This article reveals how you can dominate your area by attracting more customers using these 2 mighty Local SEO tactics for marketing your home services.
Did you know that 76% of users who performed a local search (i.e., typed something like “pest control company near me”) using their smartphone went on to visit a related store within the same day? And did you also know that nearly 1 in every 3 local searches led to a purchase? These just show just how vital it is for your home service business to be optimized for search engines like Google.
Local Search Engine Optimization (or simply Local SEO) involves performing a number of things to improve your website’s online ranking for local searches. With so many consumers performing a local search before choosing to buy a product or avail of a home service, Local SEO has become a significant digital marketing tool for boosting your home service company’s reach and growing your business.
In this article, we’ll uncover 2 mighty Local SEO tactics that can help take your home service marketing strategy to the next level.
Table of Contents
Home Service Marketing Local SEO Tactic #1: Optimize Your Site for Local Search
Your website is your number one digital marketing asset. To ensure that it ranks high in local search engine results pages (SERPs), you need to optimize it for local search. Here are some important tactics you should know:
Optimize Your Metadata
Make sure to audit all of your pages, and then optimize their metadata (which includes their title tags and meta descriptions). All of those should contain your target keywords and top service areas.
Check Your Website Security
Search engines rank secure websites higher, so if you haven’t, make sure that your site’s domain starts with HTTPS (not just HTTP). Besides helping your site rank higher in local search, encrypting your pages helps you gain potential customers’ trust on your website, and as an extension, your business.
Ensure That Your NAP is Consistent on Different Pages
Your business name, address, and phone number (abbreviated as NAP) are an important element of Local SEO. You need to check that your NAP is consistent on your web pages, particularly in the footer. Having a uniform NAP on multiple pages as well as platforms delivers positive ranking signals to search engines, telling them that it’s one business being talked about in multiple places. This makes it more likely for their algorithm to show your website as one of the top results for related local searches.
Make Sure That Your Website is Mobile-Friendly
Google’s mobile-first indexing practice has been in effect for several years now. And since the majority of all online traffic now comes from mobile users, it’s a must that your website is mobile-friendly. Practically everyone would hate navigating a website that has small fonts and hard-to-click links, so make sure that your site looks and functions well on mobile devices. If you can, opt to have a responsive website design, which is a bit of a step up from just a mobile-friendly one if you want to provide a high quality user experience.
If you want to make sure that your website is mobile-friendly or if you need help creating a mobile version of your existing site, get in touch with a reliable home services marketing agency like Zero Company.
Your website is the #1 thing you need to optimize if you want to rank higher in local search results.
Publish Optimized Local Content Regularly
The other indispensable home services SEO tactic for promoting your business online is the regular creation and posting of optimized local content.
Here are some things you need in digital marketing for home services using locally optimized content:
Write About Your Targeted Local Keywords
First, you must conduct thorough research to know the local keywords that you should target in your content. There are a handful of keyword planning tools available at your disposal. If you’re on a tight budget or new at keyword planning, some high quality keyword research tools that are free are Google Keyword Planner, Moz Keyword Explorer, Semrush, QuestionDB, Jaaxy, and Keyword Surfer.
Once you have your list of target keywords, it’s time to build content around them. Incorporate those local keywords (or phrases) throughout your website content, but make sure you don’t excessively use them (also known as ‘keyword stuffing’). The best tip we can give is to write as if you’re talking directly to people—this is how search engines prefer sites’ content to be as well.
Keep in mind that organic SEO (which means non-paid, unlike digital ads) relies predominantly on content. That’s why local businesses need to regularly publish high-value content that’s optimized for Local SEO. Blog posts are one of the best types of content you can create regularly. For example, if you offer plumbing services, you can write an article entitled “What to Know When Hiring a Plumber in Orange County” and include relevant keywords in the text, such as “best plumber orange county”, “home plumber OC”, and so on.
Content marketing allows you to boost your SERP rank while providing value (in the form of knowledge) and establishing your business as a credible resource in your field. Although you can write about any topic at all, it’s best to focus on topics that are relevant to your potential customers. Timely content—such as news articles or feature articles on trending topics related to the specific home services that you offer—is also a great idea.
Set Up Separate Location Pages
Having a Google Business Profile (formerly called Google My Business) is a basic requirement when doing local home services SEO. In addition to that, if your home service company has multiple locations or operates in different key areas, it’s best if you create a dedicated page on your website for each of those locations.
Each of those pages can then be optimized by embedding a Google Map to the exact location of your business in that area and posting relevant content that contains your target local keywords. Don’t forget to check that the metadata of each of those location pages is customized for each specific location.
Play an Active Role in Your Local Community
Our final Local SEO tactic will take a bit more time and effort but we believe it’s worth it. We’re referring to local businesses being actively involved in the local communities that you’re operating in. You can participate in local activities by being a member of relevant business organizations or charters, sponsoring events like fundraisers, and getting some media coverage (ideally positive!). All of those can help spread your name in the local community and allow you to gain the trust of potential home service customers in that area.
A bonus you can get from this is that you may need to create less content yourself if local media or even private individuals themselves post positive things about your business on their platforms or personal pages. In addition, such testimonial-type content is a powerful form of social proof that can further promote local businesses without additional effort or cost.
Local keywords, location pages, and community engagement are all effective tactics in Local SEO.
Final Local SEO Advice For Your Home Service Marketing
We’ve talked about just two crucial Local SEO strategies for marketing your home service business, but as you may have noticed, several tactics can be done under each.
If you need any assistance, Zero Company Performance Marketing is a trusted SEO company with over 20 years of experience in online marketing, including Local SEO, PPC advertising, paid social media, and more.
Book a free consultation with our Local SEO specialists today!