Local SEO in Queensland Local SEO checklist for Queensland tradies

Local SEO for Queensland tradies comes down to a handful of things done properly: a complete Google Business Profile, a steady flow of reviews, the same business details everywhere and a website with real pages for the suburbs you work in. Work through this checklist from top to bottom and you'll be ahead of most tradies in Brisbane, the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast.

1. Google Business Profile

Your profile is what shows in the map results when someone searches your trade plus their suburb. Treat it like a second website.

• Primary category: the closest match to the work you most want, like "Fence contractor" or "Pressure washing service". Add secondary categories only for services you genuinely offer.
• Service areas: list the suburbs and regions you actually travel to. If customers don't come to you, hide your home address and use service areas instead.
• Services: add each service with a short, plain description.
• Photos: real job photos, before and afters, your ute and your team. Add new ones every week or two.
• Posts: share a recent job with a photo and the suburb it was in. It shows the profile is active.
• Questions and answers: if your profile shows a Q&A section, add the questions customers always ask (free quotes, areas covered, how soon you can start) and answer them yourself.
• Hours, phone and website: keep them accurate, including public holidays, and link to your most relevant page.

2. Reviews

Reviews help you show up in the map results, and they do a lot of the selling before anyone picks up the phone.

• Ask every happy customer the same day you finish, while they're still pleased with the job.
• Send your review link by text. One tap. The easier it is, the more you get.
• If they're happy to, ask them to mention the job and suburb, like "pressure cleaning in Robina". It reads well to the next customer. Don't write it for them.
• Reply to every review, good or bad, within a few days. Keep it short and genuine.
• Never buy reviews or offer discounts in exchange for them. It's against Google's rules and not worth the risk.

Set up an automatic review request in your CRM that goes out when a job is marked complete. It's one of the easiest wins on this list.

3. The same name, address and phone everywhere

Google cross-checks your business details across the web. If your name, address and phone number are different in different places, it's less sure who you are.

• Use exactly the same business name, address (if you show one) and phone number everywhere.
• Check your website, Google Business Profile, Facebook, Instagram and directories like Yellow Pages, True Local and hipages.
• If you've changed numbers or moved, update the old listings. Old details floating around cause confusion.
• Show your ABN on your site and, for licensed trades, your QBCC licence number.

4. Suburb pages for the areas you service

This is the big one for ranking beyond the map results. Create a page for each main service and each key area you work in, and make each one genuinely local. For a Queensland tradie, that might look like:

• Gold Coast: Southport, Robina, Burleigh Heads, Coomera and Nerang. Here's how I approach tradie marketing on the Gold Coast.
• Sunshine Coast: Maroochydore, Buderim, Caloundra, Noosa and Nambour. More on tradie marketing on the Sunshine Coast.
• Brisbane and surrounds: Chermside, Carindale, Indooroopilly, North Lakes and Springfield. More on tradie marketing in Brisbane.

Each page needs real local content: jobs you've done in that suburb, photos, the kinds of homes you work on there and the nearby suburbs you cover. Copying one page and swapping the suburb name won't cut it.

It works. Lindsay Catlin Fencing has a page for every suburb he services and ranks on page one for "Buderim fencing", "Nambour fencing", "Caloundra fencing" and "Maroochydore fencing". Chase Create has 108 suburb and service pages across 18 Sunshine Coast and Hinterland areas. In Brisbane, BrisBathCo ranks on page one for "bathroom renovations brisbane".

5. Trust signals on your website

• QBCC licence number: if your trade needs a QBCC licence, show the number on your site, in the footer and near your quote form. It tells customers you're licensed before they have to ask.
• Your ABN and insurance, shown clearly.
• Real photos of your work in local suburbs.
• Your Google reviews on the site, or a link to them.
• A clear phone number and a short quote form on every page.

6. Speed, schema and the technical bits

• Speed: test your site on your phone on mobile data. If it drags, compress images and drop plugins you don't need. BrisBathCo's page speed score went from 29 to 100 with the rebuild.
• Mobile: buttons big enough to tap, a tap-to-call phone number and no tiny text.
• Schema: add LocalBusiness structured data with your name, phone, areas served and hours, so Google can read your details clearly.
• Titles and headings: put the trade and suburb in the page title and H1, like "Pressure Cleaning in Southport".
• Internal links: link each suburb page to the matching service pages and back again.

For the full picture on the site itself, see what a tradie website needs to rank on Google.

7. Track it in Search Console

Google Search Console is free and shows you what people searched to find you. Set it up once and check it every month.

1. Add and verify your site.
2. Submit your sitemap.
3. Check the Performance report each month to see which searches and pages get impressions and clicks.
4. Look for suburb searches where you're sitting on page two. Those pages are worth improving first.
5. Match it against your CRM so you know which pages bring in leads that actually book.

That's the checklist. If you'd rather hand it to someone, I build websites for tradies with all of this set up from day one.