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Glossary

Plumbing and heating marketing terms, in plain English

The words you will meet when you market a plumbing and heating firm on Google, each with a link to the guide that explains it properly.

Updated

A

Answer rate (also Responsiveness)
How reliably a firm picks up calls and replies to messages. Google says missed calls may negatively affect your responsiveness in Local Services Ads, which can lower where your ad ranks.
How Local Services Ads rank firms

B

Boiler Engine System
The way I work with plumbing and heating firms: Google Local Services Ads and Google Business Profile optimisation, set up around boiler installation enquiries. It is monthly and you can cancel any time.
What the Boiler Engine System does
Boiler installation enquiry (also Boiler installation lead)
In my work, a call from an active homeowner looking to get a boiler installed. Repair and breakdown calls are counted separately, because an installation is the bigger, better paying job.
Boiler installation leads
Business Profile verification
Google’s check that you are a real business before your profile shows publicly. Google chooses the method, which for many businesses is now a short video recorded live on your phone, and says the review can take up to five business days.
Setting up your Business Profile

C

Cost per enquiry (also Cost per lead)
What you spend on a channel divided by the enquiries it brings in. On its own it says little, so set it against how many of those enquiries become booked installs.
Work out the enquiries you need

G

Google Business Profile (also Google My Business, GBP)
Your free business listing on Google Search and Google Maps, with your reviews, photos, services and a call button. It is the entry that competes in the map pack.
Google Business Profile for boiler installers
Google Guaranteed
The old green badge for Local Services Ads. Google replaced it, along with Google Screened and Licence Verified by Google, with a single Google Verified badge in October 2025, and the money back guarantee that came with it has ended.
What changed with Google Verified
Google Verified
The single badge a firm earns on Local Services Ads by passing Google’s checks on the business, licence and insurance details Google asks for. It shows next to your name and reviews in the ad.
The Google Verified badge explained

J

Job types
The services you tick in Local Services Ads, which decide which searches your ad shows for. Choosing only the work you want, such as boiler installation, is one of the main protections against poor leads.
Settings that keep leads relevant

L

Lead
In Local Services Ads, a contact from a customer, such as a phone call or a message, through your ad. Google charges for valid leads whether or not the customer goes on to book.
How Local Services Ads work
Lead feedback
Rating each Local Services Ads lead through the feedback survey on the Leads page. Lead credits aren’t available to advertisers in Europe, so for UK firms feedback is the way to tell Google which leads you want more of.
What happens to poor leads in the UK
Lead site (also Directory, Shared leads)
A platform such as Checkatrade, MyBuilder or Bark that passes homeowner enquiries to tradespeople. The enquiry is often shared with other firms, and the reviews you collect live on the platform rather than on your own Google profile.
Winning boiler jobs without Checkatrade
Local Services Ads (also LSA)
Google adverts that put a verified local firm at the top of Google Search and Google Maps, with its reviews and the Google Verified badge. You pay per lead rather than per click.
Local Services Ads in the UK: the complete guide

M

Map pack (also Local pack)
The small map and list of three local businesses that Google shows for searches such as “boiler installation near me”. Each entry is a Google Business Profile, and you cannot pay to appear in it.
How Google picks the map pack

N

NAP consistency
Keeping your business name, address and phone number written exactly the same everywhere they appear online, from your Business Profile to directories and your website.
Getting the basics of your profile right

O

One firm per area
My rule of working with only one boiler installation firm in the same area it serves, so I am never helping two firms compete for the same homeowners.
Is your area still available?
Organic results
The ordinary, unpaid search results below the adverts and the map pack. Ranking there is earned rather than bought, and it usually takes longer than ads or a well run Business Profile.
Where homeowners find a boiler installer on Google

P

Pay per lead
Paying for a contact, such as a call or a message, rather than for a click. It is how Local Services Ads charge, and Google keeps pay per lead goals as the format moves into Google Ads.
How you pay for Local Services Ads
Performance Max with pay per lead goals
Where Local Services Ads are heading: Google is moving them into Google Ads as Performance Max campaigns with pay per lead goals, with accounts outside the US moving during 2027.
Local Services Ads are moving into Google Ads
Primary category
The one category on your Google Business Profile that best describes your business. Google says categories affect your local ranking, so a boiler installer should choose a heating led primary category.
Choosing your categories

R

Relevance, distance and prominence
The three things Google says local results are mainly based on: how well a profile matches the search, how far the business is from the searcher, and how well known the business is, which reviews help to build.
How Google picks the map pack
Review gating
Asking only the customers you expect to be happy for a Google review. Google’s policy does not allow it, along with offering incentives or asking for particular wording.
Asking for reviews the way Google allows

S

Service area business
A business that travels to its customers instead of having them visit. Google says it should hide its address and list the areas it serves, which suits most boiler installers.
Setting your service area properly

T

The planner and the panicked caller
The two customers every heating firm serves: the homeowner whose boiler has just failed and needs someone now, and the homeowner researching a replacement over weeks. Most firms’ marketing is built only for the first.
Found on Google, lost on the quote

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