SEO for Contractors: How Trades Get Found on Google

The facts here come from Google's own pages: Google Business Profile Help's Tips to improve your local ranking on Google, Guidelines for representing your business on Google, Manage your service areas, Manage your business category, Tips for business-specific photos and Tips to get more reviews; Google Search Central's Local business structured data and Organization structured data; and schema.org's HomeAndConstructionBusiness type, all checked on 14 November 2026. The rest is our view from building websites for local businesses.

The short answer

For most contractors, local SEO starts with a verified Google Business Profile set up as a service-area business, with the most specific trade category, a full services list and photos of real jobs. Your website then backs it up: one page per service, honest area pages, the same name and phone number as the profile, and structured data that matches. Reviews come from asking every customer, never from paying for them. Track calls and quote requests so you know which of this brings work.

Your Business Profile comes first

Google says local results are "mainly based on relevance, distance, and popularity", and that "There's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google." Distance is out of your hands. Relevance comes from complete profile details, and prominence from links to your business and from reviews. Our Google Business Profile guide covers set-up, verification and the ranking factors in full.

Most trades are what Google calls service-area businesses, and its guidelines use a contractor as the example: "if you're a plumber and run your business from your residential address, clear the address from your Business Profile." Service areas are set by city, postal code or another area, not as a radius: "You can't set your service area as a radius distance around your business." The limits (up to 20 areas, about 2 hours of driving) and the one-profile rule are in our contractor website guide. One addition for growing firms: Google allows one profile per location only when each location has "separate service areas and separate staff". A second address with nobody working there does not qualify, and a "virtual office" is not eligible at all.

Categories and services

Google says "The categories you select affect your local ranking on Google." Pick the primary category that names your trade as closely as Google's list allows. Google's own advice is "select a specific category from the list" and, if nothing fits, a general one; "You can't create your own category." Add a few extra categories only for work you really do, since Google asks you to "Choose the fewest number of categories it takes to describe your overall core business" and not to use categories "solely as keywords". A roofer who also fits gutters can say so; a roofer who adds every home-improvement category is asking for trouble. Note that editing a category may mean you are "asked to verify your business again".

The services list is where you name each job: roof repair, re-roofing, leak detection, water heater installation and so on. When someone searches for a service you list, Google may highlight it on your profile, and you can add a description and a price to each one. We walk through suggested and custom services in adding services to your Business Profile. Keep the business name itself clean: Google wants your name as it appears on your truck, invoices and website, and the details "like address, service area, business hours, and category" go in their own fields, not in the name.

Service and area pages on your site

The profile wins the map. Your website wins the ordinary results below it, and it is where people go to check you out before they call. The pages that do the work for a contractor are the same ones that win jobs: one page per service you want to be hired for, with what the job involves, the areas you cover and how to get a quote. What goes on those pages (license details, the quote form, project galleries) is in our contractor website guide.

Area pages are where contractors most often go wrong. A page per town can help when it has something only that town's page could say: jobs done there, local permit notes, the crew that covers it. Twenty copies of the same page with the city name swapped is what Google's spam policies call doorway abuse. Our guide to service-area pages without doorway spam shows where the line is.

Photos of real jobs

A storefront business shows its shop front. A contractor's shop front is the work. Google's photo tips list "Photos at work" as a type that helps "customers quickly understand the type of work you do", and suggest adding at least three that are "representative of the services you offer": your team at work and the specialty jobs you do. Google also asks for photos that are "well lit" and have "no significant alterations or excessive use of filters or AI. In other words, the image should represent reality." Photos only show once the business is verified.

In our view the best contractor photos are plain: the finished roof, the new panel, the crew on site with branded shirts or a branded truck. Use the same photos on the matching service page of your site, with a short caption saying what was done and where. Format and size rules are in Business Profile photos.

Reviews

Reviews count twice: Google says "More reviews and positive ratings can help your business's local ranking", and they are what homeowners read before they let a stranger into the house. Ask every customer when the job is done, with a Google review link or QR code; Google supports both. Do not offer anything for a review: "Offering incentives, like free or discounted goods or services, in exchange for customers to post reviews, change reviews, or remove negative reviews is considered fake & misleading content and is strictly prohibited." Reply to reviews, including the bad ones, briefly and politely. Our guide to Google Business Profile reviews covers asking, replying and reporting.

Name, address and phone everywhere

Your name should be your "real-world name, as used consistently on your storefront, website, stationery, and as known to customers." Use the same business name, phone number and (if you show one) address on your profile, your website footer and every directory that lists you. Google's guidelines also say the phone number "must be under the direct control of the business", and they prefer a local number to "a central call center helpline number".

Directory and map listings outside Google are often called citations. Google does not publish a rule about them, so this part is our view: claim the listings that matter to your customers, starting with Apple Business Connect and Bing Places, then your trade association and the local directories homeowners use. Matching details matter more than the number of listings. When you change phone numbers or move, update them all.

Structured data for trades

schema.org has a HomeAndConstructionBusiness type with specific trade types under it: Electrician, GeneralContractor, HVACBusiness, HousePainter, Locksmith, MovingCompany, Plumber and RoofingContractor. Google asks you to "Use the most specific LocalBusiness sub-type possible", and if you do several trades to list them as an array; its own example is "@type" : [ "Electrician" , "Plumber" , "Locksmith" ].

Two points catch contractors out. First, Google lists address as a required property for local business markup. If you have hidden a home address on your profile, do not publish it in your markup either; use Organization markup, for which Google says "There are no required properties", with your name, logo, phone and website. Second, Google recommends aggregateRating and review "only" for "sites that capture reviews about other local businesses", so do not mark up your own Google reviews as star ratings on your site. The basics are in our guides to LocalBusiness schema and Organization schema.

Tracking calls and quote requests

For most trades the lead is a phone call, so measure calls, not just visits. Business Profile performance counts clicks on your call button and website link (see Business Profile performance), and a form thank-you page or event shows quote requests from the site. If you use tracking numbers, keep to Google's guidelines: no numbers that "redirect or 'refer' users to landing pages or phone numbers other than those of the actual business". A tracking number you own, with your main number kept on the profile as well, is the usual set-up; the details are in our call tracking guide.

Where to start (our view)

Work in this order: verify the profile and set it up as a service-area business, fix the category and services list, add a dozen real job photos, then start asking every customer for a review. On the website, make sure each service you want more of has its own page, and that the name and phone number match the profile. Area pages and structured data come after that. If you want leads faster than SEO brings them, Local Services Ads and Search ads are covered in Google Ads for contractors; ranking well on the map and paying for ads above it are separate things.

If you need a contractor website built, our website development work includes the technical basics: clean URLs, titles and descriptions, an XML sitemap and structured data where it applies. See all our services.

Frequently asked questions

How do contractors do local SEO?

Start with a verified Google Business Profile set up as a service-area business, with a specific trade category, a full services list, real job photos and steady reviews. Then make your website agree with it: a page per service, honest area pages, and the same name and phone number everywhere.

Do roofers and plumbers need to show an address on Google?

No. If customers do not come to your address, Google says to remove it and set a service area instead. Its own example is a plumber working from a home address. You can set up to 20 service areas by city or postal code.

Can I pay Google to rank my business higher on the map?

No. Google says there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking. Paid placement is a separate product: Local Services Ads and Search ads, which you buy in Google Ads.

Should I add star ratings from my Google reviews to my website's schema?

No. Google recommends review and rating markup for local businesses only on sites that collect reviews about other businesses. You can still show reviews on your site as normal text.