Trade marketing glossary: plain-English answers for UK trades

This glossary explains the words UK trades hear from Google, Meta, agencies and web designers, in plain English, with what each one means in practice, why it matters to a trade business and a tip or common mistake to watch for. Each definition comes first, so you can find the term, get the gist and get back to work. Unavoidable Marketing is a UK-wide, Leeds-based agency that runs Google Ads, Local Services Ads, SEO, websites and social media for trades across the UK, and founder Andrew Heppinstall is on every strategy call.

Book a free 30-minute strategy call

Last updated: 21 October 2026

Jump to: A · B · C · D · E · F · G · H · I · K · L · M · N · O · P · Q · R · S · T · W

A

Ad assets

Ad assets, which Google used to call ad extensions, are the extra bits that can appear with a Google ad, such as your phone number, extra links to service pages, your address or short lines like “Free quotes” and “Gas Safe registered”. You add them in your Google Ads account, and Google decides each time whether to show them, based on the search, the device and how much room there is.

For a trade the call asset matters most, because it lets someone on a phone ring you straight from the ad. A common mistake is setting up assets once and forgetting them: a roofer still showing “Summer gutter offer” in January looks careless, so check them every few months.

Ad schedule

An ad schedule is the setting in Google Ads that controls which days and hours your ads can run. You can switch ads off at night, run them only on weekdays, or raise and lower bids at certain times, for example bidding more first thing in the morning when people ring about a leaking tap they found overnight.

For trades the rule is simple: only advertise when someone can answer the phone. An emergency locksmith covering nights in Bristol might run all hours, while a landscaper in Norwich who is on site all day may do better running ads in the evenings and sending calls to a form or a callback. Missed calls on paid ads are money spent for nothing.

AEO (answer engine optimisation)

AEO means making your website and business details easy for answer engines, such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews, to read, trust and quote. Instead of a list of links, these tools give a written answer, and they build it from sources they can read and trust: clear answer-first pages, consistent business details across directories, reviews, mentions on other reputable sites and structured data.

More customers now ask these tools “who is a good roofer near me”, so clear answer-first pages, consistent details and real reviews help your business be considered, though nobody can guarantee being named. A practical start is to make sure each service page answers the obvious question in its first two sentences, such as what you do, where you cover and what accreditations you hold. Read more.

AI Overviews

AI Overviews are the AI-written summaries Google shows at the top of some search results, with links to the pages it drew on. Google writes them from pages it has already found and trusts, so they tend to pull from sites that answer a question plainly and are backed up by the rest of the web. They appear more often for questions than for straight “plumber near me” searches.

For trades they often answer questions like “do I need a permit for a skip” or “how long does a new boiler take to fit”, so useful, plainly written pages on your site give Google something worth citing. Write the answer you would give a customer on the doorstep, in your own words, rather than padding a page out with the town name repeated over and over.

B

Backlink

A backlink is a link to your website from another website. Search engines treat links from real, relevant sites as a sign that other people vouch for you, a bit like word of mouth online.

Links from real, relevant sites, such as a local news story, a supplier, a trade association or a community group you sponsor, help Google and AI tools see your business as genuine; bought links in bulk do the opposite. A practical tip: if you sponsor a junior football team in Leicester or supply a local builder in Cardiff, ask them to link to your site from their sponsors or partners page. Avoid anyone who emails offering “hundreds of high-authority links”.

Bounce rate

Bounce rate is the share of visits where someone lands on a page and leaves without doing anything else; in Google Analytics 4 it counts visits that were not “engaged”. On its own it is not good or bad: someone who lands on your contact page, copies your number and rings you may count as a bounce.

A high bounce rate on an advert’s landing page often means the page is slow, confusing or does not match what the ad promised. If your ad says “same-day boiler repair” and the page opens with a long story about your company history, people go back and click the next ad. Fix the top of the page first: what you do, where, your number and one reason to trust you.

