To get found for "plumber near me" or "electrician in Leeds", work in this order. First set up and verify your Google Business Profile with the right category and your service area. Then ask for a review after every job, build a page for each job and each town you work in, and watch Search Console. Google says nobody can pay for a better local ranking, so nobody can promise you a position.
Key takeaways
- Google says its local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and how well known you are, which it calls prominence. You can work on relevance and prominence. Distance is where the customer is standing.
- Most trades go to the customer, so Google treats them as a service-area business: take your home address off the profile and list the towns or postcodes you cover.
- Reviews count towards prominence. You're allowed to ask for them with a link or QR code, but Google calls any reward for a review fake engagement.
- Town pages only help when each one is about real work in that town. The spam policies name pages "targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page" as doorway abuse.
- Search Console shows the searches your site already appears for. Start there before you write anything new.
What decides who shows up for "near me" searches?
Google's own help page on local ranking says local results are "mainly based on relevance, distance and popularity", then explains each one, calling the last one prominence (Google Business Profile Help):
- Relevance is how well your profile matches the search. Google asks for "complete and detailed business info" to judge it.
- Distance is how far you are from the person searching. You can't change it.
- Prominence is how well known you are. Google says this draws on "how many websites link to your business and how many reviews you have", and that "more reviews and positive ratings can help".
The same page says: "There's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google." Treat any offer of a guaranteed top spot with that line in mind, including from us.
Everything below works on relevance or prominence, in the order it pays off for a one-van business.
The order, at a glance
| Step | Who does the work | How often | What it changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Profile: name, category, service area | You | Once, then whenever something changes | Whether you can show on Maps at all, and for which searches |
| 2. A review after every job | You | After every job | Prominence, and what a customer reads before ringing |
| 3. A page per job and per town | You or whoever builds your site | One page at a time, written from real jobs | Relevance for "boiler repair Harrogate" style searches |
| 4. Name, address and phone matching | You | Once, then whenever your details change | Fewer conflicting details for Google to sort out |
| 5. Search Console and your profile's Performance | You | Once a month | Shows which searches already find you, so you know what to build next |
Step 1: Set up your Google Business Profile properly
The profile is what shows on the map. Verifying it tells Google you're allowed to represent the business, "so it's more likely to show up in search results" (local ranking tips). Then get four things right.
Your name, exactly as it is on the van. Google's guidelines for representing your business say the name should match the one on your shopfront, website and stationery. Adding words to it, such as a service or a town, "isn't permitted, and could result in the suspension of your Business Profile". "Smith Plumbing" stays "Smith Plumbing", never "Smith Plumbing Emergency Plumber Leeds". Keep it plain.
One primary category, as specific as Google allows. Google says the categories you select affect your local ranking, and tells you to pick a specific one from its list rather than a general one. Its guidelines say to "choose the fewest number of categories" that describe your core business. If you're a plumber who also fits boilers, that's a primary category and one or two extras, never ten. Changing a category later can mean verifying again.
A service area instead of your home address. If customers don't come to you, Google says to remove your address and list where you work instead. You can set up to 20 service areas by city, postcode or other area, never a radius, and the whole area shouldn't be more than "about two hours of driving time" from your base. A service-area business gets one profile for the whole area, so a second profile for the next town over breaks the rules.
Your services, hours, phone number and job photos. Google says businesses "with complete and accurate info are more likely to show up". Fill in every service you actually do, in the words customers use, and add photos of your own jobs.
Our free Google Business Profile checklist takes you through twelve checks from the Google Maps app, each linked to the Google help page it comes from.
Step 2: Ask for a review after every job
Prominence is partly reviews, and a review is also the first thing a homeowner reads before deciding to ring. Google's tips to get more reviews say to remind customers with a Google link or a QR code, and to reply to reviews. They also draw a hard line: offering anything free or discounted for a review "is considered fake engagement and is strictly prohibited."
So the habit is simple. Finish the job, send the review link the same day, and reply to what comes back. The ask works best while the customer is still pleased with the job.
Step 3: Build a page for each job and each town you work in
Your profile handles the map. Your website handles the searches where someone types the job and the town, and the questions they ask before they ring. A single "services" page can't be the best answer to "boiler repair Harrogate" and "bathroom fitting Ripon" at once.
Give each main job its own page: what it involves, the areas you do it in, photos of real jobs and the questions customers ask. Then add a page for each town only where you have real work to show there.
This is where trade sites go wrong. Google's spam policies list "multiple domain names or pages targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page" as doorway abuse. They also name "substantially similar pages", and Google says sites that break these policies "may rank lower in results or not appear in results at all". Twenty copies of one page with the town name swapped is exactly that. Three town pages with real jobs, real photos and local reviews are worth more than twenty empty ones.
Every page also needs a phone number customers can tap to call. A search that finds you is only worth something if the call gets through.
Step 4: Make your name, address and phone match everywhere
Google's guidelines ask you to represent the business "as it's consistently represented and recognised in the real world across signage, stationery and other branding". In practice that means your profile, your website, your van, your invoices and the directories you're listed on all carry the same name and the same phone number. If you changed your mobile number two years ago, search the old one and update every listing that still shows it.
Your website and your profile should also point at each other. From our own scans: 62% of 42 local business websites our scan checked between 3 Aug and 19 Oct 2026 failed "Map or Google profile link" (26 of 42). On the sites that failed, nothing on the page sent a visitor to the business's Google listing or to a map.
