Honest Electrical Case Study
In short
Honest Electrical, a South Dunedin electrician, was sceptical of marketing after past disappointments. EightySix Digital rebuilt their site around real Dunedin services with dedicated, trade-focused pages, then ran local SEO and carefully targeted Google Ads. The result was a Dunedin electrician with a genuine digital presence and steady, high-quality leads across Otago.
Web Design and SEO for Electrical Contractor in Dunedin
Honest Electrical is a locally owned Dunedin electrician specialising in residential and light commercial work across the wider Otago region. After a bad experience with previous marketing companies, they partnered with EightySix Digital to rebuild their website, improve their SEO in Dunedin and run tightly focused Google Ads campaigns.
By combining trade-focused web design in Dunedin with long-term SEO in Dunedin and smart paid search, Honest Electrical now enjoys steady, high-quality enquiries for services like heat pump installation, EV charger installation, electrical safety inspections and switchboard upgrades, without needing a massive ad spend.
About Honest Electrical
Honest Electrical is a South Dunedin, based electrical company providing “honest skilled work” for domestic and commercial customers across Dunedin and the wider Otago region.
With over 15, 20 years of experience, they offer a wide range of services, including:
- General electrical work and rewiring
- Light fittings, sockets and data cabling
- Heat pump installation and servicing
- EV charger installation
- Electrical safety inspections and reports
- Switchboard upgrades and modernisation
- Caravan electrical warrants of fitness (WoEF)
They’ve built a strong local reputation, backed by 29 5 Star Google reviews and independent mentions in local directories and guides like MoneyHub’s “Best Electricians in Dunedin”.
The Challenge: Sceptical about marketing, but needing real results
When Honest Electrical first spoke with EightySix Digital, owner Tim was understandably sceptical. He’d worked with other marketing companies in the past and felt ripped off, lots of promises, not much to show for it.
At the same time, he knew that:
- The business needed a professional online presence that matched the quality of their work.
- They wanted to show up for key searches in Dunedin, not just when people searched their brand name, terms like electrician Dunedin, heat pump installation Dunedin, EV charger installer Dunedin, switchboard upgrades and electrical safety inspections.
- Any spend had to be tightly controlled, “nice to have” marketing was off the table. Every dollar needed to work hard.
The original website and marketing setup weren’t giving Honest Electrical the visibility or leads they needed from local search. That’s where web design in Dunedin and a focused SEO in Dunedin strategy came in.
Our Approach: Web design in Dunedin built for trades, not vanity metrics
We started with a complete rebuild of the Honest Electrical website, the foundation for everything else.
1. Rebuilding the site around real Dunedin services
Instead of one generic “services” page, we created dedicated, SEO-friendly pages for each of Honest Electrical’s core offerings, including:
- Electrician Dunedin
- Heat pump installation Dunedin
- Heat pump service Dunedin
- EV charger installation Dunedin
- Electrical safety inspections
- Switchboard upgrades and new switchboards
- Caravan electrical warrant of fitness (WoEF)
This structure supports both traditional SEO in Dunedin and generative/AI search experiences by clearly signalling what the business does and where.
2. Trade-focused layout and copy
For a local electrician, a small business website design isn’t about flashy animations, it’s about clarity and trust:
- Mobile-first design so homeowners, landlords and property managers can easily call or request a quote on their phones.
- Plain-English copy that explains the problem, the solution and what to do next, without jargon.
- Service-specific imagery of heat pumps, EV chargers, switchboards and inspection work, so visitors instantly know they’re in the right place.
We used strong calls-to-action (“Request a booking”, “Contact us today”, “Call now”) across key sections, making it easy for visitors to take the next step.
3. Showcasing local trust
To support SEO in Dunedin and increase conversions, we built trust directly into the design:
- Local messaging: clear references to South Dunedin, wider Dunedin and Otago across the site.
- Review integration: Honest Electrical’s 5-star Google reviews and testimonial snippets are displayed prominently, often via a Trustindex feed.
- Third-party validation: independent listings on Yellow, MoneyHub and local business directories reinforce the “trusted Dunedin electrician” positioning.
This combination of smart web design in Dunedin and social proof helps turn website visitors into enquiries.
Building SEO in Dunedin: From “online brochure” to lead engine
With the new website live, we moved into an ongoing SEO in Dunedin strategy focused on high-intent local searches.
1. Dunedin-focused keyword research
We mapped how people actually search for electricians in Dunedin, looking at combinations around:
- “electrician dunedin”, “south dunedin electrician”
- “heat pump installation dunedin”, “heat pump service dunedin”
- “switchboard upgrades dunedin”, “new switchboard for home”
- “ev charger installation dunedin”, “home ev charger installer”
- safety inspections, caravan WoEFs and related long-tail queries.
Each theme now has a dedicated landing page, optimised for both humans and search engines.
2. On-page optimisation with a natural feel
For each service page we:
- Wrote unique, keyword-rich title tags and meta descriptions that explicitly reference SEO in Dunedin and local search intent.
- Structured headings (H1, H2, H3) around how locals actually search: e.g. “Heat Pump Installation Dunedin”, “Why Choose Honest Electrical for Your Dunedin Home?”.
- Built internal links between related services, e.g. heat pump installation → heat pump servicing, EV charger installation → switchboard upgrades, safety inspections → switchboard and rewiring pages.
