Home service businesses are among the most local of local businesses, especially in the emergency restoration industry. If your potential leads are in need of emergency damage cleanup, they are going to be looking for the closest contractor with the best reputation. If you want to be found by local folks when they're searching for a service like yours, you need to follow the best local SEO strategies out there.
What is Local SEO?
Local SEO is local search engine optimization. It's the process of working with local search engines to rank your business higher in local results.
When someone searches for your type of service on Google, Bing, or other local search engines (or even directly on Google Maps), you want your business to show up first. Ranking at the top of local search results, such as the local 3-pack, is crucial to your local SEO strategy.
When someone searches for "home service contractors near me" or "home repair company in Illinois," they're looking to find a local business like yours. Unlike the generic search terms you might target on Google and Bing (like "website design"), local search terms tend to be short and to the point.
Local SEO strategies working to organically rank for local keywords is an advantage for local businesses. Your local online presence will increase your local brand awareness and drive more customers to your physical location.
Why Local SEO Matters for Home Service Businesses
The location of your local business is important for local SEO. The local SERP allows you to target local prospects in your area, reduce bounce rates of local customers, and increase local visibility of your brand.
Home service businesses are the perfect example of a local business that benefits from local SEO strategy. Since it can be difficult to scale services if you don't know local regulations or local codes, local SEO is key for home service businesses to improve local visibility.
Your local SERP can improve local SEO results. Utilizing local-based keywords and Google My Business, you can easily increase your local visibility.
How to localize your local SEO strategy:
Using local-based keywords will naturally boost your local rankings. Adding a list of key services in your area with corresponding local keywords to your local SERP will help localize local SEO results.
Following local regulations and local codes can also help improve local rankings. You'll need to do a little research, but this will be helpful for future ranking efforts.
Google My Business is a great tool for improving local visibility on Google Maps. Utilizing all the features of GMB is another way to localize local SEO efforts.
Finally, local citations are great for local SEO efforts. They help local rankings and make your local business more credible on the web. Utilizing local directories like Yelp, CitySearch or Yellow Pages can help improve local rankings in Google Maps results.
The Importance of Having a Local SEO Strategy
Having a local SEO strategy is important for local businesses that want to be found by consumers in their local area. Consumers today are likely to use local search engines such as Google or Bing when they are looking for local products and services. By having a local SEO strategy, your business will be more visible on local search engines and local directories.
It is easier for local consumers to find local businesses on local search engines because local search engines know exactly where the consumer is located. When a local consumer types in a local query, local search engines take them directly to the results that are closest to their location, rather than showing results from all over an entire country or state.
How to Create a Winning Local SEO Strategy for Your Home Services Business
As local home service businesses are already local in nature, local SEO strategies are particularly key to their success. It's even possible that local search can be the difference between your business being successful or not. Take the example of a plumber who fixes bathrooms in New England. He could serve customers in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Maine - making local search a natural way of reaching local customers.
In local SEO, there are some really powerful techniques that can help your local business succeed. In this article we'll be looking at the steps you need to follow so that you can access these local marketing opportunities. As well as how much they could cost for local businesses like yours.
- Step 1: Evaluate your local business's strengths and weaknesses.
You should ask yourself - what are my local business' main advantages over my competitors? What do I have that they don't? Is it location, product range or service knowledge?
Once you've established this, you need to look at the local search factors that will play to these local business strengths.
- Step 2: Optimize your local listings and site structure.
You need to make sure that you've got every local listing possible covered. This means claiming and optimizing all of the local business directories, local businesses' social media pages, etc. At the same time, you should be trying out different keywords in order to find the local keywords that provide you with the best local search returns.
- Step 3: Analytics, analytics, analytics.
By using the right local SEO tools, you will be able to monitor your local listings and local keyword rankings in each local search engine. This enables you to spot local trends so that you can focus on the keywords that are giving your local traffic and local conversions.
If you follow the steps described above, you will get local search returns. Local SEO requires a lot of research into local keywords that are used in your local area.
That’s why your local SEO strategy will be an ongoing project that's tweaked by monitoring local rankings, but if done correctly local SEO can give your local business you wouldn't have had otherwise.
The importance of local SEO cannot be ignored, as local search results are now responsible for more than 50% of all local searches. The local keywords people use to search for local services and products has changed the way local businesses should look at their local marketing strategies.
The local SEO strategy for home services businesses should be one that optimizes your local business information across the web in local directories, local social media platforms and local search results so you can rank well when people are searching for keywords related to your service area.
4 Major Components of Local SEO Strategy for a Home Service Business
Four of the major components to local SEO are citation building, link building, reputation management and content building. These four components are what local search engine optimization is largely made of.
- Citation Building - Citations are essentially a local business' online registration details, such as a phone number and address, that local search engines use to match up local businesses with their relevant listings. This process can be done manually by local businesses creating profiles on sites like Yelp or local directories like SuperPages, or local SEO services that make local business profiles for them.
- Link Building - Link building is the process of getting backlinks to be placed on local business websites, essentially increasing their popularity and credibility in local search rankings. Local link building can be done through local directory submission, press release distribution, local social media properties, local blog outreach, local guest blogging and local forum posting.
- Online Reputation Management - Online reputation management is the process of managing local businesses identities online, so that search engines can identify them as local authoritative sources. Tactics for this include creating local social media profiles on Facebook, Twitter and Google+, setting up local directory listings like Yelp or SuperPages.
- Content Building - Content building is a local SEO strategy that local businesses can use to increase their local search visibility. This works by publishing local content on websites and blogs, allowing Google to recognize it as a local reference article. When a local business publishes local content branded with its name, address and phone number, this information will be indexed by Google as part of the citation.
Conclusion
Home service businesses need to be mindful of how they rank locally on search engines, and the importance of a local SEO strategy. You can implement a winning local SEO strategy that will help your business generate more leads by following these four components: Content Marketing (blog posts), Link Building (driving traffic from other sites), Social Media Presence, and Local Listings. If you’re looking for an expert in home service marketing who specializes in providing high-quality services, Vinnie Mac Restoration Marketing would love to hear from you!
Learn more about our process at https://restorationmarketing.com/our-process/ or call our number at (314) 582-5210.
