This guide covers how the map pack works, how to set up your Google Business Profile properly, how to get more reviews and what AI search is changing.
Local SEO
Local SEO for Trades in Yorkshire: The Map Pack, Reviews and AI Search
If you're a plumber, electrician, roofer, builder or locksmith in Yorkshire, most of your new work probably starts with a search. Someone's boiler packs in, they type "emergency plumber Barnsley" into their phone and ring one of the first few names they see.
Those first few names usually sit in the map pack. That's the box of local businesses with a map that Google shows above the normal results. Getting into it is the single biggest thing most trades can do online.
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Article Summary
As a 5-Star SEO Agency, we believe in 100% transparent reporting. Here is what you need to know:
- How the map pack works: the three things Google says local results are based on.
- Profile setup: the name, category and service-area settings most trades get wrong.
- Reviews: how to ask for them, reply to them and stay within Google's rules.
- Your website: the service and town pages that back up your profile.
- AI search: what changes when someone asks ChatGPT for a tradesperson.
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How Google picks who shows in the map pack
Google says local results are based mainly on three things:
Relevance. How well your profile matches what someone searched for.
Distance. How far you are from the person searching. If they don't share their location, Google uses what it knows about where they are.
Prominence. How well known your business is. Google says this includes how many reviews you have, your ratings and how many websites link to you.
Google also says there's no way to pay for a better local ranking, so be careful of anyone selling one.
Set up your Google Business Profile properly
Your Business Profile is what appears in the map pack and on Google Maps. A half-finished profile is one of the most common reasons trades don't show up. Here's what to get right.
Use your real business name. Google's guidelines say your name should match how you're known in the real world, on your van, invoices and website. Adding keywords like "Best Plumber Wakefield" to your name breaks the rules and can get your profile suspended.
Set yourself up as a service-area business. Most trades go to the customer rather than the other way round. Google says service-area businesses should hide their address and set the areas they cover instead. You can add up to 20 service areas, by town or postcode. Google's guidelines say your service area generally shouldn't stretch beyond about two hours' drive from your base.
Pick the right primary category. Choose the one that best describes your main trade, then add secondary categories for other work you do. Don't use categories as keywords.
Fill in everything else. Phone, website, hours, services and a clear description. Google says complete profiles are more likely to show in local results.
Add real photos. Before and after shots, your van, your team, finished jobs.
Our guide on how to rank higher in Google Business Profile goes deeper on the profile itself.
Reviews: the part most trades underdo
For trades, reviews do two jobs. They help you rank and they help you win the call once someone sees you. A homeowner choosing between two roofers will nearly always lean towards the one with more recent, detailed reviews.
The trouble is most happy customers never think to leave one. So you have to ask.
- Ask at the end of every job, while the customer's pleased. A quick "would you mind leaving us a Google review?" works.
- Make it easy. Google lets you create a direct review link or QR code. Text the link straight after the job. Put the QR code on your invoice and van.
- Reply to every review. Thank people for good ones. For bad ones, stay calm, keep it short and offer to sort it out. Future customers read your replies.
- Never pay or offer a discount for reviews. Google treats incentivised reviews as fake engagement and bans them. In the UK, fake reviews and hidden incentivised reviews have been illegal under consumer law since April 2025.
Your website still matters
Your Business Profile links to your website, and Google uses your site to understand what you do and where. A one-page site that says "all building work undertaken" doesn't give it much to go on.
What helps:
- A page for each main service. Boiler installs, boiler repairs and bathroom fitting should each have their own page.
- Pages for the towns you really cover. If you work across Barnsley, Wakefield and Rotherham, a page for each is fine. Make each one specific: jobs you've done there, how quickly you can get there, local details. Don't create 50 near-identical town pages for places you never go.
- Your details matching your profile. Same name, phone number and service area on your site and on Google.
- Accreditations on show. Gas Safe, NICEIC, TrustMark, FMB or whatever applies to your trade. These build trust with customers and add evidence about who you are.
Trade directories: use the right ones
Checkatrade, TrustATrader, MyBuilder and Rated People can all bring in work and give customers more reviews to read. They also act as independent evidence that your business is real.
The catch is cost. If a directory takes a big cut or charges per lead, the aim should be to build your own Google visibility so you rely on it less over time. Keep your name, phone and service area identical across every listing.
Client story
One of our clients, a drainage specialist in Essex, started with an unverified Google listing and no enquiries from Google at all. They relied on Checkatrade, TrustATrader and word of mouth. We set up their profile properly and coached them to ask for one or two reviews a week. They now have 150 five-star Google reviews and have dropped Checkatrade fees entirely. The full story is in our tradesmen local SEO case study.
How AI search changes things for trades
More people now ask AI tools for a recommendation. "Can you recommend a reliable electrician in Wakefield?" in ChatGPT, or a full question in Google that brings up an AI Overview or AI Mode.
These tools don't use a map pack in the same way. They pull together evidence from across the web and name a few businesses. Based on Google's and OpenAI's own guidance, the things that help are the same foundations above:
A complete, accurate Business Profile. Google lists keeping it up to date as a best practice for its AI features.
Genuine reviews on Google and trade sites, with detail about the job.
A website the AI tools can read, with clear pages for each service and area. OpenAI says sites that block its search crawler won't appear in ChatGPT search answers.
Consistent details everywhere, so the business on Checkatrade is clearly the same one on Google and your website.
The upside for trades is that specific detail wins. "Fitted a new combi boiler in Hoyland, Worcester Bosch, 10-year warranty" in a review or case study is far more useful to an AI than "great service, would recommend".
If you'd like help with any of this, our local SEO services cover the profile, reviews, website and AI search together. For Wakefield-based trades, see our Wakefield SEO page.
Is it worth it?
For a trade, the sum is usually simple. How many extra jobs a month would cover the cost? If the answer is one or two, the bar is low. Our article on whether local SEO is worth the investment walks through how to work that out for your business.
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See where you stand
Our free website audit shows where you rank in Google and the map pack for the searches your customers use, what AI search says when someone asks for a trade like yours and the three biggest things holding you back.
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Sources
- Relevance, distance and prominence; reviews and links; no way to pay for better local ranking; complete info more likely to show: Google Business Profile Help, Tips to improve your local ranking
- Real-world business name, hiding address for service-area businesses, two hours' drive guideline, categories: Google Business Profile Help, Guidelines for representing your business
- Up to 20 service areas by town or postcode: Google Business Profile Help, Manage your service areas
- Review links, QR codes and the ban on incentivised reviews: Google Business Profile Help, Tips to get more reviews
- UK law on fake and concealed incentivised reviews from April 2025: GOV.UK, Reviews and social media endorsements
- Business Profile info and AI features: Google Search Central, AI features and your website
- OAI-SearchBot and ChatGPT search: OpenAI, Overview of OpenAI crawlers