When users are looking for a service, it’s usually searched with the location — “plumbing service in city, state” — this is our targeted audience. In such a competitive market, there is a slight chance users click on the second page in search results. Your goal is to rank for first-page visibility. Marketers rely on local SEO as it’s a more robust strategy for local plumbing businesses to drive more bookings. Building a local search engine presence is an important step to show up.
The number one goal when it comes to local SEO for plumbers is to book more jobs. Before you can do that, you must first understand what boosts your company’s search engine visibility. Below, we cover four local SEO tips for plumbers proven to increase:
- Rankings on Google
- Website Traffic
- Qualified leads
- Booked jobs
1. Claim Your Google Business Profile
Businesses with single listings should now manage their listings straight on Google Search or Google Maps named Google Business Profile with Google’s recent update on rebranding Google My Business to Google Business Manager. Google Business Manager will help major companies with several sites.
- Single listings – Google Business Profile
- Big companies with several locations – Google Business Manager
Claim and check your Google Business Profile in Google Search and Google Maps whether you have one listing or more. Getting local pack awareness is one significant advantage of claiming and confirming your profile.
Local pack visibility is when a group of prominent local company listings responds to search inquiries for local companies offering particular services. Claiming your profile will significantly affect your local SEO and customer finding of your business online. You want to be in charge of editing your profile and giving users current information about your services—including opening hours, images, offers, and other broad updates.
2. Adding Products to Your Business Profile Listing
Homes seeking some kind of plumbing service make up your target market. Your responsibility is to simplify that experience for consumers and direct them to choose you. Using the Products tab on your Google Business Profile is another key local SEO for plumbers.
Google determines your local search ranking on three factors:
- Relevance: Does the information on your Business Profile match what users are searching for? You can accomplish this by making sure you have a complete and detailed listing and taking advantage of all the features to promote your services (Products) to help Google better understand your business to match your listing to relevant searches.
- Distance: Google calculates distance based on how far each search result is from the location term used in a search.
- Prominence: The position of your local ranking is determined by how well-known your business is based on the information Google has about plumbing businesses — links, directories, and reviews.
The Products feature allows you to highlight your business and your priority services for visibility in Google Search to attract local customers in your service area. Though the feature is called Products, Google doesn’t restrict accounts from promoting services in this feature!
Instead of listing a specific plumbing product like “Rinnai Tankless Water Heater,” putting a service like “Water Heater Installation” is much more effective to drive your click-through rate to boost your chance of obtaining more qualified leads for water heating services. Below is an example of a plumbing business promoting its priority products and services for users.
HOW DO I ADD MY SERVICES IN THE PRODUCTS FEATURE SECTION?
Once you click Edit Profile in Google Search, select Products, and the next step will be strategizing which priority service you’d want to call to action.
In six easy steps — you can fill in information about the service you offer to customers. To start on the right track, you want your Product Name to be a plumbing keyword such as “toilet installation” or “drain cleaning.”
Add a relevant image that would best represent the service to give customers a visual of the service.
You can also customize your image by overlaying the name of the specific service on the image. Be sure to include a description to entice users to learn more about the work you are offering intending to direct them to your service page.
Here is an example of a complete and fully optimized Product listing for this plumbing company. A targeted keyword was used for the Product Name relevant to the business’s service and the user’s search intent. The service locations of the business were included with additional descriptions about the service. The Product finished with a Learn More call-to-action button that directs users to the service page to drive traffic to the site.
3. Publish Geo-Targeted Content on Your Website
Including your location and service on your website’s title tags and meta descriptions, HTML headings, and page copy, will help your plumbing company rank higher on Google and generate more qualified leads.
To persuade consumers to book appointments with you, you want your meta description to sell your material and your title tags to draw attention. Here is a sample of a website description done according to best standards.
Using the targeted keyword “Plumbing Leak Detection” and the service location (1), Google may classify the page and (2) notify consumers on its topic using their search intent.
Why should my metadata include my service and location?
Google gathers hundreds of thousands of web pages every day; imagine a massive encyclopedia. All the web pages are organized and categorized for users to find what they are searching for online.
To help Google keep pages organized, using your plumbing services and service location as keywords in your descriptions will allow Google to understand what your pages are about. This tactic then helps you rank your pages in local search results.
You want to complete your page with a keyword-rich meta description that will engage your potential customers to click on your site to schedule service with you.
WHAT DOES A GEO-TARGETING PAGE COPY LOOK LIKE?
Geo-targeting is a powerful tactic to drive conversions. It lets a search engine bring you website visitors from your desired service areas.
To include geo-targeting keywords in your content, write what you think is most valuable about the service if you were the searcher yourself. In the example above, the plumbing business identified keywords such as “leak detection” and “repair and drain cleaning” to respond to a local search for homeowners in the Blythewood, SC, area.
4. Claim and Optimize Your Local Directory Listings
When was the last time you pulled out the Yellow Pages? Sadly, people don’t do that anymore.
When potential customers look for plumbing services, they do a little bit of window shopping on different platforms before deciding to call a company. In today’s age, there are hundreds of more advanced versions of the Yellow Pages online! That’s why claiming and optimizing your business profile in other local directory listings is another local SEO tip for plumbers to increase website traffic.
Nextdoor, Angi, Yelp, Facebook, and Bing are a few not to miss out on, as these platforms carry a lot of weight during the process of a buyer’s behavior.
These listings are a great way to boost your business’s credibility and visibility to book more jobs. It’s a hub for customers to post questions, for you to engage with customers, and, most importantly, for customers to leave you great reviews!
Reviews are a free advertisement for your business. Reviews influence 95% of consumers‘ buying behavior. When you collect a wealth of positive reviews across local directory listings, it will persuade your consumers to schedule service with you.
Professional Local SEO Services for Plumbers
Want to learn more about implementing local SEO into your digital marketing plan? Contact us today, and let’s do plumber SEO the right way.