Categories
Electrical SEO

3 Biggest Trends in Electrical SEO

The Fundamental Electrical SEO Plan For The Future

Performing a random search on google reveals how much online marketing has dominated the internet. Search Engine Optimization, popularly known as SEO, significantly impacts today’s e-commerce.

Are you looking forward to growing your electrical business online? This article gives you the perfect head start. Read on!

Will SEO be significant in the future?

SEO

The increasingly conspicuous Google Ads are among the numerous changes in the internet marketing world. If you perform a random search today, the chances are such that a Google Ad will appear at the top. This most certainly, has gotten you wondering if you need SEO.

SEO’s future is still intact. This is because 71% of all electrical-related searches will return organic search results among the top three map listings. Interestingly, the top 5 organic listings constitute 65% of all the searches related to electricity.

Additionally, statistics have shown that only 14% of people click on the Ads, while the rest scroll down to the organic listings. For these reasons, SEO’s future is still intact, and this article looks at the functionality of SEO now and in the future.

What is the Electrical SEO?

electrical SEO

Electrical SEO is simply the optimization of electrical websites and pages to boost organic search listing on prominent search engines like Bing and Google without paying for Ads.

Significance of SEO to your electrical business

SEO for your electrical business

The online world is closer to anyone than the real world. If you want to buy something, studies have suggested that you could be among the 94% who opt to perform an online search first. People will click on the websites listed at the top as these appear as more pertinent to the search and thus better trusted.

For the above reason, if your website does not feature at the top, you may never reach your customers online. The SEO marketing strategy will help your electrical website rank above many other electrical websites based on specific keyword searches.

Since the search engine collects information about every site and ranks the pages, you must get to know all elements that earn your website a higher score.

Text, content, and links, among other relevant information incorporated in your webpage’s HTML code, are the focus of SEO. In response to a search, the search engine looks for the searched word in these first. Robust SEO approaches are necessary to guarantee your website a slot at the top, and this article tells you how.

3 Biggest Trends in Electrical SEO

1. Elaborate and expressive content is significant.

Proper product and service listing are crucial for your electrical company. You should create an individual page for every service/product that you have. If you’re an electrical and do such disconnecting electricity, have a separate page for it, and don’t forget to indicate your geographical location.

SEO content

If you do several types of electrical or somewhat different electrical solutions such as electrical wiring in a building, installing electrical equipment into an installation coupler, or any other electrical repair, make a page with information about each service.

As this is for boosting your website’s SEO ranking, a page of content is necessary for each page you create.

A page of content should not miss any of the following:

  • What the service is?
  • What the customer gains from the service?
  • Audio-visual (video, image, and sound) presentation of some work you’ve
  • Other stuff that boosts your service

An electrical company will usually cover a span of up to 50 miles, which could include several towns or cities. To market your electrical company across these cities, you could make each page unique in some way. The difference could be as simple as having different reviews to a more complex task, like placing a video focusing on the site’s target area.

Targeting individual neighborhoods will also stand your electrical website a better chance of being ranked high. It is particularly useful in cases where people want their wiring fixed urgently and so would want a local electrical company to do the job.

Finally, make sure to write captivating content for your site; otherwise, your website’s visitors will not want to go through your site, let alone consider your services. Nowadays, SEO is focusing on user optimization. That said, if people do not spend time on your website, Google is not going to be placing the site on top in the future.

2. To score high on ranking, have your content attractive to the prospective customer.

Poor quality & misdirected links redirecting to your website will scathe your rating The evolution of the digital world is so fast, and you need to keep pace. In just a few years, Google updates have seen a lot of change in SERP. For example, Google’s Penguin update, quality, and relevance of links are at the forefront. If a link you insert is not related to the electrical business, it will lower your electrical website’s score.

Monitoring the links that come to your website is of great help, ensuring that those links are appropriate and not spam. To do this, you can use the Search Console or have someone review them and purge the unwanted ones. The words contained in the anchor text are for your electrical website ranking. In this era, you will want to keep diversifying your link label.

3. Physical operating premises are necessary for a high rank, and a physical office for your electrical company will do good for your website ranking.

a physical office for your electrical company will do good for your website ranking

Without it, your business is unlikely to rank high. After Google Maps rolled out the Pigeon update, which focused on Local Maps Listing, persons who operated virtual stores or had fake addresses or those that employed UPS Store’s mailboxes had a massive slash down on their sites’ ranking. Virtual offices were also removed from Google Maps. Using a home address as your business (just like the majority of our clients) will not undermine your electrical business’s ranking on Google.

Other changes in SEO electrical

  • Years old SEO Techniques wok no more.
  • Google has fathered artificial intelligence. At this level, keywords and spam backlinks are a thing of the past.
  • User experience optimization is all!
  • The era of Panda, Pigeon, and such is almost over. With more focus on user optimization, Google’s engine is now focusing on what the user does on-site and with the search results.

What are the best new ranking considerations for the future?

Click-Through Rate (CTR)

CTR

CTR is when a user types in the name of a company, say ABC Electricians, scrolls and clicks on the first listing. If this listing they click is your website, it is treated as a click-through to your site. The more clicks, the higher the ranking for your company. We will look at how you can increase the CTR.

Scroll speed and time spent on a page are important

Scroll speed

Once a user is directed to your page via click-through, what they do on that page, whether scrolling down through your homepage or clicking that back button, affects your rating.

Watch your bounce rate

bounce rate

A bounce is when someone visits your web page, does nothing, and then clicks back to look at other such results. Bounce back is something to watch, and Google Analytics will help you monitor your page’s bounce rate.

Branding is a key to Google’s ranking

Branding

An offline brand is not equivalent to an online brand. Being cited by other local sites and authentic sites is a big boost for Google’s ranking.

Citation review

citation template

The number of citation reviews and other related links significantly influence your page’s ranking.

Let’s get started!

Come up with the best keywords compatible with your service, area of operation, and search volume. A keyword is a term a person will type into the search area to look for you. This can be something like: wiring installation in Denver or even electrician contractors in Denver.

There are three types of keyword-based on intent:

  • Awareness keywords: These are mostly used by people seeking information.
  • Research and comparison keywords: These are primarily used by people trying to make a comparison online. For instance- “the best electrician contractor near Denver.”
  • Buying intent keywords: These are used by customers ready to buy. One such keyword would be “Denver wiring installation.” For every keyword type, the choice of the right keyword makes the difference.

How to come up with the keywords

keywords

The easiest way is to visit the Google page and type something related to your electrical website. This appears simple, but it’s all you need to know what people around you are searching for. Making a list and typing those things on Google search is a good start.

You can also use tools such as Google Keyword Tool, Spyfu, or SEMrush to come up with keywords. These tools are very resourceful as they show you the monthly number of searches for that keyword as well as show you the intensity of competition for the keyword(s).

What are some of the keyword structures you can use?

