NEW TRADES BUSINESS · WHERE TO FOCUS

Where a New Trades Business Should Focus in Bath & Somerset

Starting out as a tradesperson around Bath? Which towns and postcodes to aim your marketing at first, and why the busiest area is rarely the smartest.

By Rich Kelsey 1 October 2026 · 5 min read · Local tips

"Everywhere" is not a plan

When you've just set up on your own, it's tempting to say you cover Bath, Bristol, Somerset and "anywhere within reason". It feels sensible - more area, more work. In practice it does the opposite. You spend half your day in the van, your Google profile has no clear home patch, and you end up competing for the most crowded searches against firms that have been building reviews for ten years. The smarter move is to pick a first patch deliberately, win it, and then spread outwards.

Start with where you can actually be quick

Before anything to do with Google, be realistic about travel. If you're an electrician or plumber, a lot of your best work is the quick call-out - and nobody wants to wait two hours for someone coming from the other side of the county. Draw a rough 20 to 30 minute drive time around where you live or keep your van. That's your core. Everything inside it should be somewhere you'd happily take a small job, not just a big one.

Bath: the biggest prize, and the busiest

Bath is the obvious target. It's full of period properties, higher-than-average spending on home improvements, and plenty of landlords and second-home owners. It's also where almost every established tradesperson in the area is trying to be found. If you're brand new with no reviews, going head to head for "plumber Bath" is a slow grind. It's absolutely worth aiming at - just not as your only focus on day one. The good news is that Bath's surrounding villages, like Bathampton, Batheaston and Bathford, have their own searches and far less competition, and you can work them from the same base.

The quieter towns that often punch above their weight

This is where a new business can get traction fastest. Keynsham sits right between Bath and Bristol, so you can serve customers on both sides, yet far fewer local trades have bothered to build a proper online presence there. Further down the Somer Valley, Midsomer Norton and Radstock (the BA3 postcode area) are large enough to generate steady work but small enough that a handful of good reviews and a decent website can put you near the top of the Map Pack. Frome, Chew Valley and Bradford on Avon work the same way: genuine demand, and a smaller crowd of competitors than you'd face in Bath or Bristol itself.

We saw this first-hand with Peachy Cleans, a cleaning business in Midsomer Norton. They didn't try to be everywhere at once; they built a proper Google presence around the places they actually worked, and the calls and website clicks followed. A smaller patch done properly beats a big patch done badly.

How to check how crowded your patch really is

You don't need any software for this. Pick up your phone and search your trade plus the town - "electrician Keynsham", "plasterer Midsomer Norton" - and look at the three businesses in the Map Pack. How many reviews do they have? Are they recent? Do they have a proper website, or just a Facebook page? If the top three have a couple of dozen recent reviews and sharp websites, it's a hard fight. If they have eight reviews between them and one is from 2021, you've found an opening. Do the same for two or three neighbouring towns and the pattern usually becomes obvious.

Make your patch obvious to Google

Once you've chosen your first areas, tell Google clearly. List them as service areas on your Google Business Profile, give each main town its own page on your website rather than a single paragraph listing everywhere you cover, and ask every customer in those areas for a review that mentions the job and the town. That's the combination that moves you up the rankings - not a long list of places in your footer.

Then expand, one area at a time

When you're getting regular enquiries from your first patch and the reviews are stacking up, add the next town. Bath is usually the last stop rather than the first, because by then you can turn up with proof - and proof is what wins in the busiest searches.

If you'd like help working out which areas to target for your trade, our free audit looks at who's currently ranking where you want to be, and where the gaps are.

How to pick your first patch

Start where you can be there fast

A 20-minute drive radius beats a 60-mile one you cannot serve properly

Check who already shows up

Search your trade plus the town on your phone and count the strong competitors

Look for the quieter towns

Keynsham, Midsomer Norton, Radstock and Frome have real demand and fewer tradespeople fighting for it

Add Bath once you have reviews

The big prize is worth chasing, but not with an empty Google profile

FAQs

Common questions

Should a new tradesperson target Bath or somewhere smaller?

Most new businesses do better starting in a smaller nearby town like Keynsham, Midsomer Norton or Radstock, where fewer competitors have invested in their Google presence. Bath is worth targeting too, but it is usually quicker to win it once you already have a base of reviews from other areas.

How many areas should I list on my Google Business Profile?

List the areas you can genuinely serve quickly and want work from, rather than every town you could theoretically reach. A focused list of your real patch tells Google and customers more than a long list of places you rarely go.

Do I need a separate web page for each town I cover?

For your main target towns, yes - a dedicated page for each lets you show local jobs, reviews and details that a single list of areas cannot. Smaller villages can be grouped together on one page.

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