This One Goes Out to All My Home Services Businesses

In today’s digital world, it’s more important than ever for home services businesses to have a strong online presence. And one of the best ways to improve your online visibility is through search engine optimization (SEO).

Home services business SEO is like giving your website a boost so that it shows up higher when people search for things online. However, when your business is a local service area business, it can be difficult to know what to do. Unlike brick-and-mortar businesses, which can frequently point users to hours and times and maybe e-commerce, a local service business relies on capturing leads and converting them quickly to gain business. So, what do you need to do to get in front of the right people in the right area for your business?

In this blog post, we’ll discuss three important SEO tips for home services businesses to get in front of local searchers. These tips will help you build a better website and fill it with the right content. We’ll also talk about how to use local and which social media platforms can help your website rank higher in search results.

Home Services SEO Tips for Local Businesses

What Content to Give People

Google’s search algorithm operates on a variety of factors, neatly organized into what’s known as E-E-A-T, representing Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trust. Recently, Google introduced an additional “E” for Experience, aligning seamlessly with what Google Search users seek in home service businesses. To effectively hit the SEO signals for your home services business, your website should be tailored to highlight each of these elements.

Your Contact Information

Local service businesses need to provide context clues about their location. You don’t need to build unique landing pages for every neighborhood, city, or county you serve. There are many ways to incorporate this information without wasting marketing resources on unnecessary SEO copy.

1. Contact Information: Simple enough, put your business name, address, and phone number clearly on your website
2. Before & After Photos: When you highlight completed jobs, include the city name in alt attributes, descriptions, and captions
3. Social Media Profiles: When you fill out your profiles, use the same name, address, phone number, and full homepage URL

It’s also crucial to add in quick ways to get in touch, purchase, or chat with you. The engagement rate you have on your website can influence the SEO signals that most impact E-E-A-T signals for home services business too. You want to make sure you have your contact information for both search engines and users.

How Searchers Evaluate Websites

Home service businesses face a number of challenges in today’s online landscape. Searchers have shorter attention spans, and there is more competition than ever before. Building an optimized website is critical for reaching the right people at the right time.

Here’s a look at what potential customers typically want to know:

• Trustworthiness and Reliability: Promote your reliability through third-party badges and references to quickly convey trustworthiness.
• Reputation and Professionalism: Highlight your professionalism with on-site reviews and photos of your team in the field.
• Experience: Build short case studies of “before & afters” for each unique service you offer – and want to book more of!
• Cost: Pre-qualify your user with ballpark costs from previous jobs to weed out not serious opportunities

How to Find Your Keywords

Nearly every other Google search today has local intent. Local service businesses need to be visible in Google search results, as nearly 4 billion searches every day are likely related to some sort of local need. However, it’s important to look at how Google monetizes these while providing a high-quality user experience. First, Google gives priority to its “Google Guaranteed” ads, which appear above organic results, followed by the Local Pack in the 5th position. The Local Pack showcases four businesses, one of which is always an ad. There are still “10 blue links” but they’re scattered amongst different snippet types, making them more difficult to call out. Following home services SEO best practices can help businesses maximize the ability of the brand to rank.

The key lies in integrating the “near me” aspect into the effective website experience we discussed earlier and developing all the essential E-E-A-T content tailored for each service emphasized on your site. Am I proposing an exhaustive 600-word description for every service in your toolbox? No. Instead, consider initiating the process with comprehensive keyword research, identifying recurring themes within each service category. Following this, evaluate the profitability of these services, prioritizing those that overlap on both lists. The emphasis here is on creating quality content rather than inundating your site with sheer volume.

Keywords Can Lead to New Services

Keyword research can help you identify new services to offer and optimize your content for visibility. Whether you’re brainstorming ideas for holiday cleaning packages or highlighting your expertise in caring for older dogs, keyword research can inform the topics you choose to address.

It can be challenging to put yourself in the shoes of a clueless customer when you’re deeply involved in your day-to-day work. But it’s important to remember that potential customers are searching for concepts, typically services they need. If your website lacks the words embodying these concepts, along with the corresponding E-E-A-T content, how can you expect to show up in their search results?

The key is to align your content with their needs to ensure that your business maintains visibility among those seeking your services.

Examples of Searched for Services

• House cleaner near me
• Deep cleaning services
• Monthly house cleaning
• Plumber near me
• Emergency plumber
• Toilet repair
• Dog sitter near me
• Dog walker near me
• Dog boarding near me

Why Stuffing “Near Me” Doesn’t Really Work

You’ve probably noticed all the “near me” queries in Google search results. Those memes about “restaurant near me” and “dentist near me” are funny, but they also illustrate the problem of keyword stuffing. Keyword stuffing is the practice of overloading your content with keywords in an attempt to improve your search engine ranking. It’s a black hat SEO technique that can actually hurt your business’s website ranking in the long run.

Renaming your home services business to “Home Cleaner Near Me” or “Emergency Plumber” could help your business listing show up more in Google results, but it’s not a guaranteed long-term solution. Google takes into account the keywords in your business name when ranking your listing, but there are other factors that also affect your ranking, such as the quality of your business listing, the reviews you’ve received, and the distance of your business from the searcher.

