens when a pipe bursts or the lights trip and will not reset. Someone grabs their phone and searches “emergency plumber near me” or “electrician Barry”. They see a map with a handful of businesses, star ratings and a call button. Many will call from there without visiting a website at all.
Planned work looks different. Someone thinking about a loft conversion, a new consumer unit or a kitchen extension will search, compare several businesses, look at photos of past work, read reviews and check accreditations before getting in touch. They may visit your website several times over a few weeks.
Good SEO for a trade business covers both journeys.
- Urgent jobs are won mainly in the map results, through your Google Business Profile, reviews and an easy way to call.
- Planned projects are won through your website: service pages, project galleries, clear pricing guidance and evidence that you are qualified and reliable.
Why your Google Business Profile matters most
For most trades, the Google Business Profile does more work than the website. It costs nothing, and it is the listing that shows up in the map results.
Set it up as a service-area business
Most tradespeople travel to customers rather than having customers visit them. In that case, set up your profile as a service-area business: hide your address (especially if you work from home) and list the towns or areas you cover. Do not use a virtual office or a mate’s address to appear in a town you want to target. Google expects a real base, and profiles with fake addresses can be suspended.
Choose categories carefully
Your primary category has a big influence on which searches you appear for. Pick the one that matches the bulk of your work, such as Plumber, Electrician, Roofing contractor or Builder, then add secondary categories for specialisms like Heating contractor or Bathroom remodeler. Only add the ones you actually do; a category for work you turn down just brings in calls you cannot take.
Fill in everything
Add your services with short descriptions, opening hours (and if you offer emergency call-outs), a clear description of what you do and where, and plenty of real photos: your van, your team, work in progress and finished jobs. Recent photos of local jobs show you are busy and give customers a feel for your standards.
Use your real business name
Stick to your actual trading name. Adding keywords such as “Dave’s Plumbing Emergency Boiler Repair Cardiff” breaks Google’s guidelines unless that really is your registered and signed name, and competitors can report it. Our local SEO services start with getting these basics right, because everything else depends on them.
Why reviews decide most trade jobs
Inviting strangers into their home is a big decision for customers, and reviews are how they decide whom to trust. They also contribute to how Google ranks local businesses.
Ask every customer at the end of every job, while they are still pleased with the result. Text your direct Google review link the same day with a short, personal message. Reply to every review, thanking people by name and mentioning the job where it is natural.
Stay inside the rules. Google prohibits offering anything in exchange for reviews, including discounts on the next job, and does not allow “review gating”, where you only ask customers you think are happy. UK consumer law also bans fake and concealed incentivised reviews. Ask everyone, good jobs and awkward ones alike.
When a bad review comes in, and eventually one will, reply calmly and professionally. Acknowledge the issue, explain briefly what you did or will do, and offer to talk directly. Future customers judge you on how you handle problems as much as on the problems themselves.
What about trade review platforms?
Sites like Checkatrade, TrustATrader, MyBuilder and Rated People can be a useful source of work and an extra place for reviews. Treat them as one part of your mix alongside your own Google profile and website. If you stop paying for a platform, your reviews and visibility there may go with it, while your Google reviews and your own website stay yours.
A website that turns searches into calls
A trade website does not need to be elaborate. It has to load quickly on a phone, say plainly what you do and where, and make ringing you a one-tap job. Those are the things our website design work for trades focuses on.
The essentials
- Click-to-call phone number visible at the top of every page on mobile.
- A short enquiry form asking only for what you need: name, contact details, postcode and a description of the job. Optional photo upload is useful for quoting.
- Clear statement of what you do and where in the first screen of the homepage.
- Accreditations displayed clearly, with registration numbers where relevant.
- Fast loading. Many customers search on mobile data, sometimes standing in a flooded kitchen. Google’s Core Web Vitals give useful targets: Largest Contentful Paint within 2.5 seconds, Interaction to Next Paint within 200 milliseconds and Cumulative Layout Shift of 0.1 or less.
One page for each main service
A single “Services” page listing everything you do gives Google and customers very little to go on. Instead, create a dedicated page for each main service: boiler installation, boiler repair, bathroom fitting, rewiring, EV charger installation, extensions, roofing repairs and so on.
Each service page should explain what the job involves, the typical process, rough timescales, what affects the price, any relevant regulations or certificates, and photos of real jobs. Add the questions customers ask you on the phone, such as whether they need to be in, or how long the water will be off. That detail helps people decide, and it gives search engines far more to match against a search.
Area pages without the spam
Many trades cover a patch of several towns and want to appear in each of them. The temptation is to create dozens of near-identical pages: “Plumber in Penarth”, “Plumber in Barry”, “Plumber in Dinas Powys”, each with the town name swapped. Google treats mass-produced pages like these as doorway pages under its spam policies, and they rarely persuade customers anyway.
A better approach looks like this.
- Create area pages only for the main places you already work in and want more jobs from.
- Make each one distinct: jobs you have done there (with photos and the customer’s permission), typical property types and local issues, how quickly you can usually attend, and reviews from customers in that area.
- Mention the surrounding villages and districts you cover naturally within the page, rather than giving each its own thin page.
- Link each area page to your relevant service pages, and vice versa.
If you only have a sentence or two to say about a place, it probably does not need its own page. A clear list of areas covered on your main pages may be enough. Our guide to ranking higher locally in Cardiff shows how location content, profiles and reviews work together in a competitive city.
