Latest · Tested · Published 11 Sep 2026 · GA Applications editorial
Evidence wins enquiries. Adjectives do not.
Contractor customers decide in about ninety seconds: do you do this, near me, and are you real. The sites that win those ninety seconds show a clear service scope, real photos of real jobs, a truthful service area and a response path that reliably reaches a human. Agency language — “quality workmanship, competitive rates” — is invisible, because every competitor prints the same words.
Method demonstrated on GA’s own pages; customer outcomes gated until written approval. Policy claims cite Google’s 2026 spam policies.
Recognition
Ninety seconds, four questions
A hot water cylinder lets go at 6am, or a builder needs a sparkie for a Monday fit-out. The customer searches on a phone, skims the map results, taps two or three listings, and calls the one whose page answers four questions fastest: do you do this (service scope), have you done it (work evidence), are you actually here (location truth), and will anyone answer (response path).
Most contractor sites answer none of them — a hero image, a slider, “welcome to”. That is the opportunity: the bar is low, the fixes are cheap, and none of them require an agency vocabulary. They require evidence you already generate every day on site, captured and placed properly.
The stable, full-length version of this advice is the contractor SEO resource. This piece documents the two working methods GA currently uses: photo-to-proof annotation, and the enquiry reliability test.
Turn site photos into evidence
The photo-to-proof annotation method
A job photo becomes proof only when it is annotated. Five minutes per photo, on site or that evening.
Photograph the work, not the pose
Before, during, after — and include the problem. A cracked pipe photographed honestly sells harder than a polished ute.
Caption with specifics
What the problem was, what you did, where (suburb or town, with permission), how long it took. Specifics are the evidence; “another quality job” is not.
Annotate what a stranger cannot see
Arrows and labels on the photo: the replaced section, the code requirement met, the part upgraded. Make the invisible visible.
Place it where the decision happens
On the service page it proves, near the phone number. A gallery page nobody visits is a filing cabinet.
Get permission in writing
One sentence by text message suffices. Keep the record. Trust includes how you treat customers’ property.
Monthly, ten minutes
The enquiry reliability test
Marketing spend is wasted if the response path leaks. Run this monthly; every item is pass or fail.
0 of 8 complete
Fail any of the first four and fix that before spending another dollar on visibility. Copy or print the list; it works as a job sheet.
The doorway trap
Location truth beats location pages
The tempting shortcut is a page per town: “Drainlayer Ashburton”, “Drainlayer Amberley”, the same paragraph with the place name swapped. Google’s spam policies (2026) have a name for the pattern — doorway abuse: pages created in bulk to rank for specific places or queries that funnel people to the same destination. It reads as exactly what it is, to Google and to customers.
The working alternative is slower and stronger: jobs written up in named, real places, with photos and specifics. Three honest job stories in towns you actually serve beat thirty thin location pages — as evidence, and as search policy. The local SEO guide walks through the evidence-based version.
A word on reviews
Ask honestly after good jobs; answer the rough ones calmly. Never buy, filter or gate reviews — Google’s spam policies prohibit fake engagement, and a manufactured pattern is visible to customers as well as algorithms. A measured reply to a critical review is itself some of the strongest evidence on your profile.
Evidence honesty
Sources, method and what would change this
- Verified fact
Doorway page policy
Google’s spam policies prohibit doorway abuse: pages created in bulk to rank for specific locations or queries that funnel users to the same destination.
Google Search Central, “Spam policies for Google web search”, 2026
- Verified fact
Fake engagement policy
The same published policies prohibit fake engagement, including bought or otherwise manufactured review signals.
Google Search Central, “Spam policies for Google web search”, 2026
- Inference
Ninety-second decision
The ninety-second framing is GA’s fieldwork heuristic for urgent-trade searches, not a measured constant. Planned purchases take longer; the four questions stay the same.
GA Applications editorial
- Demonstration data
Photo-to-proof and reliability methods
Both methods are demonstrated on GA’s own pages. Customer-site outcomes await written approval and are not claimed here.
GA Applications method
- Proposal
What would change this conclusion
If Google relaxed or tightened the doorway definition, or if annotated-evidence pages stopped correlating with enquiry quality in GA’s client work, this piece would be revised and re-dated.
GA Applications editorial
Get your four questions answered properly
Send your URL and your trade. GA replies with the evidence gaps most likely costing you enquiries, in the order worth fixing — and reads your reliability test results if you have run it.
No audit theatre. If your basics are sound, you will hear that too.