Step 5: Check Search Console and your profile's Performance every month
You don't have to guess which searches already find you. Google's Performance report in Search Console shows the queries your site appears for, how often it was shown and how often people clicked, over the last three months by default. Don't be surprised if you can't see your site when you run the same search yourself. The same help page says results depend on "the time, place, device, and recent history of the person searching". So stop checking your own phone and read the report.
Your Google Business Profile has its own version. Its Performance page shows the search terms people used to find you, plus calls, website clicks and direction requests. The searches figure is updated at the start of each month and can take up to five days to appear.
Once a month, look for a job you do that people are searching for but that has no page on your site. That's your next page. Write it. Say the report shows people finding you for "boiler service Harrogate" while your site only has a general boiler page: a Harrogate boiler service page is the next one to write. If a search term names a service missing from your profile, add it.
How to tell which searches bring the job
Not every search is worth the same to a trade. "Emergency plumber" at 9pm is a different customer from "how to bleed a radiator". A search that names the job and a problem, such as "leaking" or "no hot water", comes from someone ready to ring. A "how to" search comes from someone hoping to do it themselves, so it rarely needs more than a short answer on the relevant job page. Our free search quiz asks you to place ten searches a customer might type on five rungs, from your business name down to a slogan nobody searches, with the reason after every answer.
What we charge to do it for you
Every price is published, and you can do all of the above yourself.
- Google Business Profile setup, £179: we set up and tidy your categories, services, photos, reviews and posting.
- Local SEO & Measurement Pack, £199: local SEO built into every page, plus GA4, Tag Manager, Clarity, Search Console and Bing installed with UK-compliant consent.
- Google Reviews Engine, £299 setup then £49 a month: one text from your own number after every job, with your Google review link.
- AI Search Optimisation, from £169 a month: the ongoing local SEO work, plus getting you cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews.
If your website is the weak link, we build websites for trades free, with a page per job and area pages for your towns. Starter at £39 a month keeps us working on it to bring you more customers: the local SEO steps above, getting it recommended by ChatGPT and the other AI assistants, and turning more visitors into calls, with hosting, security and small changes included.
The £39 starts the month the site goes live, and you approve the site on your phone first. Under the Busier Guarantee, if you're not busier after three months live, measured on your own Google numbers, you get every penny back. Own it outright for £299 if you'd rather. The full list is on the pricing page.
Check where you stand first
Run the free scan on your site. It runs 48 checks, including whether your phone number is a tap-to-call link, whether your opening hours can be found and whether the site links to your Google profile, and lists the fixes in priority order. If you're wondering whether you need a website at all while the directories send work, we answered that in do plumbers need a website if they're already on Checkatrade. Electricians should also read can you put the NICEIC logo on your website before adding badges to the new pages.
Sources
- Google Business Profile Help, Tips to improve your local ranking on Google, read 20 Oct 2026.
- Google Business Profile Help, Manage your service areas for service-area and hybrid businesses, read 20 Oct 2026.
- Google Business Profile Help, Guidelines for representing your business on Google, read 20 Oct 2026.
- Google Business Profile Help, Manage your business category, read 20 Oct 2026.
- Google Business Profile Help, Tips to get more reviews, read 20 Oct 2026.
- Google Business Profile Help, Understand your Business Profile performance and insights, read 20 Oct 2026.
- Google Search Central, Spam policies for Google web search, read 20 Oct 2026.
- Search Console Help, Performance report (Search results), read 20 Oct 2026.
Common questions
How do I get my trade business to show up for "near me" searches?
Verify a complete Google Business Profile with a specific primary category and your service area, collect genuine reviews after every job, and keep your website's pages matched to the jobs you do. Google says local results mainly depend on relevance, distance and prominence, and distance is set by where the customer is.
Should a tradesperson show their home address on Google?
Not if customers don't come to you. Service-area businesses are told to remove the address and list up to 20 service areas by city, postcode or other area instead.
Can I put my town in my Google Business Profile name?
No, unless it's really part of your trading name. The guidelines say extra words such as a service or a location aren't allowed in the name and could get the profile suspended.
Do I need a separate page for every town I cover?
Only for towns where you have real work to show. Google's spam policies class near-identical pages made for different towns as doorway abuse, so a few pages with real local jobs beat many copies.
How long does local SEO take for a tradesperson?
There's no fixed timeline, and Google says nobody can pay for a better local ranking. Your profile's Performance page and Search Console show month by month whether more searches are finding you.
What your missed calls cost you.
£780 a month
£180 a week, £9,360 a year, going to whoever answers first.
As an example from these numbers, £631 a month is left over after the receptionist’s £149 starting price. Illustrative only, not a promise of earnings.
These are example numbers. Change them to your own. Worked out as 5 missed calls a week, times £120, times the 30% who would have booked, then over a month (52 weeks divided by 12).
A receptionist that answers every call in seconds, day or night, is £149 to £399 a month. It has to pay for itself in the first month, or you get every penny back, setup included.
Hear it answer as your businessBoth calculators, calls and messages, on one page: the missed call cost calculator.
Want the version of this with your name on it?
Run the free scan on your current site, 48 checks including AI search, no charge, or ask for your free website: we build it first, then the systems that get you booked. £39 a month keeps us working on it to bring you more customers. It starts the month your site goes live, and if you’re not busier after three months, you get every penny back. There is no obligation either way.
9 things that decide whether your phone rings.
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