  • [Your City] + Electrical Services
  • [Your City] + Electrical Companies
  • [Your City] + Electricians
  • [Your City] + Electrician Contractors
  • [Your City] + Electrical wiring installation experts

You can include add-on phrases to the keyword search, such as:

  • …in my area
  • …near me
  • …experienced
  • …affordable

Mobile-friendly websites are better

Mobile-friendly

Optimize your website so that it is accessible by gadgets such as smartphones and tablets. Nowadays, a website that’s not mobile-friendly will not feature at the top. You can check this by visiting the Google Mobile test site. Ensure your website is mobile-friendly before putting it up for electrical SEO.

Electrical SEO- On-site optimization

Building a robust website with valuable content and user experience

website's usability

Multimedia placed on your page will, by far, increase the on-page time, prompting google to reduce your bounce rate. Strategically placed videos of workers working are likely to boost your electrical page view time.

Stock images tend to spoil your ranking as people think they have been downloaded. Avoid them at all costs. Instead, skillfully made images will earn the trust of users who translate into customers.

A page for a service!

As seen earlier, a page for each service will help you be as granular as is required. You will need to optimize each of these pages by strategically placing the primary keyword in the title, header, and the rest of the page.

Main keyword in title and H1

H1

Use the main keyword(s) in the title and H1 (header 1) and the suitable keyword in H2 or H3. Something like “Electrical experts in Denver” along with other factors will give you a good score.

Widespread use of the keyword in the electrical website will help your site rank high, as more of the search keywords are contained in your website.

Meta descriptions

Meta descriptions

These are descriptions below each search result title, giving some little information on what the page or the post is all about. Use a meta description that is captivating enough to drive clicks. With increased CTR comes a better SEO ranking.

Name, address, and phone at the page bottom

NAP

Advanced tools like Schema are useful for adding a name, address, and phone number to your website. This scripting gives the search engine information about your company, and the information includes a physical location, services offered, and the nature of your company.

Blogging on trends

Blog

Updating your company website weekly is an excellent way of adding content to your site as well as explaining some electrical-related services you offer.

Electrical SEO- Off-site optimization

Optimize Google My Business Listing

Verifying your business location

Verifying your business location is an essential thing for electrical SEO. Once verified, respond to all user reviews on the Google My Business dashboard, and it boosts user trust as you appear to be active on the page.

Get high-ranking citations to promote your brand

Being listed by the major business directories has the effect of telling the search engine that yours is a significant brand and thus ranking higher.

Use the top leveraging tools for online reviews

online reviews

Bargaining chips such as Grade.us and building active online reviews will enable your electrical website to gain reviews on Google My Business or social media platforms.

Create authentic and suitable links that point back to your site from outside

build links to your site

Gaining a listing on websites such as Yelp is a great way to secure a listing with Google. These sites are also major directories.

The secret to securing a position at Google’s top 3 listing

position your company to rank well on Google

The main determinants of your electrical website’s ranking on Google Map are Google My Business and Getting Listed

Google My Business encompasses listing on major directories and social media platforms. Reviews on Google My Business play a very significant part in ranking. For this reason, amass as many Google reviews as you can.

  1. A Recap on the new electrical SEO Strategy for the future. Create a page for each of your services within your electrical website. Indicate the geographical area that you cover.
  2. Optimize your website for mobile accessibility.
  3. The keyword on your title and header will increase your site’s chance of being ranked.

High-quality and relevant content on each service’s page will be very appealing to the user, thus more on-page time.
Multimedia content makes your site more appealing, increasing the time spent on the page. Suitable images and videos increase the time spent on the page.

Google review is a massive boost for top listing. Get as many reviews as possible.

user reviews

  • Invest in a reputable citation.
  • Regularly update your website and service through blog posts
  • Build admissible local and relevant links related to your area of operation to aid you in the ranking.
  • Utilize paid search to help you gain leads rapidly.
Categories
Plumbing SEO

“Plumber Near Me” Searches: How to Rank Your Plumbing Business Higher on Google

Get Your Plumbing Website Rank Higher In Google, Increase Your Exposure To “plumber near me searches” And Maximize Your Potential To Get Qualified Leads Online.

If you manage or own a local plumbing business, you want to reach homeowners and property managers in the surrounding area. But it goes without saying that your company is always fighting for clients with several competitors online. The plumbing industry is crowded with several plumbers competing for the same number of limited clients.

However, there are strategies that you can use to make your company stand out from the curve and get a competitive advantage when looking to get more qualified leads that could convert into paying clients.

rank higher in Google

One strategy you can use is optimizing your plumbing website for local search. This is crucial for various reasons, the most essential of which is ensuring that search engines like Bing or Google can find your website easily and rank it higher in their relevant searches.

This may include “near me” searches that users may type in Google. Many times, when looking for a plumbing company on Google, clients won’t have a glimpse of who they are searching for, and that’s why they just type in “plumber near me” on Google and locate what is geographically closest to them.

If your plumbing company website is not optimized for local search (or near me searches), you could be missing a significant portion of your target market. Ranking higher in the “plumber near me” searches can make your company a focal point of that particular geographical area, which can make your business appeal more to those local clients.

But how do you rank higher in those “plumber near me searches”on Google? Here are our expert tips:

1. Make Sure Your Google Business Profile is Properly Updated

Google Business Profile

There are various tools your plumbing company can use to help rank higher on “near me” searches. One of such tools is creating a Google Business Profile. Your details would be shown if a user were to look for a plumbing business. This information includes your address, company name, contact details, reviews, and opening or closing hours. When verifying your plumbing business on Google, you are given a chance to edit such information and add to it so as to fill in as many details about your company as possible.

As a plumber, you should also ensure that the information provided in the Google Business Profile is regularly updated and accurate. If your plumbing company wants to rank higher in near me searches, you should also ensure that it is listed in major business directories like Angie’s List, Yelp and HomeAdvisor.

2. Geo-Target Your Web Content/Pages Around Specific Locations

geotargeting

As a plumber, you want your ideal customers to find your website on Google or Bing, right?

One of the few things you can do is map out the particular areas where your company serves. It goes without saying that geotargeted plumbing keywords are easier to rank (e.g., plumber in Murfreesboro) in Google since they are typically less competitive. They also have high conversion rates.

Therefore instead of creating content around “plumbing contractors in Tennessee,” you can scale down to the area you want to get local clients from. Best of all, you can use the Google Keyword Planner to identify those geotargeted keywords.

3. Make Your Online Customer Reviews Visible

Customer Reviews

Client reviews have nowadays become one of the most crucial aspects for plumbers getting new leads or businesses. Simply because a huge portion of people look for online reviews before hiring a local service business like roofers or plumbers. Prospects tend to trust such reviews as they do with recommendations from their friends or family members, feeling as though it offers them a level of trust in a business that may not have been there previously.

Google Makes it simple for their clients to review a plumbing business. All a client has to do is open Google Maps, search for that business, and choose to write a review, which is that easy.

Online reviews play a major role not only in the trustworthiness and authority of your plumbing company but also in your overall organic search ranking. Google puts a lot of emphasis on the number of online reviews as well as the overall score when ranking your plumbing business website.

