Google's Keyword Planner Said "No Data" for 39 of 69 UK Trade-Website Searches. Here's What That Means for 2026
We ran 69 trade-website phrases through Google Keyword Planner for the UK. More than half returned no data. What that says about how people look for services, and why volume tools miss part of the picture.
Awais M.
Founder of GeoRankLocal
If you sell websites to plumbers, electricians or roofers, you probably built your plan on keyword volumes. We did too. Then we pulled Google's own Keyword Planner for 69 phrases a UK tradesperson or an agency might use, and for more than half of them Google returned nothing at all.
That result is not a dead end. It is one of the more useful things we learned this autumn about how people look for services in 2026, and why volume tools can't tell you the whole story.
What we checked
On 19 October 2026 we ran 69 phrases through Keyword Planner in our Google Ads account, for the United Kingdom, covering October 2025 to September 2026. Our account has no running campaign, so Planner shows volume bands instead of exact numbers. "No data" means Google found too few searches to report.
The phrases include variations on "website design for [trade]", "[trade] website", cost questions, local phrases for our home area and a few problem-led searches like "checkatrade alternatives".
69 trade-website phrases: how many does Google admit people search?
Every dot is one phrase we checked. Tap a volume band or a phrase pattern to filter the list.
| Phrase | Searches / month | Paid comp. | Top-of-page bid |
|---|---|---|---|
| builder website | 10k – 100k | Medium | £4.88–£16.51 |
| website design hereford | 100 – 1k | Low | £1.62–£8.96 |
| tradesman website | 100 – 1k | Medium | £1.93–£6.58 |
| electrician website | 100 – 1k | Medium | £1.45–£6.02 |
| electrician site | 100 – 1k | Medium | £1.45–£6.02 |
| checkatrade alternatives | 100 – 1k | High | £1.75–£5.81 |
| plumber website | 100 – 1k | High | £1.37–£5.14 |
| handyman website | 100 – 1k | High | £1.14–£4.23 |
| solar installer marketing | 10 – 100 | Medium | £10.07–£47.97 |
| tradesman seo | 10 – 100 | Low | £5.01–£15.16 |
| best website builder for electrician | 10 – 100 | High | £7.36–£14.83 |
| website designer swindon | 10 – 100 | Low | £1.78–£8.65 |
| kitchen fitter website | 10 – 100 | Medium | £0.91–£7.11 |
| web design wiltshire | 10 – 100 | Medium | £2.60–£6.79 |
| website design chippenham | 10 – 100 | Medium | £3.00–£6.67 |
| website designer bath | 10 – 100 | Medium | £2.37–£6.63 |
| locksmith website | 10 – 100 | Medium | £1.30–£5.98 |
| roofer website | 10 – 100 | High | £1.55–£4.58 |
| best electrician websites | 10 – 100 | Medium | £1.34–£4.54 |
| gas engineer website | 10 – 100 | High | £0.78–£3.20 |
| plasterer website | 10 – 100 | Medium | £0.48–£2.87 |
| tree surgeon website | 10 – 100 | Medium | £0.76–£2.55 |
| trustmark website | 10 – 100 | Low | – |
| website for sole trader | 10 – 100 | High | – |
| website design for handyman | 10 – 100 | High | – |
| website design for locksmiths | 10 – 100 | Low | – |
| electrician website builder | 10 – 100 | Medium | – |
| heat pump installer website | 0 – 10 | – | – |
| ev charger installer website | 0 – 10 | – | – |
| solar installer website | 0 – 10 | – | – |
| air conditioning installer website | No data | – | – |
| bathroom fitter website | No data | – | – |
| battery storage installer website | No data | – | – |
| carpenter website cost | No data | – | – |
| cheap website for tradesmen | No data | – | – |
| checkatrade vs own website | No data | – | – |
| do tradesmen need a website | No data | – | – |
| electrician website cost | No data | – | – |
| ev charger installer marketing | No data | – | – |
| gas safe logo on website | No data | – | – |
| google business profile for tradesmen | No data | – | – |
| heat pump installer leads | No data | – | – |
| how much does a tradesman website cost | No data | – | – |
| mcs installer website | No data | – | – |
| niceic logo on website | No data | – | – |
| plumber website cost | No data | – | – |
| roofer website cost | No data | – | – |
| tradesman leads without checkatrade | No data | – | – |
| tradesman website examples | No data | – | – |
| website design for air conditioning installers | No data | – | – |
| website design for bathroom fitters | No data | – | – |
| website design for bricklayers | No data | – | – |
| website design for cctv installers | No data | – | – |
| website design for damp proofing | No data | – | – |
| website design for driveway contractors | No data | – | – |
| website design for ev charger installers | No data | – | – |
| website design for fencing contractors | No data | – | – |
| website design for garden room builders | No data | – | – |
| website design for gas engineers | No data | – | – |
| website design for heat pump installers | No data | – | – |
| website design for insulation installers | No data | – | – |
| website design for kitchen fitters | No data | – | – |
| website design for painters and decorators | No data | – | – |
| website design for plasterers | No data | – | – |
| website design for scaffolders | No data | – | – |
| website design for solar panel installers | No data | – | – |
| website design for tilers | No data | – | – |
| website design for tree surgeons | No data | – | – |
| website design for window fitters | No data | – | – |
What came back
- 39 of 69 phrases (57%) returned no data.
