Tradie marketing glossary: lead gen, local SEO and ads terms, defined

AI Overviews are the AI-generated summaries Google shows at the top of some search results, with links to the sources used. Google has said they run on its core search systems, so pages that rank well and answer the question clearly have the best chance of being cited. Being listed as a source can bring fewer but better-informed visitors.

Airtasker is an Australian marketplace where people post a task and workers bid for it. It suits handymen and smaller odd jobs better than licensed trade work with higher margins. Because bidding drives prices down, it works best as a quiet-patch top-up rather than a main lead source.

Answer engine optimisation (AEO) is structuring content so AI assistants and answer features can find it, understand it and cite it. In practice that means clear definitions under question-shaped headings, accurate facts, tables, consistent business details and structured data. It builds on good SEO rather than replacing it.

Average job value is the typical amount you invoice for a job, usually measured ex GST. It sets how much you can afford to pay for a lead: a roofer or builder can accept a far higher cost per lead than a tradie doing small call-outs. Use your own figure, not an industry average.

Backlinks are links from other websites to yours, and they are one of the signals search engines use to judge a page's credibility. Relevance and quality matter far more than volume, and buying links breaks Google's spam policies. Good sources for a tradie include suppliers, local organisations, industry bodies and genuine press.

A canonical URL is the preferred address of a page, declared with a canonical tag so search engines know which version to index when similar or duplicate URLs exist. It stops duplicates, such as versions with tracking parameters, from splitting signals. Each page should point to its own clean address.

A citation is any online mention of your business name, address and phone number, such as a directory listing, even without a link. Consistent citations help confirm your business details to search engines. For most tradies a small set of accurate, relevant listings matters more than hundreds of low-quality ones.

Close rate is the percentage of quotes or leads that become paid jobs. It is the main reason exclusive and shared leads perform so differently, because competing with other tradies on the same enquiry drags it down. Track it per lead source so you know where jobs really come from.

Conversion rate is the percentage of people who take a desired action, such as a website visitor who submits an enquiry. It can be measured at several steps: visitor to enquiry, enquiry to quote, quote to job. Improving it lowers your cost per lead without spending more on traffic.

Core Web Vitals are Google's measures of page experience: how fast the main content loads, how quickly the page responds to taps and clicks, and how stable the layout is while loading. They matter most on mobile, where most trade searches happen. Slow, jumpy pages lose enquiries even before rankings are affected.

Cost per booked job (also called cost per acquisition, or CPA) is your total lead spend divided by the jobs you actually win. It is the number that decides whether marketing is paying for itself, because it includes the leads that went nowhere. Divide spend by jobs won, not by leads received.

Cost per lead (CPL) is your total marketing spend divided by the number of enquiries it produced. It is a useful starting number, but it says nothing about whether those enquiries turn into paying work. A cheap lead you rarely win can cost more per job than an expensive one you usually win.

Crawl budget is the number of pages a search engine will fetch from your site in a given period. Google has said it mainly matters for very large sites, so a typical tradie site rarely needs to worry. Keeping the site fast, free of duplicate URLs and well linked is enough.

Crawled - currently not indexed is a Google Search Console status meaning Google fetched a page but chose not to add it to its index yet. It often points to thin, duplicate or poorly linked pages. The usual fixes are to improve the content, merge it into a stronger page and link to it from important pages.

A CRM, or customer relationship management system, is software that keeps every lead, quote and customer in one place. For a tradie it means no enquiry gets lost in an inbox and every quote has a next step. It is also the base for follow-up, review requests and repeat-work reminders.

Customer lifetime value (LTV) is the total gross profit you earn from a customer across every job, including repeat work and referrals. For tradies it matters because a customer won once can call again for maintenance or send neighbours your way. It is why follow-up and review requests are worth doing after the job.

Digital PR is earning press coverage and links by publishing something genuinely newsworthy, such as original data. Journalists and industry sites cite useful research, which produces links without paying for them. A sourced benchmark or free calculator is the kind of asset that can attract them.

E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness, the qualities Google's quality raters are asked to look for in content. It is not a single ranking factor, but it describes what helpful pages show: a real author, first-hand knowledge, sourced facts and clear contact details. Trade sites show it with real jobs, licences, reviews and honest claims.

An entity is a distinct, identifiable thing a search engine can recognise, such as a business, a person, a trade or a suburb. Consistent names and details across your website, Google Business Profile, listings and structured data help systems connect them to one entity. It is why we keep ClickSmith and the founder's details identical everywhere.