If your plumbing company has a lot of negative online reviews, don’t conceal them, work on enhancing them. Even when you are obtaining positive reviews, you should prioritize responding to every review left. Show your clients that you care about the quality of the plumbing service that they get by responding professionally to the complaint and working to make sure that they are satisfied with the overall experience.

Ultimately, you need to make sure that your plumbing company is obtaining a lot of positive reviews since Google’s SERP utilizes this as a factor when determining overall search rankings. When you have lots of positive online reviews, though, you want to show them off as much possible as you can. This makes it easy for prospects or clients to see that your plumbing business is trustworthy and offers quality service.

4. Display Your Business Name, Address, and Phone Number

Business Name, Address, and Phone Number

Showing an accurate company name, phone number, and address clearly is crucial when optimizing your plumbing website for “near me” searches.

Ensure that you display your address, phone number(s), and business name typically throughout your plumbing website, most likely at the bottom of your page.

5. Make Sure that Your Business Information is Consistent Across All Platforms

Consistent Business Information

Be consistent with the business information that you share with prospects or clients. Consistency helps Google show the most updated and accurate information for your clients and anyone searching for a “plumbing contractor near me.”

If you portray an inconsistent address on a local business directory, you may end up confusing Google. This common problem can be cleaned up manually or using paid services.

6. Use Schema to Show Events in the SERPS

Schema

Another way of featuring in the local search results is by planning events and showing this information in schema markup.

Updating your schema markup increases credibility and boosts your market share by directly featuring events with the SERP for your plumbing company.

Schema markup is an excellent way for your plumbing company to reach clients via local search. Schema data helps search engines like Bing or Google collect the right information about your company and present it via rich-featured snippets. You can utilize it to show your hours of operation, contact information, and business address.

7. Optimize Your Photos for Location-Based Searches

Location-Based Searches

Photos impact location-based searches. Think strategically when optimizing your images. If you want to rank higher for a particular location, that location should be one of your keywords not only in the content you use on your plumbing website but also in the tags and file names of every photo.

8. Obtain Backlinks with Location Anchor Text

anchor text

Backlinks will typically be part of an effective plumbing SEO strategy. But, when it comes to local SEO for plumbers, you want to concentrate on high-quality/relevant backlinks with the local geographical anchor text. If you want your business to rank for near me searches in Murfreesboro for the emergency services category, you wouldn’t target the keywords “near me” but rather “Emergency plumbing Murfreesboro.”

9. Make Sure Your Plumbing Website is Mobile-Friendly

Mobile-Friendly website

Google has put a lot of importance on the user experience, implying you should too. Because most “near me” searches occur on mobile devices, ensure your site is mobile-friendly. This implies that it should be fast and work seamlessly across any mobile or desktop device.

10. Create and Optimize Pages for every Business Location

GMB

Does your plumbing business have more than one service area? If so, you need to build different web pages and Google Business Profiles for each location. In addition, your plumbing company will want to optimize such properties for “near me” searches. Particularly, your webpages should contain:

  • A user-friendly URL that shows your location, such as www.mysite.com/Seattle-plumber/
  • Meta tags and title tags are optimized for location and target keywords.
  • A brief description of the location that shows the hours, services offered, and address.
  • Proper alt and title tags for photos used on the website

Finally, Rank for “Plumber near me” searches with SEO services from BlackStorm Design + Marketing

higher organic ranking

You can do many things to optimize your plumbing business for those important “near me” searches. Most customers end their search on the first page of the search engine result page, and they will most likely contact the top three plumbers on the first page of search results. If your plumbing company is not close to the top of the list, it doesn’t matter how much experience you have you are not likely to obtain any calls.

Of course, you can solve the issue by using our plumber SEO services to ramp up your rankings where it requires you to be on Google. Using the right SEO plumbing keywords will increase traffic to your website result in more qualified leads, and ultimately book more jobs.

Your higher organic ranking means obtaining more calls every month. Our SEO experts can help drive traffic to your plumbing website and high ranking on Google.

Getting the leads that you require to increase your plumbing jobs from online traffic is not easy without the right support. If you want to rank higher in “near me” searches for your service area, reach out to plumbing SEO experts at BlackStorm Design + Marketing today. We have the insight and expertise you require to reach the people you want to book jobs with most. We can help you with optimizing your current social media and website, streamlining your accounts, and coming up with new ways to spread the word about your plumbing business out in your local community.

Schedule a free discovery call with BlackStorm Design + Marketing to learn how our plumber SEO services can help grow your plumbing business online today.

Categories
Plumbing SEO

How to Improve Your Plumbing Website’s SEO…

Visibility has been the main challenge hindering the success of small businesses up to date. Having a fantastic business and an eye-catching website can be of no importance if the potential customers cannot find you. That’s what necessities the need for Search Engine optimization. Search Engine Optimization is an art and science of improving your ranking on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP).

Google uses search algorithms to find websites that have quality and informative content, thereby improving its ranking on search engines. Google keeps on tweaking its search algorithms several times annually. This is a clear indication that amazing SEO is not something that is attained instantly; it is a continuous process that requires dedication and commitment.

The following ways to improve your website’s SEO ranking

Publishing Relevant Content

informative content

Quality content is the secret to improve your website rankings on search engines, and nothing else can substitute informative content. You can increase your website traffic by publishing relevant content for your target audience, as this will enhance your site authority as well as relevance. To realize this, you need to perfect your web writing skills.

Keywords

Keywords

Every page on your website should have a unique keyword phrase. Take your time to define the phrases that the visitor can use to search for a specific page on your website.

Multiple Keyword Phrases

rank for multiple keywords

It’s never easy for a webpage to realize search engine ranking for several keyword phrases unless they are similar. A single page can rank multiple keyword phrases as long as they are somehow related, for example, Business jobs’ and business careers.’

If you intend to rank several keyword phrases with your website, you will be required to create separate web pages for the keyword phrases you are targeting.

Content

Content concept

Besides the page URL, title, and headings, content is very crucial when it comes to search engine rankings. Your keyword phrase should appear several times on the page, not forgetting the opening and closing paragraphs.

These keyword phrases should be highlighted to make it easy for the reader to identify them. You can use the available writing styles to highlight them, such as bold, italics, and even heading tags. You should neglect good writing for SEO. What you need to understand is that pages are written specifically for the reader and not SEO.

Keeping your Content Up to date

always update your content

Content is of much importance to the ranking of any plumbing website. Keeping your content up-to-date is one of the ways that is used to determine how relevant the site is, so it is necessary to keep it fresh. You should set time to audit your content and make the required updates.

Consistency

content consistency

To improve the SEO rankings on your website, you have to show consistency when it comes to publishing content on your blog. This builds trustworthiness among the visitors, and they will always visit your site because they believe that is the only place they can find answers to what they are looking for. To lure more visitors into your website, you should be consistently publishing new content, as this will create a good impression among your visitors.

You should overlook the consequences of not updating outdated or underperforming content. Visitors don’t like reading the same thing week in week out, and that’s why publishing new material is very crucial.

