"Does SEO work for electricians?" is the wrong question, because the answer changes with the job.
Most pages on this subject say yes to every electrician and then quote a monthly fee. I read three of the pages that rank for it. Their retainer prices were either the page owner's own or ranges with no named source, two had no clear date I could rely on, and none helped an electrician decide which of their own jobs a search would ever find. I make no claim about the trade as a whole from that, only that you will not find your answer in a price list.
So this guide does the part they skip. It scores the usual kinds of electrical work on whether a local search finds them and whether the customer comes back, then runs the fee against the job values you would need to win. Google's own statement on what cannot be bought comes first.
What Google says you cannot buy
Google's help page says "there's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google", so a fee buys the work behind a ranking and never the ranking.
The same page says local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and prominence. Relevance is how well a Business Profile matches what someone searched for. Distance is how far each business is from the person searching. Prominence is how well known a business is, and Google says links from other websites and the number and rating of reviews feed into it.
That sorts the work into two piles. You cannot change distance from a desk, so an electrician based in one town will always look nearer to some customers than others. What a supplier can do is relevance and prominence: an accurate profile, a page on your own site for each job you want, and a steady flow of genuine reviews. If a supplier promises a position, they are promising something Google says is not for sale. The wider point is in what to never sign in an SEO contract.
The job scorecard: which electrical work a search can find
SEO pays on work a stranger searches for, and pays more on work that repeats, so score each kind of job you do on those two things before you score a supplier.
| Kind of job | Found by a local search? | Does the customer come back? | What a homeowner or landlord can check | SEO fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Emergency call-out (power gone, tripping, a burning smell) | Yes, usually on a phone, near them, now | Rarely, unless they save your number | Reviews and a phone that is answered | Strong, if you can answer |
| Consumer unit, rewire or extra circuits at a home | Yes, researched over days | Occasionally | A competent person scheme, listed on gov.uk | Strong, if the proof is on the page |
| Landlord electrical safety checks and remedial work | Yes, searched by letting agents and landlords | Yes: the rule is at least every 5 years | A "properly qualified person", which gov.uk does not define further | Strong, and the repeat is the prize |
| Small domestic jobs (sockets, lights, an outside socket) | Yes, but price-led | Often, if the first job went well | Reviews, and a clear price on the quote | Fair, watch the price shoppers |
| Subbing for a builder or a regular contractor | No, it comes by phone from people you know | Yes, by relationship | Your name, among people who know it | Weak, SEO adds little |
| Maintenance for a shop, school or office | Sometimes, mostly by tender or referral | Yes, by contract | Insurance, references, accreditation | Weak to fair |
The table is my reading of how people find each kind of work, not a survey. It is built to be argued with: change a row where your own enquiries say otherwise. Count your last twenty jobs by row. If most sit in the first four rows, a search can find your customers. If most sit in the last two, a supplier is selling you a channel you barely use, and the word of mouth question comes first.
Why the landlord row is worth a second look
The gov.uk guidance says landlords must have "the electrics in their rented properties checked at least every 5 years" by "a properly qualified person", which turns one found customer into a booking that comes round again.
The rule comes from the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020. It covers England, so check your own nation's rules if you work in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.
For a sole trader the useful part is the arithmetic of repeat. A landlord with four rented properties needs four checks in each five-year window, and a letting agent with a hundred needs far more. If you do the first one well and your name is the one on the report, you are the electrician they already know when the next one falls due. Nothing in the guidance says the same firm has to be used again, so the repeat is earned, not guaranteed.
The guidance does not say what makes a person properly qualified, which is why the proof on your page matters. Say which scheme you belong to, what you hold, and how to check it. How to show those marks without bending the rules is covered in showing Gas Safe, NICEIC and TrustMark on your website.
Proof a customer can check, and where it is shown
The gov.uk list of competent person schemes names NICEIC and NAPIT among those authorised for electrical installation in dwellings, and membership lets a member "self-certify certain types of building work".
The same page lists Certsure LLP trading as NICEIC and NAPIT Registration Limited alongside BESCA, Blue Flame Certification, the Association of Plumbing and Heating Contractors and OFTEC. A couple of those are limited by the page to particular work, so do not assume a scheme covers everything. NICEIC's own site offers a postcode search for registered tradespeople, which is how a customer can look you up without ringing you.
A Google Maps listing shows a star rating, a category, an address and a phone number, and none of that says whether you are on a register. That sits on your website. So the cheapest improvement to any electrician's search presence is often not a keyword at all: it is stating your scheme, your cover and your area in plain sentences where a customer can read and check them. A supplier worth paying will put that on your pages before anything else.
The sum on the fee
At £300 every four weeks a year of fees is £3,900, so an average job worth £500 needs eight wins to cover it and a job worth £4,000 needs one.
Here is the sum with the figures as they are on my own plan, and invented job values so you can swap in yours. Thirteen four-week payments make a year. The first column is the fee on a website you already have, and the second is the fee with a website built and hosted. I am not VAT registered, so those are full amounts, but ask any other supplier whether a quote includes VAT.
Jobs needed to cover a year of fees (invented job values)
| Average job value | Year at £300 (£3,900) | Year at £350 (£4,550) |
|---|---|---|
| £150 | 26 jobs | 31 jobs |
| £500 | 8 jobs | 10 jobs |
| £1,500 | 3 jobs | 4 jobs |
| £4,000 | 1 job | 2 jobs |
Rounded up to whole jobs. Job values are invented, so use your own last-quarter average. Revenue is not profit: take off materials and your time before you compare.
Read it as a test, not a forecast. If the number of jobs on your row is more than you could plausibly win from a search in a year in your area, the fee will not pay back. If it is a handful, the fee is cheap. The other half of the sum is whether those jobs exist: there are pages that say how fast a ranking moves, but Google publishes no timetable, so I make no promise on when a first job lands.
When it is not worth it, and what to do instead
Skip paid SEO when your diary is full from contracts and referrals, when you cannot take more calls, or when you have no proof online yet.
- Your diary is full. More enquiries you cannot book are a cost, not a gain.
- Your work is subcontract or contract. The last two rows of the scorecard are found by relationship, not by a search.
- You have no website, or no proof on it. Fix that first. A fee spent sending people to a page that does not say who you are is wasted.
- Your profile has never been set up properly. That is a one-off job, not a monthly one. If it is the only gap, pay for the evening, not the year.
For a newer firm the order matters. A site that states your scheme and area, plus a well-kept profile, comes before a retainer, as I argue in is SEO worth it for a new trade business. If you want the same buying questions for another trade, the roofer version sets the sum against a different proof gap.
Five questions for any supplier
Anyone worth paying will say which pages they will build, what they will report, and what you can take away if you leave.
- Which jobs will you target, and why those? The answer should come from your scorecard, not a list of keywords.
- What will you show me every month? Calls, directions and enquiries from your profile and site, not a position.
- Where does my proof go? Scheme, cover and area should be in the first pages built.
- Who owns the profile and the pages? You should, with manager access given to them, never your password.
- What do you promise? A promised ranking is a promise about something Google says cannot be bought.
Where Sitework fits, and where it does not
The SEO and Map Pack plan is £300 every four weeks on a website you already have, or £350 with a website I build and host, and it makes no promise about position.
It includes Google Business Profile work, town and service pages, reviews, map grid scans and search-led posts, with a £150 deposit taken off the first payment and a twelve week minimum. The SEO plan page has the terms, and the terms page says what happens if you leave. If your scorecard says you do not need it, I would rather you know that before you apply.