The Big 5 Content Plan for Trades & Franchises

Cost & price — what does it cost, why does it cost that, and what changes the number. These pages drive the highest-intent traffic on the internet because no buyer Googles a price unless they are close to buying.

Problems — what goes wrong with this product or service, how to spot it early, what it means, and how urgent it is. Problem-aware traffic is emergency traffic — they will book today.

Comparisons — A vs B, brand vs brand, method vs method, your business vs the alternative. Comparison readers are deciding between two specific options. Show up in the comparison and you halve their decision time.

Reviews — honest, third-party-style reviews of products, brands or methods in your space. The buyer wants an expert opinion before they commit; if you are not that expert online, someone else will be.

Best in class — 'the best X for Y' list posts that include competitors. Counter-intuitively, ranking competitors honestly in your own list-post is one of the fastest ways to win the buyer's trust.

Weeks 1–4: four cost articles, one per week. Front-load cost because cost converts hardest. Suggested mix — one head-term ('how much does X cost in [city]'), one variable breakdown ('what changes the price of X'), one comparison-by-price ('budget vs premium X'), one cheap-warning ('cheap X: what you give up').

Weeks 5–8: four problem articles. Pick the four problems your phone rings about most. Each article describes the symptom, the likely cause, urgency, and what to do next. Always end with a 'book a callback' or 'tap to call' CTA — problem-aware traffic is emergency traffic.

Weeks 9–10: two comparison articles. Pick the two most common decision points your buyers raise on the phone. Brand A vs Brand B, method X vs method Y, or 'should I repair or replace'.

Weeks 11–12: one review post and one best-in-class list. Review the most-asked-about product or brand in your space. Then publish a 'best X for Y in Australia' list that ranks five options honestly, including yours.

By day 90 you have 12 cornerstone pieces — enough to dominate long-tail search in your service area and to feed an AI chat with real answers (see the AI Chat playbook).

Aim for 1,200–2,000 words per article. Shorter pieces rarely rank for competitive service-business terms; longer pieces drift off-topic and lose readers. Use short paragraphs, scannable subheadings, and an FAQ block at the bottom — Google's AI Overviews pull from FAQ blocks more than any other section.

Every article needs three CTAs: one above the fold (tap-to-call or estimator), one mid-article (relevant lead magnet or related guide), one at the bottom (book a callback). Articles without CTAs generate traffic but no jobs.

The people doing the work are the people with the answers. Your senior tradie, franchise GM or operations lead speaks for 10 minutes into a phone, you transcribe with AI, you edit. Never outsource Big 5 content to a generic content agency — buyers can smell it within two paragraphs, and so can Google's helpful-content system.

A workable insourcing rhythm: 30-minute interview every Monday with the subject-matter expert, draft completed by Wednesday, polished and published Thursday. One person can produce two cornerstone pieces a week this way.

Track four numbers monthly per article: organic impressions, organic clicks, average position, and assisted conversions (leads where the article was touched in the journey). A healthy cornerstone piece should be in Google's top 10 for its target term within 90 days and contributing at least one assisted lead per week by month six. If a piece is not pulling its weight by month nine, refresh it — do not delete it.