Getting found on Google
Get found by the people already looking for you.
Someone within ten minutes of you is typing your trade into their phone right now. This is the work of making sure your name is what comes back.
In short
What is SEO for a trade business?
SEO is the work of getting your business to show up on Google when someone nearby searches for the job you do. Not the ads at the top, the results underneath and the map listings. You do not pay Google for those places, you earn them.
The problem
Ranking for your own business name isn’t being found.
If someone already knows your name, they were always going to find you. The work that matters comes from the people who don’t: the burst pipe at seven in the morning, the switchboard that keeps tripping, the deck that needs replacing before summer.
Those searches are specific, local, and far less fought over than the vague ones. They also need somewhere decent to land, so if your website is the weak link I will say so first. My job is working out which ones you can realistically win, making sure your site deserves to win them, and then building the reasons for Google to agree.
What the work covers
Four parts, in the order they usually matter.
- The boring technical bits
- Whether Google can read your site properly at all. How fast it loads, whether pages are missing or duplicated, whether old links still work. Unglamorous, and it is why plenty of sites never get going.
- Your Google Business Profile
- The listing with your name, hours and reviews that shows up in the map. For most trades this is the single highest value thing to fix, and most are half filled in.
- A page for each job, and each place
- One page trying to rank for eleven different jobs across nine suburbs will rank for none of them. Real pages for the work you want, and the places you actually cover.
- Reviews and being mentioned elsewhere
- Google trusts what other places say about you more than what you say about yourself. Reviews, trade bodies, local listings, being mentioned by people who are not you.
The AI part
People are asking ChatGPT before they ask Google.
Two newer bits of the same job, included rather than sold separately. Here is what they mean.
- AEO
- AEO is being the answer when Google or an AI replies directly instead of showing a list of links. It stands for answer engine optimisation.
- GEO
- GEO is making sure AI tools like ChatGPT know who you are and recommend you properly. It stands for generative engine optimisation.
Nobody can promise you a mention in ChatGPT, and anyone who does is describing something that doesn’t exist. What works is having clear, consistent, honest information about your business everywhere it appears. That helps Google too.
How it runs
In order, and you can stop it any month.
- 01
I look at where you stand
What you rank for now, what is holding the site back, and who you are actually up against in your area.
- 02
You get a list, in order
What I would do first and why, in plain language. You can push back on any of it before I start.
- 03
Blockers first, then pages
The technical stuff first, because everything else stacks on top of it. Then the pages that win work, then the credibility.
- 04
A monthly update you can read
What I did, what moved, and how many calls and enquiries came in. Month to month, so you can stop whenever it stops being worth it.
The honest bit
What I won’t promise you.
Nobody can guarantee you the top spot, and anyone who does is either guessing or picking a search so obscure that winning it means nothing.
This also takes time. If you need the phone ringing next week, Google Ads are the honest answer for that gap, and I will tell you so rather than take a monthly fee that cannot work fast enough.
Questions
Things people ask me.
What is SEO, in plain English?
Getting your business to show up on Google when someone searches for what you do. Not the ads at the top, the results underneath them and the map listings. You do not pay Google for those positions, you earn them.
How long before it works?
Fixing your Google Business Profile and the technical basics can show up within a few weeks. Competitive searches usually take several months of steady work. Anyone promising fast results on hard searches is selling you something else.
Can you guarantee I will be number one?
No, and neither can anyone else honestly. Google does not sell organic positions and nobody has a back door. What I guarantee is the work itself, the order I do it in, and telling you the truth about how it is going.
Do I need this if I already run Google Ads?
They do different jobs. Ads stop the moment you stop paying. This keeps working, but it takes longer to arrive. Plenty of businesses run ads while this catches up, then ease off the ads.
What about AI? Does Google even matter now?
Google still sends most of the work, but a growing number of people ask an AI first. The good news is that the same foundations serve both. Clear information about who you are, what you do and where you do it is what search engines and AI tools both need.
Do you buy links?
No. Bought links are a liability you inherit, and they are one of the few things Google will actively penalise you for. Everything I build is the sort of mention a real business earns.
Is there a contract?
No lock-in. Monthly work is month to month. You should stay because it is bringing work in, not because of something you signed last year.
Let’s talk
Want to know where you actually stand?
Send me your website and the areas you cover. I will look at your visibility and who you are up against, and tell you what I would fix first.