Penicuik trades: when word of mouth meets Google

Penicuik sits at the foot of the Pentland Hills, twenty minutes down the A701 from Edinburgh, and its business is mostly the quiet kind. There are shops and cafes on the High Street and John Street, the businesses that look after walkers and visitors heading for the hills, and a lot of trades: joiners, plumbers, electricians, roofers, painters, gardeners, cleaners and mechanics who work out of the town across Midlothian and down into the Borders.

Ask any of them where their work comes from and the answer is almost always the same. Word of mouth. A neighbour, a friend, a customer who was happy with the last job.

That is true, and it is a good way to run a business. But it leaves out the step that happens in between.

What happens after somebody recommends you

Somebody in Penicuik needs a new kitchen fitted. A friend says you did hers and you were great. She passes on your name, maybe your number.

What does the customer do next? Almost always, they search for you. They type your name, or your trade and the town, into Google on their phone. They are not looking for a better offer. They are checking you are real, that you are still trading, that other people have had good experiences, and that you cover where they live.

What they find in those few seconds decides whether they ring you or ask somebody else for another name. For most trades the thing they find is not a website. It is the Google Business Profile.

The Google Business Profile does most of the work

A Google Business Profile is the free listing that shows your opening hours, reviews and map pin when somebody searches for you. For a recommended trade it is often the only thing a customer looks at, and it is free.

Here is what a customer is hoping to see on it.

• Your name, spelled the way your friend said it. If you trade as "J Smith Joinery" but everybody calls you "Jim the joiner", put the name people search for in the description.
• Recent reviews. Not hundreds, just enough recent ones to show you are still busy and still good. A profile whose last review is from four years ago makes people wonder.
• Photos of your work. A kitchen you fitted, a roof you fixed, a garden you cleared. Real photos from your phone are fine.
• A phone number that works. Including a mobile, if that is how you are actually reached.
• The towns you cover. Penicuik, Loanhead, Bonnyrigg, Roslin, wherever you really go.

If yours has all five, you are ahead of most trades in Midlothian. If it is missing, claim it this week. I have a step-by-step guide to setting up a Google Business Profile if you want to do it yourself.

Getting reviews without the awkward ask

Most trades hate asking for reviews, so they do not, and their profile goes quiet. The trick is timing.

The best moment to ask is straight after a good job, while the customer is still pleased and the job is fresh. A short text that evening, with a direct link to leave a review, gets a far better response than an awkward mention weeks later. Something like "Thanks for having me in today. If you were happy with the job, a quick Google review would really help a small business" is plenty.

That text can even be sent automatically when you mark a job as finished, so you never have to remember. And reply to every review you get, good and bad, briefly and politely. A calm reply to a grumpy review often impresses a reader more than the five-star ones.

Do you need a website as well?

For a lot of Penicuik trades, a small one helps. Not a large site, just three or four pages: who you are, what you do, where you work and how to reach you, with some photos of real jobs. It is the thing that proves you are a proper business when somebody wants more than the Google listing can show.

It also helps Google itself. A website that says, in ordinary sentences, that you are a joiner based in Penicuik covering Midlothian and the edge of Edinburgh backs up what your profile says. The two together are more convincing than either alone.

But the order matters. Get the profile right first, because it does most of the work and costs nothing. Then think about a site.

When not to pay for SEO

Here is the unwelcome part. SEO, the work of making your business easier to find on Google, is worth paying for when you want more new customers who have never heard of you. If your diary is full for the next three months and you already turn work away, you do not need it, and nobody should sell it to you.

The same goes if all your work comes from one contractor or one builder. Google cannot improve that relationship, and a better ranking will not change your year.

What every trade does need, busy or not, is a profile that does not put off the customers who were recommended to you. That part is free and takes an afternoon. The paid work only makes sense on top of it, when you actually want to grow.

Talk to me before you spend anything

If you are a trade or a small business in Penicuik, Roslin or anywhere around the Pentlands and you want to know whether your Google listing is helping or hurting, I am happy to look at it with you. There is more on Penicuik businesses and on what SEO and Google Business Profile work involves. The first look is free, and if your listing is already doing its job, I will say so: book a free consultation (opens in a new tab).