SEO for Home Services: Actionable & Detailed Guide

SEO for home services matters. 

Whether your business sells shoes or roofing services, search engines treat you the same, in a way that is directly proportional to the work you put into your SEO strategies.

Although SEO for home services may not be the easiest thing to do for a contractor, the following insights will provide a solid place to start on your SEO journey. You’ll learn about:

• The role of SEO for home service businesses

• Top SEO tips for boosting your home service business online visibility

• How ServiceTitan's marketing software can support your SEO efforts

» Want to grow your business? Click here to get a demo.

Why is SEO Important for Home Service Businesses?

According to Hubspot, 97% of people learn more about a local company online than anywhere else.

Also, 98% of consumers have used the internet to find information about a local business in the last year. 

Since everyone's online these days, that's where your home service business needs to be to get in front of your ideal customers. 

That's why SEO for home services matters: It increases the visibility of your business and boosts your chances of appearing at the top when people search for your type of business online.

Having a strong organic presence also means that you can cut your ad spend if you wish to, or use both SEO and pay-per-click (PPC) to enhance your digital marketing efforts and online visibility. 

Randi Thompson, operations manager at Bill Joplin’s Air Conditioning and Heating, used ServiceTitan's Marketing Pro as part of the company’s marketing strategy to reach new customers. 

Within just two weeks of using the software, the company had almost $51,000 ROI on their aging-equipment email campaign.

“Prior to Marketing Pro, we didn’t have an efficient way to pull this audience or a creative way to reach this audience so this was just money we would have left on the table!!!” said Thompson. “Also, the talented Lauren added our online booking link to the email and in the last 3 days we have had 91 online bookings, which is a HUGE timesaver since no conversation is required.”

Find Relevant Keywords for Your Website

A starting point in an electrical job may look like an inspection or some minor wiring work. In SEO, the best SEO companies agree that it all starts with keywords.

Keywords are the words and phrases people type in search engines when looking for services like yours. Therefore, it's essential to pick the right ones that match your services and target audience.

Your keywords are phrases that occur on your website that help Google determine the site’s relevance to someone’s search. For instance, let’s say your company is a plumbing business in Austin, Texas.

In this case, some of your main keywords should be:

• Austin Plumbing

• Austin Plumbing Services

• Austin Plumbers

• Plumbers in Austin, TX

• Plumbing Services in Austin, TX

These keywords should appear prominently in your website content (once or twice on each page) and be frequently used in your H1 and H2 headers.

You’ll also want to experiment with niche keywords, such as “Austin Leak Repair,” “Clogged Toilets in Austin,” “Austin sink installation,” and so on, to capitalize on searches where the searcher has a specific service in mind.

But how can home service contractors find which keywords are relevant to their target audience?

There are two ways. You can either use Google Autocomplete, PAA boxed, or Related Searches. 

More precisely, this means you have to type a keyword in the Google search bar and explore the list that automatically pops up, showing things people searched for related to your keyword. 

In this way, you'll get an accurate list of phrases people use to find your services.

If this looks like too much work for you, an SEO tool might be of greater help.

A Keyword Tool can help you find relevant keywords for your home service business without much hassle. 

All you have to do is type your main keyword, and the tool will give you a list of related keywords, their search volume, and difficulty level (how hard it is to rank for that particular phrase).

Make sure your website content reflects these keywords and phrases as much as possible. However, make sure to avoid keyword stuffing, as it is a big no-no in the world of SEO.

Keep in mind that the effort you put into your keyword research practice sets up the foundation for your overall SEO strategy.

Create and Optimize your Google Business Profile

A Google Business Profile is an important component of SEO for home services as it helps potential customers find your local home service business.

Creating a Google Business Profile is not optional if you want to stay relevant to your target audience; it’s a necessity. 

However, having a Google Business Profile is not enough. To stay relevant and visible, you also need to optimize your profile.

The rule of thumb when optimizing your Google Business Profile is to be as accurate and detailed as possible. The more complete and precise your profile, the more likely it is to show up in local searches. 

Here are a few things to consider when optimizing your profile:

• Business name. An optimized profile contains the actual name of the business, without additional keywords.

• Hours of operation. People will get frustrated and give up on your services if they are not accurate, so make sure to keep your hours of operation updated.

• Local phone number. Google’s algorithms take this as a ranking factor, which shows that you are a legitimate local business. 

• Clear description. Another optimization step is to write a compelling description that shows people who you are.

•  Photos and videos. To further enhance your profile, you can add high-quality media files.

Having an optimized Google Business Profile can help you rank higher in the Google Map Pack, which makes it easier for users to find your business. 

