A note first
Hey brother. I've been building a system for making websites for local businesses, and I needed a real business to test it on. Funnily enough I was thinking of you because I saw your FB ad haha, so I hope that's alright. Technically it's 2 systems, one that builds websites and one that does more of the business ops type tasks. Anyway! While I was at it, I looked properly at how your website shows up on Google, and I found a few things that jump out to me.
Zero sales pitch here mate, I just froth for this stuff so thought I would spin something up for you. And tbh most of it you can fix yourselves in Squarespace, a lot of it in an afternoon, and I've written out every step. The one at the top is an issue with your QR code page. That would be the first thing I'd change.
Whoever built your site did a good job of the hard part, it definitely isn't easy to do this stuff! I love the trucks, I love how it tells your story, and it's got real photos. Also, that latest photo with your young fella is insanely cute!
What's missing is mostly the behind-the-scenes stuff Google reads, which no one tells you about when you set up a Squarespace site.
What you've already got going for you
Plenty, and some of it can't be copied.
- Real photos of your own trucks. Liveried, with your number on the door. It shows you turn up, and nobody else can use them.
- You answer the phone yourselves. Your site says it plainly, and it's what people want when their tank is empty.
- A Google Business Profile with five 5-star reviews, the right phone number and your hours. That's the foundation for showing up on the map.
- Your site comes up first when someone searches your name.
- SA Health's register of drinking water providers lists "Adelaide Water Supplier". This could be one of the strongest things you can say, and tbh most of your competitors don't say it.
Fix this one first: the QR code on your trucks
The QR code on your trucks opens a page on your website. That page still has two lines left over from the Squarespace template:
Phone (555) 555-555
Hours Monday to Friday 10am to 6pm
So someone standing next to your truck, interested enough to scan the code, gets a phone number that doesn't exist and the wrong hours. That's a customer at the moment they're most ready to ring you.
It's the quickest fix on this page: change those two lines to 0438 131 677 and your real hours. Step by step is in the playbook, item 1. Then scan the code on a truck with your phone to check it.
How Google decides who to show
When someone searches "water delivery Adelaide Hills", Google shows three things:
- A map with a few businesses on it. Google says it picks these on how well a business matches the search, how close it is, and how well known it is. Reviews count towards that last one.
- A list of websites underneath. Google looks for a page that is about exactly what was searched. A page about pool filling for a pool search. A page about water cart hire for a hire search.
- More and more, an AI summary at the top. It quotes the websites that answer the question most directly.
Why it snowballs
The problems don't just add up, they feed each other:
- Google can't tell what a page is for, so it doesn't show it for that search.
- A page that isn't shown gets no clicks and no calls from it.
- No calls means fewer jobs, so fewer reviews.
- Fewer reviews means less of a chance on the map.
- Meanwhile the businesses that do show up get the calls and the reviews, and show up even more.
The good news is it works the same way in reverse. Fix the basics, and each fix helps the next one.
What I found on your site
Checked on 3 October 2026. Grouped by what I would rate as the priorities for you.
1. Some people can't reach you
The QR page above. And the Shop and Gallery links in the footer, which are on every page, go to "page not found". Small, but a visitor who clicks one wonders if the business is still going.
2. You don't come up for most of the searches people make
Tank top ups, pools, stock and dams, and emergency water all share one Residential page. When someone searches "pool water delivery Adelaide" or "emergency water delivery Adelaide", Google looks for a page about that, and you don't have one. In my searches, every business that came up had a page for the exact thing searched.
3. Google can't tell what each page is about
Every page should have one main heading that says what it's about. On your home page the main heading is "Fast. Clean." and "Reliable. Water.", split into two. It's a great slogan, but it doesn't tell Google you do water cartage, or where. Your Residential, Our Story and Get in Touch pages aren't carrying a main heading at all, and Civil Hire has three, from the scrolling "Enquire Today" banner.
The page titles that show in Google are a bit muddled too, like "Get in Touch | Get in Touch Today". And the pages you do have are a little short, around 170 to 300 words each, so there isn't much for Google to go on. Google doesn't set a word count, but it can only show a page for what's actually written on it. For comparison, the 24/7 service pages that beat you run about 480 to 640 words.
4. The details Google reads behind the scenes are empty
Squarespace builds a hidden block of business details that Google reads, called structured data (or schema): your name, phone, area and hours. On your site it's there but empty: no name, phone, address or hours in it. The most likely reason is that Squarespace's Business Information settings were never filled in, which takes fifteen minutes.
5. An old number and old links are still out there
When I checked, a Google result from an older version of your site showed a second number, 0449 170 273. Most people won't see it, because it only turns up when Google shows that old result. But if that number isn't yours any more, it's potentially sending people to the wrong place, so it's worth a quick search. Some old page addresses from that site also still turn up in search, and now lead to "page not found".
