The reality: your customers search before they call
According to Checkatrade’s own research, 97% of consumers search online before hiring a tradesperson. The question is not whether your potential customers are searching, but whether they find you or your competitors.
For most tradespeople, three things determine online visibility: Google Business Profile, reviews, and a website that loads fast on mobile. Get these three right and you are ahead of the majority of your local competition.
Google Business Profile: the single most important step
Your Google Business Profile is what appears when someone searches “plumber near me” or “builder in [your area]”. If you do one thing from this article, do this.
Choose the right category. “Plumber” not “Home improvement”. “Electrician” not “Contractor”. Be specific.
List every service. Gas boiler installation, bathroom fitting, emergency callouts. Each service you add is a potential match for a specific search query.
Add photos of real work. Before-and-after shots of completed jobs are the most powerful content for a tradesperson’s GBP. Customers want to see what you actually do, not a stock photo of a spanner.
Set your service area correctly. If you cover a 20-mile radius from your base, set that in GBP. If you only work in specific postcodes, list them.
Keep hours updated. If you offer emergency callouts, note that. If you do not work weekends, say so. Incorrect hours lead to frustrated customers and negative reviews.
The review machine
Reviews are the deciding factor for most customers choosing between tradespeople. Two businesses with similar services and pricing? The one with more, better, recent reviews wins the job.
When to ask. At the moment the customer expresses satisfaction. Not by email three days later (they have moved on). In person, on the day, when they are looking at the finished work and feeling good about it.
How to ask. Keep it natural: “Glad you are happy with the work. If you have a minute, a Google review really helps me out. I can text you the link.” Then send the link immediately.
What to do with negative reviews. Respond professionally. Acknowledge the concern. Offer to resolve it. Future customers are reading your response more carefully than the original complaint.
According to BrightLocal, 87% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses, and 73% only pay attention to reviews written in the last month. Recency matters as much as volume.
Website essentials for tradespeople
A tradesperson’s website does not need to be complex. It needs to be fast, mobile-friendly, and clear about what you do and where you do it.
Service pages
One page per service. “Bathroom fitting in North London” is a page. “Kitchen installation in North London” is another page. Each page should describe the service, include photos of completed work, and mention the areas you cover.
This is not keyword stuffing. It is giving Google and AI engines specific, structured information about what you offer and where. A single page that says “we do all types of building work” gives search engines nothing to match against a specific query.
Area pages
If you work across multiple areas, create a page for each. Not identical content with the town name changed; genuinely different pages that mention local landmarks, specific project examples in that area, or area-specific services.
Contact information
Phone number visible on every page. Ideally in the header. Many customers visiting a tradesperson’s website want to call, not fill in a form. Make it a clickable phone link on mobile.
Mobile speed
Over 70% of local searches happen on mobile. If your website takes more than 3 seconds to load on a phone, you are losing customers before they see your work. Test at Google PageSpeed Insights and aim for a score above 85 on mobile.
Why most tradesperson websites fail
Built by a mate. A favour from someone who “knows a bit about websites” typically produces a site that looks acceptable but loads slowly, is not mobile-optimised, has no structured data, and targets no search terms.
Template with stock images. A generic template with stock photos of tools and hard hats does not build trust. Customers want to see your work, your van, your team.
No service-area pages. A single “Services” page that lists everything you do gives Google one URL to match against hundreds of potential queries. Specific pages for specific services in specific areas multiply your visibility.
No SEO foundations. No meta titles, no structured data, no internal linking, no content strategy. The site exists but Google has no reason to rank it.
Paid directories vs organic search
Checkatrade, MyBuilder, Bark, and similar platforms have their place. They provide leads from users already on those platforms, and for new tradespeople building a reputation, they can be a useful starting point.
The limitation is cost per lead. Directory subscriptions and per-lead fees add up. A tradesperson paying £100 per month for Checkatrade and receiving 5 leads is paying £20 per lead indefinitely.
Local SEO and a well-optimised Google Business Profile generate leads from Google directly, where you do not pay per lead. The upfront investment is higher (a website costs money, and SEO takes time) but the cost per lead decreases over time as your organic visibility builds.
For most established tradespeople, the optimal approach is both: directories for immediate leads while building organic visibility for long-term, lower-cost enquiry generation. For help with web design and SEO specifically for trades businesses, a Visibility Briefing identifies where to start.