Local service providers (e.g., painters, plumbers, landscapers, electricians, cleaners, etc.) are having to enhance their web presence and improve their online rankings to stay competitive in getting leads through online searches.
With 97% of consumers learning more about a local company online than anywhere else and 46% of all Google searches seeking local information, optimizing your website for local SEO is key to generating more leads and growing your business.
However, Google changes the rules of the SEO game frequently by updating its algorithm. While this helps deliver relevant results to searchers, it has become more challenging for business owners to keep up with the latest SEO best practices so their websites can consistently show up at the top of relevant search engine result pages (SERPs).
When you lose your position on search results, the number of website visitors may go down and Google may interpret the signal as your site not being as helpful to users — creating a vicious cycle that would hurt your SEO.
Is your website SEO-ready for 2021 and beyond?
Now is the time to do a local SEO checkup for your website!
SEO Check-Up For Your Local Service Business Website
Here are the key areas to evaluate when optimizing your website for local SEO:
Do You Have Local Content and Location Information?
Publishing fresh, timely, and engaging content regularly helps you show up on Google’s radar. Meanwhile, including local search terms (e.g., town or city name, local events, or local landmarks) can increase your ranking on local search results. Mentioning local news and sharing educational content related to local conditions helps signal relevance to search engines while positioning you as a local expert to build trust.
Experiment with different content formats to increase engagement and dwell time, which is a significant ranking factor. For example, post infographics, how-to videos, or photos of your team participating in local events to make the content more interesting.
Also, include information about your location, such as address and phone number, on various pages and the website’s footer area. Add locally descriptive copy in the “About Us” page and add a Google Map to your “Contact Us” page. Make sure your contact information (e.g., name, address, phone number) is identical to that on your Google My Business listing and other online profiles.
Are You Leveraging the URL, Title Tags, Meta Descriptions, and Headers?
Each page on your website gives you an opportunity to rank for a geographic search phrase and get found by searchers in the area. Besides the content on each page, you should also optimize the URL, title tag, meta description, and header tags to include relevant search terms and keywords, such as the name of the cities or areas where your audience are located and the specific services that you provide.
Title tags and meta descriptions are displayed on search engine results so you should optimize them to drive high-quality traffic. Meanwhile, the header tags help organize your content to improve the website’s user experience while helping search engines understand your pages’ content, thereby increasing the likelihood that your site will show up on relevant search results.
Title tags and meta descriptions are displayed on search engine results so you should optimize them to drive high-quality traffic. Meanwhile, the header tags help organize your content to improve the website’s user experience while helping search engines understand your pages’ content, thereby increasing the likelihood that your site will show up on relevant search results.
Also, research long-tail keywords and incorporate them in your title tags, meta descriptions, and header tags. These long search phrases are less competitive and more likely to drive traffic that is looking for your exact services and ready to hire you right away.
Is Your Website Mobile-Optimized?
Did you know that 89% of consumers search for local businesses on their smartphones every week and 58% do so daily?
With more people using mobile devices to conduct online activities, it’s important that your website is optimized for a fast and streamlined mobile experience to increase engagement and signal relevance to search engines.
Not to mention, Google’s algorithm prioritizes mobile-friendly websites so using a responsive template, reducing load speed, simplifying navigation, and leveraging mobile-optimized features such as tap-to-call and location services can help improve your search engine rankings.
New for 2021 – It’s All About Speed!
Google will update its algorithm in May of 2021 to include “Page Experience”. One of the metrics will have to do with the loading speed of the sites. If your landing pages take longer than 2 seconds to load, your rankings may be penalized. Simple ways to improve your load time include resizing your images or compressing them, and staggering what gets loaded for your viewers through “lazy loading” or “progressive loading”.
Have You Created Individual Service Pages?
While it’s may seem easier to list all your offerings on a single “Services” page, doing so may hurt your SEO because it doesn’t allow you to rank for specific search terms used by prospects with high purchase intent.
Instead, create one page for each service so you can target the most relevant long-tail keywords. This will also improve the clarity of the site map so search engines can better index your site and rank your pages. Similarly, if you service multiple cities, you should create an individual landing page for each location to rank for local terms.
Also, optimize your site with local business schema (also called structured data markup), which is a set of codes added to webpages to help search engines understand who you are, what you do, where you’re located, and how you may be relevant to searchers. This is the key to getting listed on the Local Pack at the top of Google search results.
Internal and External Linking Structure
Adding internal links from one webpage to another on your website helps support website navigation, improve website hierarchy, and build page authority. This will not only assist search engines index your site but also improve the user experience. Visitors will stick around longer and view more pages — signaling relevance to Google and boosting your search engine ranking.
Meanwhile, external links from high-authority third-party sites (e.g., Yelp, Google, Facebook) and local directories can improve your SEO. It’s important to make sure that the information on your profiles and listings (e.g., company name, phone number, address) are exactly the same as that on your website. You can do so by mirroring your Google My Business listing to maintain consistency.
Up Your SEO Game with an Optimized Website
Having an SEO-optimized website will not only help you improve SEO ranking and drive high-quality traffic but also engage your visitors to signal relevance to search engines — creating a virtuous cycle that will further boost your SEO.
Not to mention, a high-converting website is key to maximizing profits from your investment in SEO and online ads.
That’s why at 99 Calls, we don’t just run Google Ads for local service businesses. We make sure that they’re part of an effective lead generation strategy by setting up an SEO-optimized, high-converting website so you can attract high-quality leads and get the most of your marketing dollars.
Learn more about 99 Calls Lead Generation services or Schedule a free consultation.