SEO for Painters and Decorators: Five Fixes That Let Your Work Win the Job
Short answer: SEO for painters and decorators starts from one fact: customers judge the trade with their eyes.
The five fixes that win more local enquiries all put your finished work in front of the people searching: real photos on your Google listing, a page for each job you want more of, short write-ups of real jobs, a review asked for the right way at handover, and your own prices on your own site.
Last reviewed October 2026. Every rule here now comes from Google’s own help pages; the old cost table and untraced figures are gone.
In short
- Google wants business photos in focus, well lit and showing reality, so skip heavy filters on your before-and-afters
- Give each job type you want more of its own page: interior, exterior, kitchen cabinets, wallpapering
- A short write-up of each real job shows the work a customer is picturing in their own home
- Ask every customer for a review, including any who had a niggle, and never ask for particular wording
- Put your prices on your own site and in your listing’s service details, never in the service name
Why decorating is won on what people can see
A homeowner choosing a decorator is picturing their own front room. Before they ring anyone, they want to see rooms like it that you’ve already done.
Google’s help pages name three things local results are mainly based on: relevance, distance and prominence. Businesses with complete and accurate info are more likely to show up, Google adds, and more reviews and positive ratings can help.
Every fix below adds to one of those, and each puts more of your work in front of the person searching.
1. Fill your Google listing with real finished rooms
Your Google Business Profile is the listing that appears on Google Maps. Google lets you add photos and videos of your products and services, and for a decorator that means finished rooms, fresh exteriors and tidy prep.
Google’s own standard is worth knowing. Photos should be in focus and well lit, with no significant alterations or excessive use of filters. In Google’s words, “the image should represent reality.”
That suits you. A plain, well-lit photo of a freshly painted hallway shows the customer exactly what they’d be getting.
- Shoot at the end of every job. Same angle as your “before” photo, daylight if you can get it.
- Show the detail. Cutting-in, a clean skirting line, a sanded and filled door.
- Check the format. Google takes JPG or PNG between 10 KB and 5 MB, and recommends 720 by 720 pixels.
Shoot the “after” from the same spot as the “before”, in daylight, filters off.
2. Give each job you want more of its own page
A single “painting and decorating services” page has to do too many jobs at once. Someone searching for kitchen cabinet painting wants a page about kitchen cabinets.
Pick the three or four jobs you want more of and give each its own page on your website. Interior, exterior, kitchen cabinets and wallpapering are the usual start.
Then add the same jobs as services on your Google listing. Google lets you add custom services and include details like descriptions and prices for each one.
How many pages is enough? Start with the job you’d most like more of. One good page beats five thin ones, and our guide to service pages for painters and decorators shows how to lay them out.
3. Write up every real job in a few lines
This is where decorators have the edge. Every finished job is a ready-made piece of proof.
A short write-up needs five things: the room or building, the town, the problem you found, what you did about it, and two or three photos. Something like “Victorian hallway, flaking paint, stripped back and repainted”, with the town and the photos, says more than any list of services.
Only write up real jobs, with the customer’s permission for the photos. Leave out their name and house number unless they’ve said yes.
Post the same write-up as an update on your Google listing, and link it from the service page it belongs to. Over a year, that builds into a portfolio Google and your customers can both see.
4. Ask every customer for a review at handover
Decorating jobs are mostly one-offs, so each customer is usually one chance at a review.
The walk-round at the end is the moment. The customer is looking at the finished room and you’re both there.
Google’s review rules shape how you ask:
- Ask everyone. Google prohibits selectively asking for positive reviews, so the customer who had a niggle gets the same link as the one who loved it.
- Don’t ask for particular words. Google’s rules bar asking for reviews that include specific content. Let them describe it their way.
- Don’t stand over them. Google’s rules bar pressuring customers to review while on a business’s premises. The same courtesy fits someone’s home, so mention it at handover and text the link that evening.
- Never offer anything for it. Google’s rules prohibit incentives for reviews, including a discount on the next job.
