SEO for tradies, with notes for plumbers and electricians

SEO for a tradie is mostly local: a complete Google Business Profile, a website that says plainly what you do and where, and a page for each job you want more of. You are not competing nationally for "plumber". You are competing for your trade in the areas you actually drive to. This post covers what to do first, how it differs for plumbers and electricians, and what we would skip. We make no promises about rankings, because nobody can.

What does SEO for a tradie actually involve?

Three parts, in this order.

1. Your Google Business Profile. For searches like "electrician near me", Google shows a map with three businesses before any website. That is where many calls start. The primary category, hours, service area, photos and recent reviews all feed it. We go through the fixes in Google Business Profile and the map pack.
2. Your website. It needs to back up the profile: the same name, address, phone and hours, a clear statement of the areas you cover, and pages Google can match to real searches. See the on-site half of local SEO.
3. Pages for specific jobs. A services list with dot points cannot rank for a specific job. A page about that job can.

If you want the general order of operations for any small business, small business SEO: what to do first covers it.

What does SEO look like for plumbers?

A plumber's work splits into two kinds, and SEO only helps one of them directly.

Emergencies such as burst pipes and blocked toilets are won by the map listing and a phone that gets answered. A person with water on the floor is not reading a web page. They tap the first result, and if it rings out they tap the second. The site's job is small: load fast and put the number where a thumb lands.

The slow jobs are where plumber SEO earns its money. A hot water system making a noise, a shower that has leaked for a year, a drain that blocks every winter, a gas point for a new cooktop. Those people search at night, ignore it, search again, and act weeks or months later. They read properly, and what they want is a diagnosis: how bad is this if I leave it, and what would you do.

We looked at one plumber's invoices to see which kind of work the site should serve. Emergencies were a small share of what he billed, and none of them had come through the website. Most of the year was hot water, leaks, gas and repeat work for a property manager. The site had been built only for the emergencies. We unpack the pages that fix this in plumber websites: the work that is not an emergency.

Three plumber pages worth writing, each in your own words: one per major job (hot water, leaking showers, blocked drains), one that states what you are licensed to do, including gas work, and a short page for property managers and strata managers covering insurance, invoicing and after-hours contact. Say you will tell someone when a job can wait. It builds trust.

What does SEO look like for electricians?

An electrician also has two readers, and they search differently.

The evening caller has lost power or a switch is misbehaving. They want to know whether you are working now, whether you come to their area and what happens if they ring. The answer lives mostly on the Business Profile: true hours, a service area that matches where you will drive after hours, and a number a person answers.

The quote comparer is organising a switchboard upgrade, an EV charger, fans through a house or solar. They get three quotes over a fortnight and read each one. A page called Services with "EV charger installation" as a dot point cannot rank for that search or sell it. A page can explain what is involved at their place, whether the switchboard will cope, how long the power is off and what they are given at the end.

One electrician we work with sent us a winter call log. The pattern was a long tail of evening calls, plus a cluster of weekday mornings from people planning upgrades. His site was built for the second group and had nothing for the first. The detail is in electrician websites: what gets the after-hours call.

Say that the customer receives a certificate of compliance for the electrical work, and put your licence number where it can be read. Most tradies skip this because it feels obvious. It is not obvious to the customer comparing three names.

What mistakes do tradies make with SEO?

Publishing a page for every suburb. Pages that differ only by the place name look like near-duplicates. On a pest control client's site, six near-identical suburb pages went live on the same day, and within a week the searches it held in the top 30 fell from 43 impressions a day to 15. We cannot see inside Google, but nothing else we checked explained it. We cover the case in suburb pages: what happened when we published six at once and the safer approach in local SEO for tradies and service area pages.

Chasing searches for work you do not do. An appliance repair site we looked after was appearing for electrician searches. Writing content for those would have attracted people it could not help. Fix the page so it says what you do, not what you do not. See ranking for trades you do not offer.

Generic blog posts. An electrical safety post that looks like everyone else's rarely helps. Write the four job pages first.

Never checking. Rankings move for many reasons. Learn to read Search Console by date and page, as in your rankings dropped: find the date first.

What should you do this month?

1. Open your Business Profile and check the primary category, hours and service area. Make them match your website.
2. Write down the three jobs you want more of. Give each its own page, written as you would explain it standing in the customer's home.
3. Add your licence number and ABN to the site.
4. Ask recent happy customers for a Google review, one tap, at the moment they are happy.
5. Check that your phone number is tappable and your form is short.

What does SEO cost with us?

Our SEO add-on is $549 a month, GST inclusive, month to month, on top of the $298 a month website plan, which has a 12 month term. It covers Search Console and keyword reporting, on-page fixes, new content and Business Profile upkeep. We do not promise rankings, leads or revenue. The model is that we only keep earning if the work is worth keeping. See what SEO costs in Australia, the SEO service page and the pricing page. The full picture for trades is in our guide to a website for tradies.

When you are ready, get started.