Local SEO for Tradespeople: The 7 Things That Matter Most

If you’re a plumber, electrician, roofer or heating engineer, a lot of your new work starts with someone typing a job and a town into Google: “emergency plumber Sale”, “electrician near me”, “roof repair Stockport”. Local SEO is how you make sure your business is one of the names they see.

In this post I’ve boiled it down to the seven things that matter most for tradespeople, roughly in the order I’d tackle them. If you’d rather see how I help trades businesses, my page on local SEO and websites for trades has the details.

How does Google decide which tradespeople to show?

Google says local results are mainly based on three things: relevance, distance and how well known your business is.

Relevance is how well your business matches what someone searched for. Distance is how far you are from the searcher, or from the place they typed. The third comes from things like your reviews, links from other websites and how often your business is mentioned around the web. That’s all in Google’s own guide to improving your local ranking, which also makes the point that there’s no way to pay for a better local ranking.

You can’t change where your customers live, so the seven things below focus on the other two.

1. Is your Google Business Profile complete and verified?

A verified, fully filled-in Google Business Profile is the biggest single thing you can do for local search, because it’s what appears in the map results.

Choose the primary category that best describes your main work (Plumber, Electrician or Roofing contractor, for example), then add the services you offer, your opening hours, a short plain-English description and photos of real jobs.

Most tradespeople work from home and go out to the customer. Google treats that as a service-area business. Its service-area guidance says that if you don’t serve customers at your address, you should remove it from your profile, and you can add up to 20 service areas, ideally within about two hours’ drive of your base. So you don’t need to put your home address on the internet to show up on the map.

If you’d like a hand, I set up and tidy profiles as a one-off Google Business Profile service, and my older post has more tips for ranking on Google Maps.

2. Does your website have a page for each main job?

It should, because one “Services” page with a list of bullet points can’t rank for everything you do.

Someone searching “boiler installation Altrincham” wants a page about boiler installations, not a list that also mentions bathroom fitting and blocked drains. A page for each of your main jobs gives Google a clear match and gives the customer the answers they’re after. For a heating engineer that might be boiler installs, boiler repairs, servicing and power flushing. For an electrician it might be rewires, consumer unit upgrades, EV chargers and EICRs.

Each page should say what the job involves, which areas you cover, what’s included and how to get in touch.

3. Should you make a page for every town you cover?

Only if you’ve got something real and different to say about each place, because copy-and-paste town pages can do more harm than good.

It’s tempting to make 30 pages that say “Plumber in Sale”, “Plumber in Timperley”, “Plumber in Hale” with only the town name changed. Google’s spam policies list pages “targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page” as an example of doorway abuse.

For most trades, a better approach is one strong areas page listing the towns you cover, plus a separate town page only where you have real local content to add: jobs you’ve done there, the type of housing, how quickly you can usually get there.

4. How do you get more Google reviews without breaking the rules?

Ask every happy customer, make it easy with a direct link, and never pay, reward or cherry-pick.

Reviews feed into how well known Google thinks you are, and they’re one of the first things a homeowner reads. Google lets you create a link or QR code to request reviews that takes customers straight to the review form. Send it by text or email when the job’s finished and the customer is happy.

There are two rules to know. Google’s content policy says businesses must not offer incentives such as payment, discounts or free goods for reviews, and must not “selectively solicit positive reviews”. And in the UK, fake reviews have been banned since 6 April 2025, with the Competition and Markets Authority able to enforce the law directly. So ask everyone, not just the customers you expect five stars from.

Reply to your reviews too, including the odd bad one.

5. Are your business details the same everywhere?

Make sure your business name, phone number, website and areas are written the same way on every site that lists you.

In SEO this is called NAP consistency (name, address, phone). If your van shows one number, Google another and an old directory a third, it confuses customers and makes it harder for search engines to trust your details.

Start with the listings that matter most for trades: your trade body’s register (Gas Safe Register, NICEIC or NAPIT, for example), TrustMark if you’re registered, any directories you already pay for, such as Checkatrade or MyBuilder, then Yell, Facebook, Bing and Apple Maps. After that, fix or remove old listings with out-of-date details. This is exactly what my citation building service covers.

6. Is your website quick and easy to use on a phone?

It needs to be, because Google mainly looks at the mobile version of your site, and a customer with a leak is often searching on their phone.

Google uses the mobile version of a site’s content for indexing and ranking (see its mobile-first indexing guide). For your customers, that means a phone number they can tap, a short quote form, and pages that load quickly on a patchy signal.

Check your own site on your phone today. Can you see what you do, where you work and how to get in touch without scrolling? If not, that’s the first thing to fix.

7. Does your business look real and trustworthy online?

Show real photos, real accreditations and clear information about who you are, and help Google understand it with schema markup.

Photos of your own van, your team and finished jobs beat stock photos every time. Show the accreditations you actually hold, with a link to where customers can check them, and say who you are on an About page.

Behind the scenes, schema markup is code that tells search engines your business name, trade, contact details and areas. Google’s local business structured data guide recommends using the most specific business type possible, and there are types such as Plumber, Electrician, RoofingContractor and HVACBusiness. Google is clear that it doesn’t guarantee anything on its own, but it removes guesswork. I add it as part of my schema markup service.

A quick local SEO checklist for tradespeople

Google Business Profile verified, with the right primary category, services, hours and real photos
Home address hidden and service areas set, if customers don’t come to you
A page on your website for each main job
One strong areas page, not dozens of copy-and-paste town pages
A review link sent to every customer, with no incentives
The same name, phone number and website on every listing
A site that’s quick and easy to use on a phone
Real photos, accreditations you can prove and schema markup

How I can help

I’m based in Altrincham and help tradespeople across the UK with local SEO and websites. You can start small: a Google Business Profile set-up is £125, 30 local citations are £195 and schema markup is from £95. Ongoing local SEO is from £250 a month. Full prices are on my pricing page, and you can see what I do for trades businesses, including plumbers and electricians.

Not sure where to start? Send me a message with your website and the areas you cover, and I’ll get back to you by email.

Frequently asked questions

How long does local SEO take for a tradesperson?

There’s no fixed timescale. Fixing your Google Business Profile and your listings can make a difference fairly quickly, but in a busy area with plenty of competitors it usually takes a few months of steady work before you see a real change.

Do I need a website if I have a Google Business Profile?

You can appear on the map without one, but a website gives Google more to go on and gives customers somewhere to check you out properly before they get in touch. If you’re just starting, a well-planned one-page website is a sensible first step.

Should I put my home address on Google?

No, you don’t have to. If customers don’t come to you, Google says to remove the address from your Business Profile and list the areas you serve instead.

Can I show up in towns I’m not based in?

Yes. As a service-area business you can list the areas you cover. Distance still matters, so you’ll usually show most easily near your base, but strong service pages and steady reviews help you further afield.

Is Checkatrade or MyBuilder enough on its own?

Directories like these can bring in work, but you’re renting space on someone else’s site, next to your competitors. Your own Google Business Profile and website are things you own, so I’d use directories alongside them rather than instead of them.