Standing out as a business in this day and age can feel impossible. Every niche has a litany of competition within, all vying for the same customer base. How is a business supposed to stand out and maximize its chance of landing the next job?
Housecall Pro is here to help. Using home services SEO, your business can reach its target audience more effectively, generate more leads, and convert more of those leads into dollars toward the bottom line.
What is SEO?
First thing first: what is SEO? Short for Search Engine Optimization, home services SEO is about properly optimizing your business website in order to garner higher rankings from search engines. The most organic way that customers find business services is through search engines like Google and Bing.
Those search engines – primarily Google, since it controls more than 90% of web searches – use crawlers to pore over the thousands upon thousands of websites online. Those crawlers search for the most relevant and helpful sites, presenting them to a user when they conduct a search.
Though that is a higher-level view of SEO, there are two main subsections to be aware of: on-page SEO and off-page SEO.
On-Page SEO
The focus of on-page SEO is solely about optimizing content to improve your website’s overall search engine rankings. This relates to the singular pages on a website, be it through service pages (more on that below) or blog posts.
In each page/post, things like internal links, title tags, URL structure, and readability of content will need to be considered. Target keywords also need to be implemented but in a limited way. Google has been punishing sites that spam keywords, so it has to be done with a specific number in mind, depending on the word count of the page.
Off-Page SEO
Off-page SEO is about boosting the searchability of your website through other means. Following SEO best practices, using social media and content marketing strategies, and building backlinks with other reputable sources is a fantastic place to start.
The goal of off-page SEO is to build the credibility and authority of the site. Google searches for the most relevant and helpful information when a user performs a search. By building the credibility of your site, specific searches will stand a much greater chance of coming up than others.
Technical SEO
While the aforementioned SEO methods are most important, there is a third category to be aware of and that is technical SEO. These are the things that users may not necessarily see which can have a direct impact on search rankings.
Website speed is perhaps the most important part of technical SEO, but not the only one. Website security, mobile-friendly searches, creating a clear web page hierarchy, and more are all part of improving the user experience and boosting search engine performance.
What is SEO for Home Services?
Home services SEO is just a niche aspect of SEO, as a whole. SEO for home services is the strategic optimization of your business website to rank highly in search engine results for businesses like electrical work, landscaping, HVAC, pest control, cleaning services, etc.
Think of your website as a brochure for your business. It should showcase what services are offered, pricing, contact information, and any other relevant information the customer could possibly need. Most importantly, it has to attract leads for the business.
Using home services SEO, a business website can be optimized to garner higher rankings in relevant keyword searches. All of which puts more eyeballs from within the target audience on that business website.
Why is SEO Important for Home Service Businesses?
Regardless of your business of choice, competition is going to be heavy. For things like home services, results are going to come back that give the customer plenty of options. SEO can help to ensure that your business is one of the first few that comes up in those searches.
Failing to land on the first page of a Google keyword search is devastating considering most people don’t click past that first page. Landing on the top page, and in the top handful of results, ensures that the most eyeballs possible will see that business and its services.
Most important of all is standing out among a sea of competitors. With the right SEO strategies in mind, your business can rank highly among relevant keywords and get in front of more eyes than would have otherwise been possible.
Home Services SEO Benefits
Understanding the importance of home SEO services is a good place to start, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. For businesses of all sizes, learning the benefits of a particular tool or strategy can be the best place to start.
As it turns out, there is a litany of benefits to be garnered from SEO for home services. If you haven’t really given SEO a second thought for your business website, check out the most relevant benefits and see what you’ve been missing out on.
Cost-Effective
Perhaps the most appealing thing about SEO services to business owners is how cost-effective it is. Businesses are all about value and there is little doubt that SEO provides that in spades. There are different campaigns that can be tailored to any budget, delivering a higher return on investment (ROI) than other marketing methods.
Even a small business with limited room regarding overhead will find SEO to be a manageable tool. Just about any business looking to spend less money but have longer-lasting results will find out quickly that SEO is a worthwhile investment.
Reach Your Audience
At the heart of it, having a business website is about reaching your business’s target audience. While it would be nice to reach everyone out there, it simply isn’t feasible. But reaching your specific target audience – those most likely to use your services – is the most important of all.
Learning about who your target audience is, what they are looking for, what kind of content they consume, and how to specifically target their views is what SEO is all about. Finding a strategy that effectively reaches that target audience is the difference between a floundering business and a successful one.
Stand Out from the Competition
In a niche like home services, standing out can feel virtually impossible. Even in a limited area, there are potentially dozens of competitors within the same niche. So, standing out from that competition becomes absolutely essential wherever possible.
Utilizing things like Google Ads and other SEO tools, it is possible to stand out without having to reinvent the wheel. Organic searches can sometimes be lost amidst all of the results, but SEO will help when it comes to garnering high-quality traffic. Having a higher ranking in organic search allows your business to stand out from the rest of the businesses in the area.
Better Conversion Rates
While it is nice to get a lot of eyeballs on the website, that isn’t even the most important thing. What matters is that those who view the website stick around long enough to eventually pay for the services being offered. Leads are fantastic but they must be converted to have an impact on the bottom line.
Using SEO not only helps when it comes to ranking highly in organic searches but will drive better-quality traffic as well. High-quality traffic will more often than not lead to more conversions, which is what has a more profound impact on the bottom line of the business.
Improve Brand Awareness
Every business, big or small, has a brand. Brand awareness is so important because it is how the consumer thinks about a specific service or business. For instance, when it comes to computers, the vast majority of consumers think of Apple and Windows because they have the greatest brand presence.