C

Call asset

A call asset, once called a call extension, adds your phone number to a Google ad so people can ring you with one tap on a mobile, or see the number on a computer. Google can also use a forwarding number so calls from the ad are counted in your account, which tells you which campaigns and keywords make the phone ring.

For most trades this is the single most important part of an ad, because a customer with water coming through the ceiling wants to talk to someone, not fill in a form. A common mistake is showing a number that goes to voicemail during busy hours. If you cannot answer, use an ad schedule or a call answering service so paid calls are not wasted.

Call tracking

Call tracking uses forwarding phone numbers to show which ad, page or listing made your phone ring, and often records or logs the call. Each source gets its own number, so a call from your Google ad, your Google Business Profile and your van livery can be counted separately, while every call still reaches your normal phone.

Trades get most of their work by phone, so without call tracking you cannot tell which marketing is bringing in jobs. A tip: listen back to a handful of calls each month. You will quickly hear whether an electrician’s ads are bringing in rewires or people asking you to fit a doorbell.

Citation

A citation is any mention of your business name, address and phone number on another site, such as Yell, Thomson Local, Yelp, Bing Places, Apple Business Connect or a trade body’s member list. Search engines and AI tools compare these mentions to check that your business is real and where it works.

Accurate citations back up your Google Business Profile and help AI tools confirm you are a real local business. The common mistake is leaving old details behind: a plumber who moved from a Swansea unit to working from home, or changed mobile number, can have a dozen listings pointing to the wrong place. Keep a simple list of every listing and its login so you can update them all at once.

Click-through rate (CTR)

Click-through rate is how often people who see your ad or search listing go on to click it, out of everyone who saw it. It is a quick read on whether your message matches what people are looking for.

A low CTR usually means the ad or listing is not speaking to what the searcher wants, for example showing “bathroom fitting” to someone who searched for an emergency plumber. Do not chase CTR for its own sake, though: an ad that says “Free quotes for everyone” might get lots of clicks from people you do not want. Aim for the right clicks, then judge it on calls and booked jobs.

Competent person scheme

A competent person scheme is a government-authorised scheme in England and Wales that lets registered businesses self-certify that certain building work, such as notifiable electrical work or replacement windows, meets the Building Regulations without a separate building control visit. The scheme operator checks members and records the work, and the customer is usually sent a certificate or notice afterwards.

Showing your scheme membership on your website and profile tells customers you can certify the work yourself. Say which scheme you belong to by name, and keep it current: an out-of-date logo on your site does more harm than none at all. Rules differ in Scotland and Northern Ireland, so check the current position where you work.

Conversion tracking

Conversion tracking records the actions you care about, such as a call, a quote form being sent or a booking, and ties them back to the ad, keyword or campaign that produced them.

Without it Google Ads optimises for clicks rather than enquiries, which is how budgets get spent on people who never ring. The most common mistake is counting the wrong thing, such as page views or clicks on a “Contact” button, as a conversion. Count real calls of a sensible length and sent forms,. Read more.

Core Web Vitals

Core Web Vitals are Google’s measures of how a page feels to use: how fast the main content loads, how quickly the page responds when tapped, and whether things jump around while it loads. Google measures them from real visitors using Chrome, and you can see the results in Google Search Console and free tools such as PageSpeed Insights.

Customers searching for a trade are often on a phone in a hurry, so a site that passes these checks keeps more of them. The usual culprits on trade sites are huge uncompressed job photos, sliders at the top of the page and pop-ups that cover the phone number. Fix those first; you rarely need a full rebuild to make a real difference.

Cost per booked job

Cost per booked job is what your marketing costs divided by the number of jobs it actually put in the diary, not just enquiries. To work it out you need two things: what you spent on a channel, including any fees, and an honest count of the jobs it produced.

It is the number that tells a trade whether a channel pays, because cheap leads that never book are not cheap. A roofer might find one source sends lots of “how much for a few tiles” calls while another sends fewer enquiries that turn into full re-roofs. Read more.

