SEO for plumbers and heating engineers: what moves you up in UK search

How Google picks the plumbers it shows

For local searches, Google looks at three things: how well your profile matches the search, how far you are from the person searching, and how well known your business is. Google also says there's no way to pay for a better local ranking.

You can't move your base, so the work goes into the other two: making it plain what you do and where, and building up reviews, links and mentions around the web.

Your Google Business Profile comes first

• Main category. Pick the one that matches the work you want most, and add the rest as extra categories.
• Services. List each one by name: boiler installation, boiler repair, boiler servicing, landlord gas safety checks, bathroom fitting, emergency plumbing. A profile that never mentions boilers has little to match a boiler search with.
• Service areas. If customers don't come to you, Google says to remove your address from the profile. You can then list up to 20 areas, within about two hours' drive of your base.
• Photos. Real installs and real vans, added every month.
• Reviews. Ask every customer. Our reviews guide covers how, and what's against the rules.

Pages on your site that match what people search

Write one page for each kind of work you want more of. For most firms that's boiler installation, boiler repair, servicing, landlord gas checks and emergency call-outs, plus bathrooms if you fit them. Each page should say what's included, where you work, a starting price if you give one, and answer the questions customers ask you on the phone.

Be careful with town pages. Google's spam policies name pages aimed at different towns that all funnel people to the same place, and pages churned out to rank rather than to help. A town page earns its place when you've got real jobs, photos and reviews from that town to put on it.

Gas Safe and landlords

By law, anyone paid to work on gas in a home must be on the Gas Safe Register. Show your number on every page, so customers can check you.

Landlords need a gas safety check every year from a Gas Safe registered engineer. A page aimed at landlords and letting agents can bring in work that comes round again every twelve months.

Structured data

Structured data is code on your site that tells Google your business name, address, hours and phone number. Google asks for the most specific business type that fits, and for a plumber there's one called Plumber. It needs a name and an address. Google is clear that adding it doesn't guarantee anything extra in the results, but it does make your details easy to read.

Google's AI answers

Google says pages only need to be indexed and eligible to show in normal search to appear in AI Overviews and AI Mode, and that there's no special file or markup to add. The same pages and an up-to-date Business Profile do the job. Our page on AI search covers ChatGPT and the rest.

How long it takes

Fixes to your profile can show within weeks. Climbing the map in a busy town takes months. Set up Google Search Console in your own name, so you can see which searches find you and whether that list grows. Ads can bring in work while you wait.