An exclusive lead is an enquiry sent to one business only, never resold to competitors. For a tradie it means you are the only one quoting, so you compete on value rather than on who rings first or quotes lowest. It usually costs more per lead than a shared lead, which is why cost per booked job is the fairer comparison.

Follow-up automation is software that sends timed replies and reminders to leads and customers without you doing it by hand. Typical uses are an instant acknowledgement, a nudge a couple of days after a quote and a review request after the job. It works best when messages are short, personal and easy to reply to.

Google Ads is Google's paid advertising platform, where you bid to show ads when people search for a service. For tradies it puts your business at the top of results for urgent searches within days, but the leads stop when the budget does. Tracking calls and form fills is what shows whether it pays.

Google Business Profile (GBP) is the free listing that controls how your business appears in Google Maps and local search results. For a tradie it holds your services, service areas, photos, reviews and contact details. A complete, accurate profile is the foundation of ranking in the map pack.

HiPages is an Australian online marketplace that connects homeowners with tradies, who pay a membership and a fee per lead connection. The same job is typically sent to several tradies, so you compete on price. ClickSmith's benchmark report puts connection fees at roughly $30 to $80 in 2026.

Indexation is the process of a search engine adding a page to its searchable database. A page that is not indexed cannot appear in results, however good it is. You can check status in Google Search Console and help it along with internal links, a sitemap and unique content.

Internal linking is connecting pages on your own site with descriptive links. It helps visitors find related information and helps search engines discover pages and understand which ones matter most. Link from guides up to your service pages, and down from service pages to the guides that support them.

Keyword cannibalisation happens when several pages on one site compete for the same search, so none of them ranks as well as one strong page could. The usual fix is to give each topic a single canonical page and make the others cover a different angle or link to it. It is common on sites with lots of similar blog posts.

A lead form ad is an ad with a built-in form, so people can enquire without leaving Facebook or Instagram. It lowers friction and usually produces more enquiries, but they can be lower intent than website enquiries. Adding a qualifying question or two helps filter out time-wasters.

Lead qualification is the process of checking that an enquiry is a real, suitable job before you spend time quoting it. For a tradie that usually means confirming the work type, suburb, urgency and a working contact number. Good qualification protects your time and keeps your close rate honest.

Local SEO is the work of improving how often your business appears in searches tied to a place, such as electrician Wollongong. It combines your Google Business Profile, reviews, consistent listings and location-relevant website pages. For tradies it is the main long-term source of leads you do not pay for per click.

Local Services Ads are Google's pay-per-lead ads for service businesses, shown above standard ads with a Google Guaranteed badge once you pass its checks. You are charged per qualifying lead rather than per click, and eligibility depends on your trade and location. They suit trades where they are available, alongside your own ads and SEO.

The map pack, also called the local pack, is the block of three Google Maps listings shown above or among the normal results for local searches. Urgent trade searches like a plumber near me are often won or lost here. Relevance, distance and prominence all influence who appears.

Meta ads are paid ads on Facebook and Instagram, targeted by location, interests and past behaviour rather than by search. They suit planned and visual jobs such as renovations and outdoor living, where people are not searching yet. They usually need fast follow-up and good creative to turn interest into booked work.

Missed-call text-back is an automatic text message sent to a caller you could not answer, letting them know you will call back or inviting them to describe the job. Tradies on the tools often miss calls, and callers frequently move on to the next business. It keeps the enquiry warm until you can respond.

NAP stands for name, address and phone number, and NAP consistency means those details match everywhere your business is listed. Conflicting details across your website, Google Business Profile and directories can confuse search engines and customers. Keep the wording, spelling and number identical on every listing.

A negative keyword is a word or phrase you tell Google not to show your ads for. Trade campaigns often add terms such as jobs, courses, DIY or free to stop paying for clicks from people who will never hire you. It is one of the simplest ways to lower wasted spend.

Oneflare is an Australian online marketplace where customers request quotes from local service providers, who pay to send them. Quotes are competitive, so price pressure is common. Compare it with other sources on cost per booked job rather than cost per lead.

PageRank is the link-analysis method Google was built on, which treats links from one page to another as signals of importance. Google says it is one of many signals today, but the idea still explains why links to a page, including your own internal links, pass authority. Pages that nothing links to are hard for search engines to find and trust.