If you want to improve your business ranking in Google Local Search Results, the best thing to do is to focus on providing high-quality services and getting positive reviews from your customers. You should also make sure that your business listing is complete and accurate with your local contact information, and that you’re using relevant keywords throughout your website and social media content.

Maximize SEO with Social & Local Sites

When it comes to aligning the SEO signals for home services businesses, certain foundational principles come into play, but crafting descriptions for different local platforms is no copy-and-paste affair (sorry!). Simply, each platform has its unique questions, each of which require a nuanced approach to storytelling and audience connection.

But here’s a secret: you don’t have to keep up with an engaging, hyper-responsive profile on every platform! For many social and local sites, simply explaining who you are and what you do is enough.

And that’s where AI tools like Google Bard come in. With a free account, you can conduct searches and get enhanced answers like these, helping you craft unique(ish) descriptions for each platform that explain who you are and what you do in a way that means something to each audience. Work with the AI tool to input the description you would be satisfied with and allow it to provide additional recommendations to improve. It leans on the Google Index, which means you’re getting some real-time support that can edit, cite, and embellish where needed.

Local & Social Sites to Boost SEO

• Google My Business / Google Local Services
• NextDoor
• Yelp
• Facebook
• Something in your niche, like Wag! or Angi

Google My Business/Google Local Services

Audience: Homeowners, renters, business owners, busy people with limited time, new-to-the-area people, “shop local” supporters

Here are some things you can do on your Google profile to improve your business visibility in their results:

• Ensure your business listing is up-to-date and accurate with all relevant information, including your business name, address, phone number, website, and hours of operation (including holiday hours)
• Appeal to customers and stand out against competitors by adding photos – and videos – to your business listing
• Encourage customers to leave reviews, and respond to them – good and bad
• Drive traffic to your website by sharing photos and videos of your work, post about upcoming promotions, and highlight your services on social media

NextDoor

Audience: Homeowners, families, seniors, community organizations, and home service businesses

Try the following tips to improve your chances of showing up in NextDoor search results:

• Complete and verify your business listing with essential information like your business name, address, phone number, and homepage URL
• Drive engagement with your listing by adding images and videos to capture your audience’s attention
• Join relevant groups to connect – and engage – with potential customers who are interested in your services
• Post regularly with tips or advice for homeowners, alert to any seasonal specials, and share contact information
• Respond to comments and questions on your posts so potential customers that you are engaged and responsive

Yelp

Audience: Skews younger and urban, budget-focused, service-oriented searches

Use these features on Yelp to get your business more visible, even if you’re not paying for ads:

• Make sure your business listing is complete and accurate, with all contact information and operating hours clearly listed
• Showcase your services with quality photos and videos on your business listing
• Encourage customers to leave reviews and respond to all of them, whether good or bad
• Promote your business using the free tools and features offered by Yelp

Facebook

Audience: Individuals, businesses, organizations, public figures…in fact, it’s reportedly 2.6 billion people per day…so yeah.

Facebook, Instagram, the entire world of Meta is harder to optimize for but the sheer number of active users makes it one to focus on. You may have to engage in both recurring efforts and resources. But, it can be valuable as your platform can reach all Meta audiences, making it easier for them to learn and convert:

• Create a Facebook business page and optimize it for search. This includes including relevant keywords in your business name, description, and posts.
• Join relevant Facebook groups. There are many Facebook groups for people who are looking for home services. Joining these groups is a great way to you can position yourself as an expert and provide people with valuable information and advice. 
• Run Facebook ads. Facebook ads can be a very effective way to reach potential customers in your area. You can target your ads to people who are interested in your services, live in your area, and have other relevant demographics.
• Post high-quality content on a regular basis. Your Facebook posts should be informative, engaging, and relevant to your target audience. Consistently post different useful tips or advice as well as photos of your projects before and after to build trust with your social audience.
• Respond to comments and questions promptly. When people comment on your posts or send you messages, be sure to respond promptly. This shows that you are engaged and responsive, and it helps to build relationships with potential customers.
• Offer discounts and promotions. People are more likely to book your services if you offer them a discount or promotion. You can offer discounts for new customers, for booking multiple services, or for referring your business to friends and family.
• Run contests and giveaways. Contests and giveaways are a great way to generate excitement and interest in your business. You can give away a free cleaning, a gift card, or another prize.

To get visible across all the sites your customers are on, you need to optimize your website and business listings for both search engines and social media platforms. This includes using relevant keywords and descriptions, creating high-quality content, and encouraging customers to leave reviews.

Here are some key takeaways:

• Search engines are still the most important way to get found online, but social media platforms are also increasingly important
• Each site has its own algorithm, so it’s important to optimize your content and listings for each platform
• Link building is another important way to boost your visibility online, but it’s a complex topic that requires a separate discussion

Even if you don’t have the time or resources to focus on link building, by following the tips above, you can improve your visibility on search engines and social media platforms, and reach more potential customers.