How Australian tradies actually get found on Google

A tradie in Melbourne told me last week he’d built a website 3 years ago, paid for it, never touched it since, and “got a few calls early on but nothing now.” Same story I hear from every fifth tradie I talk to.

Here’s the thing. Having a website doesn’t get you found. It gets you a place to land people once they’ve already found you somewhere else.

The “somewhere else” is Google. And how you show up there comes down to 3 things. Get all 3 right and the phone rings. Get any one wrong and the jobs go to the bloke ranking above you.

1. Ranking — being one of the first 3 results

When a homeowner Googles “electrician [their suburb]”, they see 3 things on the first page in this order:

1. Map results (the “local pack”) — 3 businesses with reviews, photos, hours, a “call” button. This is your Google Business Profile.
2. Sponsored results — businesses paying to be there. This is Google Ads.
3. Organic results — websites Google ranks based on authority + relevance + speed.

76% of homeowners pick from the top 3 results in the local pack. They don’t scroll. They don’t read. They tap “call” on whichever business looks most legit.

If your Google Business Profile isn’t claimed, isn’t filled out, has 4 reviews instead of 47, doesn’t have recent photos — you’re not in the top 3. Game over before it started.

2. Reputation — what the customer sees in those 5 seconds

Say you make the local pack. Now the customer’s looking at your tile next to 2 competitors. They have 5 seconds to pick one.

In those 5 seconds, they check 3 things:

• Stars and review count. Anything under 4.5 looks dodgy. Anything under 30 reviews looks new. 81% of homeowners check reviews before they call. They don’t read every review. They scan the average and the count.
• Recent activity. Photos from this year, a post in the last month, replies to reviews. Shows you’re alive.
• Categories and services. “Electrician” gets you the search. “Emergency electrician” or “switchboard upgrades” tells the customer you do their specific job.

Most tradies set up a Google Business Profile, fill in 30% of the fields, never come back. That’s why the same 3 businesses keep winning every search in your suburb. They’re not better tradies. They have a more complete profile.

3. Response — the first reply gets the job

Customer picks you. Taps your number. Calls. You don’t pick up because you’re up a ladder under a roof or 3 metres into a service van.

They hang up. Tap the next name on the list. That bloke picks up. He gets the job.

The data on this is brutal: 1 in 2 homeowners book the first tradie who calls them back. Not the cheapest. Not the closest. The fastest to respond.

You can’t pick up the phone every time. Nobody can. So the answer is: don’t try.

What works:

• Auto-respond to every form submission within 60 seconds with a polite “got your message, on a job, will call you back at 4pm”.
• Auto-respond to every missed call with an SMS that says the same thing.
• Get back to them when you actually can. Most customers will wait 4 hours for a tradie who acknowledged them in 60 seconds. They won’t wait 4 hours for one who never did.

The 60-second acknowledgement does more for your booking rate than any other single thing.

Why all 3 matter together

Tradies who get good at one of these and ignore the others stay stuck:

• Great reviews + slow response → leads bounce after first contact.
• Fast response + no Google profile → never get the leads in the first place.
• Top of Google + dead reviews → people scroll past anyway.

The tradies who own their area are running all 3 deliberately. Most aren’t. That’s the gap.

What to do this week

If you only do one thing:

1. Open your Google Business Profile (search your business name on Google, click the panel that comes up).
2. Fill in every field. Categories, services, hours, photos, attributes. Add 5 photos taken this month.
3. Reply to every review in the last year, even old ones, even the bad ones (especially the bad ones).
4. Post once. A photo of a recent job, 1 line of caption. Done. Set a recurring reminder to do this once a fortnight.

That alone will move you up the local pack within 30 days for most metros. Then we can talk about the response side.

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Rigup runs all 3 for tradies on a single subscription. $999 to start, $299/mo from go-live, 5 leads a month or that month is refunded. See pricing or book a call to chat through your area.