Pay per lead is a pricing model where you are charged for each enquiry delivered, not for clicks, impressions or a flat retainer. It makes your lead cost predictable, but a lead is only worth paying for if it is a real job in your trade and service area. Check how the supplier defines and qualifies a lead before you agree to a price.

Performance Max is a Google Ads campaign type that uses automation to place your ads across Search, Maps, YouTube, Display and more from one campaign. It can work well when conversion tracking is accurate, but it gives you less control over where the money goes. For local service businesses it needs close monitoring of lead quality.

Platform tax is an informal name, often the HiPages tax, for the fees a lead marketplace takes before you earn a dollar, including membership, per-lead charges and the leads you pay for but lose. It also covers the margin you give up by quoting low to win. Owning your own channels is how tradies reduce it over time.

PPC, or pay per click, is an advertising model where you pay each time someone clicks your ad. Google Ads search campaigns are the most common example for trades. Your cost per lead depends on the click price and on how many clicks turn into enquiries.

Proximity is the distance between the searcher and your business, and it is one of the main factors in local rankings. Google generally favours businesses closer to the person searching or to the location named in the search. It is why a tradie ranks best near their base and why you cannot fake your way across the city.

Quality Score is Google's 1 to 10 diagnostic of how relevant your keyword, ad and landing page are to a search. It is a guide rather than an auction input you can set directly, but better relevance tends to mean lower costs and better ad positions. A landing page that matches the search is the biggest lever you control.

Quote follow-up is contacting a customer after you have sent a quote, to answer questions and ask for a decision. Many quotes are lost simply because nobody followed up, not because the price was wrong. A simple schedule of reminders can lift your close rate without any extra ad spend.

Retargeting is showing ads to people who have already visited your website or engaged with your business. It keeps you in front of people who looked but did not enquire, which suits considered jobs such as renovations and solar. It works best as a supporting layer on top of search or social campaigns, not as a replacement.

Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) is a technique where an AI system first retrieves relevant documents and then writes its answer using them. It is how many AI search tools ground their answers in live web pages. Clear, factual, well-structured pages are easier for these systems to retrieve and quote.

Review velocity is how steadily your business earns new Google reviews over time. Regular, recent reviews tend to look more trustworthy to customers than a burst followed by silence. Asking every happy customer straight after the job is the simplest way to build it.

ROAS, or return on ad spend, is the revenue an ad campaign generates divided by what you spent on it. A ROAS of 4 means $4 of revenue per $1 spent. It ignores your costs, so for tradies gross margin and cost per booked job give a more honest picture.

Schema markup is structured data added to a page that describes it in a format machines can read, most often as JSON-LD. For a trade business it can describe your business, services, area served, articles and FAQs. It helps search engines and AI systems understand the page but does not guarantee rankings or rich results.

Search intent is the reason behind a search: to learn something, compare options, or hire someone now. A page ranks best when it gives the kind of answer the searcher wants, so how much does it cost needs a different page from emergency plumber near me. Matching intent comes before any technical tweak.

A search term is the exact phrase a person typed before seeing your ad, as opposed to the keyword you bid on. The search terms report shows where your budget actually went. Reviewing it regularly is the quickest way to spot wasted clicks and find new phrases worth targeting.

A service area business is one that travels to customers rather than serving them at a shopfront, which describes most tradies. On Google Business Profile you can list the suburbs you cover and hide your home address. It should still be set up honestly, with only the areas you really service.

ServiceSeeking is an Australian directory where customers post jobs and tradies pay to respond. Like other marketplaces, a job may go to more than one business. It is worth testing against your own tracked cost per booked job before relying on it.

A shared lead is a single customer enquiry sold to several businesses at once. Marketplaces such as HiPages work this way, so you pay for the chance to quote against other tradies and only win a share of the jobs you pay for. The sticker price is low, but the real cost sits in the leads you lose.

Speed to lead is how quickly a business responds after an enquiry arrives. Customers often contact several tradies at once, so a fast reply tends to win the quote, especially on urgent jobs. Missed calls and slow replies are common leaks for owners who are on the tools all day.

A suburb page is a web page written for one suburb or town you service, covering what you do there and why locals should call you. It only helps when the content is genuinely specific and useful; near-identical pages with a swapped suburb name are thin content and can hurt. Build a few strong ones before many weak ones.

Topical authority is the depth and quality of a site's coverage of one subject, built up over time. A site that answers the many related questions on a topic, with clear links between those pages, tends to be treated as a better source than one with a single thin page. It is why we organise content into hubs and supporting guides.