Which Australian trades are best and worst documented

Short answer

Across 15 trades, the amount of verifiable evidence a business publishes varies more than twofold. Garage Door Specialists are the most likely to publish a confirmable ABN at 17.9%; tilers the least at 7.2%.

The same five checks, run against every trade. The differences between trades are much larger than the differences between states, which is the more interesting result.

TradenABNPhone ✓Phone ✗Site loadsCorroboratedMedian reviews
Builders4,96011.4%45.1%5.2%75.5%98.9%8
Electricians2,95914.8%43.6%4.5%64.9%95.2%21
Plumbers1,92315.7%46.5%6.7%70.9%87.6%30
Heating & Cooling1,58514.8%43.6%6.3%71.7%91.6%33
Gardeners & Landscapers1,4189.2%44.3%3.5%68.3%98.5%11
Solar Installers1,21213.6%38.3%6.3%72.3%93.5%45
Pool Services1,1638.8%39.7%6.6%72.2%97%40
Painters87713%41%5.6%68.8%98.5%16
Roofers83516.2%48.5%5.1%70.2%96.8%16
Pest Controllers82711.5%42.6%8.6%68.9%88.3%39
Fencing Contractors79311.1%48.7%5%73.1%99.5%14
Arborists63013.3%49.7%4.4%67.5%92.2%27
Locksmiths57015.3%43.2%6.1%69.5%87.5%74
Garage Door Specialists47617.9%50.6%7.8%72.5%87.2%48
Tilers4757.2%43.4%3.6%65.1%97.3%18

What stands out

  • Garage Door Specialists publish a confirmable ABN 2.5× more often than tilers.
  • Pest Controllers have the highest rate of phone numbers contradicting their own website, at 8.6%.
  • Corroboration is high and consistent everywhere — 95% overall — because it depends on independent mapping data rather than on what the business chooses to publish.

That last point is worth drawing out. The checks that depend on a business publishing something about itself have poor and uneven coverage. The check that depends on independent sources has near-universal coverage. Which is an argument for weighting the second one heavily, and it is weighted heavily.

Common questions

Which Australian trade publishes the most verifiable information?
On ABN publication, Garage Door Specialists lead at 17.9%. Corroboration by independent sources is high across every trade at around 95%, because it does not depend on what a business chooses to publish.

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