Are you a plumber? As you know, word of mouth recommendations from your current customers to their neighbors, friends and family are key to building your business, and maintaining your client database.
Here’s what you may not have realized yet. Google is no different than a long-time client who gives you recommendations. Google’s algorithm quickly analyzes websites, ads and business listings to decide who to recommend first. You want Google to recommend you at or near the top of page one of Google Search Engine Results Pages (SERP). And Google will do that, if you get to learn how the “pipes in their engine” work.
We know how to get you one page one of SERP. We can tinker and clean out your website, get you listed in Google Maps and do other tricks so that Google recommends you first – before plumbers nearby.
The primary way for plumbers to get on page one of SERP is through search engine optimization (SEO). Look – we’ll be honest. We can’t repair it pipes. That’s why we use plumbers. Plumbing isn’t our area of expertise.
And you may be like us, but in the opposite way. You know plumbing, but you probably don’t know a lot about SEO. We’ll teach you the basics here, but as a plumber, you know that sometimes, you need to call in the pros. If and when you decide to use SEO to promote your plumbing services, we hope you call us first.
When you perform a plumbing service for customers, you probably explain what you’re doing and why. We’re going to do the same thing here. We’ll explain why SEO is important for plumbers to know and take advantage of.
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What Is SEO?
SEO is like a home’s plumbing system. It’s a series of pipes that connect with one goal – getting you to rank in Google search results. However, the system is a lot like plumbing. If the pipes aren’t connected well and sturdy, you won’t get great results. It’s just like a house with old pipes that have loose joints. Sure, toilets flush and water comes out of faucets. But if the owners would invest time and money into new pipes, or repairing the pipes that are already there, they’d get better results.
If you master SEO, or let us handle the job for you, you can get eyeballs on your plumbing business for free through Google and Bing. Getting a page ranked high in SERP increases your awareness that your company exists – at the very least – and could lead to a sales or transaction – at the very best. Often, people are having an emergency when they look for plumbers. So being near the top of SERP is crucial.
But getting to the top of SERP, like getting to a pipe buried deep underneath a house, isn’t easy. Google has over 200 factors that their algorithm considers when deciding where to rank a webpage. Yes, figuring out 200 little things – and remembering them every time you put together a webpage – can feel overwhelming. But with a little education – whether you get it through articles like this or a course or a book – plumbers can start to get the hang of it.
And if SEO gives you a migraine the same way certain customers do, you can have us handle some or all of your website content creation, redesign or design your website and more. We have been in the SEO business for over 10 years. You can read about the experiences of our satisfied clients here. We have worked with plumbers and other skilled tradespeople. They’ve seen fast increases in traffic and calls.
SEO Rules for Plumbers
There are several things to keep in mind if you are a plumber and want to handle SEO on your own, without guidance from trained experts like us at SEO Design Chicago:
Figure Out Who Your Competition Is
The first step of any SEO strategy is to research and understand who your competition is online, which for plumbers, may include figuring out who your competition is in your area. You don’t want to drive really far to potential clients. That’ll cut into your bottom line. You want your customers to be close to where you live or are headquartered.
Another reason you want to figure out what other plumbers are near you is that people often add the term “Near me” when searching for a service or trade, especially if they’re in a bind. You want to make sure you’re listed in Google Maps Pack, which can be hard to understand and master when you’re just starting out with SEO.
You also want to make sure your plumbing website looks better, loads faster and has better content than other plumbers near you.
You can access tools like AHrefs to see where you’re currently ranking in Google for terms related to plumbing and your area, and where your competitors are. If the people down the street are outranking you for terms like “Plumber in x neighborhood,” you can change your SEO strategy to outrank them. It’s like chess. Learn what your opponent is doing, and how your opponent thinks, before you try to beat your opponent.
Think Critically About your Customers
The primary goal of any website should be providing valuable content and information to its visitors. While there are many tips and tricks we can teach you about SEO, the best chance you have of succeeding is by creating excellent content. When it comes to plumbing, people want to know quickly:
- If you are available 24/7
- What you do and don’t do
- What prices start at (refrain from being too specific)
- If you offer free estimates
- What forms of payment you accept (and if you offer lines of credit)
- Your experience
- Reviews from satisfied customers
- And the ability to book a consult or appointment online
Often, business owners think of their customers in terms of demographics, like age, income level, gender and more. But think differently. What problems do they have? How can you solve those problems? How quickly can you solve those problems? If you think this way, you’ll naturally have website content that Google will rank higher in SERP because you’ll show what Google calls “EEAT.” That stands for “experience, expertise, authority and trustworthiness.” Google gives great recommendations to websites that show this.
