Local SEO For Electrical Contractors
Before keywords, one question: what jobs do you actually want?
Service calls and panel upgrades pay different. Hardwired Wall Connector installs pay different than $189 outlet swaps. Commercial tenant improvement is a different campaign entirely. The first electrical client I took on, I skipped that conversation and built him the wrong site. He almost fired me. Now it's the first thing I ask.
One electrical contractor per city. First in keeps the seat.
The page that pays: a real panel sizing chart
Every electrician's site has a "panel upgrade" page. Almost none of them explain when a homeowner actually needs 200A versus 320/400A continuous. That's why they don't rank, and that's why ChatGPT skips them when the homeowner asks. The version I build looks like this.
| Service size | What it really handles | EV reality | Upgrade trigger |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100A panel, gas everything | Fine for 1960s ranch. Nothing else. | No EV. No heat pump. No induction. | Almost always needs 200A before any electrification job. |
| 200A panel, all-electric home | Handles dryer, range, AC, water heater, one Level 2 EV at 32A. | One EV charger, hardwired or NEMA 14-50, load-managed. | Add a second EV or heat pump: load calc decides if 200A still works. |
| 200A panel, two EVs + heat pump | Most fail the NEC load calc. | Needs DCC-10 load shedding or a smart panel like Span. | Service upgrade to 320/400A continuous is the cleanest answer. |
| 400A residential service | Future-proof. Workshop, pool heater, EV, heat pump, all on. | Two Level 2 chargers at 48A each, no babysitting. | Sells the bid every time on new construction. |
Above is illustrative. Your actual page gets your AHJ load calc rules and your local utility's service drop limits baked in.
Stop optimizing for the $189 outlet swap.
EV install is the fastest-growing residential line in the trade, and most electrician sites still bury it on a child page nobody links to. Each rung below is a separate ranking page in my build. Each one earns a different ticket and a different lifetime value.
The window to own "EV charger installation [your city]" organically is closing. If you're not page one in 18 months, you're paying $80–$150 per shared lead to Angi and Networx forever. That math gets ugly fast.
Every city is a different code book.
Homeowners who got burned by an unpermitted job are the highest-intent searches in the category. They type the city name and the word "permit" together. The page that ranks is the one that knows the AHJ.
- Some cities want a load calc stamped before they'll even issue the EV permit. Others rubber-stamp anything under 50A.
- Solar interconnect rules differ block to block when a city sits across two utilities.
- Inspector preferences on EMT versus MC, on outdoor disconnects, on neutral handling at sub-panels — none of it is in the NEC, all of it gets you red-tagged.
- Permit-pulling pages that name the AHJ and the form number rank for buyers who already got burned by a handyman.
Two campaigns, one truck pulling both.
Residential service + EV
- →High call volume, $189 – $7,500 tickets, weeknight calls.
- →Wins on Google Business Profile, EV-specific service pages, and Nextdoor reviews.
- →Best fit if the shop runs 2–8 service trucks and likes consistent week-to-week dispatch.
Commercial TI + design-build
- →Three to six GC relationships pay the year. Marketing them is a totally different motion.
- →Wins on case studies, named PMs, IBEW signal, and trade-show backlinks. Not a map-pack game.
- →If this is the revenue line, an EV-content strategy is the wrong campaign and a waste of your money.
For a deeper look at how I structured a hybrid residential plus commercial play that scaled into a second market, read the second-location case study.
Panel upgrades and EV chargers get researched in ChatGPT first.
Electrical work is not impulse. Homeowners spend a week reading before they call. That week now lives inside ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews. They ask "do I need a 200-amp panel for a Tesla Wall Connector" in the same chat where they then ask "who installs EV chargers in [city]". The electrician quoted in the first answer wins the second one.
- Load calc walk-throughs that AI can quote when a homeowner asks about adding a heat pump or second EV.
- Brand-specific install pages: Tesla Wall Connector, ChargePoint Home Flex, Wallbox Pulsar Plus, Span panel, Generac PWRcell.
- Permit page per city that names the AHJ, the form, and the inspection sequence. AI loves named entities.
- Tax credit and utility rebate content kept current to the season, not stale 2023 copy that AI will skip.
- Master license number, EVITP certification, and named techs on the team page. The credential block AI uses to filter.
Ten years inside one vertical. No account managers.
I'm Stuart McHenry. I work with trades companies. That's it. The first electrical client I took on, I built him perfect emergency-residential pages while he was begging for commercial tenant improvement leads. He stayed because I rebuilt the site for free. The lesson stuck.
I've written about technical and local SEO for Moz and Search Engine Journal. None of that runs the panel upgrade on your route sheet. What does: a strategy that matches the job mix you wrote on the back of a napkin.
Questions electricians put to me on the first call
Residential, commercial, or both?
Tell me on the first call. The keywords, the schema, the tone, the link targets — none of it overlaps. Most shops run a 70/30 mix and the campaign gets built to match the bigger side. Pretending it's one funnel is how budgets get wasted.
How fast on EV charger rankings?
Faster than panel upgrades or rewires. Most local markets are still under-optimized for EV-specific queries. 90 to 120 days for top-3 map pack is realistic in a mid-size market. Tesla and ChargePoint installer locators are the real ranking competition, not the electrician across town.
Do you handle the load calc page or do I write it?
I write it. You red-pen it for accuracy. The technical depth is the whole reason it ranks and gets cited by AI engines. Generic 600-word pages get skipped.
Contracts?
None. Month to month. The work earns the renewal.
What if my biggest competitor calls you tomorrow?
Polite no. One electrical contractor per city is the entire premise.
Send your city, your truck count, and the job you'd run more of.
I'll come back with an honest read on the market, the obvious wins, and what 90 days of work actually looks like. If your city's already locked by another electrician on my roster, I'll say so in the reply.
First electrician in each city locks the territory.