Half of page one isn’t customers
When I checked an electrician search here in September 2026, the ordinary results included Yell three times, Checkatrade, a Kompass business record, a Companies House filing history page, and two Facebook group posts. One of those posts was advertising cement mixer hire. The other was somebody looking for work.
So a good part of page one has nothing to do with hiring anybody. The directories are genuine competition. The rest is Google filling space because nothing better is competing for it.
That’s an opening, with a caveat. It suggests a clear, specific page about what you do has less standing in its way than the number of results implies. It also means broad terms are attracting a mixed bag of intent, so narrower searches, the ones that name a service or a part of town, are usually the better target.
One query on one day, so I’d check your own trade before acting on it.
Specialist directories rank here
One of the results was a directory of OZEV-approved EV charger installers, ranking on page one for a general trade search.
If you do something specific that has its own approved-installer list, accreditation register or trade body directory, those listings are doing work in this market. Getting yours accurate and complete is cheap, and it’s the sort of thing that never gets looked at once it’s set up.
There’s a wider point in it for how you compete. A general page about your trade is up against Yell. A page about the specific thing you’re accredited to do is up against far less.
Do the resort and the residential parts need different pages?
Often, yes, and this is one of the few places where I’d say that without much hesitation.
The questions are genuinely different. Somebody booking a table or a room wants opening hours, parking, what’s nearby and what it’s like. Somebody wanting a tradesperson at home wants coverage, price factors and how soon you can come. Those don’t sit comfortably on one page.
What I wouldn’t do is build a page for every district on the same template. Birkdale, Ainsdale, Churchtown and Crossens aren’t interchangeable names to drop into the same paragraph. A separate page earns its place when you have something real to say about working there.
When would I use Google Ads?
For a seasonal business here, the case is stronger than usual: ads can be turned up before the season and down after it, which content can’t.
Nothing was being advertised on the search I checked, which tells me about that search and not about your trade. It could be an opening, or it could be terms that other businesses found didn’t pay.
Before spending, I’d check what a booking or a job is worth, which searches suggest somebody is ready to commit, and whether your calls, forms and bookings are being recorded. A small test then answers it properly. My Google Ads service covers that work.
What about AI answers?
No AI Overview appeared on the search I checked. Google also corrected the spelling of my query before answering it, so what I typed and what it searched for were not quite the same thing.
The check worth doing is your own. Look at the searches bringing you enquiries, see which show an AI answer, and check what it cites.
Assistants matter more than usual for anything with visitors, because “where should I eat in Southport” is exactly the kind of question people now ask one. Ask a couple of them the question your customers would ask, repeat it over a few days, and record whether you appear and whether what’s said about you is accurate. You need to see the answer and its sources before deciding what to fix. There’s more under AI search visibility.
What would I look at first for your business?
- The enquiries or bookings and their value. Including how they move across the year, if they do.
- Your Google Business Profile. The facts, category, hours and reviews, with the hours taken seriously if you trade seasonally.
- Any specialist directory or accreditation listing. Cheap to fix and currently doing work here.
- One specific page rather than several general ones. The service or the part of town where the competition is thinnest.
- The measurement. So a change in visibility can be tied to a change in enquiries.
If the site can’t be indexed or the booking route fails, those come first.
Who does this suit?
Hotels, restaurants and anything on or near Lord Street, where visitors decide on the day and assistants are increasingly part of that decision.
Trades covering Southport, Birkdale, Ainsdale and Churchtown, where distance across a long town does more than people expect.
Clinics and appointment-based businesses, where people want to know what a first visit involves before booking.
If you’re busy enough on referrals and repeat custom, more visibility may not be your best spend, and I’d say so.
What does it cost to work together?
A town name isn’t enough to price anything from. It comes down to how much site there is, what’s wrong with it and whether you’re selling to visitors or residents, since those need different work. I’d look at the site, your Search Console if you can share it, and who’s actually taking the bookings. Then I’d tell you what I’d start with and what that costs.
Most of the work happens remotely. Southport is a straightforward drive from me if a conversation in person would help.
Questions people ask
My trade is seasonal. Does that change the plan?
It changes the timing more than the method. I’d want last year’s booking or enquiry dates to see when people actually started looking, then make sure the relevant pages are ready well before that, with enough time for them to be found and assessed.
Why are Companies House and Facebook ranking for my trade?
Because not much else is competing for those terms. On the search I checked in September 2026, several results had nothing to do with hiring anybody. It suggests a clear, specific page has a reasonable chance, and that broad terms are a mixed target.
I’m accredited for a specialist service. Is that worth anything for search?
It can be. On the search I looked at, a directory of approved installers for one specialism ranked on page one. Making sure your entry on any relevant register is accurate and complete is cheap, and those listings tend to be set up once and never checked.
Do I need separate pages for Birkdale and Ainsdale?
Only where you can say something real about working there. They’re several miles apart, so coverage is a genuine question here, but near-identical pages with the names swapped tend to weaken each other.
Do you work with businesses outside Southport?
Yes. I work across the North West and nationally, and nearly all of it is remote. Southport gets its own page because the search behaviour here is genuinely its own thing, not because clients need to be nearby.
Start with an assessment
Tell me what your business does, whether your customers are mostly local or mostly visiting, and what sort of enquiries you want more of. I’ll look at the site, the results for your trade and how the year moves if your trade is seasonal. Then I’ll tell you what to change first. Request a free assessment, or get in touch. Other towns are on the locations page.