Digital marketing for plumbers and other home services
When a geyser bursts or the lights go out, people grab a phone and search "burst geyser", "plumber near me" or "electrician open now". The business that shows on the map with a number that gets answered gets the job, so digital marketing for plumbers means being that business in the suburbs your vans reach. We do the SEO, websites and call tracking behind it for plumbers, electricians, aircon installers and pest control companies.
We tie every call, WhatsApp and form to the search or page behind it. Each month's report puts calls from the map next to calls from organic search, with the suburb each call came from.
Only a registered person may issue an electrical certificate of compliance (Electrical Installation Regulations, 2009, regulation 9(1)).
PIRB's Licensed Plumber designation carries the authority to issue and sign a Plumbing Certificate of Compliance (SAQA register of professional designations, checked October 2026).
Urgent jobs and planned ones
Right now
"Plumber near me", "blocked drain", "burst geyser", "electrician near me", "no power in half the house". These come from phones, often after hours, and Google puts a map with three businesses above the ordinary results. It ranks that map "mainly based on relevance, distance, and popularity", in the words of Google Business Profile Help, which adds that "more reviews and positive ratings can help your business's local ranking" (checked October 2026). The person looks for a few seconds, then calls.
Planned jobs
Solar geyser conversions, heat pumps, aircon installs, DB board upgrades, a rewire, a pest control contract for a restaurant. People research these over days or weeks, get more than one quote and read reviews. They want a price or a range, how long the job takes, and proof that you're registered.
The trust check
Before letting a stranger into the house, people look at your reviews, photos of your team and vans, and whether you show a PIRB or electrical registration number. All three need to be on your Business Profile and your own site.
A question like "who's a reliable plumber in Bellville?" can go to an AI assistant instead of the search box, or be answered by an AI Overview at the top of Google's results. The answer leans on your Business Profile, reviews and pages, so the work above helps there too.
What we set up for a trade business
A Business Profile for the area you cover
Service areas set to the suburbs you drive to, the right primary category (plumber, electrician, pest control service), services listed with call-out fees if you publish them, and hours that match when someone answers the phone. A second depot gets its own profile.
Service and suburb pages
A page for each job people search for, such as geyser replacement, blocked drains, leak detection and COC inspections, and for the main suburbs you cover. Pages that only swap the suburb name risk breaking Google's spam policies, which count substantially similar pages made to rank for similar searches as doorway abuse (checked October 2026). So each one carries something specific to the area: jobs you've done there, the age of the houses, estate access rules.
Call tracking and missed calls
A tracking number on the site and the Business Profile, so every call is tied to its source, plus a list of missed calls by hour. On an emergency search, a missed call usually means the customer rang the next name on the map.
Reviews after every job
A review link your team sends by WhatsApp or SMS once the job is signed off. Reviews that say what the job was and where help the next customer decide.
A website that gets the call
Your number and a WhatsApp button at the top of every page, your registration numbers on show, the areas you cover listed plainly, and pages that load fast on mobile data. Our web design work starts from there.
Certificates of compliance and registration
Customers ask about certificates of compliance, and for electrical work a house sale makes one urgent. Saying plainly who on your team can issue one helps you win the job.
Electrical work
Regulation 9(1) of the Electrical Installation Regulations, 2009, says: "No person other than a registered person may issue a certificate of compliance." Regulation 9(4) adds: "Any person who undertakes to do electrical installation work shall ensure that a valid certificate of compliance is issued for that work." Under regulation 7(5), the user or lessor "may not allow a change of ownership if the certificate of compliance is older than two years", so a house sale often means a call to an electrician.
Plumbing
PIRB, the Plumbing Industry Registration Board, describes itself as "the professional body for plumbers in South Africa". Its Licensed Plumber designation is on SAQA's register of professional designations until May 2027, and the register describes a licensed plumber as one who "has the authority to issue and sign a Plumbing Certificate of Compliance". Customers can check a plumber on PIRB's website, so your registration number goes where they'll see it.
Any other trade registration goes on the site the same way. We only put registration numbers on your site that you hold.
Every call, by source and suburb
One page, with missed calls counted as well as answered ones.
Calls by source
Calls, WhatsApps and forms from Google Maps and organic search, each counted separately.
Missed calls by hour
When calls went unanswered, so you can judge whether after-hours cover or an answering service would pay for itself.
Calls by suburb
Which suburb pages the calls came through, set against the areas you want more work in. If the calls come from too far away, we change the pages and the service areas on your Business Profile.
Changes for next month
What we'll change and why, such as writing up more jobs in a suburb where you don't show on the map yet.
Our prices are on the site
Seven of the twelve South African agencies that rank most often on Google don't publish a pricing page. We'd rather you knew before we speak.
12 agencies checked across 19 searches, September 2026.
We're not registered for VAT, so no VAT is added to our prices. Contracts run for three months minimum, then month to month.
Where to start
You can start with one of these and add another once the first is paying its way.
Rankings on Google and Google Maps for the searches your customers type. Technical fixes, service pages that answer the question, and links from sites people in your industry read.
SEO in Cape TownFrom R7,500 a month
SEO pricingGetting your business named when someone asks AI assistants who to use, from ChatGPT and Gemini to Google's AI Overviews, Copilot, Perplexity and Claude. We track what they say about you, then fix the pages and listings they draw on.
Fast sites built to turn a visit into a call or a form. The domain, the site and the logins are in your name.
Web design in Cape TownFrom R14,500
Website pricingThe first three months
Step Month 1: Missed calls and service areas
Tracking numbers go on your site and profile, last month's calls and forms become the baseline, and your service areas are set to the suburbs you cover. We also look at when calls go unanswered, because that can be the cheapest fix of all.
Step Month 2: Service and suburb pages
Pages for your best-paying jobs and main suburbs go live, with job photos and your registration number on each. Your Business Profile gets the same photos and lists the same services.
Step Month 3: Review links from your team
Your team starts sending review links after each job, and you get the first full month of calls by source and suburb, with what we'll change in month four. Map positions can change within weeks, while new pages usually need three to six months.
Questions from the trades
Nobody can promise that. Google weighs distance to the searcher, so a plumber based in Kuils River will struggle to show on the map for someone in Sea Point. Suburb pages can still reach those areas, and the report shows which suburbs call.
Yes, if you hold one. Customers look for it before they let someone into the house, and it backs up what your reviews say. We only put registration numbers on your site that you hold.
SEO starts at R7,500 a month, and a website starts at R14,500. We're not registered for VAT, so no VAT is added to our prices.
Yes. WhatsApp taps from your site are logged with their source, next to calls and forms, so a WhatsApp from a suburb page counts as an enquiry from that page.
The calls you might be missing
We'll run urgent searches in the suburbs you cover, see how you show up on Google and Maps, run a quick AI check of 5 prompts in ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Gemini, and send back the five fixes we'd make first. All it takes is your website.