The local pack is a group of three or more local businesses that appear in the Google search results when someone searches for a service related to yours. Ranking high in the local pack largely depends on how optimized your Google Business Profile is.

We at ServiceTitan know the importance of showing up exactly where and when your customers need you. That's why we integrated the Local Service Ads with our software to provide your customers with an easier, faster avenue to reach home service businesses like yours.

“If people don’t have a frequent need [for your services] they’re going to Google and they’re searching,” said Megan Bedford, business owner at Mugyver Consulting, which specializes in marketing for the trades. “Are you found there when your customers are actually looking? Local Services Ads, pay-per-click advertising, your reviews — those are the kinds of things that can get you customers, or potential customers.”

ServiceTitan's instant booking integration with Google Ads allows customers to book jobs with one click, directly on Google. These bookings automatically populate your ServiceTitan dashboard through our integrated scheduling feature. That means no more copy-pasting redundant booking information. Your customers get the convenience they require, and you get more time to focus on essential business operations.

The Local Service Ads integration also provides real-time ROI reporting, which means bookings automatically go into your Marketing Scorecard to measure the efficiency of your ad spend.

Optimizing your Google Business Profile can increase your online presence, but to maximize it, you need a little extra. Here are some best practices for boosting your Google Business Profile visibility:

Encourage positive reviews

Google Business Profile reviews are an important local search ranking factor. The more positive reviews a local business receives, the higher its organic visibility, and the more likely your business shows up on the first page.

Getting Google reviews can sometimes be harder than it looks, however. People might not be interested in leaving reviews, they might be too busy, or the process might look too tedious for them.

A good place to start is by asking for Google reviews, preferably immediately after you've completed a job. You can also ask through an email or when you send the bill. 

Reminding customers to give a review is also a good practice since most of them will probably forget.

Any way you go about it, make sure to be proactive. After all, it's in your interest to encourage customers to leave reviews.

To make the review process much simpler and raise your chance of receiving 5-star reviews, ServiceTitan's Reputation Management feature streamlines all phases of your review process. From review notifications and business listing management, to review metrics, ServiceTitan makes it easier for you to manage your reputation.

“One of the biggest value propositions of Reputation Management is the ability to ask for reviews from your customers at the right time, right when things are fresh in their mind, and add a little more automation to it,” says ServiceTitan Strategic Project Manager Heather Donaldson.

“Review management is a huge part of our marketing here because it’s more than just a pat on the back from your customers,” says Brittany Brewer, Marketing and Customer Service Manager at Bradbury Brothers Cooling, Plumbing & Electrical. “It’s giving potential customers feedback from the people who they associate with when they’re looking for a company to use. It’s super, super important.”

Build citations

Citations are mentions of your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) on other websites. The more citations you have, the better it is for your local SEO.

There are plenty of potential websites where you can list your business, but not all of them may be relevant to your services.

Home service contractors can build citations on specialized directories like:

• CitySearch – a local advertising platform and directory that allows home service providers to showcase their services to local customers.

• Angi (formerly known as Angie’s List) – a directory for home service providers with reviews and ratings.

• Houzz – a home-design directory that helps local businesses connect with homeowners.

Ensure your NAP is consistent

NAP stands for name, address, and phone number, and is essential if you want to rank high in organic local search results. Search engines like Google consider this data when ranking companies for geo-targeted searches. 

One key aspect to take care of if you want to show up in local search results is to keep your NAP consistent on all sites throughout the web. Search engines like Google or Bing verify your NAP information across websites to make sure your business is legitimate. 

To verify how accurately your NAP appears across the web, you can use the Moz Local tool. You just need to enter your company name and address to check for any discrepancies.

These best practices will help you get your Google Business Profile out there and reach more potential customers.

Keep Your On-Page SEO Tight

On-page SEO refers to the optimization of individual web pages and content on your website. It consists of optimizing HTML tags, images, titles, and meta descriptions, as well as other components of a webpage.

Optimizing these elements can have a huge impact on how your page performs in search rankings.

Title tags and meta descriptions

Title tags and meta descriptions are two important components when it comes to optimizing your website's on-page SEO. Title tags are the titles of each webpage, which are displayed in search engine results. Meta descriptions provide a brief summary of the content on a webpage and should be written with proper grammar and spelling.

When optimizing title tags and meta descriptions, make sure that they accurately reflect the content on the page, contain relevant keywords, and are written in a way that will draw visitors to your website and encourage them to stay.

Good title tags for home service businesses may look like Electric Repairs | [YourBusinessName] or Electrician in Austin | [YourBusinessName]. 

