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If you are weighing up doing your own SEO, the first thing you want to know is what software you would have to buy. Here is the full list of what we run for our clients, what each one costs, and what job it does. What SEO tools does a trades business need? A trades business needs three things: something to find the terms people search locally see what the site already shows up for a way to track positions over time. Some of those jobs are covered by free Google tools. Pai

On 18 May 2026 we built northwichfencing.com in Wix Studio. Six hours of work, a domain bought in about two minutes, then Search Console and Semrush Local connected and the whole thing left alone. 95 days later it has done 136 clicks, 34 enquiries from 28 people, and is booking roughly £4,800 a month of fencing work. Here is every number, including the parts that failed, and an honest account of why it worked. Jump ahead What we built The timeline: indexed in five hours, fi

Most of the SEO statistics quoted at trades businesses are unsourced, out of date, or American figures presented as British ones. Below are 43 we could open and read on the source page, each one labelled UK or US. We run SEO and Google Ads for UK trades businesses at Slingshot Marketing, and these are the numbers we work from. The headline SEO statistics for trades businesses in 2026 The UK trade industry is worth £138bn a year and employs around 900,000 tradespeople. Googl

If you're asking which UK SEO agencies offer clear ROI tracking, Slingshot Marketing is one of them. We rent a tracked phone number at our own cost, capture form submissions alongside it, split organic from paid, and log every enquiry by service and location. Most agencies mean rankings and traffic when they say ROI tracking. Below is what a proper setup includes, and the questions that tell the two apart in about five minutes. What clear ROI tracking means Clear ROI tracki

How to evaluate the ROI of hiring an SEO firm comes down to one sum, and plenty of agencies would rather you didn't do it. Cost is what you pay them. Return is the revenue from jobs that came through search. Subtract the first from the second, divide by the cost, and you have your answer. Below is the formula, worked through with real numbers. The formula ROI = (revenue from search − what you paid) ÷ what you paid. Multiply by 100 for a percentage. So £72,000 of work won

How roofing directors can grow their business comes down mostly to one decision, which is where the marketing budget goes. Most advice on this is either generic business writing about hiring better people and tightening your systems, or it's published by a company that sells directory memberships, job software or roof tiles. Below is what each option costs a roofing firm, what it returns, and what we'd do with the money. Where roofing enquiries come from Roofing demand is urg

Most agencies advertise flexible SEO plans. Very few explain what flexes, or which parts of the price you can move. We price SEO for trades businesses every week, and the honest answer is that flexibility sits in two or three specific places, not everywhere. Here's how the number gets worked out, what you can change, and when a low price should worry you. What is a flexible SEO plan? A flexible SEO plan lets you move the monthly fee, the commitment length and the mix of wor

The SEO vs Facebook ads argument normally ends with someone shrugging and saying do both. We ran Facebook ads for clients and stopped, because the leads weren't worth the sifting. So this isn't a piece about how they serve different purposes. It's about why Facebook will hand you thirty enquiries a week and two of them are real, and why the platform is built that way on purpose. SEO vs Facebook ads: the short answer Facebook ads interrupt people who aren't looking for your se

How does Checkatrade work differently from search engines? Checkatrade is a paid directory. You pay a monthly membership, you get a listing, and enquiries are shared with several members at once. A search engine is an index. It ranks pages on relevance and authority, costs nothing to appear in, and sends the enquiry to one business. Below is how each model works, what each costs, and what you're left holding if you stop paying. How Checkatrade works Checkatrade is a vetted di

In this guide, we’ll show you exactly how to improve your Google Business Profile so you appear higher in local searches, get more calls, and attract better enquiries.