Readable Content

make your content readable

The content on your website should be easily readable. Your content should be in short and precise paragraphs, as this is what users want. Visitors are no longer interested in an endless block of content, and this may even turn them away from your website. You should strive to keep your content as short as possible while retaining the meaning.

The sentences should be short, and a paragraph should have no more than five lines. Readers find such content friendly, inviting, and easy to understand. Long paragraphs discourage the readers before they even begin to read them.

Provide Accurate Contact Information

Contact Information

Providing correct contact details is a trust factor search engine uses when ranking a website. You should provide your contact details so that users can reach out to you when in need. Users tend to lose trust in a business that does not have contact details as they think such businesses are no longer legit. Always include your phone number, location, and email address so that visitors can reach out to you easily.

The discussed above are some of the tricks on how to improve your website’s SEO.

Categories
Plumbing SEO

Slow Plumbing Websites Doesn’t Work: Tips On How To Speed Up Your Plumbing Website

Increase Prospect Engagement And Conversion Rates, And Book More Jobs With A Faster Plumbing Website.

Are you wondering why your plumbing website loads so slowly? Or are you searching for tips to help your plumbing company website load faster? Does the speed of your site affect conversion rates and SEO?

These are concerns that plague the minds of our prospects and customers. Website visitors today have become more intolerant of slow-loading websites, and even search engines like Google are rewarding faster-loading plumbing websites with a higher ranking than those without.

Increase conversion rate

So if you want to stay ahead of your competitors, you must take advantage of the abovementioned situation. Fortunately, this post will discuss crucial tips to speed up your plumbing website and improve conversion in 2022 and beyond.

If you are dealing with a slow plumbing website, keep reading for more information on fixing it.

Why Does My Plumbing Website Load Slowly?

website loads slowly

You might have come across the old age clichĂ© that says “slow and steady wins the race,” but when it comes to your plumbing website’s overall performance, that is undoubtedly a direct ticket to failure.

Improving your plumbing website’s loading time is a win-win approach to keep the web users of your site happy and increase the revenue generated by your plumbing business.

Here are our top reasons why turtles are moving faster than your plumbing website:

Non-Optimized Images

non-optimized and optimized image

An image is considered unoptimized when it has a large file size, undescriptive file names, and the site with no alt tags, which ultimately slows your plumbing website’s performance.

Images created using software like Photoshop are saved as large files. Even though they contain a substantial amount of quality and detail, they can slow down your plumbing website because of that excess detail.

Besides, Google does not see your images. Instead, Google reads the three or four-word descriptive terms to understand what the icon is all about. But without that description, Google does not know what your image is all about.

Excessive Usage of Ads

too many ads

Google AdSense can be an additional revenue source for your plumbing business, but it can also slow down your website.

The most apparent effect of overloading your plumbing website with adverts is more HTTPS requests that make your website unresponsive.

Mainly the rich media ads such as auto-downloads, pop-unders, and interstitials may create hundreds of such requests, making your plumbing website slow down its speed.

Failure to Use a Content Delivery Network

CDN

If you don’t use a content delivery network, then your plumbing website will load slowly.

Content Delivery Networks (CDN) makes sure that your plumbing website is served to a user from a nearby location. That helps your plumbing website load faster because the data travels a shorter distance between your user and the server.

High Plumbing Website Traffic

Website Traffic

A surge in plumbing website traffic is another reason for the slow loading website.

Even if the information is conveyed super-fast, a plumbing website can only hold a certain number of users each time.

Bandwidth is a technical terminology used to refer to the information an internet connection can handle at any given time. Broadband (large bandwidths) deliver information very fast and accommodate more users. “Mbps” refers to the amount of data that can be transferred per second.

Inefficient Web Hosting

Web Hosting

You need to have a web hosting provider to display your plumbing website online.

A web host is synonymous to a vacant unit in real estate – It is the space where you create your plumbing website.

When a prospect types your plumbing website’s name into their browser, the web host serves your plumbing website from their server. 

Some web host providers are better than others. If you choose an inefficient and cheaper web host for your plumbing website, you will lose valuable clients because of your slow-loading website.

Use of Unclean Code Slows Down Your Plumbing Website

Coding

Unclean coding is another common culprit for the slowness of your plumbing website. When you create your plumbing website, inline stylings, excessive new white spaces, unnecessary comments, and empty new lines can make your site’s stylesheet bigger, thus hampering its loading speed.

Your Plumbing site CSS is not Optimized Properly

CSS

Like Javascript, CSS is responsible for styling its pages and can delay it if left unoptimized.

Excess Social Sharing Buttons

Social Sharing Buttons

It is crucial to let your prospects/clients quickly share your pages on social media; it can reduce your page loading time if you have too many social sharing buttons.

For such buttons to correctly do their job, you need to add them as plugins to your site. Such plugins will require retrieving data from their respective social media pages every time they are used.

Javascript Issues

Javascript

JavaScript is the code that makes your plumbing website interactive and functional for users. Without it, your plumbing website will be so dull. However, if not appropriately optimized, JavaScript can slow down your site’s loading when prospects try to load it in their browsers.

When a browser attempts to display your plumbing website, it must stop and first load the JavaScript files it comes across. Render-blocking JavaScript slows down your plumbing website loading speed.

Numerous elements on your Plumbing Web Page

Web Page Elements

Your plumbing page’s size is affected by various factors, including HTML, stylesheets, scripts, images, videos, and other items that may be on your website pages.

When you have lots of elements on your page, the page will load more slowly, which leads to a slow plumbing website overall.

Too Much Flash Content

Adobe flash

Although flash is an excellent tool for making your plumbing website more interactive, it is more likely to slowly build your website load. Flash content usually is bulky in size and thus will make your plumbing website load slower than usual.

What is the Ideal Loading Time of a Plumbing Website?

That is acceptable if your plumbing website loads in less than 3 seconds. However, anything beyond three seconds will make your bounce rate increase sharply.

If your plumbing website loading time exceeds 3 seconds, you must make speeding up your website your priority. But before you start this process, you must measure your current plumbing website loading speed.

How to Speed up Your Plumbing Website in 10 Simple Steps

Optimize all Images used on Your Plumbing Website

Optimize images

With a vast selection of free photo tools available online, optimizing images found on your plumbing website can be a breeze.

To optimize your website images, you need to compress them first.

Large images are often very bulky, and as a consequence, they load slowly.

The compression of such images helps lower the bandwidth of those images, consequently reducing HTTPS requests.

Check Your Web Hosting Provider

Web hosting provider

Your web host provider can have a significant impact on your plumbing website speed. You need to select a web host provider with servers near where your prospects/clients are. If you are an American client having to access your site via a server in Northern Europe, that will affect your site speed.

Many plumbers opt for cheap web hosting after starting a website or blog, so they select shared hosting. Over time, they publish more content, and their website grows, thus slowing down their websites. In such a case, they can upgrade their hosting plan and boost the speed of their website. Be sure to select the best hosting Service Company for your plumbing company website.

