Electricians have a search problem most trades don’t: a decent share of the work isn’t somebody choosing to spend money, it’s somebody who has to get something signed off. That demand behaves differently, it comes from different people, and it rarely arrives through the same searches as a rewire.
This page is about what I’d look at, what it costs, and whether it’s worth doing for your business.
Your work comes from three different directions
Homeowners searching for a problem. Landlords and agents who need certificates and reports. And the bigger planned jobs, where somebody has been thinking about it for months.
They behave nothing alike. The first is urgent and local. The second is often repeat business from a handful of sources instead of a stream of strangers. The third involves comparison, quotes and time.
Most electricians’ websites treat all three the same way, with a services list covering everything and no page speaking properly to any of them. That’s usually where the easiest gains are, because the three need different pages and often different channels.
Certificates and compliance work is its own market
If you do inspection and testing work for rented property, that work isn’t somebody choosing to buy from you. It’s driven by an obligation, which means the searches are specific, the buyer is often a business rather than a householder, and the relationship is worth more than a single job.
It’s also the part of an electrician’s marketing that most often has no page at all. If letting agents and landlords are a market you want more of, that’s a different page from your domestic work and probably a different approach: I’ve written about how that side thinks on the letting agents page, which is worth a read if they’re who you’re chasing.
EV chargers and the newer specialisms
Where you hold an approval or accreditation that others locally don’t, the searches are narrower and the competition thinner.
There’s a practical point here about directories. Specialist registers and approved-installer lists can rank well on their own, and your entry on them is working for you or against you whether you maintain it or not. On one search I looked at, a directory of approved EV charger installers held a page-one position for a general trade query. Checking your entry on any register you’re on is cheap and rarely done.
Your Google Business Profile does the heavy lifting
For “electrician near me” and anything like it, the map listing sits above the ordinary results.
Google says local results depend mainly on relevance, distance and prominence. Distance you can’t change. Relevance comes down to whether your categories and services say what you actually do, in the words people use. Prominence is where reviews sit.
Categories get read loosely, which cuts both ways. I’ve seen an auto electrical business surface for a general electrician search, so if the wrong sort of business can appear, yours can be missed for work it does every week, simply because the profile never says so.
Where you are changes the answer
I’ve checked the search results across a number of North West towns, and they differ enough that the advice changes between them.
In Crosby the directories held every organic slot on page one, so the profile and your listings do the work. In Maghull independent firms were ranking on their own websites, which makes a proper service page worth paying for. In Widnes one firm’s own town page was sitting above Yell. Your town may behave like none of those, and it takes a couple of minutes to find out. The rest are on the locations page.
What I’d look at first
The sequence depends on what’s already broken. If the site can’t be indexed, the contact form fails, or nobody can tell which jobs came from search, that comes first.
After that, roughly:
- Which of the three markets you want more of. Domestic, compliance and planned work need different pages and often different channels.
- The Google Business Profile, categories first, then services and a review habit somebody owns.
- Any register or approved-installer listing, checked and corrected.
- One page per market you’re serious about, instead of a services list covering everything.
- The measurement, so you can tell which of the three markets any new work actually came from.
That isn’t a fixed package. If the domestic work is fine and the commercial side is what you want, almost none of the above is the priority and I’d say so.
Would Google Ads help?
For urgent domestic work, often, because somebody without power isn’t going to scroll. For compliance and commercial work, usually less so, because that tends to come through relationships and repeat contact rather than a search and a click.
Before spending, I’d want to know what a job is worth to you and whether calls and forms are being recorded. Otherwise you’re buying clicks and guessing. My Google Ads service covers how I approach that.
What about AI answers?
People do ask assistants who to use, particularly when they’ve got a fault they don’t understand and want to know whether they’re about to be overcharged.
It costs nothing to check. Ask a couple of them how somebody would find an electrician in your town, run it more than once, and note whether you appear and whether what’s said is right. Where a business is missing, it’s usually because nothing online states plainly what it does, what it’s approved for and where it goes. That’s the same job as everything above it, not a separate invoice. There’s more under AI search visibility.
Who this suits
Domestic electricians competing on local searches where the map listing settles most of it.
Anyone doing inspection, testing and certificate work, where the customer is often an agent or a landlord and the relationship is worth more than one job.
Installers with an accreditation, EV chargers, solar, battery storage or similar, where fewer businesses compete and the work is worth more.
If the diary’s full for months, visibility isn’t what’s holding you back, and I’d tell you that instead of selling you something.
What does it cost to work together?
There’s no honest figure I could give from a trade name. It depends on the site, what’s wrong with it, and how many of those three markets you’re actually chasing, because that’s what decides the amount of work. I’d look, then come back with the first job and what it costs.
Nearly all of it is remote. I’m near Liverpool if a conversation in person is easier.
Questions people ask
Should I have separate pages for domestic and commercial work?
Usually, because the buyers are different people making different decisions. A landlord arranging a certificate and a homeowner with a dead socket won’t be convinced by the same page, and trying to serve both tends to serve neither.
Is it worth being on the approved installer registers?
Your entry is doing something either way, so it’s worth making sure it’s accurate. Those registers can rank on their own for the specialist searches, which makes them a route to you rather than only a competitor.
Do I need a page for every town I cover?
Usually not. One page that’s clear about where you’ll actually travel tends to do more than several near-identical ones with the place names swapped, and those can weaken each other.
How do I compete with the big national companies?
Not on the broadest searches, where they’ll outspend you. On the local map listing, on reviews, and on the specialisms where far fewer businesses compete and the jobs are worth more.
Do you work with electricians outside the North West?
Yes. Almost all of it is remote and most clients are nowhere near me. This page is about electricians because the mix of work in this trade makes the search picture its own thing.
Start with an assessment
Tell me which of those three markets you want more of and where you’ll actually travel. I’ll look at the site, your profile and which of those markets you’re currently visible in, which is usually fewer than people expect. Then I’ll tell you where I’d start. Request a free assessment, or get in touch. Other trades are on the industries page.