Free guide
How local trades get found on Google
Written for tradespeople in Your Town and Your County. No jargon — just what actually moves the needle, and what's hype. If someone's searching for your trade right now, here's how you become the one they call.
Claim and fill in your Google Business Profile
This is the single biggest lever for a local trade. It’s the free listing that puts you on Google Maps and in the “map pack” — the little box of local results at the top. Fill in every field: category, service area, hours, phone, photos of real jobs. For most local searches this is what decides who gets the call.
Get reviews — steadily, and reply to them
Reviews are the tie-breaker. When two trades both show up, people call the one with more (and better) reviews. Ask every happy customer, make it a habit, and reply to each one. A steady trickle beats a burst of ten and then nothing.
Have a fast website that names your services and areas
Your profile gets you seen; your site closes the click. It should load instantly on a phone, say clearly what you do and where, and have an obvious “call now” button. A page for each main service and each town you cover helps you show up for “[your trade] + [that town]”.
Be consistent everywhere
Your business name, address and phone number should match exactly across Google, your site, Facebook, and any directories. Mismatches quietly confuse Google and cost you rankings. Boring, but it matters.
The honest bit about AI assistants
People are starting to ask ChatGPT and Google’s AI for local recommendations — but for high-intent searches like “electrician near me”, the classic map + reviews still do the heavy lifting today. The smart move is to nail the fundamentals above (which also feed the AI answers), and spread your reviews and details beyond just Google so the AI tools have more to go on. Anyone selling “AI visibility” as magic that replaces Google is overselling it.