- 3 returned 0 to 10 searches a month, 19 returned 10 to 100, 7 returned 100 to 1,000, and one ("builder website") returned 10,000 to 100,000, almost all of it people looking for website-builder software, not building trades.
- 20 of the 22 "website design for [trade]" phrases returned no data. That is the exact phrasing agencies, including us, build landing pages around. The two exceptions, handymen and locksmiths, returned 10 to 100.
- All five cost questions returned no data. "Electrician website cost", "plumber website cost", "roofer website cost", "carpenter website cost" and "how much does a tradesman website cost".
- The shorter phrases had volume. "Plumber website", "electrician website", "handyman website" and "tradesman website" each returned 100 to 1,000 searches a month. "Gas engineer website", "kitchen fitter website", "locksmith website", "plasterer website", "tree surgeon website" and "roofer website" returned 10 to 100.
- The "emerging trades" phrases mostly returned nothing. "Heat pump installer website", "EV charger installer website" and "solar installer website" returned 0 to 10; "air conditioning installer website", "battery storage installer website" and "MCS installer website" returned no data.
In plain terms, tradespeople who go looking for a site type something short like "electrician website". They don't type "website design for electricians".
Why "no data" is not "no demand"
Keyword Planner rounds tiny numbers down and hides them. Three things in our own data say that the real world is bigger than the tool shows.
- Search Console shows impressions where Planner shows nothing. Over the 28 days to 27 September our site logged 166 impressions for "website design for tradesmen" while ranking about 72nd, and 83 for "websites for tradesmen". Real people typed those phrases, and ours was almost never on the screens they looked at.
- Local phrases are real but small. "Website design Chippenham" returned 10 to 100 searches a month, and our case-study site Padel Chippenham ranks first for the venue's own name. Local demand exists, in the tens.
- People now ask machines whole questions. Nobody types "electrician website cost" into an AI assistant. They say "how much should a self-employed electrician in Bristol pay for a website?" Keyword Planner can't see that conversation, and neither can Search Console. We don't have data on how often it happens for this topic, so we'd treat it as a reason to measure, not as a number.
Where the money is: bids
Volume says how many people search. Bids say what an advertiser is willing to pay for one click, and so how valuable the lead is. Planner's top-of-page bid range for the phrases that returned a figure:
- "Solar installer marketing": about £10 to £48 a click, by far the highest.
- "Best website builder for electrician": £7.36 to £14.83.
- "Tradesman SEO": £5.01 to £15.16.
- "Checkatrade alternatives": £1.75 to £5.81.
- "Plumber website": £1.37 to £5.14, and "electrician website": £1.45 to £6.02.
Two cautions. Bids are paid-ad auction prices, not organic difficulty, and the "competition" column is paid competition too. A "Low" does not mean easy to rank for.
What we are changing
- Build the short-phrase pages first. "[Trade] website" has measurable volume for established trades. It is where Planner says people are, and it matches what our Search Console shows.
- Stop treating "No data" as a green light. We had prioritised emerging trades (heat pumps, EV chargers, solar) because their search results looked thin. Planner says too few people search for those phrases to measure. Opportunity needs demand as well as an empty page.
- Use Search Console, not volume tools, as the source of truth. It tells you what your site was shown for, including phrases Planner can't see.
- Track prompts, not just keywords. For every priority trade, write the five full questions a customer would ask an AI assistant, and check monthly whether your business is named. It is the only way to see the part of demand that keyword tools hide.
- Own the cost question anyway. Even with no volume, a clear pricing page answers a question people ask machines, and it is the page an assistant can quote.
Method and limits
- Source: Google Keyword Planner via the Geo Rank Local Google Ads account, UK, October 2025 to September 2026, pulled 19 October 2026. Ranges only, because the account has no running campaign.
- "YoY change" figures of -90% on 10-100 terms are an artefact of Planner's bucket rounding on tiny numbers, so we have not used them.
- The Search Console figures are from the 28 days to 27 September 2026.
- 69 phrases is a sample we chose, not the full market.
Sources
Read next: Same Google position, ten times the clicks and what fact-lookup pages earn
Awais M.
Founder of GeoRankLocal
Awais M. is the founder of GeoRankLocal, a UK-wide agency that builds AI-citable websites and manages ongoing GEO and SEO for businesses across the United Kingdom. He writes about generative engine optimisation, AI search and what the data says about how customers find local businesses.
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