As a home service company, your business offers a number of important services to homeowners in your area. The problem is, you’re just one in a sea of many other companies that have similar offerings. So, how do you stand out from the competition? Of course, offering incredible workmanship and customer service is key. But another element you can’t overlook is the importance of utilizing local SEO solutions to grow your business.
What are Local SEO Solutions?
Before we discuss exactly what we mean by local SEO solutions, let’s recap what SEO means in the first place.
SEO, or search engine marketing, is, as Search Engine Land explains:
“In simple terms, it means the process of improving your site to increase its visibility when people search for products or services related to your business in Google, Bing, and other search engines. The better visibility your pages have in search results, the more likely you are to garner attention and attract prospective and existing customers to your business.”
Business owners love using SEO to grow their business because it’s something that can be done for less (or no) money, unlike PPC ads which require spending money. That being said, the benefits of SEO often take longer to appear, while PPC results can be evident right away. This is why a combination of both PPC and SEO is encouraged for most businesses.
And when it comes to SEO, one of the options you’ll want to consider is known as local SEO. Essentially, it means applying the same strategies in an organic SEO campaign but tailoring them to local search engine results. This means things like including the city where your business operates in the content you create and share, for example.
Home service companies benefit significantly from local SEO services. With these services in place, their content and ads can effectively target consumers in the area they operate.
Understanding local SEO
Let’s dig a bit deeper into the specifics of local SEO.
Here’s how MailChimp explains local organic search results:
“After analyzing the behavior of users during trillions of searches, Google figured out that people seeking certain types of businesses need results from their immediate area. That’s why Google’s local search algorithm includes a proximity factor, which is a fancy way of saying that Google takes your location into account when you search for a local keyword (a query with local intent). This happens even when the searcher doesn’t include a city name or “near me” in their search.”
How Can Local SEO Solutions Help Grow My Home Service Company?
Now let’s talk more about exactly what these services can do for your business.
Boosting online visibility
Visibility is everything in this day and age. And when it comes to operating a successful business, it simply can’t be overlooked.
With the help of local SEO solutions, you’re giving yourself the chance to show up first in search engine results. Even if consumers aren’t necessarily clicking on your website, they’re still seeing your business name. This helps them get more familiar with your brand and your services. Over time, this goes a long way to boost your brand visibility!
Increasing local sales
Of course, you also want to implement a strategy that helps you grow your business and generate more sales. And that’s just what local SEO can do. When you have a Google My Business account and other methods to help more local customers find your business, you’ll notice your sales grow!
Outranking your competitors
We already mentioned how competitive home service companies can be, but this is something you already know firsthand as a business owner yourself. As such, you’re always looking for ways to help you stand out from your competitors and make customers choose you over other businesses.
With the help of local SEO solutions, you’re giving yourself the best opportunity to outrank your competitors on Google search results. As such, they’re more likely to click on your website simply because they see it first.
Generating web traffic
A study from Search Engine Watch had some incredible findings: 63 percent of people use multiple devices to find a local business.
But wait, there’s more:
“Four out of five searches via mobile devices lead to a purchase, often within a few hours, the survey said. Compared with other devices, the mobile phone showed the highest conversion rate, with nearly 80 percent of mobile phone searches ending in a purchase. And, nearly three out of four of those mobile phone searches that converted brought the customer into a brick-and-mortar store.”
All of this information is meant to emphasize the importance of showing up in local search engine results when people nearby search for the services you offer. And the way to do that is with local SEO solutions.
Components of Local SEO
Now let’s explore the different components of local SEO solutions to help you understand how to implement this strategy into your own marketing efforts.
Google My Business
Google My Business is one of, if not the most, important elements of local SEO solutions. With this free service, you can enter important information about your business that appears when local users search for the services you offer.
For starters, you can include your URL and business name. But it also gives you the opportunity to add a variety of other information about your business, including:
- Business photos
- Videos
- Phone numbers
- Business hours
- Delivery/services areas, and links to reservation services
It’s important to keep a close eye on your Google My Business listing. Users can suggest edits to your profile, and if these edits are correct, you risk confusing other customers.
Among the other uses of a Google My Business profile, you can do things like answer frequently asked questions and directly respond to views. You can also send and receive direct messages to help you interact with users, while also sharing offers, events, and informative posts.
Click here to read more about the Google Maps component of this local SEO solution.
Content Marketing/Social Media
There are also several ways to implement local SEO solutions directly within your content marketing and social media marketing efforts.
