FAQ Page for Tradies: Answer What Costs You Jobs

The FAQ page is the offsider who never clocks off

Picture a sparky in Logan. It is quarter to nine on a Wednesday, and a bloke in Springwood has just searched 'electrician near me' because half his powerpoints have dropped out. He lands on the sparky's site wondering three things: what will this sting me, can he come quick, and is he the real deal. Sort those out and he taps the number. Say 'contact us for pricing' and he is gone.

That is the whole point of the page. It settles the doubts that decide whether a stranger contacts you, during the hours you cannot answer a phone, and it screens out the ones who would never wear your rate.

Why Google now reads your FAQ page out loud

The page has quietly picked up a second job. When someone asks a question about your business inside Google Maps or Search, Google now writes its own answer back. According to Appliance Marketing Pros, it stitches that reply from three places you own or influence: your website, your reviews and replies, and the fields in your Google Business Profile.

The old Business Profile question box was switched off between late 2025 and early 2026. So if the answer to 'does this plumber charge a call-out fee' is not written somewhere you control, Google fills the gap itself, from a stray review or a Facebook comment. Your website is the one spot where you own the wording.

The questions nobody hires you over, and the ones that decide it

Opening hours. Whether you take Visa. Whether you are a family business. No one picks a tradie on these, and Google grabs your hours from the profile anyway. The questions that lose you jobs get typed while someone mops up a burst pipe.

What is your call-out fee, and roughly what will this cost me?
How soon can you get here, and do you do after hours?
Do you service my suburb?
Are you licensed and insured?
What is your warranty if it plays up after you leave?
How do I pay, and what do you need from me on the day?

Nail those six with real numbers and you have a page that books jobs. The rest is wallpaper.

Six answers that win or lose the job

A simple shape works for each, and it is the shape a chatbot can quote cleanly: the answer with a number first, the catch next, the next step last, in 90 to 140 words.

What is your call-out fee, and what will this cost?

Most tradies swerve this, but hiding the number does not protect your rates. It just shunts the money chat onto a phone call where you defend a figure the customer never expected. Show the shape even without a final total: Our call-out is $99, covering the trip and the first half hour. After that it is $135 an hour plus parts. A blocked drain or leaking tap usually lands under $300. A hot water unit we price on site, but figure on $2,000 to $3,400 fitted. Also say whether the call-out fee comes off the quote or is kept. Springing it at the door is the top cause of one-star reviews that never mention the actual work.

How soon can you get here, and do you work after hours?

Put your real cutoff, not 'prompt and reliable'. 'Ring before midday and we can usually squeeze you in that arvo around Frankston and the Peninsula, otherwise it is the next working day. Jobs between 6pm and 7am, and anything Sunday, kick off at $240.' Someone watching water come through the ceiling books whoever gives an actual time. If you cannot pick up at night, the best answer is a booking link. A missed-call text-back tool like InstantLead fires that link off automatically, so the after-hours enquiry gets a real next step instead of a voicemail beep.

Do you service my suburb?

Name suburbs, not a radius. Telling someone you cover a 40km circle around Logan Central means nothing to a bloke in Beenleigh who has no idea where your ute sleeps. List the suburbs you do, flag the ones you do not, and say where any travel fee kicks in. An air-con tech in Joondalup who spends every summer knocking back 'do you get out to Two Rocks' calls has a missing sentence, not a marketing issue.

Are you licensed and insured?

A stranger is about to walk into their home. Give the licence number and who issued it: QBCC in Queensland, NSW Fair Trading, the VBA in Victoria, Building and Energy in WA. Then the cover: $20 million public liability is the figure most builders, strata managers and councils want to see, so use those words, and mention whether your crew is police-checked. This one wins the careful customers, usually the ones with the bigger jobs.

What is your warranty if it plays up later?

Lay out the workmanship warranty in plain words: how long, what it covers, and whether it is the same fault or the whole job. 'Everything we do carries a 12-month workmanship warranty. Parts carry the maker's warranty, usually one to five years. If something we fitted packs it in during that time, we come back and sort it at no charge.' A warranty in writing is the cheapest way to knock over a customer's last objection.

How do I pay, and what do you need from me?

Say when payment is due (on the day, or seven-day terms for account customers), what you accept (bank transfer, card on the phone, cash), and whether you split bigger jobs through humm or Zip. Then a quick 'on the day' line: clear access to the meter box or hot water unit, dogs put away, and how long a typical job runs.