Show your accreditations and proof of work
Customers want to know you are qualified and insured before they let you in, so put the evidence where they can see it.
| Trade | Examples of credentials to display |
|---|---|
| Gas engineers and heating | Gas Safe registration number, manufacturer accreditations for boiler brands you install |
| Electricians | Competent person scheme membership, such as NICEIC or NAPIT, and relevant qualifications |
| Builders | Federation of Master Builders membership, TrustMark registration, insurance details |
| Roofers | Trade association membership, workmanship warranties, relevant safety training |
| All trades | Public liability insurance, warranties on your work, years trading, real photos of your team |
Only display memberships you hold now, and remove any that lapse. Customers increasingly check registers online, and an out-of-date badge does more harm than none.
Project galleries and short write-ups do a similar job. For each notable job, add a few photos, a couple of lines on the problem and how you fixed it, the area (not the full address) and the customer’s review if they are happy to share it. After a year of doing this you have a portfolio no competitor can copy.
A simple SEO plan for a trade business
If you are starting from scratch, or your online presence has been left to gather dust, work through these steps in order.
- Claim and complete your Google Business Profile as a service-area business, with accurate categories, services, hours and photos.
- Set up a review routine. Save your review link in your phone and invoicing system, and send it after every job.
- Fix your website basics. Make sure it is fast on a phone, has click-to-call and a short enquiry form, and shows your accreditations.
- Create a page for each main service, written in the language your customers use, with photos and common questions.
- Add a few strong area pages for the towns you most want work from, filled with real local jobs and reviews.
- Get listed consistently on the key platforms (Bing Places, Apple Business Connect, Facebook, Yell and the trade directories you use), with identical name, address and phone details.
- Add new work regularly. Upload photos to your profile and add projects to your gallery every month.
- Check results monthly. Look at calls, enquiries and direction requests from your Business Profile, and which website pages produce enquiries.
None of this needs a big budget, but it does need doing every week. Ten minutes on a Friday to send review links and upload the week’s photos is enough for most sole traders.
Local links and community presence
Links from other relevant local websites help show search engines that you are an established part of the community. For trades, the best opportunities usually come from relationships you already have.
- Suppliers and manufacturers who list approved installers
- Trade associations and competent person schemes with member directories
- Local sports clubs, schools or charities you sponsor or support
- Builders, architects, kitchen showrooms or estate agents you regularly work with
- Local news stories about notable projects or community work
Avoid buying links or joining link schemes. They carry real risk and rarely deliver anything lasting.
Common SEO mistakes tradespeople make
- Relying only on lead platforms. Paying per lead indefinitely with nothing built on your own profile or website.
- A website with no phone number visible on mobile. Someone with water coming through the ceiling will just ring the next business.
- Stock photos. Real photos of your team and work are far more convincing.
- Dozens of thin town pages. They rarely rank well and can count against you.
- Ignoring reviews. Unanswered reviews, especially negative ones, look like nobody is paying attention.
- Inconsistent details. An old mobile number on one directory and a new one on your website confuses customers and search engines.
- Not tracking enquiries. Without asking customers how they found you, it is hard to know what is working.
For more practical local marketing ideas beyond search, our digital marketing tips for South Wales small businesses cover social media, email and partnerships that work well alongside SEO.
Measuring what matters
Rankings are only useful if the phone rings. The numbers to watch are calls, enquiries and booked jobs. Your Business Profile shows calls, website clicks and direction requests. Your website analytics can track form submissions and taps on your phone number. And the simplest tracking tool of all is asking every new customer how they found you, then writing it down.
Compare these month by month and against the jobs you actually win. If you want a straightforward way to work out what your marketing returns, our guide to measuring marketing ROI walks through it step by step.
Where to start this week
There are no tricks to this. Customers nearby need to find you, see that you do good work and get hold of you quickly. A complete Business Profile, a habit of asking for reviews, a quick website with proper service pages and your credentials on show will do most of the heavy lifting. If you only do one thing this week, save your review link to your phone and send it to the last five customers you worked for.
Plenty of the trades we work with would rather be on the tools than fiddling with a website, which is fair enough. We can set up the local SEO foundations and the site itself, then hand you a short weekly routine to keep it ticking over.
How Eigme can help
Turn this into results.
We can help you put this into practice with a clear plan, hands-on delivery and reporting in plain English.
Book a free strategy call →Frequently asked questions
Do tradespeople need a website if they have a Google Business Profile?
A Business Profile can win urgent jobs on its own, but a website helps with planned, higher-value work where customers compare options. It lets you explain each service in detail, show project galleries and accreditations, and capture enquiries. It also supports your profile, because Google looks at your website to understand what you do.
Should I show my home address on Google?
No, if customers do not visit you there. Set up your Google Business Profile as a service-area business, hide your address and list the towns or areas you cover, which Google’s guidelines allow. Do not use a virtual office or someone else’s address to appear in a town where you have no real base.
Are Checkatrade and similar sites good for SEO?
They can bring work and add another trusted listing, and their profiles sometimes appear in search results. Use them alongside your own Google Business Profile and website rather than instead of them. If you stop paying for a platform, the visibility and reviews there may not stay with you, whereas your own profile and site remain yours.
How do I rank in towns near where I am based?
Make sure those towns are listed in your service areas and mentioned naturally on your website. Then create dedicated area pages for the most important ones, using local content such as real jobs, photos and reviews from customers there. Avoid mass-produced pages that only swap the town name, as these can be treated as doorway pages.
How long does SEO take for a trade business?
It varies with competition, location and your starting point. Fixing your Google Business Profile and building reviews can make a noticeable difference within weeks, while website content and links tend to build gradually over months. Nobody can promise rankings, but steady work on the basics usually pays off more the longer you keep at it.