Answer every review too, the grumbles included. There are replies you can adapt in responding to reviews and messages, and AI follow-up for painters can send that evening text for you.
5. Put your own prices on your own site
“How much does it cost to paint a room?” is one of the first things a homeowner wants to know. Answer it with your prices, for your area, on your own website.
Your price page can say what you charge for a typical room, what pushes the price up (ceilings, heavy prep, wallpaper removal) and whether paint is included. Ranges are fine. Being clear about what changes the price helps the customer more than a single figure.
Two Google rules decide where prices go. Your business description must not focus on prices or offers, and your custom service names shouldn’t contain prices. Prices belong in the service details on your listing, and on your website.
What each fix puts in front of the customer
| Fix | Where it lives | What the customer sees |
|---|---|---|
| Real photos of finished rooms | Google Business Profile | The standard of your work |
| A page per job type | Your website and listing services | You do the job they’re searching for |
| Write-ups of real jobs | Your website and listing updates | Work like theirs, in their area |
| A review from every customer | Text after the walk-round | What other customers thought |
| Your own prices | Your website and service details | Whether you’re in their budget |
Start on your next job
Take photos at the end of your next job and add them to your Google listing. Then text every customer from the last month your review link, all of them.
Your name, phone number and address should also read the same on every site that lists you, so an old number on a directory doesn’t send someone to a dead line. Our guide to ranking for “house painter near me” covers that groundwork in more detail.
Not sure how your listing looks next to the decorators down the road? Try the free Visibility Scorecard. If you’d rather hand all five fixes over, see how we work with painters and decorators … AI-powered, human-led, built around more enquiries.
Google’s ranking factors, photo standards, service rules, description rules and review rules are quoted or paraphrased from Google Business Profile Help and Google’s review policy, read on 19 October 2026: how Google ranks local results, business photos, services, business descriptions and review content policy. An earlier version of this post carried figures we couldn’t trace to a source and a price table taken from third-party cost guides; both have been removed.
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FAQs
How do painters and decorators get more enquiries from Google?
Put your finished work where searchers look: real photos on your Google Business Profile, a page for each job type, write-ups of real jobs and a steady flow of reviews. Google says local results are based mainly on relevance, distance and prominence.
What photos should a decorator put on Google?
Finished rooms, fresh exteriors and tidy prep, shot in good light. Google says business photos should be in focus, well lit and free of significant alterations or excessive use of filters, and that the image should represent reality.
Can I ask only happy customers for a Google review?
No. Google’s review policy prohibits selectively asking for positive reviews, asking for reviews with specific content, and offering incentives. Send every customer the same link after the walk-round and let them describe it their way.
Should I put my prices on Google?
Prices can go in the service details on your Google listing, and on your own website. Google’s rules say your business description must not focus on prices or offers, and custom service names shouldn’t contain prices.
Do I need a website, or is my Google listing enough?
Both do different jobs. The listing shows on Google Maps, and your website holds the service pages, job write-ups and prices this guide covers. Start with the listing, then build the website around the jobs you want more of.
How long does SEO take for a painting business?
Google doesn’t publish a timetable, and anyone who promises one is guessing. Adding photos and services takes an afternoon. Reviews and job write-ups build up with every job, so the sooner you start, the sooner they add up.
Get your free Visibility Scorecard →
Dan Jaques founded ContentWorks in Bournemouth. We’re the marketing department your trades business never had. We run all your marketing, so you can get on with the job.
Dan didn’t come to trades from marketing… he came to marketing from trades. His granddad was a carpenter, his uncles fitted kitchens and plumbed bathrooms, and he was on the tools himself at 16: carpentry, roof trusses, building sites, and furniture built on the side and sold at weekend markets. The marketing came later, and not in a straight line: market stalls, five clothing shops, early e-commerce, then SEO worked out by doing it and breaking it. He has run local marketing since 2014, originally as Dan Jaques Online Marketing, and ContentWorks followed in 2023.
Long gone are the days of just hiring an SEO. We run your marketing, from the first search to the next job. AI-powered, human-led.