Digging your real question list out of your own phone

You do not need a fancy tool, just an hour with your own records.

Scroll back through a month of call logs and text threads and count what keeps coming up. The top six are your page.
Reread your hipages, Oneflare and ServiceSeeking threads. What people ask before they accept a quote is pure gold.
If a missed call already triggers an automatic text, read the replies. That is a written record of what people ask when you cannot pick up.
Ask whoever fields your phone which question they answer over and over. That one is missing from the page or worded badly.

Keep the customer's phrasing, and check the autocomplete and 'People also ask' box when you search your own trade and suburb. 'How much to replace a hot water system?' beats 'Hot water pricing'. One warning: keep your website, Business Profile and review replies in step. When they clash, Google picks the version it likes, not the one you want.

One FAQ page, or one for every suburb?

If you run separate suburb pages, do not stamp the identical FAQ block onto all of them. A dozen near-copies is exactly what you are trying to avoid. Park one solid FAQ page at yoursite.com.au/faq carrying the six big questions, then hang two or three questions on each suburb page that could only apply there, like 'Do you deal with the old galvanised pipe in the 1960s streets around Frankston?' The test: if a question would sit happily on any other suburb's page without changing a word, it belongs on the main page.

The bits not worth paying for, and how to know it works

FAQ schema. According to Appliance Marketing Pros, Google pulled FAQ rich results for every site on 7 May 2026, after restricting them to government and health sites since 2023. The dropdowns under your listing are gone for good. If the markup is already there, leave it, but do not let anyone charge you to add it on a promise of dropdowns. LocalBusiness markup is where structured data still earns its keep.

Do not grade the page on impressions or ranking, either. It can rack up thousands of views from people who will never hire a roofer. Grade it on these four:

The question you have stopped answering by phone. Check again every three months.
Your quote-then-ghost rate. If people book, hear the number, then vanish, you have no pricing answer.
Calls and bookings that begin on the page, tracked with a separate number or booking link.
Reviews that say 'they told us exactly what to expect'. That is the FAQ page doing its job.

None of this needs a web developer. Set aside an hour on a rainy Saturday: pull your questions, write six answers with real numbers, line them up against your Business Profile, and drop a link or QR code on your quote template. That is the lot: a cuppa and enough honesty to write down your real prices.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I put my prices on my website if my competitors don't?

Yes, at least the structure. Publish your call-out fee, your hourly rate, and a typical range for your common jobs. Anyone who reads a price and leaves was never going to book at that rate, so you have dodged a wasted trip, and the ones who ring have already accepted it. Hiding prices just drags the price question onto the phone.

What if the cost genuinely depends on the job?

Then say what it depends on and give a band. 'Switchboard upgrades run $1,400 to $2,800 depending on the number of circuits and whether the meter box needs doing' is honest and useful. 'Call for a quote' is neither. Give people enough to decide whether to ring, then finish with a next step, like sending a photo.

Do I still need FAQ schema on my tradie website?

Not for search results. Google no longer shows FAQ dropdowns for any site, so the old reason to add the markup has gone. If it is already there it does no harm, so leave it be, but do not let anyone bill you to add it on a promise of rich results. If you are spending on structured data, LocalBusiness markup is the smarter buy.

How many questions should a tradie FAQ page have?

Six to ten answered properly beats thirty answered in a line. Start with cost, timing, suburbs, licensing, warranty and payment. Add more only when your own call log shows people genuinely asking. If a question could be settled by glancing at your Business Profile, like opening hours, leave it off.

Should the FAQ go on my home page or its own page?

Its own page, linked from the main menu, with the two or three most important answers, usually cost and timing, also summarised on the home page. A dedicated page gives you room for proper answers and one URL to send people to from quotes, texts and review replies. Bury it in the footer and the folks who need it at 9pm will never find it.

Stop answering the same six questions by hand

A good FAQ page handles the questions. InstantLead handles the calls you cannot pick up. When someone rings while you are on the tools or at footy training, it texts them straight back, pulls the job details together with AI, and hands them a booking link, so an after-hours enquiry turns into a job instead of a voicemail. You also end up with a written record of every question people ask, the best FAQ research you will ever get for free. Your first month is free at portal.instantlead.com.au/register, and if you want a hand setting it up, get in touch and we will walk you through it.

FAQ Page for Tradies: Answer the Questions That Cost You Jobs