Checkatrade and Google serve different jobs. Here is how they compare and which deserves your attention first.
Checkatrade and Google both shape your reputation, but they pull different levers. One decides whether customers find you; the other builds a specific kind of trust. Where you focus depends on how your customers behave.
Google reviews reach the widest local audience, while Checkatrade reaches UK homeowners who are actively hiring a verified tradesperson. Checkatrade's audience has already decided to hire — they are comparing vetted traders, not browsing casually.
Google reviews feed the Map Pack and local rankings, so they drive broad discovery. Checkatrade ranks within its hiring marketplace and influences which pros homeowners shortlist, so it converts the in-market audience that Google sends you.
Lead with Google for broad reach and discovery. Build Checkatrade as a primary trust signal for UK home-services work, where its verification badge and review system are well-known to homeowners and carry real hiring weight.
Treating this as an either-or choice is the mistake, because your customers use several platforms. You do not have to pick one and abandon the rest; you have to manage them without drowning in tabs. Saint Aura sends each customer to the destination you choose and brings every platform's reviews into one dashboard, so you can keep Google strong while building the others in parallel.
Saint Aura makes it easier for customers to share their real experience — through a QR-based guided flow, in their own language, with an AI-assisted draft they can edit before posting.
