Local SEO checklist for Sunshine Coast tradies

How to use this checklist

Local SEO for a trade is mostly a list of small jobs done properly and then kept up. None of it is secret, and none of it guarantees a particular ranking. Done together, it gives Google every reason to show you to people searching nearby, and gives those people every reason to call you.

The checklist below is grouped in the order we would tackle it on a new Sunshine Coast trade business. Tick items off as you go (your ticks are not saved, so print it if you want a paper copy). Each section underneath explains the why and the how.

1. Google Business Profile

Your profile is what appears in the map results, and for a service trade it usually brings in more calls than the website itself. Get the basics right first: your real name, the most specific category, your address hidden if customers do not come to you, and your service areas set. Google allows up to 20 service areas and says they should be within about two hours' drive of your base.

We have a full walkthrough in our Google Business Profile guide for tradies, including verification and the mistakes that get profiles suspended.

2. Keep your name, address and phone consistent

"NAP" stands for name, address and phone. Google cross-checks your details across the web, and mismatches, such as an old mobile number on a directory or a different spelling of your business name, make it less sure which details are right.

• Pick one version of your business name and use it everywhere
• Use the same phone number on your site, profile, directories, ute and cards
• If you hide your address on Google, do not publish it elsewhere either. List your service area instead
• Check your details on ABN Lookup match your trading name

For Queensland building and plumbing trades, the QBCC advertising rules say your licensed name and licence number need to appear in advertising, and they count websites and Facebook pages as advertising. Electricians should check the rules that apply to their licence class.

3. Australian directories and citations

A citation is any mention of your business details on another site. They help Google confirm you exist and work where you say you do, and some send real customers. You do not need hundreds. Ten good ones with matching details beat fifty messy ones.

Start with the big platforms

• Bing Places, which can import straight from your Google profile
• Apple Business Connect, for Apple Maps and Siri on iPhones
• A Facebook business page with the same name, phone and area

Then Australian directories

• Yellow Pages, True Local, Hotfrog, StartLocal and Yelp Australia
• Word of Mouth and Localsearch
• Your hipages, Oneflare or ServiceSeeking profile, if you use those platforms

Then local and industry listings

• Your trade association's "find a member" directory, such as Master Plumbers, Master Electricians or Master Builders
• Local chambers of commerce (Noosa, Maroochydore, Caloundra and others have them)
• Local sports club or school sponsor pages, which often link to sponsors' websites

Keep a simple spreadsheet of every listing, the login and the details used. When your number changes, you will know exactly where to update it.

4. Service and suburb pages

A one-page website can only rank for so much. To show up for "switchboard upgrade Buderim" or "hot water Caloundra", you need pages that match those searches.

Service pages

Give each main service its own page: what the job involves, common problems, rough timeframes, what affects the price, photos of that type of job and a quote form. Answer the questions customers ask you on the phone.

Suburb pages

Suburb pages work when they are useful, and backfire when they are the same page with the suburb name swapped. Google's spam policies call that out as doorway abuse. Give each suburb page something real:

• Jobs you have done there, with a photo and a short description
• Local detail that affects your work, such as older timber Queenslanders around Nambour, coastal salt air in Mooloolaba and Kings Beach, or acreage and tank water in the hinterland
• Nearby suburbs you also cover, and roughly how quickly you can get there
• A review from a customer in that area, if you have one

Start with the 6 to 10 suburbs you most want work in, then add more as you finish jobs in new areas.

Titles and descriptions

Every page needs a unique title, ideally with the service and place in it ("Hot Water Repairs in Caloundra | Smith Plumbing"), and a meta description written like a short ad.

5. Schema, sitemap and page speed

Local business schema

Schema is code that tells search engines exactly who you are: business type, phone, service area, hours and website. Schema.org has specific types for many trades, including Plumber, Electrician, RoofingContractor, HVACBusiness, GeneralContractor and HousePainter. Google's LocalBusiness structured data guide lists the supported properties. Do not mark up your own reviews to try for gold stars in search results. Google stopped showing those for businesses' own reviews of themselves in 2019, as explained in its review rich results update.

Sitemap and Search Console

An XML sitemap lists every page on your site. Submit it in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools so new pages are found quickly, and so you can see which searches bring people to you.

Page speed

Most of your visitors are on a phone, often on a site with patchy coverage. Google measures real-world speed with Core Web Vitals. The "good" thresholds are: Largest Contentful Paint within 2.5 seconds, Interaction to Next Paint within 200 milliseconds and Cumulative Layout Shift of 0.1 or less. web.dev explains how those thresholds were set, and you can test any page free at PageSpeed Insights.

The usual culprits on trade sites are oversized photos, sliders, chat widgets and too many plugins. Resize photos to about 1,600 pixels wide before uploading them.

6. Reviews and photos

Google lists review count and rating as part of how well known a business is. Steady reviews matter more than a burst of twenty in a week.

• Send your review link with every invoice, to every customer. Google's policy bans asking only the happy ones
• Never offer a discount or freebie for a review. Google bans it, and the ACCC's online reviews guidance sets strict conditions on incentives
• Reply to every review. For a bad one, stay calm, keep it short and offer to sort it out offline
• Put a QR code linking to your review page on your business card and a sticker in the ute

Photos do a similar job. Add recent job photos to your profile and website every month. Real photos of your work, your ute and your Team build trust in a way stock images cannot.

7. Tracking what works

You cannot improve what you do not measure, but you do not need anything complicated.

• Search Console: once a month, look at which searches showed your site and which pages got clicks
• Analytics: count quote form sends and taps on your phone number, not just visits
• Google profile: check the performance tab for calls, website clicks and direction requests
• Tracked links: add UTM tags to your Google profile link and to the QR codes on cards and flyers, so you can tell them apart
• Ask: put "How did you find us?" on your quote form and ask on the phone

A simple monthly routine

Once the setup is done, local SEO is about 30 minutes a month:

1. Add 3 to 5 new job photos to your profile and website
2. Post one update on your Google profile
3. Reply to any new reviews
4. Check Search Console and your enquiry count against last month
5. Add a new suburb or service page when you have done enough work in a new area to write about it

Our Tradie and Local Pro plans are built with this checklist covered (Starter covers the one-page version): service and suburb pages, LocalBusiness schema, a sitemap, Search Console setup, a fast mobile build and Google Business Profile setup. Plans start from $990. See how we build sites for builders, landscapers and all trades, or see our pages for Sunshine Coast, Noosa and Caloundra.