Cost per click (CPC)

Cost per click is what you pay each time someone clicks your Google or Meta ad. On Google it is set by an auction each time someone searches, so it depends on how many other businesses want the same search, how much they are willing to pay and how relevant Google thinks your ad is.

It varies by trade, town and competition, and on its own it says little, because what matters is how many of those clicks turn into booked jobs. A higher cost per click on “emergency boiler repair” can still be better value than cheap clicks on vague searches. Watch the trend, but judge campaigns on cost per booked job.

Cost per lead

Cost per lead is what you spend to get one enquiry, whether that is a call, a form or a message. You work it out by dividing the spend on a channel by the number of enquiries it produced, so it relies on having call tracking and conversion tracking set up properly.

It is a useful early check, but always compare it with cost per booked job, because some sources send plenty of leads that rarely book. A landscaper might get cheap leads from a social ad that are mostly people asking for a quick hedge trim, and pricier leads from search that are full garden redesigns. Track both numbers side by side for each source.

D

DMCC Act fake reviews ban

The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 made it unlawful in the UK, from April 2025, to write, commission or publish fake reviews, or to hide that a review was paid for or rewarded. It also covers presenting reviews in a misleading way, such as only showing the good ones while suggesting they are the full picture.

For trades it means no reviews from friends posing as customers, no buying reviews, and taking reasonable steps to stop fake reviews appearing on your own pages. Offering a discount in return for a review is risky unless it is made clear, and it may still break platform rules. The safe habit is to ask every real customer, after every job, in the same way, and check the current guidance if you are unsure.

Domain ownership

Domain ownership means the web address, such as yourbusiness.co.uk, is registered in your name and you hold the login. The domain is rented year by year from a registrar, and whoever is named as the registrant controls it, including where the website and email point.

If a web designer or directory owns it instead, you can lose your address, email and search history if you part ways, so always check whose name is on it. A practical tip: look up your domain’s registrant details, make sure the renewal is on your own card, and keep the login somewhere safe. Read more.

E

E-E-A-T

E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness, the qualities Google’s guidelines describe for judging whether content is reliable. Pages that show real first-hand experience and who stands behind them tend to be treated as more reliable.

Trades show it with real job photos, named people, accreditations, honest advice and reviews, which also helps AI tools trust your pages. A heating engineer’s page explaining when a boiler is worth repairing and when it is not, written by a named engineer with their Gas Safe details, says far more than a generic page copied from a supplier. Avoid stock photos of smiling models in clean overalls.

F

F-gas certificate

An F-gas certificate is the qualification people need by law in the UK to install, service or repair equipment containing fluorinated gases, such as many air conditioning and refrigeration systems and some heat pumps. Businesses doing this work usually need company certification as well as individual engineers holding the right qualification. The rules have been updated over time, so check the current requirements for the equipment you work on.

If you do this work, show your certification clearly on your website and profile. Customers comparing air conditioning installers in Newcastle or heat pump fitters in Plymouth may not know what F-gas means, so add a short line explaining it in plain words.

G

Gas Safe

Gas Safe registration is a legal requirement for gas work, and customers can check an engineer on the Gas Safe Register. Each registered engineer carries an ID card showing the types of gas work they are qualified for, so registration for one kind of appliance does not cover every kind.

For heating engineers and plumbers who do gas work, your registration belongs on your website, your Google Business Profile and your van. Show your registration number, not just the logo, so customers can check it. A common mistake for general plumbers and handymen is listing “boiler repairs” or “gas cooker fitting” on their site when nobody in the business is registered for it, which is illegal work to advertise taking on.

GEO (generative engine optimisation)

GEO is another name for making your business easy for AI tools that write answers, such as ChatGPT and Gemini, to find, understand and recommend. These tools gather information from websites, directories, reviews and other sources, then write a recommendation in their own words, so you want every source they might read to say the same clear things about you.

In practice it overlaps heavily with AEO and good local SEO: clear pages, consistent details, reviews and mentions on trusted sites. Be wary of anyone promising your firm will be “recommended by ChatGPT”, because nobody can guarantee that. Read more.

