JWA

I work with trades businesses every week. The pattern is always the same: most aren't doing the basics. Here's the 20-point checklist I use with every new client.

Google Business Profile (the biggest single factor)

  • Profile claimed and verified - postcard or video verified, not pending
  • Business name matches your real-world signage (no keyword stuffing)
  • Category set correctly - primary + 5-9 secondary categories
  • Service area set (for service-area businesses, hide the address)
  • Hours accurate, including holiday hours
  • Photos uploaded weekly: work shots, before/after, team, vehicles
  • Posts published 3-4 per month minimum (offers, updates, events)
  • Q&A seeded with real questions your customers ask

On-site SEO

  • One page per service + city combination (so /plumber-bristol, /plumber-bath, etc.)
  • Each page has a unique title, meta description, H1
  • Schema.org LocalBusiness + Service on every page
  • Google Maps embed on the contact page
  • Real testimonials with reviewer name + date (not “Lorem ipsum”)
  • Site loads in under 2 seconds on 4G mobile
  • HTTPS everywhere, mixed content resolved

Reviews

  • Asking every happy customer (in person, after the job)
  • Responding to every review - good and bad - within 48 hours
  • Owner responses are personal, not templated
  • Never buy or incentivise reviews (Google will penalise you)

Citations (NAP consistency)

  • Same business name, address, phone everywhere you appear online
  • Claimed profiles on: Yell, Yelp, Thomson Local, FreeIndex, Checkatrade, TrustATrader
  • No duplicate profiles - duplicates confuse Google

Links

  • Get one new legitimate link per month (sponsorship, local press, trade association)
  • Don't buy links - Google's Penguin algorithm catches this
  • Check who links to your 3 biggest competitors and copy what works

Tracking

  • Google Search Console connected and monitored weekly
  • Google Analytics 4 with conversions tracked (form submissions, calls)
  • Rank tracking for at least 10 core local keywords

Don't try to do all 20 at once. Pick the GBP basics first (those 8 items), then move to reviews, then on-site. The dashboard I've built tracks all of these - see what it shows for a real client.

Get a free audit and I'll score your business on this checklist - usually takes a week to surface the gaps you didn't know you had.

Want to dig deeper?

The article above is the background. The dashboard does the actual tracking. Take a closer look at Local SEO service, or get a free audit that includes this topic.