Trades marketing glossary: 60 terms explained

Search and Google

• Google Business Profile (GBP): the free listing that shows your business on Google Maps and in the map results. Formerly Google My Business. The single most important marketing asset most trades have.
• Local pack (map pack): the block of three business listings with a map that appears for local searches such as "plumber near me".
• Organic results: the ordinary blue-link results beneath the ads and the map pack. Free to appear in, earned by relevance.
• SEO (search engine optimisation): making your website and profile more likely to appear in organic and map results. Nothing more mystical than that.
• Local SEO: SEO aimed at searches with a location, including the map pack. Mostly about the Business Profile, reviews and location-relevant pages.
• Service area page: a page on your site about a service in a specific town. Useful when genuine, spam when templated. The argument is set out in service area pages: useful local SEO or doorway spam.
• Doorway page: Google's term for a low-value page that exists only to rank for a specific search and funnel people elsewhere. A policy violation.
• Service area business (SAB): a business that travels to customers rather than receiving them, which is how most trades should set their Business Profile.
• Categories: the labels on your Business Profile (Plumber, Heating Contractor) that tell Google what searches to show you for. Primary category matters most.
• Attributes: the tick-box details on a profile such as "women-owned" or "online estimates".
• Suggested edit: a change to your profile proposed by a member of the public. Since September 2026 you have four days to reject one before Google may apply it.
• Citation: a mention of your business name, address and phone number on another website. Consistency across them helps local rankings.
• NAP: name, address, phone. The three details that should match everywhere.
• AI Overview: the AI-written summary Google shows above results for some searches, in the UK since August 2024.
• AI Mode: Google's conversational search tab, in the UK since July 2025, which answers questions in prose and can name businesses.
• Schema (structured data): code on a web page that labels information (address, opening hours, reviews) so search engines can read it reliably.
• Core Web Vitals: Google's measures of how fast and stable a page feels to load. A slow site hurts a little; a broken one hurts a lot.
• Search Console: Google's free tool showing which searches your site appears for and how often it is clicked.

Paid advertising

• PPC (pay per click): advertising where you pay each time someone clicks. Google Ads and Meta ads are both usually bought this way.
• Google Ads: Google's advertising platform. Text ads above search results, plus display, video and Performance Max.
• Local Services Ads (LSAs): Google's pay-per-lead ads for home trades, shown above everything else with a verification badge. Covered in Local Services Ads in the UK.
• Google Verified: the badge Google now shows on Local Services Ads in place of Google Guaranteed and Google Screened. The money-back guarantee behind the old badge has been discontinued.
• Performance Max: a Google Ads campaign type that runs across all of Google's placements using automation. Trade press reports Local Services Ads are being moved into it.
• Keyword: the search term you bid to appear for. Match type controls how loosely Google interprets it.
• Negative keyword: a term you tell Google not to show your ad for, such as "jobs", "course" or "DIY". Often the most valuable setting in a trade account.
• Quality Score: Google's rating of how relevant your ad and landing page are to the keyword. Higher scores mean cheaper clicks.
• Impression: one showing of your ad or listing. Not a click.
• CTR (click-through rate): clicks divided by impressions. How often people who see the ad act on it.
• CPC (cost per click): what you pay for one click. Rises when more firms bid on the same search.
• CPL (cost per lead): spend divided by leads. Useful only if you define a lead consistently; see cost per lead benchmarks and their caveats.
• CPA (cost per acquisition): spend divided by jobs won. The figure that actually matters.
• Meta: the company behind Facebook and Instagram. Meta ads run across both.
• Instant form (lead form): a form that opens inside Facebook or Instagram with the user's details pre-filled. Fast, cheap and prone to junk if not followed up quickly.
• Landing page: a page on your site built for people arriving from an ad. The alternative to an instant form, compared in instant forms or website landing pages for trades.
• Pixel: a piece of code on your website that tells Meta or Google what visitors did, so ads can be measured and targeted.
• Retargeting (remarketing): showing ads to people who have already visited your site or profile.
• Radius targeting: showing ads only to people within a set distance of a point. Essential for trades.
• Lookalike audience: Meta finding people who resemble your existing customers. Works better with a larger customer list.
• Learning phase: the period after a campaign starts when the platform is still working out who to show it to. Changing things during it resets the clock.
• Ad spend versus management fee: the money paid to the platform for ads versus the money paid to whoever runs them. Always ask which figure is being quoted.

Directories and lead platforms

• Directory: a listing site where homeowners search for trades, often with vetting and reviews. Checkatrade is the best known.
• Lead marketplace: a site where homeowners post a job and trades respond, paying per shortlist or per lead. The pricing models are in how lead directory pricing actually works.
• Shortlist fee: the charge when a homeowner selects you as one of the trades they want to hear from.
• Credits: a currency bought in bundles and spent to respond to enquiries on some platforms.
• Shared lead: an enquiry sold to several trades at once. The reason speed of response decides who wins.
• Exclusive lead: an enquiry sold to one trade only. Rarer and dearer.
• Managed booking: a platform setting the price and taking payment, with the trade accepting the job. Checkatrade Express, launched May 2026, is an example.
• Vetting: the checks a directory does before listing a trade: identity, insurance, qualifications, references.
• Lead dispute: the process for refusing to pay for a wrong number, duplicate or out-of-area lead, usually within a short window.

Reviews and reputation

• Review velocity: how regularly new reviews arrive. More important than the total, as argued in review velocity versus review count.
• Review gating: filtering customers by satisfaction before inviting only the happy ones to review publicly. Prohibited by Google and treated as cherry-picking under UK law.
• Incentivised review: a review given in exchange for money, discount or gift. Must be disclosed and is banned on many platforms including Google.
• DMCC Act: the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, which since April 2025 bans fake and concealed incentivised reviews, explained in asking for reviews the legal way.
• CMA: the Competition and Markets Authority, which enforces the review rules and can fine businesses directly.
• Owner response: your public reply to a review. Read by far more people than the reviewer.
• Testimonial: a quote from a customer collected by you and shown on your own site. Not the same as an independent review.

Websites, tracking and tools

• Domain: your web address. Own it yourself, in your own name, whoever builds the site.
• CRM (customer relationship management): software, or a spreadsheet, that records every enquiry, its source and what happened to it.
• Call tracking: using a different phone number per channel so you know which produced each call. Make sure you own the numbers.
• Missed call text back: an automatic text sent to callers you did not answer. One of the cheapest fixes in trades marketing.
• Conversion: the action you wanted, usually a call, form or message. Conversion rate is how many visitors do it.
• Attribution: working out which channel deserves credit for a job. Imperfect at best; ask every customer how they found you.

Frequently asked questions