Google Ads

Google Ads is Google’s advertising platform, where you pay when someone clicks your ad on Google Search, Maps, YouTube and partner sites. You choose the searches you want to appear for, the areas you cover, your budget and what your ads say, and Google runs an auction each time someone searches.

For trades it captures people already searching for the job, such as “boiler repair Leicester”, which is why it works well for urgent and high-value work. Split campaigns by job type, set tight locations, add negative keywords and track calls, so you can see which jobs pay and put more behind them. Read more.

Google Analytics 4

Google Analytics 4, usually shortened to GA4, is Google’s free tool for measuring what visitors do on your website: where they came from, which pages they looked at and whether they called, sent a form or left. It works through a small piece of code added to every page, and in the UK it should usually only run once visitors have agreed to cookies.

For a trade it answers practical questions, such as whether your new kitchen fitting page is getting visits, or whether people from your Facebook posts ever ask for a quote. A common mistake is installing it and never setting up key events, so it counts visits but not enquiries. Mark calls from tap-to-call buttons and sent quote forms as key events, then check them monthly.

Google Business Profile

Google Business Profile is the free listing that shows your business on Google Maps and in local search, with your hours, reviews, photos and phone number. You claim and verify it through Google, then manage your categories, services, service area, description, photos and posts, and reply to reviews.

For most trades it is the single most important free listing, because it is what appears in the map pack. A practical tip: add new job photos regularly, list each service you actually do, and make sure your hours match when you answer the phone. Read more.

Google Search Console

Google Search Console is a free Google tool that shows how your website is doing in Google’s unpaid search results. It lists the searches you appeared for, how often people clicked, which pages Google has indexed and any problems it found, such as pages it cannot read or issues on mobile.

For trades it is the easiest way to see what people actually search before they find you, for example whether “roof repair Aberdeen” or “flat roof repair near me” is bringing visits. A useful habit is to check it after adding new service or area pages, to confirm Google has found them. Make sure it is set up in your own Google account, not only your web designer’s.

Google Verified

Google Verified is the badge that appears on Google Local Services Ads once Google has checked your business, including your licences where the law requires them and your insurance. For a UK business the checks usually cover a verified Google Business Profile, a VAT number or Companies House registration number, public liability insurance and any licence the law needs for the work advertised, and they take about 3 to 4 weeks after the documents go in.

It shows customers that Google has done some checks before they ring you. A common hold-up is the details on your insurance or registration not matching your Google Business Profile, so check names and addresses line up before applying. Read more.

H

Hosting

Hosting is the service that stores your website and serves it to visitors. Every time someone opens your site, their phone asks your host’s server for the pages, images and files, so the quality of the server and how it is looked after affects how fast and reliable your site is.

Good hosting keeps your site fast and online; cheap or shared hosting run by someone you cannot contact is a common cause of slow, broken trade websites. Ask three questions: who do I call if the site goes down, how often is it backed up, and can I move it if I want to. If nobody can answer, that is your answer.

I

Impression share

Impression share is how often your Google ads actually showed, out of all the times they were eligible to show. Google Ads also splits the missed share into two causes: lost because of budget and lost because of rank, which is a mix of your bid and the quality of your ad and landing page.

A low figure tells you whether you are missing searches because of budget or because your ads rank too low, which shapes what to fix first. If an emergency electrician is losing out on budget, they might narrow the area or the hours rather than spend more. If they are losing out on rank, better ads and landing pages often help more than raising bids.

IndexNow

IndexNow is a way for a website to tell search engines such as Bing straight away when a page is added or changed, rather than waiting for them to find it. Your site sends a short message listing the changed addresses, and the search engines that support IndexNow share it between them.

It is a small technical setting that helps new service and area pages get picked up sooner on the search engines that support it. Google does not use IndexNow at the time of writing, so for Google you still rely on a sitemap and Search Console. Bing matters more than many trades think, because some AI assistants draw on Bing’s index, so it is worth having.

