Trades websites are different from SaaS sites, different from restaurants, different from law firms. HVAC contractors, plumbers, electricians, roofers, general contractors, landscapers, and pest-control services all share a specific buyer pattern: the prospect searches with urgency ("emergency plumber near me"), they click the top 3 local-pack results, and they pick the one that looks most like a real local business that won't ghost them. Six signals separate the sites that convert from the sites that don't.
The Trades Audit checks all six in one pass.
1. Trade-specific schema type
LocalBusiness is the fallback. It works. But schema.org has specific subtypes that Google reads: Plumber, Electrician, HVACBusiness, HomeAndConstructionBusiness, RoofingContractor, HousePainter, GeneralContractor, Locksmith, MovingCompany, Landscaper, PestControl. Using the specific subtype is not optional advice; it's the type-routing Google uses for local-intent queries. "Best plumber in Denver" matches against Plumber schema with higher weight than generic LocalBusiness.
The audit flags generic LocalBusiness with a warn and missing schema with a fail.
2. Contractor license number visible
State law requires licensed trades (plumbers, electricians, HVAC, general contractors) to display their license number on advertising in most US states. The states that don't strictly require it still use license-number presence as a proxy for "real contractor vs. someone who watched a YouTube video." Prospects know this even when they can't articulate it.
The audit looks for "license #", "Lic. No.", "License Number" in body text. Flags as fail if missing.
3. Bonded and insured statement with specific dollar amounts
"Licensed, bonded, and insured" is table stakes. What differentiates is the specific dollar amount: "General liability up to $2 million." The dollar figure signals real coverage rather than marketing filler. Insurance agents confirmed this to me: prospects who ask specific questions about coverage are the ones who end up as customers, and a site that preempts the question converts those prospects at a higher rate.
The audit flags the presence of "bonded" and "insured" separately and warns if only one is present.
4. Service area in schema, not just text
"We serve the Denver metro area" in body text is a start. "areaServed": ["Denver", "Aurora", "Lakewood", "Englewood", "Wheat Ridge"] in the schema is how Google Maps actually matches service-area radius queries. Trades that only say the service area in text rank lower for "[suburb] plumber" queries than trades that declare it in schema.
5. Emergency service hours declared
For plumbing and HVAC specifically, "24/7 emergency service" is the single highest-intent query modifier. "Plumber near me" converts at one rate. "Emergency plumber 24/7" converts at a much higher rate, with less price sensitivity, and with a buyer who picks by availability rather than price.
If you offer emergency service, surface it prominently:
- In the header or hero section.
- As a visible phone number with "24/7" label.
- In
openingHoursSpecificationwith"opens": "00:00", "closes": "23:59"across every day. - In meta description so the SERP snippet advertises it.
The audit flags missing emergency-service language as a warn.
6. AggregateRating schema backed by real reviews
Trade buyers scan for stars before they click. Star snippets in local-pack results correlate with click-through rates more strongly than position in the pack (position 2 with stars outperforms position 1 without, in my testing).
If you have Google / Yelp / Angi reviews, aggregate them into aggregateRating + reviewCount schema. Never fake the numbers — Google will match them against your actual Google Business Profile reviews and penalize mismatches.
Two signals the audit doesn't strictly require but flags as valuable
Financing. For high-ticket trades (HVAC install, roof replacement, kitchen remodel), financing language lifts conversion. The specific lender (GreenSky, Synchrony, Wells Fargo Retail) matters less than the presence of a "Financing available from $X/month" callout.
Before-and-after gallery. Trades buyers want proof. A gallery of recent work converts higher than a testimonial block for most trades, particularly visible-result trades like roofing, painting, landscaping, and remodeling.
The fix prompt specifics
For each finding, the prompt produces:
- Exact JSON-LD with realistic sample data.
- A "trust block" footer template covering license, bonded-and-insured with dollar amount, service area, emergency phone.
- Two city / neighborhood landing page suggestions based on what's detected in the body text.
- A quote-request form recommendation (fields that matter, fields that don't).
- A prioritized local-SEO channel list (Google Business Profile, Yelp, Angi, HomeAdvisor, Thumbtack, Houzz, NextDoor) ranked for the specific trade.
- Review-gathering message template with the same-day-text pattern that produces the highest submission rate in trades.
The one-fix value estimate
Adding the trade-specific schema type plus a service-area schema list plus an aggregateRating block takes a day. On five trades sites I've tested this on, organic leads from local-pack results rose 25 to 50 percent within two months. The cost to ship the fix: one developer-day. The value recovered: one-to-three jobs per month at typical trades ticket sizes.
When to run
Before or during a trades website redesign. Quarterly on any production trades site. After moving to a new host or CDN. After a business expansion into a new city (to verify the new city is actually in schema).
Related reading
- Restaurant Site Audit, the adjacent local-intent vertical
- Law Firm Site Audit, another local-intent vertical with compliance
- NAP Consistency, name-address-phone consistency across listings
- Google Maps Audit for the Google Business Profile layer
- Medical Practice Audit, for the adjacent healthcare vertical
Fact-check notes and sources
- schema.org documentation on LocalBusiness subtype tree (HomeAndConstructionBusiness branch).
- Angi / HomeAdvisor / Thumbtack publisher documentation for lead-flow mechanics.
- California CSLB, Texas TDLR, and NY DCA public licensing pages for the license-display requirements referenced.
- GreenSky, Synchrony, Wells Fargo Retail published partner documentation for the financing-option examples.
- Internal audit data from five trades client sites, 2025-2026, aggregated and anonymized.
This post is informational, not legal or contractor-licensing advice. State and municipal contractor licensing, bond, insurance, and advertising-disclosure requirements vary by jurisdiction and trade. Mentions of Angi, HomeAdvisor, Thumbtack, Houzz, BBB, NextDoor, GreenSky, Synchrony, Wells Fargo are nominative fair use. Consult your state licensing board and counsel before making compliance-sensitive changes.
