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SEO for tradesmen & trade businesses

SEO for tradesmen,
without the smoke.

We rank trade businesses on Google – plumbers, roofers, electricians, gas engineers and every trade in between. No magic, no page-one-in-30-days promises, no 80-page audit PDFs. Here's exactly what we do, month one to month six and beyond.

What we actually do

Trade SEO isn't
generic SEO.

A plumber and a SaaS company should not be ranked on Google in the same way. Trade SEO is mostly local, mostly map-pack, and mostly intent-driven. We optimise for the way your customers actually search.

Every month is a mix of three things: Google Business Profile work (the local map pack), on-site SEO (your website ranking for the right searches), and off-site signals (citations, reviews, links). The mix changes based on what's holding you back – a gas engineer fighting for boiler-repair searches needs different work to a kitchen fitter chasing £15k projects. Need leads while it builds? Google Ads gets you to the top of Google today.

SEO budget split (typical Growth client)

Google Business Profile35%
On-site optimisation30%
Citations & reviews20%
Reporting & strategy15%

Pro plans add competitor monitoring and location/service page creation. SEO-Only skips the on-site build work and focuses on the existing site.

What happens, when

From kickoff to compounding.

SEO isn't instant. Most trades see meaningful changes by month three, with proper leads from month four onwards. This is what the journey looks like.

MONTH 01

Audit & foundations

Full audit of your site, Google Business Profile, and current rankings. We fix anything broken (slow pages, missing meta, dodgy schema), wire up tracking, and claim every citation we can find.

MONTH 02

GBP overhaul

Your Google Business Profile is rewritten end-to-end: categories, services, areas served, photos, posts, Q&A. This is what shows up in the map pack – the most valuable real estate in local search.

MONTH 03

Content & pages

We start writing the pages your business is missing – service pages, location pages, common-question pages. These are the pages that earn long-tail traffic and convert browsers into callers.

MONTH 04–06

Compounding

Each new page indexes, each new review lands, each new citation feeds the map pack. Around month four most clients start seeing real movement in calls and form fills. Month six is when it really starts to fly.

MONTH 07+

Defend & expand

Once you're ranking, the job becomes defending position and expanding into new services or areas. Competitor monitoring kicks in. Quarterly strategy calls (Pro) shape the next 90 days.

What we don't do

Half of trade SEO is knowing what to skip.

  • Buy backlinks.

    Google's gotten very good at spotting paid links. The penalty isn't worth the short-term lift.

  • AI-spam content.

    We write content like it's going to be read by a human, because it is. Generic AI fluff doesn't rank and doesn't convert.

  • Promise rankings in 30 days.

    Anyone who does is either lying, optimising for terms nobody searches, or both.

  • Send 40-page jargon reports.

    You don't need to know what an "anchor text distribution audit" is. You need to know whether the phone is ringing more.

Who it's for

Every trade, its own playbook.

The searches, the seasons, and the job values are different for every trade. An emergency locksmith lives or dies by the map pack; a landscaper is won on photos and project pages. We keep a playbook per trade, not one template for all of them.

What this looks like in practice

Top 3 on Maps
across most of York.

Mukin House & Waste Removals started with zero Google traffic and a site that ranked for 4 keywords. This is what the first 11 weeks of proper local SEO did, measured on a 169-point scan grid.

7x
More Google search appearances
Top 3
On Maps across most of the York area
+22pts
Map-pack share of voice since launch
200+
Google visits, from a zero baseline

Questions

The questions everyone asks.

How much does SEO cost for a tradesman?

For a local trade business in the UK, proper SEO typically runs £200-400 a month – often less than Checkatrade or Bark end up costing once lead fees add up. Our plans start at £99/mo including the website, and SEO-Only is £300/mo if you already have a site you're happy with. See our UK SEO cost guide for what the wider market charges.

Is SEO worth it for tradesmen?

For most established trades, yes. Directories charge £5-40 for every lead and share it with 3-5 competitors, forever. SEO compounds instead: once you're in the map pack and on page one, enquiries arrive with no per-lead fee. It takes 3-4 months to build momentum, which is why we're upfront about the timeline before you commit.

Which plan includes SEO?

The Growth and Pro plans both include ongoing SEO as part of your monthly price. Starter includes foundation SEO (your site is set up correctly for Google), but active ranking work starts at Growth. If you already have a website, the SEO-Only plan covers everything without a new build.

How long until I see results?

SEO isn't instant. It typically takes 2 to 4 months to see meaningful changes in Google. But some fixes (like Google Business Profile optimisation) can show results within weeks.

I've been burned by an agency before. How are you different?

We're a small team, not a sales team. You deal directly with us. We explain everything in plain English, we don't lock you into contracts, and we show you exactly what we've done and why. If it's not working, we'll tell you.

Do I need to do anything?

Very little. We'll need access to your website and Google Business Profile (we'll walk you through it), and we might ask a few questions about your services and coverage area. After that, we handle the work.

What areas do you cover?

We're based in the North of England but work with trade businesses across the whole UK. SEO is done remotely, so your location doesn't matter. Neither does ours.

Can I see an example of your work?

Yes. We helped a roofing client in York go from 18 clicks a month to 90 in 6 months, generating over 40k in scheduled work. See more on our case studies page, or happy to walk you through the details on a call.

No pressure, no jargon

Want SEO that actually shows up? Let's talk.