K

Keyword

A keyword is a word or phrase you choose to target, either in Google Ads or on your website, such as “emergency locksmith Plymouth”. In Google Ads, keywords tell Google which searches your ads may appear for.

Picking keywords that match the jobs you actually want, rather than the busiest searches, is where good trade marketing starts. A locksmith who wants lockouts and lock changes does not want to pay for “locksmith course” or “cheap padlocks”. Write down the jobs you most want to win, the words customers use for them on the phone, and start there.

L

Landing page

A landing page is the page someone arrives on after clicking an ad. It can be a normal service page or a page built just for one campaign, but either way its only job is to turn that visit into a call or an enquiry.

For a trade it should match the ad exactly, load fast on a phone, show your number and accreditations at the top, and make it easy to call or ask for a quote. The classic mistake is sending every ad to the home page. Someone who searched “blocked drain Glasgow” should land on a page about blocked drains in Glasgow, with real photos and a big call button.

Lead

A lead is an enquiry from a possible customer, usually a call, a form, a message or a booking request. Leads come from ads, your Google Business Profile, your website, social media, directories and word of mouth.

Not every lead is a job, which is why trades should track how many leads turn into booked work. A practical habit is to note where every enquiry came from and whether it booked, even on a whiteboard in the van to begin with. After a couple of months you will know which sources are worth paying for and which are just keeping the phone busy.

Lead form ads

Lead form ads are Facebook and Instagram ads where people fill in a short form without leaving the app. Meta can fill in their name, email and phone number automatically from their profile, which makes the form quick to send, and the details arrive in your Meta account or can be sent to your email or CRM.

They can bring in plenty of enquiries, so adding qualifying questions, such as postcode and type of job, helps weed out people who were only browsing. Call new leads quickly; a form someone sent from their sofa is easy for them to forget. Read more.

llms.txt

llms.txt is a proposed plain text file placed on a website to give AI tools a short, readable summary of the site and its key pages. The idea is that an AI tool could read one small file to find your main services, areas and important pages, rather than working through the whole site.

It is not an official standard and no AI company has promised to use it, so treat it as a small extra, not a replacement for clear pages. If your web designer adds one, make sure it matches your real services and details. Be sceptical of anyone charging extra for it as if it were the key to AI search.

Local SEO

Local SEO is the work that helps your business show up for searches in the towns you serve, through your Google Business Profile, reviews, citations and local pages on your site.

For trades it is often worth more than general SEO, because almost every customer searches with a place in mind. The mistake to avoid is creating dozens of near-identical town pages with the name swapped. A good local page for a roofer in Cardiff talks about local jobs, house types, real photos and reviews from that area, so it is genuinely useful. Read more.

Local Services Ads

Google Local Services Ads are ads that appear at the top of some Google searches with the Google Verified badge, where you pay per lead rather than per click. A lead is a call or message from a customer, you set a weekly budget, and the money is paid straight to Google. You choose the job types you do, your service area and your opening hours, and

Google no longer lets you dispute bad leads by hand, so the real protection is the set-up: tight service areas, only the job types you actually do, opening hours that match when you can answer, and rating every lead in your dashboard. Google is moving UK Local Services Ads accounts into Google Ads in 2027, so it is worth exporting your lead history. Read more.

Location targeting

Location targeting is the Google Ads and Meta setting that controls where the people who see your ads are. You can pick towns, counties, postcodes or a radius around a point, and exclude areas you do not cover. Google Ads also lets you choose between showing ads to people who are in or regularly in your area, and people who are only showing interest in it.

For trades the common mistake is leaving the default option that includes people “interested in” your area, which can show a Leeds drainage firm’s ads to someone in Spain planning a holiday. Most trades should target people in or regularly in the areas they serve.

M

Map pack

The map pack, also called the local pack or 3-pack, is the group of three local businesses Google shows with a map for searches like “electrician near me”. Each listing comes from a Google Business Profile, showing the rating, review count, hours and a call button.