What we searched, and who came up
I searched these on Google from Adelaide, in a private window so my own history didn't change the results. This is a snapshot from one day. Results move around, but the pattern was the same in every search.
| Search | On the map | Top websites | You |
|---|---|---|---|
| water cartage adelaide | Adelaide Hills Water Transport (10 reviews), Waterman Cartage (2), Adelaide Hills Bulk Spring Water (16) | 24/7 Local Water Carting, Adelaide Hills Water Transport, Adelaide Hills Bulk Spring Water | Not shown |
| water delivery Adelaide Hills | Adelaide Hills Bulk Spring Water (16), Adelaide Hills Water Transport (10), Andy's Water Transport (28) | Adelaide Hills Water Transport, Adelaide Hills Bulk Spring Water, Mount Lofty Springs | Not shown |
| emergency water delivery Adelaide | Adelaide Hills Bulk Spring Water, 24/7 Local Water Carting (11) | 24/7 Local Water Carting, Andy's Water, Adelaide Hills Bulk Spring Water | Not shown |
| pool water delivery Adelaide | Mount Lofty Springs, Andy's Water Transport, Greenhill Spring Water | Adelaide Hills Bulk Spring Water (its pool refills page), 24/7 Local Water Carting | Not shown |
| water cart hire Adelaide | 24/7 Local Water Carting (11), Ozzie Water Carts | 24/7 (its water cart hire page), Kennards, Dry Hire Online, Coates | Not shown |
| water cartage Barossa | 24/7 Local Water Carting, Boutique Tankers (2) | 24/7 (its Barossa page), Boutique Tankers, Adelaide Hills Water Transport | Not shown |
What the businesses that came up have in common
- A page for the exact thing searched. 24/7 has a water cart hire page and a Barossa page. Adelaide Hills Bulk Spring Water has a pool refills page, and Google's AI summary quoted it.
- A few more reviews. The map spots went to businesses with 10 to 28 reviews. You have 5 currently that I can see. That's actually the simplest win for you I think, and there are systems, both manual and automated, you can put in place for that.
- Headings and titles that say the job and the place, like "Adelaide Water Cart Hire Services".
Where they've cut corners
Honestly... they aren't doing anything clever, they're actually pretty shit. A few have taken shortcuts that Google is built to see through over time, but right now it has no better option to show customers, so it shows them:
- Copied town pages. 24/7's Barossa page and its Two Wells page are 92% the same words with the town swapped. The Barossa page spells it "Baross?" and lists suburbs near Two Wells as its neighbours. It still came first for "water cartage Barossa", which tells you how low the bar is right now.
- Even more copies. Adelaide Sweepers has 175 town pages. Their Goolwa and Finniss water carting pages are word for word identical.
- Thin pages and broken headings. Andy's Water has a page for each job, but its emergency page is under 150 words and the main headings are empty.
How big is the gap, honestly?
Small. Nobody here has done it properly. The businesses beating you have a page for each job, a handful more reviews, and the basics filled in. You've got better photos, a real family story, and the SA Health listing. Do the playbook, and you'd be level with them on the basics and ahead of them on the things they can't copy.
An honest caveat: nobody outside Google knows exactly how it ranks businesses, and no one can promise a position. But every fix here is something Google says it looks for.
The playbook
Every fix, in order, with the exact clicks in Squarespace and roughly how long each takes. It's on its own page so you can print it out or tick things off as you go.
The first seven take an afternoon between you. Then there's one habit that matters more than anything else: asking every customer for a Google review.
Open the playbookWhat it can look like when it's all done
This is the test site I built for my system, using your business. Have a look on your phone as well as a computer. Everything on it came from your current website, so if something is wrong, I'd actually love for you to tell me, because that is useful for me to calibrate things on my end.
Open the example site
What's different, and why
- Every page opens with what you do, where, and a big call button, before anyone scrolls. Someone whose tank is empty is ready to ring the moment they land, so the number is the first thing they see.
- A page for each job: tank water, emergency water, pool water, stock and dams, and water cart hire. Each one answers the questions people actually ask, like the smallest load, how far the hose reaches and how many loads a pool needs.
- One clear main heading on every page, saying the job and the place. Titles in Google that say the same.
- Your own photos, each with a description Google can read.
- The behind-the-scenes details filled in: your name, number, hours and the areas you cover, plus the common questions marked up so Google can show them.
- It looks like your trucks: the same blues, and the wave from the livery.
You can do most of this in Squarespace yourselves. The example is there more to highlight what "done" could look like, not to replace your site. Also, you can literally copy and paste anything you want if you like the wording haha, have at it!
A few things to know about the example
- It's private. It's just for the two of you, hidden from Google so it won't compete with your real site, and I can leave it up as long as you need. Copy and paste anything from it.
- The contact form isn't connected to anything, so anything sent through it goes nowhere. There's a note on the page saying so.
- The grey boxes on the pool and stock pages are where a photo of yours would go.
- I wrote it from what's on your site, so some details might be out of date: your hours, the fleet, the SA Health listing. Anything wrong, let me know.