How UK customers actually find trades in 2026

The way a customer finds a plumber has changed more in two years than in the previous ten. They still start with a search, but the search now answers back. An AI Overview sits on top of more than 40% of Google searches, naming a few businesses before the blue links even begin. Around 68% of consumers have used AI to research a local product or service. And yet fewer than one in ten small firms has any deliberate plan for showing up in those answers.

That gap is the whole opportunity. The trades who understand where customers actually look in 2026, and feed those channels properly, get found while their competitors argue about Facebook. This is the honest map: where customers go first, what each channel needs from you, and the numbers behind it, so you can spend your effort where the jobs are.

Google is still where it starts, but the page changed

Google remains the first place most customers look for a tradesman, but the result they see now leads with a three-business local map pack and, increasingly, an AI Overview, so the goal is to be in those few named slots rather than just somewhere on the page.

The local pack does the heavy lifting

Type "electrician near me" and the first thing most people see is a map and three businesses, the local pack, sitting above everything else. Those three get the calls. Getting into them is mostly about a complete, verified Google Business Profile, the right category, a real service area and steady genuine reviews. Our guide to getting your trade business on Google covers exactly how those slots are won.

The AI Overview now reads the page for them

Above or around the normal results, Google increasingly drops an AI Overview: a written answer that names a few businesses and summarises why. Industry trackers put AI Overviews on more than 40% of searches by 2026. For the customer it means less scrolling. For you it means the shortlist is decided before they reach the links, so being one of the named businesses is the game.

AI assistants now hand over a shortlist

A growing share of customers ask an AI assistant like ChatGPT or Gemini for a tradesman and act on the two or three names it gives, so businesses that AI can read and trust are picked before the customer compares anyone themselves.

The numbers behind the shift

By mid-2026 roughly 47% of UK adults had used an AI search tool, and about 68% of consumers had used AI to research a local product or service, according to 2026 market reporting from SearchScore and MarGen. That is not a fringe channel any more. When a customer asks ChatGPT for "a good plumber in Leeds", it names a few and they often ring the first one that looks right.

The readiness gap that helps the prepared

The same reporting notes that fewer than 10% of firms have a deliberate strategy for appearing in AI answers. So the bar is low. Get the basics an assistant reads, a clear website, a strong profile, real reviews, and you can be the named trade while most of your competition is invisible to it. Our guide to getting found on AI search is the step-by-step.

Directories and social pages: useful, not the centre

Checkatrade, MyBuilder and social pages still bring some customers, but they are one route among several and they cost either money or control, so they work best as a top-up to a presence you own rather than the foundation of it.

Lead platforms still pull traffic, at a price

Plenty of customers do still use Checkatrade or MyBuilder, and those directories now appear inside AI tools too. The catch is the same as it has always been: you pay for access to your own market, and the customer and review stay with the platform. They can be worth it for some trades, but building your whole pipeline on them leaves you exposed to fee hikes. We weighed that up in is Checkatrade worth it.

Facebook and Instagram start jobs, rarely close them

A social page is fine for showing recent work and keeping regulars warm, but it is a poor front door for a stranger with a job today. The text is not readable by search the way a website is, there is no proper services or contact structure, and you are renting space on someone else's platform. We put the two side by side in website vs a Facebook page for tradesmen.

Reviews and word of mouth decide the final pick

Once a customer has a shortlist, genuine reviews and a quick check of the business name are what tip them towards one trade, so a recommended name still gets searched and judged before the phone rings.

Word of mouth still gets googled

A mate's recommendation is gold, but in 2026 it almost always triggers a search. The customer types the name to see reviews, recent jobs and a number. If that search turns up a tidy website and a strong profile, the recommendation lands. If it turns up nothing, or a dead Facebook page, doubt creeps in. The recommendation gets you onto the shortlist; what they find decides the job.

Reviews are the cheapest trust you can build

Genuine reviews that describe the actual work, "turned up on time, fixed the leak, tidied up", are what separate two trades who look otherwise identical. They lift you in Google's local pack and give AI assistants something concrete to repeat. Ask every happy customer while you are still on site. Our guide to getting more Google reviews covers the asks that actually work.

What this means for a trade without a website

Every channel customers use in 2026, Google, AI answers, reviews and word of mouth, ends with the customer reading something about you, so a trade with no readable website you own is invisible at the exact moment the decision is made.

The channels all point to one place

Notice the pattern across every section above: the local pack, the AI answer, the review check, the googled recommendation. Each one ends with the customer reading about you. With over half a million UK searches for local tradespeople in a recent five-month window, the demand is plainly there. The only question is whether, when they read, they find something that wins the job or a gap.

The bottom line: be readable everywhere it counts

You do not need to be on every platform. You need to be readable in the few places the decision actually happens, and most of those run off the same two things: a complete Google Business Profile and a clear website you own. I'll build you a free mockup of your actual business before you pay anything, written so customers and AI can both read it. Like it? A one-pager is £395 (founding price; £500 after the first 10 clients), a full site £595, with optional hosting at £20/month, no contract. Usually live in about a week. See the tradesman website cost page or apply at sitework.uk/#apply.