What does marketing look like for a plumber who is never at a desk?
Local Authority is a done-for-you marketing service for plumbing companies. When your plumber finishes a water heater replacement, a sewer line repair, a repipe, a sump pump or a burst pipe call, they take a photo of the finished work on a phone and pick the town and the service. Within about a minute the job is on your website with a written caption, posted to your Google Business Profile with the job image, and posted to Instagram and Facebook. Towns where you keep working earn their own page on your site, written only from real jobs. Two homeowner articles a week go out under your name, answering questions like why a drain keeps clogging or how to stop pipes freezing, and your Google reviews can become graphics you approve before they post. We built the service first for a Long Island roofing and siding company and we are now accepting founding clients in plumbing and other trades.
Plumbing happens inside walls, under floors and in the dark corner of a basement, and the best outcome is that nobody thinks about it again. That makes it a hard trade to show off. What does photograph well is the work itself: a new water heater with clean joints and a labeled shutoff, a basement repiped in straight supported runs, a sump pit with a new pump and a sealed cover, a section of sewer line replaced before the trench is filled.
Most plumbing calls start with a search on a phone at a bad moment: water on the floor, no hot water, a toilet that will not stop. The homeowner picks from whoever Google and the AI assistants show for their town, and those tools favor the company whose site shows recent jobs nearby, answers the question the homeowner is panicking about, and lists the same hours and phone number everywhere. A brochure site from several years ago does none of that.
Local Authority gives your plumbers one phone page. They take the photo they were going to take for the job file anyway, and the website entry, the Google post and the social posts follow before they have pulled out of the driveway.
Which plumbing jobs make good posts?
| Job | What to photograph |
|---|---|
| Water heater replacement | The old tank with corrosion at the fittings, then the new tank or tankless unit with the venting, expansion tank and shutoff valve in frame. |
| Sewer line repair or replacement | The trench or a camera screenshot showing the break or root intrusion, then the new pipe laid and connected before backfill. |
| Drain cleaning and clog removal | No real after, so a photo of the drain running clear, or the cable at the cleanout with a sentence on what was blocking the line. |
| Whole-house or partial repipe | The old galvanized or polybutylene pipe exposed in the wall, then the new copper or PEX runs straight, supported and labeled. |
| Toilet, faucet or shower valve replacement | The old fixture and the new one from the same angle, with the caulk line clean and the area wiped down. |
| Sump pump installation or replacement | The pit with the new pump, check valve and discharge line, then the cover back on. |
| Burst or leaking pipe repair | The split pipe or the ceiling stain before, then the repaired section with the new fittings visible. |
| Main shutoff valve replacement | The old corroded gate valve, then the new ball valve with a tag on it so the homeowner can find it. |
What makes a good photo for plumbing?
Plumbing photos are usually taken in bad light, so turn on the phone flashlight, wipe the lens, and step back far enough that the whole water heater or the whole run of pipe is in frame. Shoot straight on, not from above. Clear tools and the homeowner's storage out of the shot and photograph the job once the floor is swept. For drain cleaning, leak repairs and service calls where there is nothing dramatic to see afterwards, a single clear photo of the fixed section or the clear-running drain and a sentence about what you did still makes a good website entry and Google post. The system flags photos that do not match the service you ticked, so a water heater uploaded as a sewer job is caught before it publishes.
How do the seasons change what gets posted?
Plumbing is busy all year, but the kind of work changes. Winter brings frozen and burst pipes and water heaters that give up on the coldest morning. Spring thaw brings sump pumps and wet basements. Summer is remodel and fixture work, and the days around the holidays are drain and garbage disposal calls. In the emergency stretches, each repair photographed at the job becomes a post the same day, so homeowners searching after a freeze see you were already working on their street. The two weekly articles follow the calendar too: how to keep pipes from freezing in November, when to test a sump pump in March, what not to put down the disposal before a holiday.
What does a Google post look like for a plumbing company?
Every published job becomes a post like this on your Google Business Profile, with the same image and text going to Instagram and Facebook. The closing line is written in your voice and fitted to the job; the sign-off with your area, phone, name and website is added automatically.
Example text for an imaginary job. Real posts describe only what your photos and notes show.