Enable Browser Caching

clear caches

Enabling caching improves your plumbing website speed significantly and gives your prospects a more rewarding user experience. Caching usually involves the storage of static files like HTML documents, media images, and JavaScript and CSS files for faster and easier access. The database does not have to retrieve information every time there is a new request. The more applications loaded on your server, the more time it will take for your plumbing website to load.

Remove unnecessary plugins

Every plugin you add needs resources to run effectively. However, more resources mean a slow-loading plumbing website. If you have unnecessary or unused plugins on your site, you should delete and deactivate them to give your website speed the required boost. Removing unnecessary plugins can enhance your page loading time and, consequently, your plumbing website’s speed.

Reduce HTTPS Requests

HTTPS Requests

Plumbing websites can be slow because of excessive HTTPS requests. When potential clients visit your plumbing website, they ask for specific files, and their browser requests such data from your server using the HTTP protocol. These files include CSS, HTML, and JavaScript files. If you have a lot of HTTPS requests, the performance of your plumbing website will get slowed. 

You can minimize such requests by:

  • Combining JavaScript, CSS, and HTML files.
  • Use CSS instead of images where possible.
  • Minimize the number of elements per page.
  • Add a caching plugin.

Only use Social Media Platforms that Perform the Best

Social Media

If you know that your posts don’t get shares on Reddit or Pinterest, you can delete those buttons from your plugins. Reduce the number of social sharing buttons to three or four per page. That will help you target high-value social media networks like Twitter and Facebook without overloading your users. It will also save your site from loading pages that are barely used. Your clients will not even miss them!

Reduce or Eliminate Third-Party Advertisers

Third-Party Advertisers

If ads cause your clients to bounce back from your site and reduce the loading time, you will lose valuable clients who are far much worth than your ads revenue.

If ads are your primary income source, you stand to lose clients by placing too many ads on your plumbing website. Limit your ads to one or two per page and increase your plumbing website speed. That will help keep your prospects glued to your plumbing website for an extended period.

Reduce the number of elements per page

To minimize the load on your plumbing website:

  • Reduce the quantity and size of items on your plumbing website. 
  • Consider whether you can attain the desired outcomes with few photos, details, or videos overall.
  • If you want to know whether you have too many elements on your page, perform a heat map test to understand what your clients/prospects are clicking and clicking. 

Increase Bandwidth to Cater to an unexpected Traffic Surge

Bandwidth

High traffic is an excellent problem-every plumber should welcome it.

But to keep your plumbing website loading faster, you need to increase your bandwidth.

It is a pretty straightforward process as you only need to call your web host and instruct him or her to increase your bandwidth. 

Use a Content Delivery Network to speed up your plumbing website

A CDN hosts your plumbing website’s static files to deliver them effectively and minimize your server load and bandwidth. With a CDN, the requested content can be achieved much faster since the server will be closer to the target end-users. As a result, there will be no latency, but your plumbing website will load much faster. So, using a CDN will save a lot of bandwidth and significantly improve your plumbing website’s speed. 

Hire a Professional to Optimize Your Plumbing Website Page Speed Today!

Various factors make your plumbing website load slowly, and this implies that several steps can help your site load faster, as expected by clients. As a plumber, you don’t have enough time to run your business and speed up your plumbing website.

page speed

Hiring a seasoned plumbing website design professional is an easy way of making your plumbing website load faster. Professionals have the resources, expertise, and time to ensure that your plumbing website loads in no time. 

If your plumbing website loads slowly, Blackstorm Plumbing Marketing can help.

We have an experienced team of web designers who are committed to optimizing your plumbing website’s speed and helping you enjoy the best loading times ever.

Schedule an appointment online with one of our growth experts to learn more about our website speed optimization services.

Categories
Graphic Design Plumbing

9 Inexpensive and Super-Effective Tricks for Branding Your Plumbing Business

As a plumber, you might think that branding should be left to the big names in the plumbing industry. But the sad reality is, it doesn’t matter how small or big your plumbing company is. If you are in business, you need to think about branding your plumbing business critically.

Branding is just as crucial for small plumbing businesses as it is for major plumbing brands. Indeed many corporate brands try to appear like small businesses to appeal to their target clients that opt to support independent businesses.

In the words of the Founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, “Your brand is what people say about you when you are not in the room.” Branding your plumbing business allows clients and prospects to recognize your business while getting a feel of your values. More importantly, it differentiates you from your rivals. It is key to sustaining your plumbing business and growing a loyal client base.

What Are the Major Steps of Building a Successful Plumbing Brand?

Building a Successful Brand

Over 90% of small plumbing business owners strongly believe that having a superior brand that sets them apart from rivals is crucial. More than 50% of plumbing contractors say that branding is very helpful in attracting new business. What secrets do large plumbing contractors hold? And how can small plumbing business owners use them as inspiration?

Here are the four steps of building a successful plumbing brand that every plumber should know:

1. Research Your Competitors and Your Target Market

Competitors and Target Market

Before you begin making any decision about branding your plumbing business, it is very critical that you understand the prevailing market conditions such as your potential customers and competitors.

Here are some tips that will help you determine your rivals and potential clients:

  • Google your plumbing service or product category and analyze the indirect and direct rivals that show up.
  • Look at the relevant social media pages or profiles that your potential clients normally follow and reprieve too.

It is crucial to handle this research phase before anything else because it will inform what your brand should concentrate on and set your business apart from the competition.

2. Define Your Plumbing Brand Mission

Businessman holding 'our mission' text

State the values that you want to incorporate with your target audience base. Your mission and vision statements show the purpose of your business’s existence. It will help you brand your business across various channels. You need to present an original image of what your plumbing business strives for.

Everything from your tagline to plumbing logo design, your communication should portray your mission. Your plumbing brands mission should strive to answer the following questions:

  • Why you started the plumbing business?
  • What are your core objectives/goals?
  • Who is your target potential client?

3. Create a Value Proposition for Your Plumbing Brand

Value Proposition

Always concentrate on what makes your plumbing brand valuable and unique. Find out something that will set your business apart from other plumbing contractors in the market.

Incorporate your value proposition in every plumbing marketing collateral that you are putting across various platforms. It is one of the essential steps in creating a successful plumbing brand.

4. Market Your Plumbing Brand

Promote your brand

Develop a solid plumbing marketing strategy to market your plumbing business. Apply your branding in every plumbing business material, from marketing collaterals, and the website to staff uniforms. Put your branding in as many places as possible.

Identify new channels like affiliates, web, and email to promote your plumbing brand. Also, promote your plumbing brand in unexpected locations such as staff t-shirts, office goodies, and social media pages.

Building a successful plumbing brand is a continuous process, and following the steps outlined above will help your business stand out from the competition.

Here are the top 9 Strategies to Brand Your Plumbing Business & Crush the Competition

1. Find Your Place in the Competitive Plumbing Market

Business rival

Before launching any plumbing brand building activity, you must understand the property owners you will serve. This includes understanding what your competitors are offering in the same area. More than being a plumber who solves a specific problem that businesses or homeowners have, you need to know the demographics interested in your plumbing services.

