Local SEO for Home Service Companies

There are tons of options and multiple approaches that a local home services company can take when it comes to digital marketing. But the most important one, by far, is search engine optimization (SEO).

Your goal is to be found when someone in your community is searching for your services.

Local SEO for Home Services will help you accomplish that goal.

But it’s not enough to just be told that – let’s dig a little deeper to find out why by answering some of the questions we get asked the most by business owners like you…

• What is Local SEO for Home Services?
• Does Local SEO only cover the city or town that my business is located in?
• What can I do as a business owner to help my search engine rankings?
• What is Visibly Connected’s process for Local SEO for Home Services companies?
• Is Local SEO ever complete? Is there a certain length of time that you spend on it?
• How long does Local SEO take?
• How come “Insert Generic Marketing Company Name Here” reached out and offered me first page Google rankings in the first month?

Q. What is Local SEO for Home Services?

A. Local SEO for home services is the process in which a digital marketing company, such as Visibly Connected, completes tasks and objectives to help your local business rank better in both organic search results and the local map pack on Google.

These tasks and objectives include a number of processes including website optimization, citation management such as Google My Business, content creation, link building and management, and more.

Q. Does Local SEO only cover the city or town that my business is located in?

A. Not necessarily. Local SEO is more of a radius-based service meaning it is most effective within the first 15 to 20-mile radius of your location.

Google is constantly making changes to their search algorithms and it is becoming increasingly difficult to rank higher the further you get from your physical location. The reason for this is because Google wants to serve the most relevant results to its users – that being the closest business to the person searching.

This generally works out well for home services companies because the typical service area aligns pretty well with the 20-mile radius.

Q. What can I do as a business owner to help my search engine rankings?

A. As a business owner, the most important step you can take to having a positive impact on your search engine rankings is encouraging your customers to leave reviews of their experience with your company on your Google My Business listing.

The more that Google sees your business interacting with the community, the more likely they are to “recommend” you to other users within the community. One of the most effective ways to accomplish this is by getting consistent, positive reviews and replying to those reviews with a simple response such as “Thank you for your business and your kind words!”.

Q. What is Visibly Connected’s process for Local SEO for Home Services companies?

A. Our approach is relatively straightforward. Upfront, we conduct an in-depth audit to discover exactly where your business currently stands with rankings, what existing content you may have that can be utilized, and what your competitors are doing that we should be paying attention to.

Next, we map out a plan for your search engine success. We take the information we gathered in our audit and have a discussion with your company to discover what your ultimate goals are.

From there we begin the work of optimizing your site and online presence to yield the best results. This is constant work that continues to improve over the life of your local SEO campaign.

You can read more about our Local SEO for Homes Services process here.

Q. Is Local SEO ever complete? Is there a certain length of time that you spend on it?

A. If there were a blueprint for Local SEO that laid out the exact steps needed in order to rank #1 – we wouldn’t have jobs as digital marketers. It’s not as simple as getting a set number of tasks accomplished and being done with it.

Google and other popular search engines are constantly changing their method of measurement when it comes to their judgment of a first-page-worthy website. For this reason, Local SEO is an ongoing process that takes an expert with their finger on the pulse of the industry to understand what and when things need to happen in order to render the best results.

Surprisingly, getting you to the first page of search results in your service area isn’t the hardest part of Local SEO – keeping you there is.

Q. How long does Local SEO take?

A. This is such a difficult question, however, it is the most asked. How long does it take for what exactly?

• To start ranking? That depends on the keywords you are wanting to rank for as well as the competition in your market. We like to approach less competitive keywords first in order to establish some credibility with Google. Once we rank well for those, the more sought-after keywords will come easier.
• To start seeing results? You will begin seeing results relatively quickly. We do a great job of keeping you informed on a regular basis regarding your keyword positioning as well as the traffic and behavior to which that positioning contributes to. Most of our clients start to see results from our efforts within the first 4-6 months.
• To start seeing a return on your investment? We like to be completely transparent – in all reality, it will most likely take you between 8 to 12 months to start seeing a significant return on your investment. There is some serious groundwork that needs to be done in order to start getting to the good stuff. The beautiful part is, once you do start seeing results, it only gets better from there. Local SEO is so impactful because you aren’t paying per click like you would with PPC marketing. This means that the better we do and the longer we do it, the more money made and the bigger your ROI becomes.

Q. How come “Insert Generic Marketing Company Name Here” reached out and offered me first-page Google rankings in the first month?

A. Like any industry, there exists a certain subculture of digital marketers who employ less-than-ethical tactics to get quick results. This may sound great to you as a business owner looking for the magic bullet to marketing, but I can assure you it will completely devastate your online presence. Utilizing spammy and illegitimate marketing tactics for Local SEO isn’t new, and it isn’t smart.

Your first encounters with Google will be on an automated basis as they are with any newcomer looking to rank on their platform and these tactics will look very promising.

However, Google will start to put human eyes and advanced machine learning on your website and directory listings across the web and soon find out that you aren’t playing by their rules. This means big trouble for your online presence. Google can essentially blacklist your company website from the Internet for using these tactics, and they do it all of the time.

So, to answer the question – they offered you a too-good-to-be-true package, and while it may yield surprising results at first, it will ultimately result in much bigger surprises later.

Understanding What You are Investing In

Entering into an agreement with a marketing company can be uncertain. Couple that with the confusion that comes from not knowing what or how they are supposed to accomplish your goals, and it can become downright frustrating.

We do everything we can to educate professionals in the home services industry on the different aspects of digital marketing, how different services are best utilized, and what kind of results to realistically expect.

Have more questions? Feel free to contact us today at 281-940-7463 to learn more about how Visibly Connected can help your home services company achieve growth through digital marketing.