Tinker with your Web Design
While most SEO experts focus mainly on content, we always remind clients, especially skilled trade clients like plumbers, not to forget about your website’s design. That’s right: web design is part of search engine optimization. Your website’s loading time (how fast it can bring up all of the images, text and videos) determines where Google places you in SERO.
We also suggest breaking up long pages of text with headers, like we do here that contain keywords. In this case, we use the word plumber a lot in this post because we wanted you to find it. Google also makes sure a website is mobile friendly when it comes to determining where to rank a site. If it’s not, they ding the website a few points. We often redesign companies’ websites after they understand the impact their design is having on their SEO.
Double Check How Your Website is Organized
Just like a plumbing system in a house, your website’s navigation (i.e. the menu) is important for SEO purposes. Your pages also need to be linked together in some fashion. Your website users – and search engine crawlers – need to be able to move about your site easily. You don’t want any page clogging up the system. The pages should all link together. That’s why on this page, you’ll see links to other pages on our site. Having excellent content about plumbing on your site is worthless if your site visitors, not to mention search engines, can’t find it.
Perform Keyword Research on Plumbing Related Searches
Keyword research is the most important part of any SEO strategy. You need to perform keyword research, through Google Ads or other tools, in order to choose the correct keywords to use on every page. Keywords are the words and phrases people enter into Google or Bing’s search engines when looking for content. For plumbers, those words and phrases are “plumber near me” and “plumbing emergency.” They also include “cheap plumber” or “fast plumber.”
Keyword research tells you what those keywords are for your industry, and how many people use those words. You want to use those words and phrases a lot in your content, but not too much. You also want to make sure you’re placing those keywords in the right sections – like page headers (like the title of this post), subheads, and alt tags of images (i.e. the words that pop up when someone hovers over an image). If you aren’t a wordsmith and/or you don’t love research, that’s ok. That’s why plumbers often employ a digital marketing agency like us.
Post New Stuff about Plumbing on a Regular Basis
Search engines love fresh, new content. One of the best ways to get Google to rank you high in SERP is to update your website’s blog on a regular basis with new posts. New local law about plumbing? Write a post about it. Want to show people an emergency hack that can help them until you arrive? Write a post or create a short video about it for your site? SEO is why we maintain this blog (well, and we want to help people).
However, keep in mind that in this case, quality is more important than quantity. Make sure the content you create is valuable, helpful, and informative for your readers. Does it answer questions they might have gone to a search engine looking for the answers for? If so, it will help your SEO. If not, you’re just clogging up the pipes of the internet.
Make Sure You have A lot of Links To Plumbing Resources
Another way you can do SEO yourself is by working on link building for your website. While internal links are helpful for website visitors to find new pages to visit on your site, it also helps search engines. For example, if you are writing a new post for your website and you reference a topic you wrote about in a previous post, it is the perfect opportunity to place an internal link. You also want to link to other websites that aren’t your competition. So if there’s a new local law about plumbing code, link to the city’s website about it. You also want to do what you can to get other websites to link to yours.
This is a matter of outreach to complementary businesses, but not your competitors. For example, since you are a plumber, you should link to companies that offer bathroom remodels, and they should do the same for you. We handle finding these complementary businesses for you.
Check Your Analytics
When you fix a toilet, you check to make sure it flushes correctly a few times without leaking right? You may even call your customer a few weeks later to see how things are going.You want to monitor your SEO as well. There are several tools you can use to monitor where you’re ranking in Google. Our favorite is Google Analytics 4 (GA4). This free tool helps you learn how people are finding and using your website. It can also help you identify any problems with your site.
Another Key Service for Plumbers – Online Reputation Management
This is crucial for plumbers. People always worry they’re being ripped off by contractors. And it makes sense – they don’t know a lot about plumbing, and it’s not exactly fun to pay for plumbing the same way it’s fun to book a vacation.
So online reviews must be created (you can incentivize happy customers to leave reviews with a promo code for their next service), and you must manage reviews. Make sure ones that violate policies set by Google, Yelp and Nexdoor are being flagged, and removed. There are more safeguards than you realize to get rid of reviews from people who are trash talking your business. If you don’t have the time or energy to keep up with this, we can do it for you.
Still Need Help with SEO?
If you still need help with your plumbing SEO strategy, SEO Design Chicago can assist you. Contact us today for a free SEO page audit to help you see where your pages currently rank and how your site can be improved.
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