— TRADES
More calls is the easy part. The useful goal is more of the right calls, in the postcodes you want to work in, for the jobs with margin in them, instead of paying a lead site a cut of everything.
Three results get almost all the clicks on a phone. Getting into them is mostly unglamorous housekeeping done consistently, not a clever trick.
01
Correct categories, service areas, hours, photos and a habit of answering questions. The single biggest lever, and usually half-filled.
02
A few every month beats forty in one week. Recency counts, replies count, and the wording customers use becomes searchable text.
03
One page per job type, one per town you genuinely cover, each with real detail rather than the same paragraph with the name swapped.
04
The same name, number and address everywhere, including the old directory listings you have forgotten about.
WHAT CONVERTS A TRADE ENQUIRY
Ranking gets you looked at. What gets you called is evidence that you have done this exact job nearby, recently, and that someone like them was happy afterwards.
Photographs of your own work, in named places, beat any amount of copy about quality and reliability.
Before and after, the town it was in, what it involved. Your own photos, not stock images of someone else’s kitchen.
Gas Safe, NICEIC, FENSA or your trade’s equivalent, with numbers, near the top rather than in the footer.
Typical ranges or a clear survey process. Total silence on price loses more enquiries than a number ever does.
Tappable, in the header, on every page, plus a form for people who will not ring during the day.
OWNING YOUR OWN LEADS
Lead sites are a reasonable way to fill a quiet month. They are an expensive way to run a business permanently, because you are paying per job, competing on speed of response, and building nothing you keep. The goal is not to drop them tomorrow. It is to need them less each quarter.
MONTH 1-2
Fix the Business Profile properly and start a review habit the office can actually keep up.
MONTH 2-4
Service and area pages for the work you want more of, with real job photos on each.
MONTH 4-8
Citations tidied, local press and community links earned, competitors’ gaps closed.
ONGOING
Track cost per enquiry from search against what the lead sites charge, and shift the budget as it crosses over.
COMMON QUESTIONS
Anything not covered here, ask us directly and you will get a straight answer.
Business Profile and review work can move the map pack within six to eight weeks. Ranking for competitive service searches across several towns usually takes four to six months, and honest agencies will not promise faster.
Only for the ones you genuinely work in and want more work from. Twenty near-identical pages with the town name swapped is a recognised pattern and it does not rank. Five substantial ones will do more.
Keep them while you build. They fill gaps and cost you margin rather than cash flow. The aim is to reduce your dependence each quarter, not to cancel everything on day one.
No, and it is fragile. You do not control it, it barely ranks, and it cannot carry service or area pages. A small proper site plus a well-run Business Profile beats it comfortably.
For a trade, they are usually the deciding factor. Recency matters as much as the average, which is why a steady trickle beats a one-off push.
Increasingly. People ask assistants for a plumber or an electrician nearby, and the answer comes from your profile, your reviews and consistent details across the web. The work overlaps almost entirely with good local SEO.
Local search for single-location and service-area businesses.
How we work in Marlow and across Buckinghamshire.
If the site itself is the thing holding you back.
FREE SEO & AEO AUDIT
Send your domain and we will send back a written audit: rankings, click-through gaps, technical blockers, and how often the answer engines cite you. No cost, no obligation, no automated PDF.
✓ Written by a senior strategist within two working days
✓ Covers Google, Bing and AI answer engines
✓ One follow-up email, and only if you want one
