SEO for tradies, written like you are not stupid
Why tradie SEO is different from corporate SEO
A tradie wins or loses on Maps, not on organic listings. When someone in Belrose Googles "emergency plumber", they tap one of the top three Map Pack listings 70 per cent of the time, before they ever look at the regular results below.
That is the entire game for most local trades. Be in the Map Pack for the queries your customers type, in the suburbs you serve, with enough reviews and current photos that the listing converts the click into a phone call.
Every dollar of SEO spend that does not move you closer to being in the Map Pack for the right queries is wasted. Most "comprehensive SEO retainers" we see are mostly that kind of waste.
What actually moves a tradie's rankings
Four levers, in order of impact.
- GBP optimisation. Verified listing, correct categories, correct service area, all services listed by their real name, 20+ photos, monthly posts, responses to every review. Cost: time. ROI: huge.
- Reviews. Routinely asking every happy customer. Replying to all reviews, positive and negative. Local pack listings with 50+ recent reviews consistently out-rank ones with 10 old reviews, even when the older listing is otherwise stronger.
- Suburb-targeted service pages on your site. Each page targets a real combination of service and suburb you cover (e.g. "blocked drain Frenchs Forest"). Each is 800-1,000 words, with real local content, internal links, schema, photos.
- Citations and on-site basics. NAP consistency across AU directories. Schema markup on every page. Technical fundamentals (mobile-friendly, fast, indexable). Internal linking that connects the service-area pages back to the main service pages.
Backlinks matter, but for trades they are level 5, after the first four levers are sorted. Most tradies plateau at level 1 because they never got the GBP right.
What tradie SEO costs in Sydney
The working range is $1,800 to $2,800 per month for retainer SEO. Below $1,800 the work is too thin to matter in a Sydney market. Above $2,800 the marginal dollar is better in Ads for most trades, until the SEO foundations are mature.
See the full price list and what each retainer includes. The $1,200 audit is a one-off, refunded if we are not the right fit.
Realistic timeline for tradie SEO
- Month 1: GBP fully optimised. Some early ranking movement on easy local queries. Audit complete. Site basics fixed.
- Month 2-3: First four service-area pages published. Citations cleaned up. Reviews routine in place.
- Month 4-6: Map Pack rankings improving on primary suburb queries. Site traffic starting to compound. First measurable lift in phone leads.
- Month 6-12: Map Pack dominance on home suburb and neighbouring ones. Site organic doing 500+ visits per month. Phone leads up materially. Time to decide whether to expand into adjacent service areas or new services.
The story we keep telling
The Belrose plumber. Paying $2,800/mo for 18 months to another agency. Zero rankings, unverified GBP, 12 duplicate listings on directories, no schema. Three weeks of fixes (GBP, citations, four suburb pages, schema) and 90 days later, top 3 on "emergency plumber Belrose" and pulling 3-5 leads a week. The work was not magic. It was the obvious work, done in the obvious order, by someone who actually did it instead of selling it.
DIY vs retainer
An honest take. About 30 per cent of tradies who book the audit could implement the recommendations themselves over a few weekends if they wanted to. The GBP work is not complicated. The suburb pages are not hard to write if you know your trade. The citations are tedious but not technical.
The reason most tradies still want a retainer is they would rather spend $2,000 a month than spend three Saturdays a month doing the work themselves. That is a sensible trade. The question is who you pay $2,000 to.
We will tell you on the discovery call which side of the line you fall on, no charge.
When NOT to hire us as a tradie
- Your business is less than six months old and your domain has zero authority. SEO will eventually work but starts slow. Run Google Ads for 3-6 months while the SEO foundation is laid.
- You do not answer the phone or return calls within 30 minutes. More leads to an unanswered phone is more wasted spend.
- Your conversion rate from quote to job is under 30 per cent. Fix the sales process before turning up the lead volume.
- You have under $1,800 per month total SEO budget. Be honest and wait until you can fund the work properly.
Frequently asked
How much should a tradie spend on SEO?
$1,800 to $2,800 per month is the working band for a Sydney service-area trade. Below $1,800 the work is too thin to matter. Above $2,800 the next dollar of spend is usually better in Google Ads, until the SEO retainer has been running for 6+ months and content can scale.
Is SEO better than Google Ads for tradies?
Neither beats the other. Ads buy you leads immediately while SEO builds. SEO compounds while Ads stay flat. Most tradies should run a small Ads budget for the first 3-6 months of an SEO engagement to keep the phone ringing while SEO ramps.
How long before I get my first SEO lead?
Depends. A trade with a partly-set-up GBP and a basic site usually starts getting GBP-driven leads inside the first month, just from cleaning up the listing. Site-driven organic leads take longer: 2-4 months for the first ones, 6+ months for consistent volume.
Can I do tradie SEO myself?
Some of it, yes. The GBP work is doable for most owner-operators with a Saturday morning of focus. The on-page basics are doable with a template and 4-6 hours per service page. Where most tradies plateau is technical SEO and the systematic content briefing that compounds over months. That is what the retainer is for.