Tradies & Local Businesses: How to Rank on Google in Your Local Area

You’re investing time and money into your business, but local customers aren’t finding you on Google? You’re not alone. Many local businesses struggle to appear in searches for their sector, while their competitors capture the leads.

In this article, we’ll cover exactly what you need to implement to improve your local Google rankings and convert your visitors into customers. No unnecessary technical jargon – just what actually works for small businesses and tradespeople.

Choosing the Right Keywords for Your Local Business

If you want your website to appear when potential customers search for your services, you need to use the terms they’re actually typing into Google. It sounds obvious, but this is often where everything is won or lost.

Think about how your customers phrase their searches. If you’re a plumber, they’re probably not searching for “expert plumbing solutions”, but rather:

• “plumber near me”
• “emergency plumber [your town]”
• “boiler repair [your area]”
• “leak repair [your city]”

The strategy to adopt:

On your homepage, use your main trade and your geographic area. Then, create dedicated pages for each important service you offer. This structure helps Google properly understand what you do and where you do it.

For example:

• Homepage: “Plumber in [Your Town] and [Your County]”
• Service pages: “Leak Repairs”, “Boiler Installation”, “Emergency Plumbing”
• Location pages: “Plumber in [Town A]”, “Plumber in [Town B]“

Optimizing Your Local Presence on Google

Google needs to know precisely where you operate. If you only mention a large, highly competitive city, your chances of ranking well decrease.

The recommended approach: break down your service area into small geographic sectors, ideally towns or areas with fewer than 100,000 people. The more specific you are, the better your chances of appearing in relevant local results.

Apply this principle to your service pages as well. Create a dedicated page for each main service in each important geographic area. This service × location combination is particularly effective for local SEO and can significantly boost your Google rankings within months.

Real example: One of our clients, a local pest-control specialist, asked us for help to implement a targeted local SEO strategy focused on their county and surrounding areas. View the full case study.

Loading Speed: A Critical Factor

Your site must load in under 2 seconds. This is non-negotiable. A slow site drives your visitors to competitors, and Google penalizes it in search results.

According to Google, 53% of mobile visits are abandoned if a site takes more than 3 seconds to load. Your site works for you 24/7. If a potential customer visits at 10 PM on a Sunday evening and the site takes 5 seconds to display, you’ve just lost an opportunity.

How to check: Go to Google PageSpeed Insights, enter your site address and verify that:

• Your 4 scores at the top are above 90
• The “Largest Contentful Paint” time is under 2-3 seconds

If this isn’t the case, your site has a performance problem that’s probably costing you customers.

Google Business Profile: The Foundation of Your Local Visibility

If you don’t have a Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business), you’re missing out on the simplest and most effective tool for local visibility on Google.

Here’s what to do:

1. Create your Google Business Profile if you haven’t already
2. Fill in accurately: business name, address, website, phone (verify these details match your website exactly)
3. Add all your services with the relevant keywords we discussed
4. Publish quality photos of your work, team, and premises
5. Collect 5-star Google reviews from satisfied customers – the more you have, the better your ranking
6. Post regularly about your projects and offers

Tip: You can also create a Questions & Answers section on your profile to anticipate your customers’ frequent queries. Here’s our complete guide for creating a FAQ on Google Business Profile.

Doing these actions correctly significantly improves your visibility in local searches and generates more qualified contacts.

“Thank you to Montagne Noire Web Studio for the excellent work on our website. We had a WordPress site we wanted to get rid of and Geoffrey created a beautiful custom-designed and coded site. Very happy to no longer manage WordPress and especially with the +50% increase in clicks on our site since going live.”
— Janice Dang, La Villa de Mazamet

Converting Your Visitors into Customers

Attracting traffic to your site is only the first step. You then need visitors to actually contact you. Here’s how to achieve that:

Make It Easy to Get in Touch

• Display your phone number prominently at the top of every page
• Offer a simple contact form without too many fields to fill
• Add a “Call” button that’s clickable for mobile users
• Minimize obstacles between discovering your business and making first contact

Show That You’re Trustworthy

• Display real customer reviews on your site
• Include photos of your work and team
• Present who you are and why you’re competent, with a photo of yourself

Local customers want to know who they’re dealing with before contacting you. Your site must inspire confidence from the first few seconds.

“Thank you to Montagne Noire Web Studio for the excellent work on the website for my gym. Great collaboration, with someone who listens, is very responsive, and knows how to showcase my sports environment.”
— Elodie Jouandet-Pujol, CrossFit Mazamet

Frequently Asked Questions

• How long does it take to see results in local SEO?

  Generally, expect between 3 and 6 months to see significant improvements in your local Google rankings. Results depend on your sector, local competition, and the quality of optimization implemented. However, some actions like optimizing your Google Business Profile can generate results more quickly, sometimes within a few weeks.

• Do I need a website if I already have a Google Business Profile?

  Yes, absolutely. Google Business Profile improves your visibility in local searches, but it's your website that converts visitors into customers. A professional website allows you to showcase your expertise, your work, and reassure prospects before they contact you. Additionally, Google favors businesses that have a complete and optimized website in its local search results.

• How many keywords should I target per page?

  Focus on one main keyword per page, accompanied by 2 to 3 close variations. For example, for a service page: "plumber Mazamet" (main), "plumbing Mazamet", "emergency plumbing Mazamet" (variations). This approach allows Google to clearly understand your page's topic while covering different ways customers might phrase their search.

• Do I really need to create a page for each town where I work?

  If you're targeting multiple towns or areas, yes. Creating a dedicated page for each important geographic zone allows Google to better position you for those specific areas. This strategy is particularly effective for tradespeople and local businesses that serve multiple towns. Just make sure each page contains unique and relevant content for that location, not just a copy-paste with only the town name changed.

• Why is my site speed so important for local SEO?

  Google has used loading speed as a ranking factor for several years. A fast site offers a better user experience, which Google rewards in its search results. For local searches performed on mobile (over 60% of searches), speed is even more crucial. A slow site drives potential customers to your competitors within seconds.

We Can Help You

If all this seems complex or time-consuming, we can handle it for you. At Montagne Noire Web Studio, we support small and medium businesses in Occitanie and beyond with their local visibility strategy.

We offer:

• Websites designed to convert and rank well on Google
• Personalized local SEO support
• Management and optimization of your Google Business Profile
• Regular performance monitoring

Our local SEO support packages start from €149/month. Discover our local SEO services or view our detailed pricing.

Prefer to discuss? Contact us to talk about your project and see what we can put in place together.