Water heater replaced for a homeowner in your town. The old tank was leaking from the bottom seam after many years of service and the shutoff valve would not close all the way. We drained and removed the old unit, installed a new tank with a new shutoff, expansion tank and drip pan, and checked every joint before we left. Hot showers were back the same afternoon and the basement floor was dry when we packed up.
Learn moreWhat does an earned town page look like for a plumbing company?
No plumbing town page exists until you have done two jobs or more in that town, or one job where the plumber added real notes. It shows those jobs with their photos and captions, lists the plumbing services you actually performed there (water heaters, sewer lines, drain cleaning, repipes), quotes any customer review you pasted in, and describes the housing in general terms that are well established, such as older homes with original galvanized supply lines or neighborhoods with a high water table and sump pumps in most basements. It never states facts about the town that cannot be checked. A homeowner searching for a plumber in that town lands on real work you did for their neighbors, not a template with the town name filled in.
What do customers praise, and why does it matter?
Plumbing customers write about relief: somebody answered the phone, the plumber came the same day, explained what it would cost before starting, fixed it the first time, and put on boot covers and cleaned up afterwards. Those are the words a homeowner types into Google with water on the floor. A review that also names the town and the job (a water heater in a named town, a sewer line in another) does more for your local ranking than any social post. The review graphics the system makes are built from your real Google reviews, and you choose which ones go out.
Which questions will your articles answer?
Two a week, chosen from a queue we build with you. The first eight for a plumbing company usually look like this:
- How long does a water heater last and what are the warning signs?
- Is a tankless water heater worth it for my house?
- Why does my drain keep clogging?
- What should I do first if a pipe bursts?
- How do I keep my pipes from freezing?
- What is the difference between repairing a sewer line and replacing it?
- Why is my water pressure suddenly low?
- When should a sump pump be replaced?
What will the system never say for a plumbing company?
Every caption, post, town page and article is checked in code against your never-say list before it can publish. For plumbing, the list usually starts with these:
- Any statement that the work meets plumbing code, was inspected or that a permit was pulled, unless the owner confirms it for that job
- Gas line, boiler, well, septic or backflow work the company does not perform or is not licensed for where your state requires it
- Health or water quality claims about filters, softeners or treatment systems stated as facts
- Prices, flat rates, waived trip fees or 'free' offers the owner has not confirmed in writing
- Emergency or 24-hour response times unless the owner has confirmed the hours
- Any promise about a homeowner's insurance claim being covered
- Fixture or water heater brands the company does not install
- Any claim about a sewer line's condition that is not taken from the camera inspection notes
- Company age or years in business beyond what the owner has stated
- A street address for a job, only the town
Questions plumbers ask us
Half our work is drain cleaning. What is there to photograph?
The cleanout with the cable in it, or the drain running clear afterwards, with one line about what was blocking it. A homeowner searching for a clogged drain in their town wants to see that you cleared one there yesterday. The photo does not need to be dramatic, only real.
Does the plumber have to write anything?
No. They pick the town from a list, tick the service, add the photo and, if they want, a line about what they found. The caption and post are written from those choices and held for your approval before they publish.
We do not do gas work. Will the system ever offer it?
Not if you tell us. Your never-say list is set up before the first post, and every caption, post, town page and article is checked against it in code before it can go out. Gas lines, boilers, wells and septic go on that list for any company that does not do them.
Will the articles tell homeowners a permit is needed?
Articles say that permits and inspections are required where your state or town requires them and suggest the homeowner ask their plumber. They never state a specific rule as if it applied everywhere, and job posts never claim that an inspection passed unless you say so.
Can we post a burst pipe repair the same day during a cold snap?
Yes. A repair photographed at the job goes live on your site and your Google profile in about a minute, so homeowners searching during a freeze see that you are already working in their area.
What about our existing website and Google ranking?
We move the site onto our system and point each old page address at its new page, so nothing you have earned on Google is lost. Our first client came over from WordPress the same way.
Run a plumbing company? Let your work do the talking.
Book a call. We will ask ChatGPT who to call for your trade in your area while you watch, show you where its answer came from, and tell you plainly what it would take for that answer to be you.
Now accepting founding clients. Built first for a Long Island roofing and siding company.
