In short
- Customers search by service and location. A page for each service with the places where you work is the most important foundation.
- Businesses without customer visits at their premises list a service area instead of a visible address in their Google Business Profile.
- References with place, task and result convince customers and give AI systems concrete evidence.
- Only mention titles, memberships and certifications if they are accurate. That protects you from legal trouble and builds trust.
How customers search for tradespeople today
People almost always search with a location and a specific need: “heat pump installer older house York”, “emergency electrician Sunday Leeds”, “accessible bathroom refit cost Bristol”. In a chat it sounds like this: “Which plumber near Reading installs heat pumps in older houses and has good reviews?”.
AI systems and Google answer this with a few names. They draw on websites that clearly link service and location, the Google Business Profile with reviews, directories of trade bodies, comparison and referral portals and local media. In the trades, competition for these places is often manageable, because many businesses have not touched their website for years.
The basics: link service and location
- One page per service: heat pumps, bathroom refits, solar panels, electrical installation. Each page says in the first paragraph what you do, for whom and in which places.
- Service area in the text: name the towns and districts where you regularly work. Not a list of a hundred places, but the ones that are true.
- Answer typical questions: roughly what does it cost, how long does it take, which grants are available, what does the customer need to prepare? Concrete answers are often quoted.
- Show references: one project per section with place, starting point, solution and photos. Name customers only with their consent.
- Add structured data: with Schema.org types such as Plumber, Electrician, RoofingContractor or HomeAndConstructionBusiness, name, service area and services become machine-readable.
Google Business Profile for trade businesses
Many trade businesses have no customer visits at their premises. Google treats them as service-area businesses: the address is removed from the profile and instead you enter up to 20 areas, such as towns or postcodes. According to Google, the overall area should not be more than about two hours’ drive from your base. If you have a showroom or shop with opening hours, you keep the address and add the service area.
Also important are the right primary category, complete services, current photos from real jobs and replies to every review. More in our Business Profile checklist.
Reviews and trust
In the trades, reviews are often the reason a customer calls. This is how to get more of them without breaking any rules:
- Ask right after completion: the best moment is when the customer is happy. A short link or QR code on the invoice helps.
- Nothing in return: Google prohibits discounts or gifts for reviews, and bought reviews are banned in the EU.
- Reply to every review: short, friendly, and with criticism factual and with a solution.
- Not just on one platform: reviews in the Google profile and on a portal that is common in your trade complement each other.
Only mention qualifications, registrations such as Gas Safe, memberships of trade associations, certifications and manufacturer accreditations if they are accurate and current. Using protected titles and logos without entitlement is misleading and can lead to legal action.
Common mistakes on tradespeople’s websites
- Only “Your partner for everything around the house”: general phrases fit no specific question.
- Services only as images: text in graphics or flyers as PDFs is hard for search engines and AI systems to read.
- No location in the text: if your location only appears in the legal notice, the link between service and region is missing.
- Hard to reach: phone number hard to find, no form, no information on when you call back.
- Old stock photos: real pictures of your jobs and your team are more credible and show what you can really do.
AI in the trades: more than visibility
More enquiries are only good if they get handled. That is why many businesses also use AI in the office: sorting enquiries from email and forms, automatically asking for missing details, preparing quotes from measurements and the product catalogue, writing site reports from photos and voice notes. What this looks like for quotes is shown in our article Automate quotes with AI. Further processes are described on the page of our AI automation agency.
Sources
- Google Business Profile Help: Manage your service area
- Google Business Profile Help: Guidelines for representing your business on Google
- Google: Maps user-generated content policy, prohibited and restricted content
- Schema.org: HomeAndConstructionBusiness
- Google Search Central: Spam policies for Google web search