An electrician I worked with in Salford told me something that stuck with me. He said, "I can rewire a house blindfolded, but I've got no idea how to get Google to show my business to people." Fair enough. But the basics of local SEO are not complicated, and they work.
Pick the right categories on your Google profile
This is where most electricians go wrong. Google lets you choose categories for your business, and the one you pick as your primary category has a huge effect on which searches you show up for.
An electrician in Sale mainly did rewiring for older houses. We changed his primary category from "Electrician" to "Electrical Installation Service" and added "Rewiring Service" as a secondary. His impressions for rewiring-related searches went up 70% in three weeks.
Build pages for each service and each area
If you do EICR certificates, consumer unit replacements, and EV charger installations, each of those should have its own page on your website. And if you cover Manchester, Salford, Stockport, and Warrington, each area should have a page too.
A page about "EICR certificates in Salford" should explain what an EICR is, why landlords need one, how much you charge, and how to book. 300 to 400 words is enough.
Photos of your actual work
Stock photos of sparkly clean consumer units don't fool anyone. Take photos of your actual jobs. Before and after shots of a rewiring project, a neat EV charger install, a tidy fuse board you're proud of.
Google uses image data as a ranking signal for local results. More than that, real photos build trust.
Get listed on directories you've actually heard of
Your business name, address, and phone number need to be consistent across the web. Google checks sites like Yell, Thomson Local, Checkatrade, and TrustMark to verify that you are who you say you are.
Focus on the ones your customers have actually heard of. For electricians in Manchester, that's Checkatrade, TrustMark, Yell, and your Google profile.
Answer your phone
An electrician in Didsbury was ranking first on Google for "electrician Didsbury" and getting about 25 calls a month. He was only answering about half of them because he was on jobs. We set up a simple call-handling arrangement and his bookings went from 10 a month to 17. Same ranking, same website, just picking up the phone.
What to do this week
Check your Google Business Profile. Is your primary category the best fit for your main service? Are your photos recent and real? Are your directory listings consistent? If any of those are a no, fix them before doing anything else.
If you'd rather have someone who knows this stuff handle it, get in touch with Martin at SEO 4 Tradesmen. We work with electricians across Manchester and we know what gets results.