Your plumbing website content should be focused on the buying behavior and motivations of your potential clients. In trying to unlock all these important client details, you will realize the competitive advantage you have over your rivals.

The exercise to identify your potential clients will benefit all aspects of your plumbing brand-building process. Get a clear picture of who your potential customers are C-suite executives, middle-class earners, affluent residents, or working parents. Build what is known as a “brand persona,” an identity that your clients can resonate with and understand.

2. Develop Your Unique Plumbing Brand Voice and Identity

Brand Voice and Identity

Once you have crafted your plumbing brand persona, the next step in branding your plumbing business is developing a voice and an identity unique to you.

At this stage, you should be able to respond to the questions listed below:

  • What do you stand for as a plumber?
  • What do you want your prospects to recognize you for?

You can kickstart the process by developing your unique selling points and positioning your brand as a plumbing industry leader. Define clearly who you are, the plumbing services you offer, the clients you serve, and how you will serve them. Another excellent exercise is developing a list of keywords you would like to be associated with your plumbing brand. Adjectives that describe the kind of plumbing contractor you are will resonate with your potential clients.

Your voice and personality should reflect your digital plumbing marketing campaigns, taglines, logo design, and communications. Consider your plumbing brand as a metaphor and personalize it to identify the traits you are synonymous with.

3. Have a Consistent and Strong Online Presence

Online Presence

So you have figured out your brand personas and the message you want to convey. But where and how do you do that? The buyer profiles you create will assist you in identifying where prospects spend their time online. The most effective way to interact with potential clients is on their terms.

According to a study by BigCommerce.com, 21% of online buyers are likely to buy a product that has been featured in a brand’s Facebook post. A strong presence on social media profiles matters.

Remember to portray a consistent brand image on all your social media handles, blogs, trade shows, marketing materials, plumbing websites, etc. Consistency matters since it results in familiarity.

4. Provide Exceptional Client Experiences

Exceptional Client Experiences

What do clients say about you? More often than not, when clients talk about your plumbing brand, they usually base it on experiences they have obtained engaging with you.

If you want them to speak about your brand in a positive light, you must do what you can to offer them exceptional service. This is not limited to the duration of the plumbing service. It goes above and beyond that. Providing consistent and post-sale client support and service are equally important.

5. Improve Plumbing Brand Visibility and Awareness

Brand Visibility and Awareness

All this time and effort you are devoting to building a brand for your plumbing business will only yield desired fruits if you enhance your brand’s visibility online. And a great way to do this is through influencer marketing.

Influencers offer credible and unique voices to the plumbing brand message you are trying to convey. In their social profiles, they are the voice of reason that many clients tend to listen to. Whether through reviews, testimonials, or giveaways, they have their unique way of convincing your prospects to engage with your plumbing brand.

6. Get Visual with Branding Your Plumbing Business

Once you have defined your prospects, unique selling points, and what’s working in the plumbing industry, now you need to start designing your brand. Here are a few tips to improve the feel and look of your plumbing brand.

plumbing logo icons

  • A logo: Your plumbing company logo is like a business. It is the very first thing that your clients will see when they encounter your brand. If you are starting a plumbing business, a logo is the first thing you should design, as it will act as the starting point of all other visuals (like your business cards and other visuals).

plumbing logo in a business card

  • Business Cards:  If you are in the plumbing business, you need to have a business card, and the design should match your plumbing logo and other marketing materials.

Plumbing website or landing page

  • A Plumbing Website: Your plumbing website is like your digital real estate investment. When prospects visit your website, the feel and look should be consistent with the other branded materials.

Brand Style Guide

  • A Plumbing Brand Style Guide: Before you start designing, you must consider the details of your graphic design strategy, such as your fonts, color palette, and design dos and don’ts. A plumbing brand style guide is an excellent way to organize your design so that you, your designer, and other team members working on your brand are on the same page.

Regardless of where a client sees your brand –whether by visiting a plumbing website or seeing your logo, the feel, look, and design should be consistent across various platforms.

7. Integrate Your Plumbing Brand in Everything You Do

Integrate your brand into all aspects of your business

This is a pro-tip when it comes to branding your plumbing business. The process of building a brand is a continuous process. The idea of portraying a constant brand image online should translate to the real world as well.

Your plumbing brand voice and image should be reflected and visible in whatever the clients interact with. If a client drives to your office, your plumbing brand identity should be on display. Your interactions, as well as the environment, should reflect your brand’s image. Your logo design, plumbing website, and slogan should reflect what your plumbing business stands for.

8. Establish Yourself as an Authority by Using the Right Content

Establish yourself as an authority in your market

As a small plumbing business owner, you might not have a huge marketing budget. But fortunately, you don’t have to spend millions of marketing dollars to get in front of the right customers. There is a simple and more affordable way of getting your plumbing brand name out there – content marketing.

Plumbing content marketing works on various levels. First, it allows you to show off your plumbing industry expertise. By positioning yourself as an expert in your field, your prospects will trust you. When the time comes to select a plumber to work with, they choose your business.

Content marketing is also great since it helps you to strengthen your plumbing business branding. By developing a strong voice for your brand, you can strengthen your relationship with clients and assist in driving your business.

The point here is, there are tons of details about your plumbing company that clients need and want to know. And if you can offer value and answer their queries through your content, you will build trust with those clients and translate it into doing business together.

9. Look for Partnership Opportunities to Brand Your Plumbing Business

Partnership Opportunities

Customers like to partner with plumbing brands they can trust. But if you are a new plumber, establishing that trust can be a daunting and time-consuming task. Is there a great way to speed up the process of building trust with clients? Search for partnership opportunities with other plumbing brands that your client has already worked with.

For instance, if you are introduced to a plumbing brand by another business that you have already worked with, then they are likely to transfer that trust to you, and as a result, benefit your business as well.

Work with our Team to Brand Your Plumbing Business.

Digital Marketing

A proper plumbing brand-building strategy can elevate your plumbing company to the next level. Fortunately, you don’t need to break your bank account to brand your plumbing business effectively. All you need to do is partner with a visionary and creative plumbing marketing agency like Blackstorm Plumbing Marketing. If you need help branding your plumbing company and differentiate your business from the competition, kindly schedule a free strategy session with our experts to brand your plumbing business today!

Categories
Plumbing SEO

Top 10 Reasons Why Your Plumbing Website Could Be Driving Prospects Away (And What You Can Do About It)

Know why Your Plumbing Business Isn’t Getting Desired Number of Leads Despite Having a Great Website

Your plumbing website has been live for years now, but it doesn’t seem to generate the number of leads you desire. Your email and social media advertising campaigns are bringing in lots of traffic, but nobody is taking the next step of calling your business. So, what’s the issue?

As marketing strategists for trades and home service contractors, we have met many plumbing contractors struggling to grow their businesses. Some were larger plumbing companies with great websites, and some had simple websites. But no matter the size, they all had a similar problem. Their plumbing websites were driving prospects or clients away.

