Build Your Trade Network on TradeKind

Most trades do not work in isolation.

A decorator may regularly use the same electrician. A builder may know a plumber they trust. A roofer may work alongside a scaffolder. A letting agent may repeatedly bring together several independent businesses.

TradeKind's Your Trade Network lets you show those genuine working relationships publicly.

Done properly, it can make your business more useful to homeowners, create additional referral routes between real trades and add meaningful connections between TradeKind profiles.

Last reviewed: September 2026 against TradeKind's current Your Network implementation and current Google Search guidance.

What Your Trade Network is

Your Trade Network is for independent businesses you genuinely know, work with or are happy to recommend.

It is not your staff list. Staff belong in Your Team.

Examples of sensible Network connections might include:

• a decorator who regularly works with an electrician;
• a builder and the plumber used on extension projects;
• a roofer and scaffolder who frequently work together;
• a property-maintenance business and specialist trades it genuinely calls on;
• two trades that confidently refer appropriate jobs to each other.

A Network connection should represent something you would be comfortable explaining to a homeowner.

Why building a genuine Network is worthwhile

Homeowners can discover related businesses

Your main TradeKind business profile can show a Team & Trade Network section.

Public Network partners can appear there with links to their own business profiles.

That means somebody who discovers one business can have another legitimate route to discover a related trade.

For example, a homeowner looking at a decorator may also see the electrician that decorator regularly works with or recommends.

That can create useful referral traffic without turning TradeKind into a random link directory.

Your Network can have its own public page

Once created and approved, Your Network has its own URL, for example:

tradekind.co.uk/fleet/example-business-network

TradeKind quality-gates whether a Network page should be indexable.

A useful public Network page needs:

• an owning business that already passes TradeKind's search-quality gate;
• a meaningful Network description;
• at least one substantive Team member or genuine public trade relationship.

This creates the opportunity for another genuinely useful page associated with your business rather than another location-swapped SEO page.

Real relationships give search and AI systems more context

A genuine Network can create clear factual connections such as:

Decorator → regularly works with → Electrician

Builder → recommends → Plumber

Business A → part of a local working relationship → Business B

Clear public relationships give search and AI systems more factual context about which businesses are connected, creating more opportunities for the right business to be understood and discovered when those systems surface relevant local information.

Google's current AI Search guidance continues to emphasise normal search eligibility and useful original information rather than a separate AI-only technical setup.

A Trade Network does not need to be written for a robot. Make it useful to a homeowner first. The machine-readable benefit comes from the fact that the relationships are genuine, clear and connected to real public business pages.

It can create referral opportunities from other TradeKind profiles

A connection is controlled by the business that owns the Network.

Adding another trade to your Network does not automatically place you on their page.

But where the relationship is genuinely two-way, the other business can add your business to their own Trade Network too.

If both businesses choose to publish the relationship, each has an opportunity to appear through the other's TradeKind Network surfaces.

That is the closest equivalent to saying:

"These are trades we regularly work with."

For the right businesses, that can mean another route for a homeowner to find you even when they originally landed on somebody else's TradeKind profile.

Where to find Your Trade Network

Sign in to TradeKind and go to:

Dashboard → Your Network → Your Trade Network

Or open:

Open Your Network in the TradeKind dashboard

The same dashboard area also contains Your Team, but the two features serve different purposes.

Make your Network page useful

Before adding lots of businesses, write a useful Network description.

Explain how the Network relates to your real work.

For example:

We are a Worthing decorating business and regularly work alongside local electricians, carpenters and plasterers on refurbishment projects. This Network shows independent trades we genuinely know, have worked with or are comfortable recommending where their services fit the job.

That tells a homeowner why the page exists.

Avoid:

Best trades Worthing electrician plumber builder painter Sussex trades.

A list of keywords is not a description of a real working network.

Do this now: Open Your Network and write or improve the public Network description so a homeowner can understand what the connections mean.

Add a genuine trade relationship

In Your Trade Network, you can search approved TradeKind businesses by:

• business name;
• town;
• category.

Choose a business you genuinely know.

You can add:

• an optional role such as "Recommended Electrician";
• a public note explaining how you work together.

A useful public note might say:

We regularly work alongside ABC Electrical on refurbishment and decorating projects where electrical alterations are needed before finishing.

Or:

We have worked with XYZ Scaffolding on exterior decorating projects and are happy to recommend them where suitable scaffolding is required.

The note should describe the relationship, not make claims you cannot support.

New connections start private. Only make the relationship public when it is genuine and the other business is happy to be listed.

Do this now: Add one genuine TradeKind business you regularly work with or would confidently recommend, add a short relationship note and make it public only with their agreement.

Build two-way visibility where it is real

If you regularly work together, it can be useful for the other business to add you to its Network as well.

This is not automatic and should not become a compulsory "you link to me, I link to you" scheme.

The reason to do it is simple: the relationship is real in both directions.

For example:

• your decorator Network lists the electrician you regularly use;
• the electrician's Network lists your decorating business because they regularly work with you too.

Now homeowners arriving through either business have more ways to understand the working relationship and reach the other profile.

This is much stronger than exchanging unrelated links because the public connection reflects how the businesses actually work.

Do this now: If one of your regular trade relationships is genuinely mutual, ask whether they would like to add your business to their own TradeKind Network too.

If the trade is not on TradeKind yet

Your Network dashboard includes an invite option.

You can send a genuine trade a one-off invitation to join TradeKind.

They create and control their own business profile. They still need to be approved before they can appear publicly in your Trade Network.

This can be useful when the people you actually work with are not yet listed.

Do not invite random businesses simply to make the Network look larger.

Your Network can generate social content too

A genuine working relationship gives you something useful to talk about.

Examples:

Project collaboration

Working alongside ABC Electrical again this week on a Worthing refurbishment before we complete the decorating.

Trade recommendation

We are often asked if we know a local plasterer. XYZ Plastering is one of the independent Sussex trades in our TradeKind Network that we know through real local work.

Completed project

This room involved electrical alterations before decorating, completed alongside ABC Electrical.

Where appropriate, tag the real business or link to the relevant TradeKind page.

That creates useful local content based on real work, rather than another generic "we cover Sussex" post.

Share your public Network page

Once your business is approved and the Network exists, the dashboard shows your public Network URL.

TradeKind currently lets you:

• copy the Network link;
• open the public page;
• share it by email.

You can also use the URL naturally on your website, social media or in relevant customer communications.

A public Network page can be especially useful for businesses that regularly coordinate multiple trades because it gives homeowners one page explaining the people and businesses around that work.

Keep the Network honest and current

Remove a connection if:

• you no longer know or work with the business;
• the recommendation is no longer appropriate;
• the other business no longer wants the relationship shown;
• the public note is no longer accurate.

Do not add businesses because they are popular, because their profile has authority or simply because you want more links.

A smaller Network of real relationships is more valuable to a homeowner than a large list of strangers.

If you do not currently have a Trade Network

You can mark the Network actions Not for my business and continue.

But think about how your work actually happens before skipping it.

Many sole traders do not employ staff but do regularly work with other independent trades. Your Trade Network is designed for exactly that situation.

Next, use Share Your TradeKind Profile and Get Seen Locally to make your main public profile easier for customers and contacts to pass on.