When do customers search for contractors? The busy season for 12 trades
Updated: October 13, 2026
Customers do not search for contractors evenly over the year. In 30 US cities, searches for "hvac" plus the city doubled from November 2025 to March 2026. This page shows the busiest and slowest month for 12 trades, taken from our contractor search demand study. It also shows what you can do before your busy month starts.
Your trade in your city
The months in your city can differ from the 30-city total. Choose your trade and your city to see each month.
A typical city runs from 260 searches a month for Painting to 4,900 for Moving.
- Moving4,900
- Plumbing3,600
- Pest control1,900
- HVAC1,600
- Electrical1,300
- House cleaning1,300
- Junk removal1,300
- Roofing1,300
- Garage door repair1,150
- Landscaping1,000
- Water damage restoration390
- Painting260
Median city for each trade
| Trade | Median searches a month | Busiest month | Click price (median) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moving | 4,900 | 7,350 searches in January 2026 and February 2026 | $23.89 |
| Plumbing | 3,600 | 4,400 searches in September 2025, February 2026 and March 2026 | $35.60 |
| Pest control | 1,900 | 2,900 searches in September 2025 | $30.91 |
| HVAC | 1,600 | 1,900 searches in March 2026 | $25.01 |
| Electrical | 1,300 | 1,750 searches in March 2026 | $15.82 |
| House cleaning | 1,300 | 2,150 searches in March 2026 | $10.83 |
| Junk removal | 1,300 | 1,600 searches in March 2026 and June 2026 | $16.93 |
| Roofing | 1,300 | 1,600 searches in September 2025, October 2025 and March 2026 | $14.75 |
| Garage door repair | 1,150 | 1,450 searches in September 2025 | $43.38 |
| Landscaping | 1,000 | 1,600 searches in September 2025, March 2026 and April 2026 | $8.69 |
| Water damage restoration | 390 | 480 searches in September 2025 and March 2026 | $29.09 |
| Painting | 260 | 320 searches in March 2026 | $13.31 |
Source: Local Reputation HQ (2026), Contractor Search Demand. Google Ads keyword data via DataForSEO, Sep 2025 to Aug 2026, rounded estimates. Each bar is one trade in one place. The line is that trade's median city. Download the data (CSV)
Busiest and slowest month by trade
| Trade | Busiest month | Slowest month | Busiest against slowest |
|---|---|---|---|
| House cleaning | September 2025 | August 2026 | 2.2 times |
| HVAC | March 2026 | November 2025 | 2.0 times |
| Pest control | September 2025 | December 2025 | 2.0 times |
| Moving | September 2025 | November 2025 | 2.0 times |
| Electrical | March 2026 | December 2025 | 2.0 times |
| Landscaping | April 2026 | December 2025 | 1.9 times |
| Water damage restoration | September 2025 | November 2025 | 1.8 times |
| Roofing | March 2026 | August 2026 | 1.7 times |
| Plumbing | March 2026 | August 2026 | 1.6 times |
| Garage door repair | January 2026 | August 2026 | 1.6 times |
| Junk removal | September 2025 | November 2025 | 1.4 times |
| Painting | March 2026 | August 2026 | 1.3 times |
Source: Google Ads keyword data via DataForSEO, Sep 2025 to Aug 2026, rounded estimates. Download the data (CSV)
Five trades had their busiest month in March 2026: plumbing, HVAC, roofing, electrical and painting. Moving, pest control, house cleaning, junk removal and water damage restoration peaked in September 2025. That is the first month of the data, so their real peak may lie earlier. Garage door repair peaked in January 2026 and landscaping in April 2026.
The swing differs by trade. In house cleaning the busiest month had 2.2 times the searches of the slowest. HVAC, pest control, moving and electrical had about twice as many. Painting (1.3 times) and junk removal (1.4 times) swing the least.
One business per trade per metro. Ask whether yours is open
What to do before your busy month
- Collect reviews in the months before. Customers who compare contractors in the busy month see the reviews you have by then. How to ask within Google's rules is in how to get more Google reviews. How many reviews contractors in your trade have is in how many Google reviews a contractor needs.
- Check your Business Profile. Make sure your hours, services and phone number are current before searches rise.
- Plan any ad budget by month. If you advertise, more people search in the busy month. Urgent jobs cost more per click: "emergency plumber" has a median click price of 84.79 dollars against 35.60 for "plumber". The click price is the average amount advertisers have paid per click, as the keyword data reports it; Google defines the actual cost-per-click as the final amount an advertiser is charged for a click (Google Ads Help: Actual cost-per-click).
- Use the slow months for work that takes time, such as pages for your main jobs and photos of finished work. What a contractor website needs is in plumbing website design and electrician website design.
What the calendar cannot show
- One year only. The data covers September 2025 to August 2026. It cannot show whether the same months are busiest every year.
- Searches with a city name only. Searches without a city, or with other words, are not counted (how the numbers were produced).
- Searches are not jobs. A search is not a customer who hires, and a person may search several times.
- Rounded estimates. Google rounds keyword figures, so read them as a size comparison, not as a count (Google Ads Help: About Keyword Planner forecasts).
What each lead channel costs is in how to get contractor leads. There is also a guide per trade for plumbing, HVAC, roofing, electrical, junk removal and water damage.
Sources
Is your trade open in your metro?
We run exclusive local lead sites: one business per trade per metro. Tell us your trade and metro. If it's open, we build the site for your area, and every inquiry from it goes to you alone.