Recommendations
1. Make the phone number in the header tap to call on every pagehigh impactCost: low
What we found. On a phone the header shows the logo and a menu button. The number sits inside the menu as plain text, and the only number that dials when tapped is in the footer, below the reviews.
Why. Seven in ten visitors from Google arrive on a phone, and someone with water coming through the ceiling wants to ring, not fill in a form. A caller who has to open a menu and copy a number is a caller who goes back to the results and rings the next plumber.
How.
- Put a 'Call (08) 5550 0142' button in the phone header, visible without opening the menu.
- Make every printed number dial when tapped, including the contact page and the quote form’s thank-you message.
- Use the same number everywhere: the site, the Business Profile and the directory listings.
2. Lead the blocked drains page with its price and a same-day promisehigh impactCost: low
What we found. Google shows the blocked drains page more than any other page on the site, near the top of the first page, but few of the people shown it click. Its description in the results is the year the business started, and the page opens on a stock photo and the company's history.
Why. The two plumbers above it both lead with a call-out price and 'same day'. A searcher with a drain backing up is choosing on speed and price, and this result answers neither. The hot water page made the same change in September and drew twice the clicks.
How.
- Open the page with one line such as 'Blocked drains cleared from $180, call-out included, same day across the northern suburbs', kept to your current price.
- Rewrite the page title and description to carry the price and the words same day.
- Move the history of the business to the about page.
3. Fold the six suburb pages into the service pages they copymedium impactCost: medium
What we found. Six pages, one for each suburb from Joondalup to Scarborough, carry the same text with the suburb name swapped. Google showed four of them for nothing in September, and the other two compete with the blocked drains page for the same searches.
Why. Pages that differ only by a place name read to Google as one page said six times. They split the standing that one strong page would hold, and the two that are shown take clicks the blocked drains page would earn with a price on it.
How.
- Redirect each suburb page permanently to the service page it repeats.
- Keep one list of the suburbs you cover on the contact page, with any travel charge beside it.
- Take the six old addresses out of the sitemap.
4. Give the directory listings your current address and numbermedium impactCost: low
What we found. Three directory listings still give the old Osborne Park workshop and a mobile number that is no longer answered. They are most of the outside links pointing at the site.
Why. Google matches a business across the web by its name, address and phone. Listings that disagree with the site tell it there may be two businesses, and a customer who rings the old mobile reaches nobody.
How.
- Update the address and phone on Yellow Pages, True Local and Hotfrog to match the site exactly.
- Check the Business Profile carries the same number as the site header.
5. Reply to your Google reviews, starting with the three complaintsmedium impactCost: low
What we found. The profile holds a 4.6 rating, and nobody from the business has replied to a review this year. Three one- and two-star reviews describe an arrival window that was missed, with no call to say so.
Why. People compare plumbers on the map before they open a website. The praise repeats a fixed quote and a tidy job; the complaints repeat lateness, not the work. A short reply that says what changed is read by every later customer.
How.
- Reply to the three complaints first: say what happened and what you now do, such as a text when the plumber is on the way.
- Thank the most recent five-star reviewers by the job they mention.
- Add the profile’s review link to the job-complete text you send customers.
6. Count a call and a sent quote form as an enquiry in Google Analyticshigh impactCost: low
What we found. Google Analytics records visits, but neither a tapped phone number nor a sent quote form counts as anything, and Google Search Console is not linked to it.
Why. Until an enquiry is counted, a page or a search can only be judged by how many people saw it, not by the jobs it brought. With it, the next report can say which pages bring work.
How.
- Send an event when the quote form is sent and when a phone number is tapped, and mark both as key events in Google Analytics.
- Link the Search Console property to Google Analytics.
- If anything else on your site records data and you are happy for us to see it, add our account with view-only access.
What changed, and what it did
The hot water page leads with its prices
What. On 9 September the hot water page's title, description and opening line were rewritten to lead with 'Hot water repairs and replacements, from $1,490 installed', and the price table moved from the foot of the page to the top.
Hypothesis. If the hot water page shows a price in Google’s results and at the top of the page, more of the people shown it will click, because a searcher comparing plumbers is choosing on price before anything else.
Clicks a week from hot water searchesWeekly, to 27 September 2026. The grey line is where this would be had it only followed the site-wide trend; the gap between the lines is what the change added. - This experiment
- Adjusted for site-wide trend
So far. In the two full weeks since the change, the page drew more than twice as many clicks a week from hot water searches as before it, and about twice what the site-wide rise alone would have given it. Its place in the results moved by less than one, so the gain is more of the people shown it choosing it. It passed the goal for the first time in the week to 27 September.
Confounding variables. The new reviews block on the homepage, which links the hot water page, may also be affecting progress towards the goal.
What holds the site up, and what does not
A — Is this one business?
Whether a search engine can tell that the business, the map listing and the directories are all the same place.
- A1passA name, address and phone can be read from the site
- A2passExactly one Business Profile for the business
- A3warnOne phone number across the site, the profile and the listingsWhat. The site gives the landline; two listings give an old mobile.