Getting into it depends mostly on your Google Business Profile, reviews, relevance and how close you are to the searcher. You cannot change where your base is, but you can choose the right primary category, list every service, keep getting reviews that mention jobs and towns, and add fresh photos. Beware of anyone promising a guaranteed spot; nobody can promise that.

Match types

Match types control how closely a search has to match your Google Ads keyword before your ad can show: broad match is loosest, phrase match needs the meaning of your phrase, and exact match is tightest. With broad match, Google can show your ad for searches it thinks are related, which can find new customers but also lets in plenty of irrelevant searches.

Loose match types without negative keywords are a common reason trades pay for irrelevant searches. A plumber bidding broadly on “plumber” might appear for “plumber salary” or “plumbing apprenticeship”. If you use broad match, pair it with good conversion tracking and check the search terms report every week.

Meta Pixel

The Meta Pixel is a piece of code on your website that tells Meta which visitors came from your Facebook or Instagram ads and what they did, such as sending a quote form. Meta uses this to report results, to build audiences of past visitors and to find more people likely to enquire.

It is needed to measure enquiries properly and to retarget visitors, and in the UK it should only run once visitors have agreed to cookies. A common mistake is a pixel installed by an old designer that nobody can log into, or one firing on the wrong pages. Check it is attached to your own Meta business account and that the quote form event fires when you test it.

N

NAP consistency

NAP stands for name, address and phone number, and NAP consistency means those details are written the same way everywhere your business appears online. That covers your website, Google Business Profile, Facebook page, directories, trade body listings and anywhere else you are mentioned.

Mismatched details across directories confuse Google and AI tools about who you are and where you work. Pick one exact version of your business name, address and main number, and use it everywhere. If you are a service area business working from home, decide whether to show an address at all, and be consistent about it.

Negative keywords

Negative keywords are words you tell Google Ads never to show your ads for, such as “jobs”, “course”, “DIY” or “free”. They are the main way to stop your budget going on searches that will never become work.

Every trade has its own list, and keeping it up to date is one of the simplest ways to stop wasted spend. A locksmith might exclude “car key cutting” if they do not do vehicles, and a roofer might exclude “roofing felt” and “shed roof”. Check your search terms report regularly and add new negatives as you spot them.

O

Organic reach

Organic reach is how many people see your social media posts without you paying to promote them. Facebook, Instagram and TikTok decide who sees each post based on how people react to it, so posts that get comments, shares and watch time travel further than plain adverts.

It is usually small for business pages, so trades get more from posting useful, local content consistently and backing the best of it with targeted ads. Before and after photos, short job videos and the faces of the team tend to do better than a flyer with a phone number. Read more.

Organic results

Organic results are the unpaid listings in Google search, below or around the ads. Google ranks them on how relevant and trustworthy it thinks each page is for that search, drawing on the content, the technical build of the site, links from elsewhere and signals about the business behind it.

You cannot pay to be placed there; you earn it through a useful, well-built website and good local SEO. For trades the best organic pages are usually service pages for each job you do, plus genuinely local area pages. Avoid agencies who promise a quick spot on page one; nobody can promise rankings.

P

Page speed

Page speed is how quickly your website loads and becomes usable, especially on a phone signal. It depends on your hosting, the size of your images, how many scripts and plugins the site runs and how it is built.

A slow site loses people searching for urgent jobs before they ever see your number. Test your own site on your phone, on mobile data, while standing outside a customer’s house. Read more.

Part P

Part P of the Building Regulations covers electrical safety in homes in England and Wales, and notifiable electrical work must be certified by a registered competent person or signed off by building control. Which jobs count as notifiable is set out in the regulations and guidance, so check the current rules rather than guessing.

Electricians who are registered with a scheme should say so clearly on their website and profile. Customers searching for a consumer unit change or a rewire want to know the work will be certified, so say it plainly on those service pages. Handymen and general builders should be clear about which electrical work they do and do not take on.

Pay per click (PPC)

Pay per click is any advertising where you pay each time someone clicks your ad, as with Google Ads and Microsoft Ads. You set a budget and bids, the platform runs an auction, and you are charged when someone clicks through to your site or taps to call.

