How to show you are a proper local firm online

The short answer

A proper local firm looks like one wherever a customer finds it. Your real business name, the same on Google, Facebook and your website. A company number and registered address if you are limited, your own name if you are a sole trader. Real faces, badges with the numbers to check them, and a phone that gets answered.

What a customer checks before they ring

Think about how a job comes in. Someone in Wigan has a fuse board that keeps tripping. They search, they see three electricians, and before they ring any of them they do a quick sniff test. Does the name on Google match the name on the van in the photo? Is there a real person on the page? Is there a Gas Safe or NICEIC number they could check if they wanted to? Does the phone number look like it belongs to a firm round here?

None of that takes more than a minute. Most of it happens on a phone, on the sofa, at nine at night. If one detail looks off, they ring the next one on the list and you never find out you lost the job.

The job is to make that minute easy.

Your legal name and company details

Start with what the law already asks of you, because it doubles as the best trust signal there is.

If you trade as a limited company, GOV.UK’s guidance on signs, stationery and promotional material says your business letters, order forms and websites must show the company’s registered number, its registered office address, where the company is registered (England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland) and the fact that it is a limited company, usually by spelling out the full name with “Limited” or “Ltd” on the end. If you choose to list directors’ names, you must list all of them.

That is a legal point, so have your accountant confirm it for your own set-up. On a website the practical answer is one line in the footer. Say, “Bloggs Electrical Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 12345678, registered office 1 High Street, Wigan”.

Why it works as a trust signal: anyone can check it. GOV.UK’s page on getting information about a company says the Companies House service shows a company’s registered address, date of incorporation, current and resigned officers and previous names, for free. A customer who types your company number in and sees your name as director, trading for six years, has just answered their own question.

If you are a sole trader you have no company number, and you should not pretend otherwise. GOV.UK’s guidance on choosing a sole trader business name says you must include your name and your business name (if you have one) on official paperwork such as invoices and letters, and that the name must not include “limited”, “Ltd”, “LLP” or “plc”.

So a joiner in Bury trading as Bury Joinery puts “Bury Joinery, run by Dave Smith” on the site and on the invoices. A real name attached to a trading name is worth more than a made-up “Ltd”.

Real names and real faces

The biggest single difference between a firm that looks real and one that looks like a lead-generation front is a face.

Put a photo of you on the About page, on the Facebook Page and in the Google listing. Not a stock image of a smiling man in a hard hat you have never met. You, in your work gear, next to the van or on a job (with the customer’s say-so). One clear photo of the person who will turn up at the door does more than any paragraph about quality and customer care.

Google’s photo guidance for Business Profiles asks for photos that are in focus and well lit, with no significant alterations or heavy use of filters. A phone photo taken in daylight does the job. The same page lists three kinds you can add: a logo, a cover photo and business photos. Use all three, and put the same logo on the van and the website.

Write the About page in the same spirit. Who you are, where you are from, how long you have been at it, what you do and what you do not do. Short and true. If there are two of you, name both. If you want an example of the shape, our own About page does exactly this.

The badges, with the numbers that prove them

Customers are told to check. HSE’s domestic gas FAQs say anyone employed to work on gas appliances in domestic premises must be a Gas Safe registered engineer, and that consumers can use the Check an Engineer service on the Gas Safe Register website by entering the licence number from the engineer’s ID card, or ring Gas Safe Register on 0800 408 5500. A Gas Safe badge with no licence number next to it is a badge and a dead end.

Same principle for electrical work. NICEIC has a Find a tradesperson search on its site. NAPIT has its own search too. TrustMark, which describes itself as the Government Endorsed Quality Scheme for work a consumer chooses to have done in or around their home, has its own Find a tradesperson search and tells homeowners to check the tradesperson is registered for the specific trade they need.

The rule for badges, then:

• Show only the ones you actually hold, for the trade you hold them in.
• Put the registration or licence number right next to the badge, on the website and in the Facebook About section.
• Name the scheme in words as well as showing the logo, because logos do not appear in a Google listing.
• Keep them current. A lapsed badge that a customer checks and finds gone is worse than no badge at all.

A word on insurance, since customers ask. HSE’s guide to employers’ liability insurance says employers are required by law to insure against liability for injury or disease to their employees; it is compulsory once you employ someone. Public liability cover is a separate policy. If you hold it, say so, say who with, and be ready to send the certificate when asked. A “fully insured” line with nothing behind it is a badge with no number.

A phone number that gets answered

Google’s guidelines for representing your business on Google say to provide a phone number that connects to your business and is under its direct control, and to use a local number rather than a central call centre line where possible. That is Google’s rule, and it is also what the customer wants: a local number that a person picks up.

A mobile is fine for a one-person firm. What matters is the same number everywhere and a plan for when you are up a ladder. A voicemail that gives your name and the firm’s name and says you will ring back by the end of the day beats a ring-out. Give the Google listing your regular customer-facing hours, so a call at eight at night is expected to reach voicemail rather than looking ignored.

Then the address. If you work from home and go out to customers, Google’s guidelines say a service-area business should hide its business address from customers. Hiding it on Google is right. Hiding it everywhere reads as evasive. The registered office line in your website footer, which a limited company must show anyway, tells the customer you are a real firm in a real town without putting a pin on your front door. A sole trader can do the same with a town and a postcode area: “Based in Stockport, covering SK1 to SK8.”

Where each detail goes

Put the same facts in three places and make sure they match word for word. A customer who sees “J Smith Plumbing” on Google, “Smith’s Plumbing and Heating” on Facebook and “JS Plumbing Ltd” on the website is not sure they are looking at one firm.

Your Google Business Profile:

• Your real-world business name, exactly as on the van. Google’s guidelines say the name should match the one on your storefront, website and stationery, with no phone numbers, web addresses or taglines added.
• The local phone number, your regular hours and a link to your website.
• The address hidden if you are a service-area business, with the areas you cover listed instead.
• Logo, cover photo and a handful of real photos of you and your work.

If you have not claimed your listing yet, our guide to claiming your Google Business Profile as a tradesperson walks through it.

Your Facebook Page:

• The same name, the same phone number, the same logo.
• The About section carrying your real name, the schemes you are registered with and their numbers, the areas you cover and your website address.
• A profile photo of you (or the logo if there are a few of you) and a cover photo from a real job.

Your website:

• The legal line in the footer: full name with Ltd if you are limited, company number, place of registration and registered office; your own name and trading name if you are a sole trader.
• An About page with faces and names.
• Badges with their numbers on the home page and the About page.
• The phone number in the header of every page, tappable on a phone.

The details that give you away

A few things quietly tell a customer something is off, even if they could not say what.

Different names in different places, as above. Stock photos, which people spot more often than you would think. A contact form and no phone number. “Ltd” on a firm that is not one, which GOV.UK’s sole trader guidance rules out anyway. A Gas Safe or NICEIC logo with no number beside it.

And an empty About page, which reads as having something to hide even when the truth is that nobody got round to it.

None of these are hard to fix. Most take an afternoon to sort.

What to do next

Open your Google listing, your Facebook Page and your website side by side and check that the name, the number and the badges match in all three. Add your face and your registration numbers wherever they are missing. If you would like a second pair of eyes, send us the free check-up and we will tell you what we would sort and what it would cost.