SEO for tradies: more calls from Google, Google Maps and AI search

How much do Australians search for tradies?

Real searches, Australia-wide, from SE Ranking (October 2026). Figures are rough monthly averages.

Two things stand out. First, "near me" is in most of the biggest searches, and Google answers those with the map, so your Google Business Profile matters more than any single web page. Second, the cost per click shows what advertisers pay to win the same customer: every call SEO brings in is one you don't pay for.

When trade searches go up and down

Demand changes through the year. Over the past 12 months (SE Ranking, December 2025 to October 2026):

• "air conditioning installation" ranged from about 6,600 to 14,800 searches a month, highest in April.
• "landscaping" was highest in December, at about 18,100, and settled around 12,100 from mid-year.
• "removalists" held at about 18,100 a month for most of the year before easing to about 14,800.

Plan your pages and Google Ads budgets around your own trade's busy months: update the page for a job before the rush, not during it.

What we find on most trade websites

When we look at a tradie's website and Google profile for the first time, the same problems come up. In Wilson's words, from the websites we take over:

What that looks like in practice:

• Copied suburb pages. One location page copied for every suburb, with only the main headings changed. The page title and the text underneath still name the first suburb. Google sees near-identical pages and ranks none of them well.
• Words written for an old Google. Keyword-stuffed pages that read badly to customers and no longer work with Google either.
• No tracking, or messy tracking. Enquiry tracking in Google Analytics is missing or counts the wrong things, so nobody can say which calls came from the website.
• One page for everything. Every service on one long page, so none of them ranks on its own.

We fix these first. Every suburb page is written for that suburb, and tracking counts real calls and forms before we report a single number.

Leads sites or SEO?

Many tradies buy leads from sites like hipages or find work through Airtasker. The difference:

Many tradies use both while SEO builds. The aim is to need the leads sites less each year.

The tradie SEO checklist

Tick these off in order. (Interactive on the page.)

1. Google Business Profile claimed, with the right main category for your trade and extra categories for what you really do.
2. Every service listed in the profile, your service area set, and your home or yard address hidden.
3. Real photos of your team, vehicles and finished jobs.
4. A page on your website for each main job you want more of.
5. Your licence number on every page and in your profile, where your trade has one.
6. A tappable phone number on every page and an enquiry form that works on a phone.
7. Your business name, address (or service area) and phone the same everywhere online.
8. A review request after every job, the same day.
9. Google Search Console set up and your pages indexed.
10. Calls and forms counted in Google Analytics, each enquiry once.
11. Suburb pages only for areas you want work from, each written for that suburb.
12. Schema markup on the site, matching what the page says.

Local SEO for tradies who travel to customers

Local SEO is helping a business show up when people nearby search for its service. For trades it has one twist: most tradies are a service-area business: a business that travels to customers, like most tradies, and shows an area instead of an address. Google lets you hide your home or yard address and list the suburbs you serve. We set your profile up that way and build pages for those areas, so you show in the suburbs you want, not only the one you're based in. Read more about our local SEO.

Tracking that counts jobs

Conversion tracking means measuring the calls and enquiries that come from ads and the website, not just clicks. For a tradie: every tap on your phone number counted, every form counted once, and calls from your Google Business Profile checked in its own performance numbers. Without it, nobody can say which jobs came from SEO.

How tradies get recommended by AI tools

Customers now ask ChatGPT, Google's AI answers and Perplexity for tradies too. AI search optimisation is making a business easy for AI tools to find, trust and recommend. What helps:

• The same details everywhere. Google and AI tools trust a business more when its name, address and details match everywhere.
• A Bing listing. Bing's index also feeds ChatGPT search.
• Pages that answer real questions, such as what a job costs and how long it takes.
• Reviews that name the job and suburb.

Try it: ask ChatGPT "who is a good [your trade] in [your suburb]?" and see who it names. More: AI search visibility.

What our SEO for tradies includes

If you'd rather hand the list above to someone else:

• Google Business Profile: the right trade categories, every service, service area, hours and real photos.
• Service and suburb pages: one clear page for each main job, and pages only for the areas you want work from.
• Reviews: customer reviews on Google and other sites, which help both rankings and trust. A simple way to ask after every job. Never fake or paid.
• Listings that match: we find and fix the old ones.
• Local links: backlinks are links from other websites to yours, which Google treats as votes of trust. Suppliers, trade associations and local sites, never cheap link packages.
• Tracking you can trust, set up in Google Analytics before any report goes out.
• AI search: the same groundwork helps you show in Google's AI Overviews, the AI-written answers Google now shows above, or instead of, the normal results, and in ChatGPT.

Tradie marketing: SEO, website and Google Ads together

SEO is one part of tradie marketing online, and of marketing for tradies generally. The other two:

• Your website. If it's old, slow or hard to use on a phone, people leave before they call. We rebuild your website first, using your own words and photos. You see the new site before you pay anything. Pay only if you like it. See websites for tradies.
• Google Ads. Google Ads for tradies, checked and improved every week, with reporting in calls and enquiries you can see. Calls from the day the ads go live, while SEO builds. See Google Ads for tradies.

Most tradies do best with a good website first, then SEO, with Google Ads for the busy times or the jobs they want more of. We also run Facebook and Instagram ads that bring in leads, when they suit your trade.

How much does SEO for tradies cost?

For a small local trade business, ongoing SEO is usually around $1,500 to $2,000 + GST a month. It depends on how many services and suburbs you want to show for and how competitive they are. We quote after looking at your business, and there's no lock-in contract. More detail: how much does SEO cost?

SEO for tradies in Adelaide, Brisbane and the Gold Coast

We have offices in Adelaide, Brisbane and the Gold Coast and work with tradies across Australia. If you're looking for SEO for tradies in Adelaide, that's where ADEL SEO started in 2014. See SEO Adelaide.

Why tradies work with ADEL SEO

ADEL SEO helps local businesses get more enquiries from Google, Google Maps and AI search, with websites, SEO and Google Ads. Founded in Adelaide in 2014 by Wilson Tiong, who has been doing SEO since 2007.

• ADEL SEO is an SEO agency for local businesses: SEO, Google Ads, websites and AI search.
• You work directly with Wilson, not a junior account manager. Meet Wilson
• No lock-in contracts. Stay because it works.
• You own everything: your website, domain, Google Analytics, Google Ads account and Google Business Profile.
• Plain-English reports showing what was done and the calls and enquiries it brought.
• Offices in Adelaide, Brisbane and the Gold Coast. Works with tradies across Australia.

5.0 from 29 Google reviews (Adelaide). Read our reviews