It means you pay for the visit, not the result, so tracking calls and forms is what shows whether it is working. The common mistake is judging PPC on clicks or traffic alone. A small number of clicks on the right searches, sent to good landing pages, can beat a big pile of cheap clicks that never ring.

Pay per lead

Pay per lead means you pay for each enquiry rather than each click or each month, as with Google Local Services Ads and some quote sites. On some lead sites the same enquiry may be offered to several trades at once, while on Local Services Ads the customer contacts you directly.

It sounds safer, but the cost of leads that never book still adds up, so judge it on cost per booked job. A practical tip is to answer every lead fast and keep notes on why the ones that did not book fell through, such as wrong area, wrong job or price shopping. Read more.

Performance Max

Performance Max is a Google Ads campaign type that runs your ads across Search, Maps, YouTube, Gmail, Discover and display sites from one campaign, with Google deciding where to show them. You give it headlines, descriptions, images, videos and a budget, and Google’s automation mixes and places them based on your conversion goals.

It can work for trades, but without good conversion tracking and clear exclusions it can spend on low-quality placements. If your tracking counts the wrong things, Performance Max will happily find more of the wrong things. Most trades are better off getting a well-tracked search campaign working first, then testing Performance Max alongside it with real job photos.

Primary category

The primary category is the main business category you pick on your Google Business Profile, such as “Roofing contractor” or “Plumber”. You can add secondary categories for other work you do, but the primary one tells Google what you mainly are.

It has a big influence on which searches you show for, so choose the one that matches the work you most want. A firm that does both electrics and solar might choose “Electrician” or a solar category depending on which jobs it wants more of. Look at the categories your strongest local competitors use, but pick what truly describes your business.

Q

Quality Score

Quality Score is Google’s rating of how relevant your keywords, ads and landing pages are to the people searching. It is based on how likely people are to click your ad, how closely the ad matches the search and how useful your landing page is.

Better relevance can mean your ads show higher for less money, which is another reason to keep campaigns split by job type. A low score on “emergency plumber” usually means the ad or page is too general. Write ads that repeat the job and the area, and send them to a page about that exact job.

R

Retargeting

Retargeting, also called remarketing, shows ads to people who have already visited your website or engaged with your page. It works by building audiences from your Meta Pixel, Google tag or social engagement, then showing those people ads as they use Facebook, Instagram, YouTube or other sites.

It suits bigger jobs that people think about for a while, such as extensions, kitchens or new boilers. A kitchen fitter might show past visitors a short video of a finished job and a few reviews. Keep it gentle: following people around with the same ad for months is irritating, so cap how often they see it and refresh it regularly.

Review gating

Review gating means only asking happy customers for reviews, or screening people first and steering unhappy ones away. A typical example is a message asking “were you happy with the job?”, where a yes goes to Google and a no goes to a private form.

Google’s policies do not allow it, and hiding or discouraging negative reviews can also break UK consumer law on fake and misleading reviews, so ask every customer. If a customer was unhappy, it is better to hear it and put it right, then reply politely to any review they leave. A few honest middling reviews make the good ones more believable.

Review response

A review response is the public reply a business owner writes to a customer review on Google, Facebook or another site. On Google Business Profile you can reply to any review from your profile, and the reply shows under the review for everyone to see.

For trades, a short, personal reply that mentions the job, such as “thanks for having us fit your new consumer unit in Belfast”, shows you care and adds useful detail. For bad reviews, stay calm, keep it brief, state the facts and offer to sort it out offline. Never argue in public or reveal a customer’s private details.

Reviews

Reviews are customer ratings and comments on places like Google, Facebook, Trustpilot and trade directories. They are often the first thing people look at when choosing between trades, and Google uses them as one of the signals for the map pack. AI tools also read reviews when deciding which businesses to mention.

Reviews that mention the job and the town, such as “new consumer unit fitted in Swansea”, help both customers and search engines understand what you do and where. The easiest system is a text with a direct review link sent the day the job finishes, to every customer.

