SEO for tradies: how many service pages you need

Google your trade and your suburb. If you’re not there, someone else is getting the call. SEO for tradies mostly comes down to one thing: a page for each job you want more of. Yet ask most plumbers, electricians or builders what their website has and the answer is the same. A homepage, an about page, a contact page, and one page called Services with everything listed on it.

Hot water, blocked drains, gas fitting, leak detection and bathroom renovations, all in bullet points on one page. That page almost never ranks for any of them. The business may be excellent at every job on the list. The page is simply trying to answer a dozen different searches at once, and it answers none of them well.

So how many service pages does a trade business need? The honest answer is one for every job that people search for on its own, and that you want more of. That sounds like a lot. In practice it’s usually somewhere between 6 and 20, and there’s a simple way to work out which ones.

Why can’t one services page rank for everything?

One services page can’t rank for everything because Google looks for the single page that best answers each search. Someone searching “hot water system replacement” wants a page about hot water systems. A general page with one hot water bullet point loses to a competitor’s dedicated page that covers types, timing, price drivers and suburbs.

When someone types “hot water system replacement” into Google, the search engine looks for the page that best answers that exact job. It wants the page to talk about hot water systems. It wants the types you install, how long a replacement takes and what affects the price. It wants to know whether you remove the old unit, which brands you fit and which suburbs you cover.

A general services page mentions hot water in one bullet point. A competitor’s dedicated hot water page covers all of it. The competitor wins, and it isn’t close.

The same logic applies to every job on your list. A dedicated page gives the search engine a clear answer to a clear question. It also gives the person searching a reason to call you rather than the next result.

Which services deserve their own page?

A service deserves its own page when it passes 3 tests. People search for it by name. It’s a different job with different questions from your other services. And you want more of that work. A service that passes all 3 gets a page. One that passes 1 or 2 can usually live as a section on a related page.

Go through your list of services and ask these questions of each one.

1. Do people search for it on its own? “Blocked drain plumber” is a search people make every day. “Pipe inspection camera service” might be too, or it might only ever happen as part of a blocked drain job. Keyword tools and Google’s own autocomplete will tell you quickly which jobs people look for by name.

2. Is it a different job, with different questions? Switchboard upgrades and ceiling fan installation are both electrical work. But the buyer asks completely different things about each. Different questions mean different pages. Two services that are the same job described 2 ways belong on one page.

3. Do you want more of it? This is the one owners skip. Maybe emergency call outs keep you up at night and you’d rather do planned renovation work. Then don’t build your strongest page around emergencies. Every service page is a small advertising decision. Build pages for the work you want the phone to ring about.

What goes on a trade service page that ranks?

A trade service page that ranks answers the questions a customer would ask on the phone. Name the job in the words people search for. Explain when they need it, how you do it and what affects the price. List the areas you cover, show proof such as job photos and licence details, and end with one clear next step.

Roughly in the order a customer would ask:

• What the job is, in everyday words, including the name people search for.
• When you need it: the signs, the situations, the common causes.
• How you do it: the steps, the time on site, what the customer needs to do.
• What affects the price, even if you don’t publish one. Honest price drivers win more calls than “call for a quote”.
• Which areas you cover for that job.
• Proof: photos of actual jobs, licence details where the trade requires them, and genuine reviews.
• One clear next step: call, book or request a quote.

That usually comes to several hundred words of useful copy. It’s far more than a bullet point and far less than an essay. Our service page copywriting work follows that structure, because it’s the structure a customer’s questions already have.

Do tradies need suburb pages?

Tradies only need suburb pages where they can say something true and specific about each place. Copying one page 50 times with the suburb name swapped is a trick search engines have spotted for over a decade. A few strong area pages for the regions you want work in, plus a Google Business Profile, usually do more.

Suburb or location pages are the second half of the question, and the one most often done badly. The tempting approach is to take one page, swap the suburb name, and publish 50 copies. Search engines treat near-identical pages as low value. At best they’re ignored. At worst they drag down how the whole site is judged.

Location pages work when each one says something true and specific about that place. Think of the jobs you do most there, the housing stock and the problems that come with it, travel times, local regulations and genuine projects nearby. If you can’t say anything different about a suburb, it probably doesn’t need its own page. List it in a service area section instead.

For most trades, the right structure is a small number of strong area pages for the regions you most want work in. Your Google Business Profile and local SEO then do the heavy lifting for the “near me” searches.

How the pages connect

Service pages work as a set. The structure that works for most trade businesses looks like this:

• A services hub page that introduces each service briefly and links to its page.
• One page per service that passes the 3 tests.
• A handful of area pages that link to the services most relevant to that area.
• Links between related services, such as blocked drains linking to drain relining.

That structure tells search engines how your business fits together. It also lets visitors move from a general question to a specific answer in 1 or 2 clicks. It’s the same structure we use across our trades and construction websites.

A worked example

This is an illustrative example for a mid-sized plumbing business in a metro area. The table is for illustration only. Yours will depend on what you do and where.

Service	Own page?	Why
Hot water installation	Yes	Searched on its own, distinct questions
Blocked drains	Yes	High search demand, urgent buyer
Drain relining	Yes	Different job, higher value, wanted
Gas fitting	Yes	Licensed work, distinct questions
Leak detection	Yes	Searched on its own
Tap and toilet repairs	No	Section on a general maintenance page
Pipe camera inspection	No	Section on the blocked drains page
Bathroom renovations	Yes	Different buyer, different decision
Emergency plumbing	Maybe	Only if the business wants after-hours work

That comes to 7 or 8 service pages, a services hub, and 3 or 4 area pages. It’s a site that can compete for the jobs that business wants, without a single page of filler.

Where to start if you have one services page today

You don’t have to build 20 pages at once. Start with the 2 or 3 services that pass all 3 tests most clearly and bring in the most valuable work. Write those pages in full and link to them from the services page and the homepage. Watch what they do in Search Console over the next few months. Then add the next few.

The businesses that win local search rarely have the most pages. Their pages each answer one job completely. Our SEO content writing team can map those pages with you before a word is written.

Want the phone ringing for the jobs you want?

We plan trade websites around the jobs worth ranking for, scoped to your business, written by our copywriters so you never stare at a blank page. Each enquiry lands with its source attached, so you can see which page and which ad sent it. See how our service page copywriting works. Book a free strategy call and we’ll map which pages your business needs.