The 25 Google searches that bring UK plumbers work, ranked
The biggest plumbing search in the UK is "plumber near me", at about 90,500 Google searches a month, followed by "plumber" at 60,500. Boiler searches add another 73,900 a month across eleven terms, and emergency searches carry the highest bids: up to £51.62 at the top of the page for "emergency plumber near me".
Which searches actually bring a plumber work? We pulled the UK numbers from Google Keyword Planner and stripped out everything that would not turn into a job: DIY fixes, boiler brands, merchants and duplicate wordings. What is left is 25 searches made by people who want to hire a plumber, ranked by how often they happen and with the bids advertisers place on them.
The 25 searches, ranked by monthly volume
| Search | Monthly searches | Top-of-page bid | Job type |
|---|---|---|---|
| plumber near me | 90,500 | £2.93 to £20.36 | General and near me |
| plumber | 60,500 | £4.74 to £25.98 | General and near me |
| boiler service | 14,800 | £3.46 to £15.79 | Boilers and heating |
| emergency plumber | 12,100 | £7.36 to £50.17 | Emergency |
| boiler service near me | 9,900 | £4.24 to £18.51 | Boilers and heating |
| emergency plumber near me | 9,900 | £7.88 to £51.62 | Emergency |
| gas engineers near me | 8,100 | £3.46 to £16.19 | Boilers and heating |
| local plumber near me | 8,100 | £2.99 to £17.66 | General and near me |
| new boiler prices | 8,100 | £4.23 to £11.77 | Boilers and heating |
| boiler repair near me | 6,600 | £6.03 to £24.66 | Boilers and heating |
| local plumbers | 6,600 | £3.36 to £22.21 | General and near me |
| unblock drains near me | 6,600 | £6.86 to £42.34 | Drains and leaks |
| boiler installation near me | 5,400 | £8.14 to £28.52 | Boilers and heating |
| boiler repair | 5,400 | £6.96 to £22.59 | Boilers and heating |
| new boiler replacement | 5,400 | £13.65 to £39.85 | Boilers and heating |
| boiler installation | 4,400 | £13.73 to £37.05 | Boilers and heating |
| plumbing services | 3,600 | £4.78 to £26.56 | General and near me |
| boiler engineer near me | 2,900 | £5.61 to £26.73 | Boilers and heating |
| plumbing and heating near me | 2,900 | £3.03 to £14.68 | Boilers and heating |
| blocked drains near me | 2,400 | £6.83 to £41.65 | Drains and leaks |
| plumbing companies near me | 2,400 | £3.67 to £20.15 | General and near me |
| emergency boiler repair | 1,900 | £10.00 to £40.83 | Emergency |
| plumbing services near me | 1,900 | £3.95 to £26.51 | General and near me |
| leak detection specialist | 1,000 | £8.72 to £72.37 | Drains and leaks |
| 24 hour plumber | 880 | £7.55 to £56.78 | Emergency |
Monthly searches are Google’s 12-month UK averages, rounded the way Keyword Planner reports them. The bid range runs from the low end to the high end of what advertisers have historically bid to show at the top of the page. It tells you how hard a search is fought over, not what you will pay per click. For what a click and a lead typically cost, see how much Google Ads costs a plumber.
What the numbers tell a plumber
- General and near me searches are most of the demand. The seven general searches add up to 173,600 a month, and "plumber near me" and "plumber" alone are 151,000 of that. People searching this way choose from the map and the top ads, so a strong Google Business Profile and an ad that leads with your phone number do most of the work.
- Boilers are the second market. Eleven boiler and heating searches add up to 73,900 a month, from servicing to new installs. "new boiler replacement" (£13.65 to £39.85) and "boiler installation" (£13.73 to £37.05) have the highest bids in the group, which reflects what an install is worth.
- Emergency searches cost the most to win. "emergency plumber near me" runs £7.88 to £51.62 at the top of the page, against £2.93 to £20.36 for "plumber near me". Four emergency searches add up to 24,780 a month, and the bids show how many firms compete for them.
- Drains and leaks are small but valuable. Three searches add 10,000 a month, and "leak detection specialist" has the highest top bid on the whole list, £72.37.
How to use this list
- Build one Google Ads ad group per job type. General, boilers, emergency and drains each need their own ads and their own landing page, so someone searching "boiler repair near me" lands on a boiler repair page, not your home page.
- Give each job type its own service page. The same groups make a sensible site: a page for boiler servicing, one for boiler installation, one for emergency call-outs, one for blocked drains. Each page can rank on its own and gives your ads somewhere relevant to land.
- List the same services on your Google Business Profile. Add each job type as a service with a short description, so Google can match your profile to these searches in the map pack. Our guide to ranking in the Google map pack covers the other fields.
- Run emergency ads only in the hours you answer. Use an ad schedule so you are not paying top-of-page prices at 2am for calls that go to voicemail.
- Add negative keywords from day one. Most of the ideas Keyword Planner returns are DIY or brand searches. Adding them as negatives stops your budget going on people who will never hire you.
Searches we left out, and why
Keyword Planner returned 1,000 ideas for our plumbing seed terms. We removed boiler brand and merchant searches (Worcester, Vaillant, Baxi, British Gas, City Plumbing, Victoria Plumbing and others), DIY searches with no sign the person wants to hire, such as "unblock a toilet" and "blocked sink", directory searches such as "checkatrade plumbers", and local business names.
We also merged wordings that Google reports with identical figures. "plumbers close to me" has the same volume and bids as "plumber near me", so the table keeps the clearer one. Volumes for wordings Google groups together are not added twice.
Method and source
We pulled the data from Google Keyword Planner through the Google Ads API (keyword ideas), using Scalepoint’s own Google Ads account, on 30 October 2026. Settings: location United Kingdom, language English, Google Search only. Seed terms: plumber, plumber near me, emergency plumber, blocked drain, boiler repair, boiler installation, leaking tap and burst pipe. Keyword Planner returned 1,000 ideas; the table keeps only the searches where the person wants to hire someone, and ranks them by monthly searches.
Want these searches working for your business? Scalepoint runs Google Ads for UK trades at £495 a month, with ad spend paid to Google at cost, month to month and no lock-in.
In summary
The UK’s biggest plumbing searches are "plumber near me" (about 90,500 a month) and "plumber" (60,500). Boiler work adds 73,900 searches a month across eleven terms, and emergency searches carry the highest bids, up to £51.62 at the top of the page. Group your ads, service pages and Google Business Profile services by job type to match.
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