S

Schema

Schema, or structured data, is code added to your web pages that labels key facts in a way machines can read, such as your business name, services, area, opening hours and reviews. It uses an agreed vocabulary from schema.org, usually added in a format called JSON-LD that visitors never see.

It helps Google and AI tools read your details accurately, though it does not guarantee any particular result. The mistake to avoid is schema that does not match the page, such as marking up reviews that are not shown or listing services you do not offer. Keep it accurate and in line with your Google Business Profile.

Search terms report

The search terms report in Google Ads shows the actual searches people typed before clicking your ads. It is different from your keyword list: your keywords are what you chose, and the search terms are what people really searched.

Checking it regularly is how you find new negative keywords and spot jobs you did not know people were searching for. A tree surgeon might find clicks on “tree surgeon salary” to exclude, and also searches for “stump grinding” worth a campaign of their own. Weekly checks are best when a campaign is new.

SEO (search engine optimisation)

SEO is the work of making your website easier for search engines to find, understand and rank, through good content, a sound technical build and links from other sites. It covers writing useful pages for each service and area, making the site fast and secure, fixing errors Google finds, and earning mentions and links elsewhere.

For trades it takes longer than ads to show results, but the visits keep coming without paying per click. Be wary of anyone promising rankings or quick results; ask instead what they will actually do each month and how they will measure enquiries. Read more.

Service area business

A service area business is one that travels to customers rather than having them visit, which covers most trades. Plumbers, electricians, roofers, locksmiths and landscapers usually work at the customer’s address, not their own, and Google treats that differently from a shop or showroom.

On Google Business Profile you can hide your home address and list the towns and areas you cover instead. Keep the list to places you genuinely serve; listing every town for miles does not make Google show you there and can attract jobs you do not want. If you do have premises customers visit, such as a showroom, you can show both.

SSL certificate

An SSL certificate encrypts the connection between your website and its visitors, which is why the address starts with https and shows a padlock. It stops other people on the same network from reading what visitors type, such as names and phone numbers in a quote form.

Without one, browsers can warn visitors that your site is “Not secure”, which puts people off filling in a quote form. Check your own site starts with https on every page, not just the home page. If a certificate expires because nobody renewed it, visitors may see a full-page warning, so make sure someone is responsible for it.

T

Tap-to-call

Tap-to-call is a phone number on a website or ad that dials straight away when tapped on a mobile. On a website it is a link written in a special way so the phone opens the dialler, and on Google ads it comes from a call asset.

For trades it is essential, because many customers would rather ring than fill in a form, especially for urgent work. Put a tap-to-call button at the top of every page and keep it visible as people scroll. Track taps as key events in Google Analytics 4, so you know which pages make the phone ring.

TrustMark

TrustMark is the government-endorsed quality scheme for trades working in and around the home. Businesses are checked through scheme providers and agree to a code of conduct, and customers can search for registered businesses. Some government-backed schemes and grants have required TrustMark registration, so check the current rules for the work you do.

It is a trust signal rather than a legal requirement, so if you are registered, show it on your site and profile. Explain in a line what it means for the customer, because many people do not know.

W

Waste carrier registration

Waste carrier registration is what businesses usually need before they carry waste, including many trades taking rubbish away from their own jobs. In England you register with the Environment Agency, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own regulators, and householders are expected to check their waste goes to a registered carrier, so showing your registration builds trust.

For builders, landscapers, tree surgeons and bathroom fitters who take away old fittings, soil or green waste, this matters. Which tier of registration you need depends on what you carry and how, so check the current rules with your regulator. Put your registration number on your quotes and website, and never offer cheap “we take everything” clearances without it.

Want help putting this into practice?

Knowing the words is the first step; setting them up well is where the work is. If you want a straight answer on which of these matter for your trade, and which you can ignore, book a free call. We charge a flat monthly fee, quoted after the call, with no contract.

Book a free 30-minute strategy call