Leverage These Local SEO Tips To Improve Your Visibilty on Google & Book More Plumbing Jobs
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
With Google’s recent update on rebranding Google My Business to Google Business Manager, it’s now recommended for businesses with single listings to manage their listings directly on Google Search or Google Maps called Google Business Profile. Google Business Manager will support large businesses with multiple locations.
- Single listings – Google Business Profile
- Large businesses with multiple locations – Google Business Manager
Whether you have a single listing or multiple listings, it’s important to claim and verify your Google Business Profile in Google Search and Google Maps. An important benefit of claiming and verifying your profile is achieving local pack visibility.
Local pack visibility is when a group of top local business listings appear in response to search queries for services provided by local businesses. Claiming your profile will have a significant impact on customers finding your business online and your local SEO. You want to have authority in editing your profile and providing users with up-to-date information about your services, such as opening hours, photos, offers, and other general updates.
Learn how to get your plumbing business to the top of Google’s local pack.
Where can I find my Google Business Profile?
Google Search
You can search “My Business” or your company’s name in your browser, and it will show up on search results.
With a verified Business Profile, you’ll be able to view your profile, and it will look like this:
Google Maps
You can also search for your Business Profile in Google Maps.
2. Adding Products to Your Business Profile Listing
Your target audience is made up of homeowners looking for some sort of plumbing service. It’s your job to make that experience easy for users and guide them to choose you. Another essential local SEO tip for plumbers is to take advantage of the Products feature on your Google Business Profile.
Google determines your local search ranking on three factors:
- Relevance: Is your information on your Business Profile matching with 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 know your business is based on the information Google has about plumbing business — 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 own 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 with the goal 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
Mentioning your location and service on your website description (title tags and meta descriptions), HTML headings, and page copy will increase your rankings on Google and lead to more website traffic and qualified leads for your plumbing business.
You want your title tags to grab attention and your meta description to sell your content in order to convince users to schedule service with you. Here’s an example of a website description following best practices.
“Plumbing Leak Detection” as the targeted keyword with the service location to (1) allow Google to categorize the page and (2) let users know what the page is about with their search intent.
Why should I include my service and location in my metadata?
Every day, Google collects hundreds of thousands of webpages — think of a giant encyclopedia. All the webpages are organized and categorized for users to find what they are searching for online.
In order 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.
Learn more on-page SEO tips to grow your plumbing business.
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.
Here’s how to own more real estate on Google to differentiate your plumbing business from your competitors.
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.