Desired Number of Leads

Plumbing websites are meant to generate leads, not just sit around and look pretty. Your site should be generating leads.

Do you feel your plumbing website isn’t generating as many leads or clients as it should?

Are you frustrated that you have to spend countless hours every week waiting for your phone to ring?

You may think that your plumbing website doesn’t obtain sufficient traffic to bring in the leads your company requires, but there is a high likelihood that you can skyrocket the number of leads your site generates, from the same traffic, by fixing these 10 problems.

When it comes to plumbing websites, it’s easy to say “good enough” about functionality and design. After all, “if it’s broken, why fix it?”. But becoming complacent with your plumbing company website is a risky mindset. If you are not continuously enhancing your webpages and appropriately updating trends change, you could be driving potential clients away in droves. Here are the ten blunders that make the prospects on your plumbing website cringe.

1. Outdated Plumbing Website Design

Outdated Website

First impressions are important. If the initial impression your website offers is that it has not been updated for some months or years now, you are in for a rude shock. An outdated plumber website will cause new prospects your company is closing soon. Always work with a professional plumbing website designer to assist you in building your site with digital marketing best practices in mind.

2. Complicated or Confusing Navigation

website navigation

Don’t provide your site visitors with too many options in the main navigation menu. Figure out what needs to be promoted and what can be done on the inside page. Lots of options appear not only sloppy but also confuses new site visitors. If your potential clients cannot easily find what they require, they are going to click off to other plumbing websites.

One of the numerous reasons your plumbing website or landing page requires a simple design is because a confusing or complicated layout can distract your prospects’ eyes from crucial information. Recent eye-tracking studies have shown a tendency to scan a site instead of going through each letter.

3. No Compelling Call to Actions (CTAs)

CTA

In sales and marketing, we always use the term “ABC” before closing. The equivalent to that in plumbing websites is to always include a call-to-action. Generally, your plumbing website offers a lot of information on the company’s service or product and later says, “for more details, contact us.”

That’s great, but your site visitors require direction. Your plumbing website needs to be more specific in telling them how to reach you, which needs to be easy.

A call-to-action in your plumbing website needs to be into two major forms. The initial is your call to action within the text of your website, and it should state for instance “To learn more about our custom plumbing repair offering, fill out our contact form or call us at 619-555-1312 for immediate assistance today”.

If you fail to give website visitors a clear direction on what you want them to do after landing on your site-in simple terms –a compelling call to action-they won’t stay on your website for long but will click off to another plumber’s website.

Be clear about what you want prospects or clients to do when they come to your plumbing website. Tell them “request a quote now” or “subscribe now if you want to gain more email newsletter subscribers.

4. Misaligned, Poor Quality, or Insufficient Content

Content

Consumers go online to assist respond to their questions and make a decision to book a job with a local plumber. If your plumbing website doesn’t have a blog, client testimonials or service demos, etc., you can kick those client’s goodbye. Being helpful and transparent are important to establish trust with your leads and eventually their business. If your plumbing website only promotes your business and doesn’t contain content to educate your buyers, then they will go to another website that is committed to solving their problems or concerns.

You only have a few seconds to convert a potential lead into a client and even less time to create a great first impression. If the content doesn’t resonate with the visitor, either in content or tone, they won’t feel it was focused on them.

The impression created by vague content or poor grammar and spelling is even worse. Don’t allow poorly written content to drive away your high-value leads. When describing your plumbing service or product, show it as a solution to the challenges potential clients are facing.

Proofread and edit your content before publishing or hire a plumbing SEO content agency to do it for you. When your content resonates with prospects or clients, they will feel more engaged with your business and as a consequence, are likely to want to read more.

5. Your Plumbing Website is Not Responsive/Mobile-Friendly

Not Responsive/Mobile-Friendly

Nowadays, people are spending more hours on their mobile devices than ever before to search for local service businesses like yours. If your plumbing website is not responsive on devices other than a desktop computer, then you are driving potential clients away.

Some prospective leads want to book jobs with your company, but they cannot since they are attempting to access a desktop site from a mobile device like a Smartphone. More and more clients and plumbers are utilizing their mobile devices to read the news, shop, and contact other service providers, and that implies your lead generation efforts should follow suit.

Instead of waiting for prospects to go away and access your plumbing website from their desktop computer, a mobile-friendly strategy will assist you to reach them and convert them, wherever they might be.

6. Your Plumbing Website Doesn’t Provide Anything to Potential Clients

website should contain helpful resources

How can you obtain leads if you don’t have anything valuable to provide your prospects?

Your plumber website should contain helpful (not salesy) resources, content, and provides that prospects are itching to put their hands on. Think of white papers, e-books, slide decks, consultations, guides, and more.

You want to have a variety of content that will appeal to prospects depending on where they are in their buying journey. For instance, a “getting started” guide works for a prospect who is still exploring all of their options, while a free consultation or demo is ideal for someone who is ready to book a job with your company.

7. Slow Loading Speeds

Loading Speeds

Modern browsers are becoming accustomed to fast-loading plumbing websites. This implies that you are testing your prospect’s patience when your website loads in more than three seconds. In most instances, they will click off to another plumber’s website instead of waiting for your website to load.

A recent study found that slow-loading websites can frustrate your prospects or clients. Having such a website can lower your search engine rankings, as Google considers page loading speed in their search engine algorithm.

Simply put, your plumbing website must load faster and cater to their great swift internet connections.

8. Unprofessional or Poor Photography

Stock photos don’t work nowadays

Your plumbing website, in many cases, is the initial impression a client obtains of your company. Yet many plumbers skimp on photography. Stock photos don’t work nowadays. If you are utilizing stock photos, you will be able to tell and make your site feel cheesy,

Using quality images (probably of your team performing some work) is an effective way to build a more emotional experience for your visitor, but ensure they are unique and of high quality and showcase your real business or plumbing services.

Read more on top 4 proven ways of driving traffic to your plumbing website.

9. Too Much Clutter

unnecessary clutter

When it comes to designing your plumbing website, little is always preferred than more.

Although it can be tempting to hit your prospects or clients with everything at once and add interactive widgets, this can cause them to be overwhelmed by too much information. Consider your prospect or client each step of the way and build your website with an intention of offering the best user experience for them.

By taking the time to correct the flaws above, your website will begin to achieve higher levels of traffic and higher engagement levels across the board.

10. Crazy Scrolling and Pop-up Ads

Pop-up Ads

If your plumbing website has tons of unnecessary pop-ups, scrolling that your prospects can’t scan or read your content, that is a great turn-off for modern browsers. Call to action is awesome, but spammy and annoying links will drive traffic to your rivals.

Improve Your Plumbing Website Design to Generate Leads Consistently Every Month on Autopilot

Website Design to Generate Leads

Getting new clients for your plumbing business requires many strategies, and almost all of them hinge on online interactions.

The most crucial digital marketing asset you have is your plumbing website. Your plumber website design should incorporate several best practices, such as the ones we have highlighted below. When you implement them, you can generate more conversions/leads.

