Wellington is a compact city but a competitive market for tradies. From Johnsonville to Island Bay, every suburb has homeowners searching for local trades on their phone. The question is whether they find you or someone else.
This guide covers the basics of online marketing for Wellington tradies — what works, what's a waste of time, and what you can do this week to start getting more enquiries.
Why online marketing matters more in Wellington
Wellington's housing stock is old. A lot of it is character homes from the 1900s to 1960s in Thorndon, Mt Victoria, Brooklyn, and Newtown. Those homes need constant work — rewiring, plumbing updates, repaints, deck replacements, bathroom renovations. The demand is real.
The problem is that most Wellington tradies still rely on word of mouth and Facebook groups. That works for keeping busy during the good months, but it's fragile. When a regular client moves away or referrals dry up, there's nothing else coming in.
A tradie who ranks on Google for "electrician Karori" or "painter Miramar" gets enquiries seven days a week without doing anything. That's the difference between having a marketing system and hoping someone mentions your name.
Start with a website that covers the basics
Your website doesn't need to be complex. It needs to answer three questions immediately: what do you do, where do you work, and how do people contact you?
For a Wellington tradie, that means your homepage should mention your trade, list the Wellington suburbs you cover, and have a phone number or quote form visible without scrolling. That's it to start.
What kills conversions: slow loading times (over 3 seconds and most people leave), no mobile-friendly layout, and phone numbers buried in the footer. Wellington residents search on mobile at the same rate as the national average — 70% or more of local trade searches happen on a phone.
Get specific about Wellington suburbs
"Wellington" is a broad term. When someone in Khandallah searches "painter Khandallah," Google looks for pages that mention Khandallah specifically. A site that just says "Wellington painter" loses to one that names the suburb.
Think through where you actually work. If you cover the northern suburbs, mention Johnsonville, Newlands, Churton Park, and Paparangi. If you cover the eastern suburbs, mention Miramar, Seatoun, Kilbirnie, and Strathmore Park. If you cover the Hutt Valley, list Lower Hutt, Upper Hutt, Petone, and Eastbourne.
A service area section on your homepage with 8 to 12 suburb names takes 10 minutes to write and can put you ahead of every competitor who just says "Wellington region."
Google Business Profile is not optional
When someone searches "plumber Wellington" or "builder Porirua," the first thing they see is the map pack — three local businesses with ratings, phone numbers, and links. Those three spots come from Google Business Profile.
Claim your profile at business.google.com if you haven't. Fill in every field: your service areas, your business hours, your trade category, and a link to your website. Upload five to ten photos of your work.
Then start collecting reviews. After every job in Wellington, send the client a text with a direct link to leave a Google review. Fifteen genuine reviews will put you in front of most tradies who have none. A profile with 30 reviews and a 4.8 rating is almost always in the map pack.
Facebook and community groups — useful but limited
Wellington has active Facebook community groups for almost every suburb. Johnsonville Community, Brooklyn Community, Karori Community — all of them get regular requests for tradie recommendations. Being active in those groups matters.
But Facebook has one big flaw as a marketing channel: you can't control who sees your posts. The algorithm decides. And when someone asks for a recommendation and you're not online at that moment, you miss it.
A Google ranking doesn't sleep. It's there every time someone searches, not just when you happen to be scrolling at the right time.
What about Neighbourly?
Neighbourly is popular in Wellington. People use it to ask for local tradie recommendations, and it covers suburbs that Facebook groups sometimes don't. It's worth having a profile there and checking it regularly.
The same limit applies. Neighbourly is someone else's platform. You show up when the algorithm shows you. Your own website with Google ranking is yours. Nobody can adjust your ranking because they paid more or posted more recently.
What to post on social media (and what to skip)
If you want to use Instagram or Facebook for marketing, post photos of completed work with a location tag. A finished bathroom in Newtown, a repainted villa in Thorndon, a new deck in Karori — those posts reach local people who follow those suburb tags and location searches.
Skip the inspirational quotes, the generic "call us today" posts, and the stock photos. Real work photos get engagement. Everything else gets ignored.
One post per week with a real photo, a job description, and a suburb tag is worth more than five generic posts.
Paid ads — when to use them and when to skip
Google Ads can work for Wellington tradies, but only if your website is set up properly first. Sending paid traffic to a slow site with no clear contact option wastes the spend.
A sensible order: get a website, set up Google Business Profile, collect 10 to 15 reviews, and let the organic ranking build. If you're still not getting enough enquiries after 60 days, then consider running a small Google Ads campaign targeting your trade plus Wellington suburbs. A budget of $20 to $30 per day is enough to test whether it works.
Skip Facebook Ads for now. They work for some trades but the targeting for local services in a city Wellington's size is harder to get right than Google.
How to put this together for $299
You don't need to spend thousands to get a working marketing setup. At SiteSorted, a Wellington tradie website costs $299. One payment, no monthly fees. You answer questions about your business, list your service areas, and your site goes live with proper SEO, a mobile-friendly layout, and a contact form that works.
Pair it with a Google Business Profile and 10 genuine reviews, and most Wellington tradies will be ahead of the majority of their competitors within 60 days. Read more about how builders specifically get more work if that's your trade.
Get started
The setup takes about 15 minutes. You'll see a preview of your site before paying anything.
Build your free preview now and see what your Wellington tradie site looks like.
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