Aug 11, 2023
Time: 7:12 am
Your home service company is your pride, sweat, and joy – but getting others to see why that is can prove tricky. Even if your company delivers flawless results, communicating this news to others requires some strategy.
For many businesses, a website can speak louder than words; it might showcase your services, successes, and what makes you stand out as a company. But to make your website successful, you’ll need to understand SEO for home service companies and the difference it can make for yours.
Understanding the Basics of SEO for Home Services
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is a set of strategies used to boost a website’s rankings in search engine result pages (SERPs). Its overall goal is to increase visibility and build brand recognition. Customers who recognize your name and trust it are more likely to invest in your home services.
Many tactics can fall under the umbrella of SEO, including keyword research, link building, content creation, and more. Each piece of the puzzle is meant to ensure that your website is a contender when customers are looking for information to decide which businesses to contact.
Why Local SEO for Home Service Companies Matters
Local SEO is a bit different than traditional SEO. It focuses on helping websites appear in local search results so that customers searching for a service can find a business nearby. Instead of trying to increase visibility overall, local SEO for home services prioritizes reaching target customers at the precise moment they’re looking for a business’ services online.
So, when a search engine user types in a query like “home services near me,” they’ll find a list of businesses and content that Google has deemed relevant. Local SEO aims to ensure your business is not just on that list but at the top.
That’s because more than 50% of all traffic on successful websites comes from organic searches. In other words, most people who end up on your site will find it due to search results – that is, if you plan your SEO strategy correctly.
Local SEO uses techniques similar to traditional SEO for home service contractors but generally requires a different approach. Local keywords and link building, for instance, are more important than targeting keywords that will give you international reach.
Since most home service companies rely on clientele within about five to ten miles of their location, showing up in local search results is a key way to bring in new leads. Existing customers can also learn more about your services and may be more likely to recommend them to others once you’ve established a strong online presence.
How Local SEO Sets You Apart
When used strategically, local SEO for home service businesses is essentially the modern equivalent of a giant ad on the front page of the newspaper.
Today’s customer conducts a lot of research before making a purchase. You can show them your home service business is a cut above the rest with images, testimonials, new content, and other components that help you take advantage of benefits like those below.
- Distinguishes Your Business: Not all local businesses have a web presence, and of those that do, few have established SEO plans. Even a bare-bones strategy will likely set you ahead of many of the competitors in your area. This simple shift makes a difference for users who find you through the web.
- Shows Your Professionalism: Think of your website as a sort of portfolio for your work. It’s good to demonstrate your work’s quality, especially in a field like home services, and a polished site makes it easy to do that. Share past projects, videos, company pictures, and other details that will help customers trust your dedication to quality.
- Expands Your Audience: In the past, most methods of communication were fairly simple. Today, there may be dozens of ways to complete the same task, including finding a business to support. Creating an online presence opens your business to people who primarily use the web to get information and make purchases. That’s a subset of the population you just wouldn’t access otherwise.
Conducting Useful Keyword Research
A staple in any SEO for home service companies is keyword optimization. But you can’t use good keywords without first doing some research. SEO keywords are words and phrases that signal to search engines that a piece of content is relevant to a certain inquiry.
Consider this example: what words might you find on a web page about new carpeting? Probably the term “new carpet” for one thing, but maybe also words like “new carpet installation” or “how to choose new carpet.” The most comprehensive sources may even have extra details about “new carpeting tips” or “How to install new carpeting on my own.”
Our example here illustrates how certain keywords, even if not used intentionally, show value and an obvious connection to a particular topic. When learning how to choose SEO keywords, it helps to keep this principle in mind: choose keywords that are directly related to your topic but also those that add value to your page.
Keywords can be used on your page itself – in page titles, descriptions, etc. – but the easiest place to incorporate them is usually within original SEO content.
Content SEO Marketing for Home Service Companies
If your search engine ranking is an ad on the front of the newspaper, content marketing is the meat and potatoes of your display. Now that you’ve reached the top, make sure you have something to say to keep you there.
That’s where content comes into the mix. Content marketing allows you to organically connect with audience members, answer their questions, and show you’re a credible source in the industry.
After all, who better to learn from about home service questions than home service contractors and professionals? While you share useful information, you also can hop on opportunities to push your services.
Content marketing is also an ideal option for sharing your skills. For instance, you may decide to write an article about landscaping both to educate readers and to explain why your landscaping is better than the rest.
Some types of content you might use for SEO purposes include:
- Blog posts or articles
- Email newsletters
- Videos
- Infographics
- Social media posts
No matter what kind of content you produce, make sure its quality is something you’re proud of. Google checks for content quality as a determining factor when ranking search results.
Plus, anything you put out there is a reflection of your business. Never publish something you’re not happy with just to score a few extra clicks – it will likely do you more harm than good in the long run.
Acquiring Backlinks for SEO
Backlinks are the final piece that shows search engines your website is one to trust. A backlink is a link to your website that comes from a different source on the web.
You can gain backlinks through strategic moves like guest posting, which allows you to create content with links to your site and post it somewhere else, or by creating valuable content.
The more people learn and gain from your content, the likelier they are to link to it on their own. And the more links your site scores, the more reliable, relevant, and valuable it appears.
This is a huge reason that more established domains can almost always crush newer ones – they have a stronger profile of backlinks and have had plenty of time to refine their strategies. But you can take the web by storm no matter your business’ age by putting out content that’s truly better than the rest.
The Bottom Line
Utilizing SEO marketing for home service companies gives you a chance to show off your work, connect with new audiences, and establish yourself as a professional source for quality results.
You can count on the team here at Firestarter SEO to help you create a home service SEO plan that makes a difference. For over 12 years, we’ve been a dedicated, award-winning Denver SEO company focused on helping our clients make a name for themselves in their digital space.
Our goal is to deliver the SEO solutions you need to make your goals a reality. Contact us today to learn about our SEO for home services.