Meta descriptions don't need to be creative or catchy but should be clear and concise. A good example of a meta description for a home service business could be: In need of electrical repairs and installation services in the [local area]? [YourBusinessName] is available 24/7.

SEO-friendly URLs

SEO-friendly URLs should be short, descriptive, and include relevant keywords that help search engine crawlers understand the content on a page.

Moreover, SEO-friendly URLs give your visitors a better understanding of what they can expect from the website and make it easier for them to find their way around.

SEO-friendly URLs for home service companies can look like this: https://electrician.com/services/electrical-repairs. For location pages, you can also add the location name. 

Keywords

We've mentioned earlier that keyword research is the starting point of many SEO strategies. But it's equally important that once you have those keywords at your fingertips, you know what to do with them.

More exactly, how to place them in your content. 

Placing your target keyword strategically helps both search engines and readers quickly understand what the page is about. There are some key areas where you should include your keywords to make them easier to spot:

• H1

• Subheaders

• First paragraph

By applying these on-page SEO practices, you place your home service business in the best possible position to rank higher and reach more customers.

Create High-Quality Content

The phrase "content is king" is as old as search engine optimization itself. But it still holds true – content remains one of the strongest signals for search engine rankings.

Creating high-quality content can help you rank higher on search engine results pages, as well as increase your website's visibility and credibility.

High-quality content for home service companies should focus on providing helpful advice, tips, and solutions to common problems related to your services. 

Step #1: Find relevant topics to write about

A key aspect and the foundation stone of high-quality content is how it matches search intent. In other words, writing top-performing pieces of content means creating content that answers the user's question in the best possible way.

Finding topics that your target audiences are interested in may not be as easy as it sounds, but using the keyword research strategies we outlined earlier can be of great help. For example, try searching for "how to" or "what is" keywords to determine what informational content you could create on the topics that your target audience is looking for. 

"How to Choose Kitchen Lighting" could be a great topic for electrical contractors, "How to Unclog Your AC Condensate Drain Line" could work for an HVAC business, and “How To Level A Sloping Garden In 10 Stages” could be a good topic for landscaping companies.

Step #2: Optimize your content for a search audience

After you've decided on the relevant topics to write about, the next step of your content marketing strategy is to optimize your article for SEO. This may look a lot like the on-page SEO strategies we discussed earlier, but here is a basic article optimization checklist to make things clear:

• Identify relevant keywords to target through keyword research.

• Incorporate the keywords into your article in a natural way, including in the title, headings, and throughout the body of the article.

• Use internal and external links to other relevant content to help improve the article's relevance and authority.

• Make sure the article is well-written and easy to read, with a clear structure and appropriate formatting.

Step #3: Publish content regularly

Creating content that is relevant to your target audience and is optimized for SEO will set your content strategy on the right track to success. What will keep it on this track is consistency.

That means you need to publish content regularly so that your website stays up-to-date and relevant. Regularly publishing content on your website or on social media can also help increase organic traffic over time, as well as build authority among search engines.

To help check consistency off your list, a content calendar is a great tool to use. It will help you plan and organize your content for the upcoming months, so you can be sure that you post consistently and that you don't miss out on any important publishing dates.

Your home services SEO strategy needs to rely heavily on a solid foundation of relevant, high-quality content that your audience enjoys reading. Home service businesses that put content at the center of their SEO practices are the ones that customers see and reach out to.

Build Backlinks

From a psychological point of view, SEO is largely about building credibility and trust around your business. Both search engines and users look for clues that your business is trustworthy and dependable.

One of the ways you can signal to search engines that your website is trustworthy and relevant is by building backlinks. Backlinks are links from other websites that point to your own website. This helps the search engine understand how popular and authoritative your website is, which can help with rankings.

There are a few different ways to go about building backlinks for home services businesses, either by giving testimonials, guest blogging, or doing outreach work.

Also, there are some link-building strategies that you should avoid. Black-hat link-building tactics, such as link buying and excessive link exchange, can get your website penalized if discovered by search engines. This will hurt your website's rankings and can take a lot of time and effort to reverse.

These are the do’s and don'ts of backlinking that will help you build credibility for your home service business.

Now Over to You

Staying relevant in the home service industry means that you meet your customers where they are. Today, they are on the internet searching for services like yours. 

Home services SEO helps you be there, at the right time, when people need your services and your knowledge. And we at ServiceTitan help you nurture your relationships with your customers through easier collaboration, more reliable scheduling, and improved customer service.

ServiceTitan is an all-in-one software solution for home service businesses that helps streamline every aspect of their everyday operations. ServiceTitan's field management software has helped thousands of commercial and residential home service companies optimize their workflows, retain more customers, and grow their businesses.