If you’re a tradie — plumber, electrician, builder, painter, landscaper — your potential customers are searching for you on Google right now. The question is: are they finding you, or your competitors?

Why SEO matters for tradies

When someone’s hot water system breaks at 10pm, they don’t flip through the Yellow Pages. They Google “emergency plumber near me.” If you’re not on page one, you don’t exist to that customer.

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is the process of making sure your website shows up when people search for the services you offer, in the areas you service.

The basics: what you need

1. A proper website

Not a Facebook page. Not a free Wix site. A real website on your own domain (e.g., yourbusiness.com.au) built on WordPress. This gives you full control over your SEO and lets Google take you seriously.

2. Service pages

Don’t just have one page that lists everything you do. Create a separate page for each service — “Emergency Plumbing Melbourne”, “Hot Water System Repair”, “Blocked Drain Cleaning”. Each page targets different keywords and gives Google more content to rank.

3. Location pages

If you service multiple suburbs or areas, create pages targeting each one. “Plumber in Brunswick”, “Plumber in Richmond”, “Plumber in St Kilda”. This is how you rank for local searches.

4. Google Business Profile

Claim and optimise your Google Business Profile. Add your correct business name, address, phone number, hours, services and photos. Ask happy customers to leave reviews — they’re a huge ranking factor for local search.

5. Regular content

Google rewards websites that are regularly updated. A blog with helpful articles — “How much does a bathroom renovation cost in Melbourne?”, “Signs you need to replace your hot water system” — shows Google your site is active and authoritative.

Common mistakes tradies make

• No mobile optimisation — Most people searching for a tradie are on their phone
• No meta descriptions — That snippet of text under your Google result matters
• Thin content — Pages with 100 words won’t outrank competitors with 800
• Ignoring reviews — Not asking for Google reviews is leaving rankings on the table
• Set and forget — Building a site and never updating it means it slowly drops in rankings

Don’t have time for SEO?

We get it — you’re busy running a business, not sitting at a computer tweaking meta tags. That’s exactly why we built Sally. She handles all of this for you, every day, while you focus on the tools.

Get a free SEO audit of your current site and see exactly where you stand.