How Kiwi Tradies Get More Jobs on Google (Without Losing Their Weekends)

When someone's hot water cylinder packs it in, or a deck needs building before summer, they do one thing: they grab their phone and Google it. Around 97% of people search online for local services. The tradies who get that work aren't always the best on the tools — they're the ones who show up and look trustworthy in that ten-second search. Here's how to be one of them, without turning marketing into a second job.

Step 1 — Claim and load up your Google Business Profile

Your free Google Business Profile (the box with your map pin, hours and reviews) is the single highest-value thing you can do, and it costs nothing. If you do only one thing this week, do this. Fill in everything:

• Every service as its own line — "Hot water cylinder replacement", "Bathroom rewiring", "New deck build" — not just "plumber".
• The suburbs and areas you actually work.
• Real photos of your work, your van, your team.
• Your registration and licensing where it applies (EWRB for sparkies, LBP for builders, Gasfitting for gasfitters). Regulated trades win the trust click by showing it.

The trades that dominate local search in NZ haven't done anything clever — they've just filled their profile out properly and kept it current.

Step 2 — Get reviews, and reply to them

Reviews are the tie-breaker. When two plumbers are side by side, the one with 40 recent five-star reviews gets the call. Ask every happy customer — a quick text with the link the day after you finish is all it takes — and reply to the ones you get. A steady trickle beats a big burst.

Step 3 — Have somewhere real to send the click

This is where most tradies leak jobs. Google pushes a curious customer to you, they tap your name to check you out, and… there's nothing there, or a page last touched in 2019. That flicker of doubt is enough to lose them.

A proper website closes that gap. It doesn't need to be fancy — it needs to:

• Load fast on a phone, because that's where they are.
• Show your work and your area so they know you're local and legit.
• Make contact one tap away — Call, Quote or WhatsApp, right there.
• Have a page for each service and suburb, so Google has a reason to rank you for "electrician in [your town]".

That last point matters: your Google profile and your website feed each other. Pages built around your trade and suburbs are what lift you in local search — and give the customer the confidence to actually book.

Step 4 — Catch the enquiry, every time

A missed call is a lost job. When you're up a ladder or under a house, the enquiry that comes in at 2pm can't wait until you sit down at 7. That's why the site should do some of the catching for you — one-tap contact, and a job-intake chat that gathers the details (what, where, how urgent) and pings you when something hot lands. You call back already knowing the job.

Step 5 — Keep showing up

Getting found on Google isn't a one-off. Fresh photos, the odd profile post, new reviews, a site that stays live and fast — it compounds. The good news: most of that can run in the background if the site's built and managed properly, so you're not thinking about it.

Let Ted handle the website half

You can absolutely do your Google profile yourself — it's free and it's worth it. The website is the part that eats weekends, and that's the part Ted takes off your plate. We build a professional site for your trade (the words, the photos, hosting and SSL), make it found on Google with local suburb pages, and put one-tap Call · Quote · WhatsApp and job-intake chat on every page. Built by Airea, a Kiwi company that's spent 10+ years designing for the trades.