Why. Calls split across a number the business answers and one it does not. - A4failThe sites that link here carry the same name, address and phoneWhat. Three directory listings still give the old Osborne Park workshop.
Why. They are most of the links pointing at the site, and they tell Google the business is somewhere it no longer is.
D — Does the click survive?
Whether a visitor who arrives gets a page that loads, fits their screen and is safe.
- D1warnPages load quickly on a phoneWhat. The homepage photo takes about four seconds to appear on a mid-range phone.
Why. Someone with a burst pipe who waits on a blank screen goes back to the results. - D2passEvery page fits a phone screen, with no sideways scroll
- D3passA secure connection on every page
- D4passAn address that does not exist says so
E — Can any of this be judged by value?
Whether anything on the site measures what a visit was worth, rather than only that it happened.
- E1passSearch Console and Google Analytics are both recording
- E2failAt least one enquiry counts as a conversionWhat. Neither a tapped phone number nor a sent quote form is counted.
Why. No page or search can be judged by the jobs it brought, only by its visits.
What the data shows
September brought the site more than a third more clicks from Google than August, and Google showed it a fifth more often. The hot water page did the most of it: after it began leading with its prices on 9 September, its clicks from hot water searches more than doubled, while the site as a whole rose by a third. The homepage and searches for the business by name carried most of the rest.
Blocked drains is the opposite story. It is the line Google shows the site for most, and the page sits near the top of the first page for most of those searches, yet few people click it. The two plumbers above it answer the questions a searcher with a blocked drain is asking, which are how much and how soon. This page answers neither.
Away from the site, the Business Profile had its busiest month, with calls and clicks through to the website both up. On the site itself a caller has a harder time: on a phone, the number sits inside the menu as plain text. The six suburb pages brought fewer visitors than in August, and four of them were not shown for any search at all.
The site as a whole
Google sent a third more clicks, and the hot water page took the largest share of the rise
- Clicks from Google
- +37%
- 1 Sep to 30 Sep against 2 Aug to 31 Aug 2026
- Reporting period
- Clicks
- Impressions
Clicks have risen most weeks since mid-August, and the steepest week came straight after the hot water page changed. Showings grew more slowly than clicks, so a larger share of the people shown the site chose it.
The site’s average place in the results rose by about three. On the searches it appeared for in both months it climbed about two places, so most of the gain is the site ranking higher where it already showed, not a change in which searches it showed for.
Line by line
Blocked drains
Blocked drains is the line Google shows most, and the one searchers pass over
- Showings that became a click
- 1.2%
- Blocked-drain searches, 1 Sep to 30 Sep 2026
- The rest of the site
- 4.3%
- Every other search, same period
- 1 Sep to 30 Sep
- 2 Aug to 31 Aug
- Homepage
- 10482
- Hot water
- 5827
- Blocked drains
- 3940
- Contact and quotes
- 2420
- Gas fitting
- 2118
- Suburb pages
- 812
Visitors from Google
Visitors to the hot water pages more than doubled, blocked drains held flat, and the suburb pages lost about a third. The blocked drains page sits around sixth for ‘blocked drain plumber’ and the searches like it, close enough to the top that a better result alone should earn clicks.
The two businesses above it lead their result with a call-out price and ‘same day’. This page leads with the year the business started. Its visitors also leave sooner than the hot water page’s, which fits a page that opens on a photo and a history rather than on what the job costs.
Other ways in
The Business Profile
The Business Profile had its busiest month, and the growth was people calling and clicking through
- Website clicks
- Calls
- Directions
Calls from the profile rose by about a sixth in September and clicks through to the website by nearly a fifth. Directions barely moved, which fits a business that goes to the customer: few people need to find the workshop.
The reviews tell the second story. Customers praise a fixed quote and a tidy job; the complaints that repeat are about a plumber who arrived late without a call. None of them has a reply, and every one sits where a customer comparing plumbers reads first.
Provenance
- Property
- sc-domain:wattleandwrench.example
- Market
- AUS
- Search type
- web
- Reporting period
- 1 September 2026 to 30 September 2026 (30 days)
- Data through
- 30 September 2026
- Report version
- r4
| Source | Status | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Google Search Console1 September 2026 to 30 September 2026 | present | 1 September 2026 to 30 September 2026 |
| Google AnalyticsVisits recorded; no enquiry counts as a conversion. | partial | Visits recorded; no enquiry counts as a conversion. |
| Google Business ProfileWhole calendar months, May to September 2026. | partial | Whole calendar months, May to September 2026. |
| PageSpeed InsightsRead 3 October 2026 | present | Read 3 October 2026 |
| Foundations checksRead 3 October 2026 | present | Read 3 October 2026 |
| Live search resultsDesktop and phone results for 24 searches, read 3 October 2026 | present | Desktop and phone results for 24 searches, read 3 October 2026 |
| Google reviews, the business’s and its two nearest rivals’Read 3 October 2026 | present | Read 3 October 2026 |
| A walk of the public site on a phoneRead 3 October 2026 | present | Read 3 October 2026 |
| Competitors’ sitesRead 3 October 2026 | present | Read 3 October 2026 |
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