Search engine optimisation (SEO) for plumbers, sparkies, builders and every trade in between. We work on both things Google shows for a local job search, the map listings and the website results, and we measure it by where you rank across your suburbs and the enquiries that brings in, not a one-off screenshot.
Type "plumber near me" into Google and you usually get a map with a few businesses on it, then ordinary website links underneath. Tradie local SEO has to win ground in both, and they don't reward the same things.
Google's help pages name three local ranking factors: relevance, meaning whether your profile fits the search; distance, meaning how far you are from the person searching, or from the suburb named in the search; and prominence, meaning how established and well reviewed the business is. Ordinary website links rest on your pages and on how much the rest of the web vouches for them.
Distance is out of anyone's hands. Everything else on this page isn't. For how SEO fits with ads, your site and your brand, see marketing for tradies.
Mock-up for illustration only, not a real client listing.
For most trade searches the map outranks the website links on screen, and a searcher can ring you from the listing without ever visiting your site.
Your profile reflects every service you offer, not just the main trade on your licence, so you can turn up for more of the jobs people search for.
Why it matters: a plumber who also does gas and hot water shouldn't be invisible for those searches.
Your profile covers the area you actually work in, set up within Google's rules for businesses that travel to the customer, with your home address kept private.
Why it matters: shortcuts like a virtual office or a mate's shopfront break those rules and can get a profile suspended.
A profile that stays current, with recent job photos and accurate hours.
Why it matters: it tells Google, and the person scrolling on their phone, that this is a real business that turns up.
Google ranks pages, not businesses. When hot water replacement and burst pipe repairs share one generic services page, neither has much of a chance. Each job you want more of needs its own page covering what the work involves, what shapes the price and why you're the one to call.
Suburb pages come with a trap. Churn out ten identical pages with only the place name changed and Google treats them as doorway pages, which usually get ignored or do harm. A suburb page only earns its place when there's something genuinely local to say about the work you do there. Where there isn't, we'd rather leave the suburb out than pad it.
If your current site can't hold that structure, the fix starts with the website, not the SEO. Websites for tradies explains how we build it in from the start.
Fresh reviews arriving regularly outweigh a big stack from years ago, and they're what people read before ringing. You get a simple, steady way of asking happy customers, so reviews keep arriving without you chasing them.
Google's policy rules out offering anything in return and rules out asking only the customers you expect to be pleased. Reply to every review, the tough ones included.
Citations are the places your business name, address and phone number show up on other websites. Yours end up accurate and consistent wherever they appear.
Why it matters: mismatched details, often left behind by a move, rebrand or old number, make Google less sure about you and send customers to the wrong place.
People after a tradie are usually on mobile and in a hurry. Oversized photos, bloated page builders and cheap hosting lose calls before they lose rankings.
Every page you want found can be found, by Google and by the people clicking around your site.
Google can tell at a glance who you are, where you work, when you're open and how to reach you.
A phone button up top that dials on tap, a brief quote form, and your licence number and service area in plain view. This is where a ranking becomes a job.
Google Business Profile views
Read the case study →Website visitors, month on month
Read the case study →Google Business Profile views
Read the case study →Each business also had a new website and wider marketing running, so treat these as combined results rather than SEO on its own.
A screenshot of you sitting first, taken from your own kitchen, proves very little, because results shift with where the searcher is. So we track rankings properly, suburb by suburb, and report them next to the calls and quote requests they bring in.
We track where you sit for the jobs you want more of, in each suburb you service, and report the movement every month. You see which pages are climbing well before the phone catches up.
Calls from your Google profile and from your website are both counted, so none of them slip through the numbers.
Every quote request is credited to where it came from, so enquiries from search are kept apart from paid and referral ones.
You see the searches you're turning up for and how often people click, so new pages can be seen gaining ground before the calls follow.
A business with years of history, a verified profile and a stack of reviews starts well ahead of a new one on a freshly registered domain.
A country electrician up against three or four local outfits faces a very different race from a city plumber whose rivals have done SEO for years.
Profile and listing clean-ups usually move first; brand new pages take longer, since Google has to find them and come to trust them. Nobody can honestly promise a set number of weeks to page one. The payoff builds on itself: once a page ranks, it can go on producing calls with no per-click cost.
You plan to be around for years, you'd rather own an asset than rent attention, and you want enquiries that don't vanish the day you stop paying.
The catch: it's slow off the mark and can't be turned on for a quiet patch.
A new service is launching, you're expanding into fresh suburbs, or there's a profitable job the site doesn't rank for. You can also pause when you're booked out.
The catch: every click costs money, and results stop with the budget.
Our Google Ads for tradies page covers the paid side, and our SEO service lists everything included on the organic side.
Where search sits next to ads, your website, reviews and branding.
Read the guide →Our serviceLocal SEO, Google Business Profile care, technical fixes and content for every industry we serve.
See SEO services →Who we work withThe trades and professional firms we build marketing for.
Browse industries →Trade by trade: marketing for electricians and roofers. For a look that carries from the van to the map listing, see logo design for tradies.
Three things set it: how hard-fought your trade and area are, the state of your site and profile today, and the number of services and suburbs on your wish list. Rather than a range, you get a figure built for your business at the end of the free marketing review. Plans are monthly, with a 30-day notice period.
Plenty of it, yes. Keeping your profile up to date, asking happy customers for reviews and correcting old directory listings can all be done after hours. Where most people get stuck is the website: building proper service pages, fixing technical problems and setting up tracking.
Yes. Google lets trades that travel to the job list the area they cover without showing a home address. You'll usually show strongest close to your verified address, and the pages on your website are what help you reach suburbs further out.
No one can, so treat that promise as a red flag. Google alone decides results, and map positions change with each searcher's location. We commit to doing the work properly, reporting clearly on calls and enquiries, and telling you straight when something isn't shifting.
Standard SEO aims to rank a website for a subject no matter where the searcher is. Local SEO targets searches tied to a place, either typed in or assumed from location, so your profile on Google, your reviews, directory listings and suburb pages all come into play. For a trade that covers a set patch, local makes up most of the work.
Not always. If your site is quick, lets you add pages and has sensible structure, we can build on it. If it's slow, can't take new service pages or belongs to someone else, fixing that first saves wasted effort.
They feed prominence, one of the signals Google names for local results, and they're what people read before deciding who to call. A steady flow of recent, genuine reviews with replies from you matters more than one big burst.
Our free site map lays out every page and how they link, so you can spot the pages nothing points to.
We'll go through your ads, website and socials, see who you're up against and how much room there is to grow, then show you the layer we'd fix first. No pitch deck, no hard sell.
Redeem your free marketing review →