Short answers to the questions owners ask us.
Replying to enquiries, Google, reviews, websites, tenders and LinkedIn. Each takes two minutes to read and lists its sources at the bottom.
Answering
- How fast should a trade firm reply to a new enquiry?Within the hour, and minutes is better. What the research on enquiry replies found, what a good first reply says, and when trade firms lose the work.
- How a trade firm should set up WhatsApp BusinessThe free app or the Business Platform, the setup that matters, what messages cost from October 2026, and the rules on messaging customers first.
Being found
- Google Business Profile for trade firms: how to get into the mapService areas, the name rules, categories, photos, posts and verification: how a trade firm sets up its Google profile to show in the map.
- How to get more Google reviews without breaking the rulesWhen to ask, the direct review link, answering a bad review, and what Google and UK law ban: incentives, asking only happy customers, fake reviews.
- Service and area pages: how a trade firm ranks in the towns it coversA page for each service, area pages built from real local jobs, and why a template with the town name swapped is what Google calls a doorway page.
Your website
- The trade website checklist: what turns a visit into an enquiryA ten-minute check of your own site: tap to call, WhatsApp, accreditations, real photos, reviews, a short form, speed and the basics Google expects.
- How to change your website without losing your Google rankingsList every old page, keep the addresses that rank, 301 redirect the rest to their closest new page, and watch Search Console in the weeks after launch.
Commercial work
- Where M&E and building firms find public sector tenders nowFind a Tender, the 2026 thresholds, frameworks, dynamic markets and the accreditations buyers ask for under the Procurement Act 2023.
- LinkedIn for M&E contractors: getting in front of the people who award the workYour profile, your company page, who to connect with, how to open a conversation without pitching, and what to post from real jobs.