- Added FAQs and explanatory sections that answer the kinds of questions Dunedin homeowners and landlords actually ask.
The result is a site that covers Honest Electrical’s core topics in depth, which helps traditional SEO in Dunedin and AI search outputs alike.
3. Strengthening local signals
We reinforced local relevance by:
- Keeping NAP details (name, address, phone) consistent across the website, Google Business Profile and major directories like Yellow and Dunedin Store.
- Emphasising “locally based, reliable Dunedin electrician” messaging in key sections and service pages.
- Encouraging and showcasing new reviews, which continue to highlight Honest Electrical’s reliability, communication and fair pricing.
Supporting SEO with Google Ads and content
Like many Dunedin businesses, Honest Electrical didn’t have a huge ad budget. That meant every click had to count.
EightySix Digital:
- Set up and managed targeted Google Ads campaigns, focusing on high-intent searches like “electrician dunedin”, “heat pump installation dunedin” and “ev charger installer dunedin”.
- Used the new service pages as dedicated landing pages for those ads, ensuring message match from keyword to ad to page.
- Provided ongoing SEO in Dunedin each month, refreshing content, improving internal linking, refining meta data and expanding pages as needed.
Because the site was built for performance and clarity, adding new content or targeting new Dunedin suburbs and services is straightforward.
The Results: A Dunedin electrician with steady, high-quality leads
Since partnering with EightySix Digital, Honest Electrical has gone from a basic online footprint to a fully-fledged digital presence that reliably generates work.
From the EightySix Digital portfolio summary and Semrush agency profile:
- We built a brand-new website for Honest Electrical.
- We provide regular SEO work on a monthly basis and manage their Google Ads campaigns.
- Despite a relatively low monthly budget, we’ve been able to generate consistent leads from Google Ads, while rankings for “Dunedin electrician” and related local terms have steadily increased.
Combined with a strong review profile and independent recommendations (including Reddit threads and MoneyHub’s “Best Electricians in Dunedin” guide), Honest Electrical is now firmly positioned as one of the go-to choices for electrical work in Dunedin.
For Tim, the biggest shift has been confidence: web design in Dunedin and SEO in Dunedin are no longer risky experiments, they’re predictable channels that keep the job pipeline healthy.
What this means if you’re a Dunedin business
Honest Electrical’s journey shows what’s possible when you take a practical, trades-first approach to web design in Dunedin and SEO in Dunedin:
- Local search is winnable. You don’t need a massive budget if your website is structured around what you actually do and where you do it.
- Consistent SEO in Dunedin compounds. Rankings and enquiries build over time when you keep investing in content, optimisation and reviews.
- Good web design in Dunedin pays for itself. When your site turns Google searches into booked jobs, it stops being a cost and becomes an asset.
Thinking about your own web design in Dunedin or SEO in Dunedin?
If you’re a Dunedin-based trade, service or professional business and any of this feels familiar, a basic website, patchy enquiries, difficulty being found in search, it might be time for a reset.
EightySix Digital specialises in:
- Trades and service-based web design in Dunedin and across New Zealand
- Practical, long-term SEO in Dunedin that focuses on leads and revenue, not just traffic
- Combining organic search with smart Google Ads to get results even on realistic budgets
FAQ: Web design & SEO for Dunedin businesses
Do I need a completely new website to improve my SEO in Dunedin?
Not always, but if your current site is slow, hard to navigate or impossible to update, it will hold you back. For Honest Electrical, rebuilding the website gave us a clean, fast, service-focused structure that made SEO in Dunedin and Google Ads far more effective.
How long does SEO in Dunedin take to work?
Expect several months of consistent work before you see strong improvements on competitive keywords. With Honest Electrical, combining ongoing SEO in Dunedin with targeted Google Ads meant they could start generating enquiries quickly while organic rankings grew over time.
Can you work with a modest monthly budget?
Yes. Honest Electrical’s results were achieved with a realistic, carefully managed budget. By combining web design in Dunedin, SEO in Dunedin and focused Google Ads, we prioritised high-intent searches and avoided wasting spend on clicks that don’t convert.
What kinds of Dunedin businesses do you work with?
We work with electricians, plumbers, builders, heat pump installers, landscapers, professional services and more. The framework we used for Honest Electrical can be adapted to almost any local business that wants their website to actively generate enquiries rather than just sit online.
Frequently asked questions
What did EightySix Digital do for Honest Electrical?
We rebuilt their website with dedicated, SEO-friendly pages for each core service, a clear trade-focused mobile-first layout and local trust signals, then ran ongoing Dunedin-focused local SEO supported by carefully targeted Google Ads.
How do you market an electrician on a small ad budget?
By making every click count. Alongside local SEO that builds long-term visibility, tightly targeted Google Ads focus spend on high-intent local searches, so a modest budget still generates quality enquiries rather than wasted clicks.
Can you help my Dunedin trade business get found?
Yes. If you are a Dunedin trade, service or professional business with a basic website and patchy enquiries, EightySix Digital can rebuild your site and run the local SEO and ads that turn it into a reliable source of leads.
Rather have this handled for you?
That’s what I do. Tell me about your business and I’ll show you the smartest way to get more customers online, in plain English.