What We Found When We Audited 50 North Wales Trade Business Profiles

Why We Audited 50 Trade Profiles

We talk a lot about what tradespeople should do with their Google Business Profiles. Optimise your categories, get more reviews, add photos, fill in your services. But how many are actually doing it?

To find out, we audited 50 Google Business Profiles belonging to tradespeople across North Wales. Plumbers, electricians, builders, roofers, heating engineers, landscapers, painters, and more — a cross-section of the trades that rely on local search to bring in work.

The results were eye-opening. Not because we found profiles in bad shape — we expected that. What surprised us was just how consistent the problems were. The same mistakes appeared over and over, regardless of trade, town, or how long the business had been running.

This article shares exactly what we found, with real numbers. If you are a tradesperson in North Wales, there is a very good chance your profile has at least three of the issues we are about to describe.

How We Ran the Audit

We selected 50 trade businesses across North Wales, covering the main towns: Wrexham, Llandudno, Rhyl, Bangor, Colwyn Bay, Prestatyn, Conwy, Denbigh, and parts of Anglesey, Flintshire, and Gwynedd.

The selection was randomised within each trade category. We did not cherry-pick the worst profiles or the best. We searched for common trade terms in each town and audited a mix of map pack leaders and businesses ranking on pages two and beyond.

Each profile was scored across 40 data points covering:

• Categories (primary and secondary)
• Business information completeness
• Review count and recency
• Photo count and quality
• Services section
• Google Posts activity
• Website link and quality
• Citation consistency across top directories
• Opening hours accuracy
• Attributes and features

The audit was conducted in February and March 2026 using a combination of manual review and our internal scoring tools.

The Headline Numbers

72% of profiles had at least one incorrect or suboptimal category. This is the single most impactful ranking signal that a business owner controls, and nearly three-quarters of the profiles we looked at had it wrong. The most common issues were using a generic primary category when a more specific one was available, and failing to add relevant secondary categories.

64% had fewer than 20 reviews. For context, the average map pack winner across North Wales trades has between 30 and 80 reviews depending on the trade and town. Nearly two-thirds of the profiles we audited were significantly below the threshold needed to compete.

58% had not received a review in the past 60 days. Even among profiles with a decent total review count, more than half had gone two months or longer without a new review. Given that review velocity is an increasingly important ranking factor, this is a major weakness.

46% had five or fewer photos. Google recommends adding photos regularly, and profiles with more photos receive significantly more clicks and calls. Nearly half the profiles we audited had barely any visual content.

78% had an incomplete or empty services section. This was the most widespread issue. The services section is where you list every individual service you offer, and Google uses it for keyword matching. Over three-quarters of profiles either left it blank or listed only two or three vague items.

82% had no Google Posts in the past 90 days. Google Posts are free mini-advertisements that appear on your profile. Despite being free and taking five minutes to create, the overwhelming majority of profiles we audited showed zero recent activity.

Category Mistakes: The Biggest Quick Win

Getting your categories right is the fastest way to improve your local ranking, and it is the area where we found the most fixable errors.

The most common mistake was using a broad primary category. For example, we found plumbers using "Plumber" as their primary category when "Emergency plumbing service" or "Plumbing contractor" would have been a better match for their main service. We found builders using "Construction company" when "Building firm" or "Home builder" was more appropriate.

Secondary categories were even more neglected. The average profile had 1.8 secondary categories. The top-performing profiles had four or more. A heating engineer who lists only "Heating contractor" is missing out on searches for "Boiler repair service," "Gas engineer," "HVAC contractor," and "Heating equipment supplier."

We have a detailed guide on choosing the right GBP categories that covers this in full. For trade-specific guidance, see our pages for plumber categories, electrician categories, and builder categories.

Review Distribution: A Tale of Two Groups

The review data split the 50 profiles into two clear groups.

Group A (36% of profiles): Businesses with 30 or more reviews, an average rating above 4.5, and at least one review in the past 30 days. These businesses dominated their local map packs. They received more clicks, more calls, and more website visits than everyone else.

Group B (64% of profiles): Businesses with fewer than 30 reviews, often with long gaps between reviews. These businesses were largely invisible in the map pack for competitive searches. Many had good ratings — 4.8 or 5.0 — but with so few reviews that the rating did not carry enough weight to matter.

The correlation between review activity and ranking position was stark. Of the profiles that appeared in the top three map pack positions for their primary trade search, 89% had 25 or more reviews and had received at least one review in the past month.

If you are sitting below 20 reviews and have not had a new one recently, that is the number-one thing holding your ranking back. Building a review system is not optional — it is the foundation of local SEO for trades. Our guide on how to ask for reviews makes it practical and painless.