Notably, you can include strategic keywords that help local consumers find your business and services. For example, Blue Water Marketing is an eCommerce and B2C service digital marketing company based in Stuart, FL. By including that information in this blog post, people who search for such a company in that location will have an easier time finding us.
So, you’ll want to do things like including the city or town name where your business operates in your social media content or other content (including blogs) that you create. You can also use long-tail keywords for things like “home service companies in [city name]” to help you show up in local search results.
Web Design
Next, you’ll want to consider designing your website strategically to help boost local search engine results.
For starters, you want to be sure your website is modern, fast, and easy to navigate. Each of these factors plays a big role in helping your site appear higher in search engine results. At the same time, you can’t overlook the importance of including SEO-rich content on your website.
And this doesn’t just mean your blog posts! Your website is packed with other opportunities for content creation. This includes the content on each of your web pages, as well as meta descriptions, title tags, and more.
To get started, we encourage you to look further into E-A-T, part of Google’s search algorithm.
We talk more about it in this post, and share this info directly from Google about what makes a high-quality site:
“High-quality pages exist for almost any beneficial purpose, from giving information to making people laugh to expressing oneself artistically to purchasing products or services online. What makes a High-quality page? A High-quality page should have a beneficial purpose and achieve that purpose well.
- In addition, High-quality pages have the following characteristics:
- High level of Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-A-T).
- A satisfying amount of high-quality MC, including a descriptive or helpful title.
- Satisfying website information and/or information about who is responsible for the website. If the page is primarily for shopping or includes financial transactions, then it should have satisfying customer service information.
- Positive website reputation for a website that is responsible for the MC on the page.
- Positive reputation of the creator of the MC, if different from that of the website.”
Those are helpful tips for creating a high-quality website, including one with strategic content with your local SEO solutions in mind.
What Goes Into Smart Local SEO Solutions?
Speaking of local SEO solutions, now let’s talk more about creating your smart SEO strategy to get more leads for your home services business.
Keyword research
Whether you’re focusing on local SEO solutions, organic, or both, keyword research is the backbone of much of this. In fact, at Blue Water Marketing, identifying important keywords for your business that will generate revenue is our #1 goal. After all, there’s no sense in ranking for a keyword that doesn’t convert.
Higher search rankings for the right keywords will have an enormous impact on the amount of traffic and quality of traffic that home services website receives. When relevant searches for your business are made, our goal is that the search includes your company’s website.
Customer reviews
Remember what we mentioned about customer reviews on your Google My Business account?
These are helpful for a number of reasons. For starters, they instill confidence in other potential customers when they can see an unbiased review of your services. At the same time, it also gives you the opportunity to keep your finger on the pulse of your business and identify any issues.
It’s incredibly important to address any negative reviews as quickly as possible. This includes writing a thoughtful response rather than lashing out at the negative review. But it’s not only negative reviews you should respond to! Be sure to thank customers who leave positive reviews as well.
The more reviews your business has, the better. Additionally, if you react and respond to these on a regular basis, it goes a long way toward boosting your rankings.
Backlinking and link building
Backlinking is another critical component of local SEO solutions. It involves getting links back to your site from other sites.
Let’s use an example to highlight how this works.
Say you offer window cleaning services in Stuart, FL. One way to create backlinks for your business would involve collaborating with a window finishing company in the area. They could create a blog post highlighting your services and linking back to your site. This is incredibly useful for improving your rankings because it helps establish your authority.
Take a look at this post for some other creative ways to build backlinks for your business.
PPC ads
Finally, let’s talk about using pay-per-click ads for generating leads. Certain local SEO solutions, including Google My Business, don’t require a financial investment. Others, including PPC ads, do. However, that investment can pay off in a big way.
When you have strategic PPC campaigns in place, you can ensure your business shows up at the top when people search for businesses like yours in their area.
In combination with organic SEO, you’ll have a comprehensive marketing strategy in place with PPC marketing.
Local SEO Solutions from Blue Water Marketing
Are you ready to find out what strategic and professional local SEO solutions can do for your business? Blue Water Marketing is here to help. We take control of every aspect of your content marketing and SEO efforts, ensuring you get the most value for your investment. Not to mention, this means you’ll get a lot of time back for yourself to run your business when you’re not left fussing over SEO.
Our work embodies design, technology, content, and marketing. We are focused on helping businesses achieve goals using white-hat SEO techniques and affordable local SEO services. Blue Water Marketing creates custom SEO campaigns for increased rankings, lead generation, and higher revenue.
So, what are you waiting for? Schedule a call today to find out how we can get your business to the top of Google’s search engine results page!
