1. Google Business Profile, properly filled in
It is free, it appears above the normal search results, and for local trades it is usually the single biggest source of enquiries. Most trades claim it and then leave it half empty.
Fill in every field: the services you offer, your hours, your service area, and the question-and-answer section. Add photographs of real jobs, and keep adding them — profiles with recent photos are shown more often.
Use the same business name, address format and phone number everywhere online. Inconsistency between your profile, your website and directory listings is one of the more common reasons a profile underperforms.
2. Reviews, asked for at the right moment
The moment to ask is when you have just finished and the customer is happy and standing next to you — not three days later by text.
Ask in person, then send the link. A saved text with your review link takes ten seconds.
Reply to every review, including the bad one. A calm, specific reply to a complaint does more for the next reader than five five-star reviews.
3. Be findable for the towns you actually cover
Write the town names out. People search "boiler repair Rotherham", not "boiler repair South Yorkshire".
One page per main area you work, each with something genuinely specific on it, beats one page listing thirty towns.
4. Answer, or ring back fast
Most trade enquiries go to whoever answers first. If you cannot answer on the tools, a same-day callback still beats most competitors, who never ring back at all.
Missed-call texting — an automatic "sorry, on a job, I will ring you back within the hour" — is close to free and recovers a surprising number of jobs.
5. Follow up quotes once
A single polite follow-up a few days after sending a quote converts a meaningful share of jobs that would otherwise go quiet. Most trades never do it, which is exactly why it works.
What about paid lead sites?
They have their place when you are starting out or genuinely quiet. Understand what you are buying: the same enquiry is usually sold to several trades, so you are paying to be one of four people ringing the same person, and you compete on speed and price rather than on being the one they chose.
If you use them, treat it as a stopgap while you build the things above, not as the plan.
Common questions
How many reviews do I need?
Enough to look established and recent enough to look active. Ten reviews with the newest from last month beats sixty where the newest is from two years ago.
Should I advertise on Google?
Only after the free work is done. Paid ads sending people to a half-finished profile and no website waste money. Once the profile is full, the reviews are coming in and the site exists, ads become a way to buy more of something that already works.
Does it matter which towns I list?
List the ones you will genuinely travel to. Listing thirty towns you would never drive to produces wasted calls and, on Google, weak pages that rank for none of them.
Last updated 24 September 2026