Photo Count: More Than Vanity

Google has stated that businesses with photos receive 42% more requests for directions and 35% more website clicks than those without. Our audit data supported this.

Profiles with 20 or more photos averaged 3.2 times more monthly views than profiles with fewer than five photos. The content of the photos mattered too — profiles with a mix of work-in-progress shots, completed jobs, team photos, and before-and-after comparisons performed best.

The worst performers had either no photos at all, or only the generic Google Street View image. Some profiles had a single logo and nothing else. For a visual trade like tiling, landscaping, or painting and decorating, this is a massive missed opportunity.

Photos do not need to be professionally shot. Phone photos of completed work are perfectly fine. The key is volume and recency — add a few new photos each month from recent jobs.

Services Section: The Forgotten Ranking Tool

The services section was the area with the most untapped potential. Here is what we found:

• 22% had a fully populated services section with ten or more individual services, each with a description
• 36% had a partially filled section with three to nine services, most without descriptions
• 42% had the section completely empty

This matters because Google matches search queries against your services list. An electrician with 15 listed services — consumer unit replacement, rewiring, fault finding, EV charger installation, emergency call-outs, fuseboard upgrades, outdoor lighting, smoke alarm installation, and so on — will appear for far more search terms than one with three generic entries.

The businesses with fully populated services sections appeared in an average of 40% more unique search queries than those with empty sections, based on their Google Business Profile Insights data. That is a significant difference for something that takes 30 minutes to set up.

Citation Consistency: Still a Problem

We checked the top 20 UK business directories for each of the 50 profiles and compared the listed business name, address, and phone number against what appeared on Google.

54% had at least one significant NAP inconsistency. The most common problems were old phone numbers, business name variations (e.g., "Ltd" on some listings but not others), and address format differences.

28% had major inconsistencies — a different phone number on Yell versus Google, or a different address on Thomson Local. These kinds of discrepancies directly undermine Google's confidence in your listing accuracy.

Citation consistency is not glamorous work, but it is foundational. If your details do not match across the web, Google has less reason to trust your profile, and that trust deficit shows up in your rankings.

What Separated the Top Performers

The top ten profiles in our audit — those scoring above 80 out of 100 — shared several characteristics.

They had the right primary category for their most searched-for service, not just a generic description of their trade.

They had 40 or more reviews with consistent monthly activity. None had gone more than three weeks without a new review.

They posted on Google at least twice a month. Some posted weekly. The content was simple — photos of recent jobs, seasonal offers, service reminders. Nothing elaborate.

Their services section had 12 or more entries with descriptions that naturally included relevant keywords.

Their citations were clean. Same name, same address, same phone number on Google, their website, Yell, Thomson, Checkatrade, and every other directory they appeared on.

They had an active, well-structured website with individual pages for key services and the areas they cover.

None of this is rocket science. It is attention to detail, applied consistently over time. The gap between the top performers and everyone else was not talent or budget — it was effort and consistency.

The Worst Profiles: Common Threads

The bottom ten profiles — those scoring below 30 out of 100 — were almost the mirror image.

They had wrong or generic categories. They had fewer than ten reviews, often with none in the past six months. Their services section was empty. They had no Google Posts. Their photos were either absent or limited to a single logo upload from years ago. Their citations had errors. Some did not even have a website linked.

These businesses were essentially invisible on Google for all but the most specific searches. In competitive trades like plumbing and electrical work, they had zero chance of appearing in the map pack.

The frustrating thing is that most of these issues can be fixed in an afternoon. Categories take five minutes. The services section takes 30 minutes. Uploading photos takes ten minutes. Getting the first review requests out takes 15 minutes. The barrier is not time or money — it is awareness that these things matter.

What This Means for You

If you are a tradesperson in North Wales, the data from this audit paints a clear picture: most of your competitors are not optimising their Google profiles. That is bad news for them and good news for you, because it means the bar is lower than you might think.

You do not need to be perfect. You just need to be better than the other profiles in your area. And based on what we found, "better" means:

1. Setting the right primary and secondary categories
2. Building a steady flow of reviews — two to four per month
3. Filling in your services section completely
4. Adding photos regularly from recent jobs
5. Posting on Google at least twice a month
6. Making sure your citations are consistent across the web

Do those six things and you will be in the top 20% of trade profiles in North Wales. It is not complicated. It just requires doing it.

Want to know exactly where your profile stands? Get a free audit from Local Markers and we will score your profile against the same 40 data points we used in this study. You will receive a clear report showing what is working, what is broken, and exactly what to fix — in order of priority.

The tradespeople who act on this information are the ones who end up in the map pack. The rest keep wondering why the phone is not ringing.