Home Services SEO will help improve branding through more brand-related content. Building brand recognition breeds familiarity and customers ultimately want to be comfortable with the businesses they choose. An effective SEO strategy can help improve overall brand awareness and recognition.
7 Home Services SEO Tips to Grow Your Business
Now that you know more about SEO and what it can potentially offer, the question on your mind is no doubt, “How can I use home services SEO to grow my business?” We have seven simple tips that can help you become an SEO expert and put your business in a better position than ever before.
1. Set Up a Free Google Business Profile
Google garners more than a billion searches per day. If you don’t have a Google Business Profile, then you are making it far more difficult for potential customers to find you. The good news is that it is both quick and free to set one up.
There are a few simple fields that need to be filled in to complete the profile. Set your service area, and your business category (home services), add essential contact information and working hours, and add images that highlight the work you do.
Most importantly, use keywords within your profile. Important keywords like “home services” will increase your visibility in relevant searches. It also equates to a higher ranking, which will result in your business coming up more often when users search using related keywords.
2. Keyword Research
Now that we know the importance of utilizing keywords, the key is to find and make use of the right ones. Not just any random keyword will do, so take the time to discover and research the most relevant to your business. After all, the most effective searches are the ones that target the right audience.
For a home services business, the goal is to drive relevant traffic to your website. While not everyone is going to use those services, those leads eventually translate into dollars for the business. Researching keywords is a lot easier than you may think.
Keyword research can be done manually, using keyword tools, or through organic methods. However you choose to approach this task, it should not be avoided. Targeting the proper keywords ensures that your business is coming up in relevant user searches.
3. Create Content
Google has changed the way that it reviews websites and SEO practices. Quality, informative content is perhaps more important than it has ever been. For that reason, your home services website needs to have both service pages and an active blog.
Service pages are very basic. The home page – the digital storefront – is the main attraction, but there should be a portfolio page, an about page, contact information, and a page for services and pricing. Remember, ranking highly involves a lot of factors but relevant, helpful information is near the top.
Blog posts are another fantastic way to use SEO to your advantage. Cover topics that are most relevant to your target audience. Whether that be detailing home services, offering home renovation tips, or something specific to the area, these posts entice those most likely to use your services to visit your site.
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4. Link Building
An important term as it relates to SEO is “authority.” Essentially, this is how trustworthy a website is as a source of information. Building that authority is key and one of the best ways to do so is by link-building. Link building can be achieved through a few different methods:
- Building Partnerships: Contrary to popular belief, it is not your business versus the world. Forge partnerships with local contractors, real estate agents, and even other home service providers. Promoting one another is a fantastic way to create valuable backlinks.
- Reviews and Testimonials: Reviews are absolutely critical for all businesses. Encourage customers to leave an account of their experiences. Getting genuine feedback is a fantastic way to build credibility and lead to backlinking as well.
- Guest Blogging: Being knowledgeable is key, but it may not be the easiest thing to show off. Offer to write on local maintenance and home improvement blogs. Create posts that are both helpful and insightful, that fully showcase your expertise. Guest blogging often leads to an exchange of links between sites for great cross-promotion and link-building.
- Online Directory Listings: With a business profile that is current, be certain that you reach relevant directories like Linkedin, Facebook, Yelp, and Google. Directories that are specific to home services or local businesses will garner the most specific results.
5. Technical SEO
While much of the focus is on how SEO can drive traffic to your website, it is the technical side of SEO that can prove to be just as valuable. Search engine ranking isn’t the only aspect of how SEO can impact your website.
Technical SEO is about optimizing website speed. Why is this important? A faster website will ensure that search engines can display your website and that content loads faster. Technical SEO also includes mobile optimization, a massive thing considering how many people now use their smartphones for everything.
Technical SEO can seem a bit overwhelming at first, but it is a critical part of building a strong website. Structured data, canonical tags, a clean URL structure, and proper security (HTTPS) will all lend to the authority and trustworthiness of your site.
6. Optimize Content
While it is important to create engaging content, there are things that should be done within the structure of each post or page that enhance its SEO quality. The first of which is to use keyword-rich service title pages. Rather than generic titles like “Services,” focus on the keyword and your location. It is a seemingly small thing that can have a big impact on SEO.
Images are also a crucial part of producing strong SEO content. Make sure that images have ALT text, for instance. ALT text is necessary for visually impaired users or when search engines don’t properly load the image.
Finally, use authentic images. Don’t just grab generic photos from somewhere else on the internet. Take authentic, high-quality images. Not only will it show off what your business can do, but it will create a personalized look and feel that can’t be copied.
7. Use SEO Tools
This is a lot of information to take in at one time. Implementing each of these suggestions can be overwhelming. Fortunately, there is software that can simplify SEO for home services. All of the essentials are covered but it doesn’t require a PhD in SEO to use.
The proper SEO tools will enrich visibility in local searches and make it far easier for potential customers to find you. Even keeping up with a basic Google Business profile can exponentially improve the overall visibility of your business in searches.
More importantly, having SEO tools like a keyword researcher or SEO platform like Semrush, Ahrefs, or Moz (just to name a few options) – will ensure everything is covered in one convenient place. All in an effort to make your business more visible as it relates to relevant local searches.
Grow Your Business with Field Service Management Software
Staying competitive in any industry is difficult. Utilizing SEO for home services can have a monumental impact on the bottom line of your business in more ways than you may have realized. The key is to sign up today for a free 14-day trial of Housecall Pro. Expanding your client base, reaching your target audience, and growing the business are all attainable. Having the right tools is the difference and our field service management software can help everything feel just a bit easier.
