If you run a local service business and have a website, you may already have a small idea about the importance of local SEO.
If you want to drastically increase the number of calls your business receives, then you’ll want to pay close attention to this article because you can skyrocket your lead generation efforts. We do SEO for contractors and these strategies have worked wonders for our clients.
Ranking Factor #1: Website Ranking
Surprise surprise, the #1 ranking factor for your GMB profile is your website ranking. If you want to increase your website ranking, you’ll want to grab an SEO tool like Ahrefs to do some keyword research and start adding more content to your website.
Along with adding more content to your site, you’ll want to handle the technical parts of SEO that so many people tend to gloss over. This includes things like your site speed, image size, image titles, title tags, and meta descriptions. These are all things you can do for free without needing to pay an SEO professional thousands of dollars or wait months upon end.
Then, you’ll want to get backlinks to your site from high DA websites in your local area and/or your niche.
Ranking Factor #2: Citations
A citation is when another place on the internet mentions your NAP.
N = Name
A = Address
P = Phone Number
Citation sources are sites like Facebook, Yelp, BBB, and Yellow Pages. When you get a citation from one of these sites, Google will see that as a thumbs up and give you more credibility.
Ranking Factor #3: Profile Optimization
As we mentioned in our article, SEO for contractors, you’ll want to beef up your entire profile so that Google knows your serious and searchers know exactly what services you can provide to them.
Here are some steps to do that:
- Verify Your Address: Before your profile is actually visible to the public, you have to verify with Google that you’re a real business. Their form of doing this is by sending a postcard to you with a verification code. Don’t serve customers at your actual address and want it hidden? No problem, you can still hide your address on your GMB and verify it just the same.
- Add Categories: You’ll want to add all of your services to your profile. For example, if you’re a carpet cleaner you may also do air duct cleaning, pressure washing, and upholstery cleaning. You’ll want to add all of these services to your profile so Google and customers know what you do.
- Hours: Of course, add correct business hours.
- Images: Just as we suggested before, add as many images as possible to your profile.
- Description: You’ll want to add about 200-250 words of content to your profile going over what services you offer, what cities you service, why customers should choose you, and lastly how they can get in contact with your business. Keep in mind, these steps are so customers AND Google can know what it is you do.
Ranking Factor #4: Google Reviews
Many contractors the chad kimball course works with are surprised to find out that their reviews do little to increase their rankings on Google Maps or organic search. Unfortunately, this is true, however, you shouldn’t ditch reviews entirely.
Reviews may not increase your rankings, but they absolutely will increase your CTR. When it comes down to it, when people look at your profile and a few competitors, they’re likely to choose the company with the best reviews.
Ranking Factor #5: 3rd Party Reviews
3rd party reviews play a little bit of a role in your rankings and of course a big role in your reputation. Google can track reviews your company receives from Facebook, BBB, and Yelp. Just make sure the NAP Google has on profile matches your NAP on these websites so Google can link the relationship between the two.