Your Plumbing website should be responsive/mobile-friendly

responsive/mobile-friendly website

Many people looking for plumbing services do so on their smartphones. In most instances, they require urgent help, so they utilize the most convenient tool. If clients find your plumbing business online and land on your website on their smartphone, they anticipate your site to load within three seconds and adapt to their device. Thus, it is important that your plumbing company site appear and display perfectly on mobile.

Your plumbing website should include social media links

social media

New clients want evidence that your business is trustworthy and reputable. The effective way to showcase this is through social proof. That could include testimonials, customer service awards, reviews, and ratings. Ensure these things are prominently visible on your plumbing website so that potential clients can conduct due diligence and ensure that your plumbing company is legit.

Your Website should describe what you do and the clients you serve

Be clear about what you provide and who your ideal clients are

While plumber services, in general, are the same, you want to be candid and clear about what you provide and who your ideal clients are. If you offer any specialized plumbing services, ensure that such pages are separate on your website, and this can improve your organic search greatly. Beyond services, you should not indicate if you work in the commercial or residential market or both.

Your Plumbing Website Should be easy to navigate

Easy to navigate website

Don’t make it difficult for prospects to find what they require. Make sure your menu is easier to find and resonates with the hierarchy. If prospects land on your plumbing website and find it easy, they may connect with you faster.

Your Plumbing Website Should Have a Professional Design

Your website typically represents your company, so don’t go it alone. Work with a Professional plumbing website design agency that has experience in your industry. By so doing, you will get a website that works and looks well.

Invest in Your Plumbing Website, and It Will Give Back in form of Qualified Leads

learn more about plumbing website design services

Making these upgrades to your site user experience and navigation will require an investment of time, but every hour spent improving your website will save many hours wasted manually chasing leads.

There you have it, ten factors that could be driving prospects away from your plumbing website. If you don’t have the time to implement these changes to create a consistent sales funnel that will generate high-value leads every month, our web designers can help with that.

Schedule a free discovery call with BlackStorm Design + Marketing to learn more about plumbing website design services today.

Categories
Google Advertising Plumbing

The Ultimate Guide to Google Business Profile for Plumbers

Learn how to claim and use a free Google Business Profile to get found by prospects and outrank your competitors online

Are you struggling to outrank other local plumbers online? If so, learn from thousands of plumbing contractors across the United States to know the surefire hacks to rank #1 on search engine results pages. Google Business Profile (previously known as Google My Business) is the primary hub for local SEO for plumbers. As a plumber, you understand that you rely on local clients to make your plumbing company a success.

Google Business Profile

Google Business listing is all about making your plumbing company more visible online. That’s why we have created a definitive guide for plumbing contractors who want to make the most out of their business profile on Google. Keep reading to see how you can use Google Business Profile to get ahead of local competitors and obtain more qualified leads.

What is Google Business Profile for Plumbers?

Formerly known as Google My Business, Google Business Profile is a free tool built by Google that helps you promote your plumbing services as well as your site on Google Maps and search results for free. By claiming a GBP listing, plumbers can showcase reviews, post updates, and rank higher in the Local Map 3-pack for keywords related to their business. This platform helps you list your plumbing company on Google Maps and regulate what details prospects will see in Google search results.

Get listing on Google Business Profile

To make sure your plumbing company has a good chance of ranking higher on local search results both on traditional organic and Maps, you must optimize your Google Business Profile listing. That incorporates everything from NAP information, Google posts, and the Q&A section.

Google Business listings pop up when a homeowner conducts a local search (“plumber [city name] or “plumber near me”) or performs a search on Google Maps. Your plumbing company’s GBP listing can show up when a prospect looks for your brand, appearing on the right side of search results on laptops/desktops, and at the top of search engine result pages.

Why is Google Business Profile Crucial for Plumbers?

Why should you care about Google Business listing as a plumber? Because a large portion of the population is using Google, it implies a huge audience can access and view your profile. The more visible your plumbing company is the higher your chances of drawing prospects’ attention to your business.

Google Business listing is no longer optional-it is an important part of any plumbing company’s web presence and is typically the first place clients look for updated information about your business. If your clients want to find new opening hours or want to contact your business and inquire about something, you can bet they are not going to flip through the Yellow Pages. Here are some of the benefits of having an optimized Google Business Profile in your plumbing company:

  • GBP Helps Your Plumbing Services Get Discovered for FREE in Google Maps and Search Results

Google Business Profile on Google Maps

While content marketing strategies (like optimizing your website copy pages and SEO blogging) can improve your search visibility, a Google Business Profile is the most effective hack.

Whether you want to boost sales, improve brand awareness or increase booked jobs, a GBP is an effective way to get your plumbing company in front of wallet-out local clients. You can get your plumbing company listing in front of high-value online browsers by claiming and optimizing your business profile with the proper address, business category, and keywords. This listing can improve your presence in the local search engine results and make it likely for prospects to discover your plumbing company.

Unlike paid Google or social media ads, a Google Business profile is ultimately FREE and offers your company priority in the search results to increase inquiries, interest, and even sales.

  • Enhance Your Local SEO by Integrating Google Maps

Google Maps

If you offer a plumbing service in a particular local area, you want to ensure your plumbing company information pops up front and center for potential clients.

That’s why a Google Business listing can be one of the efficient ways to reach warm plumbing leads when they are ready to convert.

By claiming, verifying, and optimizing your Google Business Profile, you can make sure that your plumbing company shows up when interested clients are looking for the services you provide in your locality. Whether a client conducts a direct search on Google or even via Google Maps, your plumbing services will show up at the top of search results.

  • Control Your Plumbing Company Online Presence with a GBP

Optimize your Google Business Profile

On mainstream marketing platforms like social media, plumbing companies like yours should play by the rules of big brands. The algorithms decide who discovers your plumbing company online and what impression they have about your brand.

But with a Free GBP, you can curate the kind of experience prospects will have with your plumbing company. From updating your operational hours to showcasing your contact details, you can give each prospect the superior experience possible with your plumbing company.

Best of all, by knowing how to optimize your Google Business listing, you can increase the chances of your plumbing business information showing up at the top of the search engine rankings. This offers you the greatest potential to impact purchasing decisions of searchers who come across your brand.

  • GBP Offers an Easy Way for Your Clients to Find Your Physical office

GBP helps customers find your business

Your GBP listing has seamless integration with Google Maps as we stated earlier. Along with assisting your plumbing company to improve its visibility on Google, such integration also helps clients to navigate to your physical office as well.

With Google Maps integration, prospects or clients can discover directions to your physical office with a single tap. Besides, they can access your business operating hours and crucial contact details (such as your plumbing website, email address, and phone number) to make it seamless for people to contact your business.

The easier it is for your new clients to reach your plumbing service company, the more likely they will have a positive experience with your company. It is all about providing a seamless online experience that converts browsers into paying customers.

Get started Google Business Profile for Plumbers in 5 Simple Steps

Getting started with a Google Business profile is relatively easy, and the setup process takes a very short time. An important initial step in the local SEO strategy for plumbers is claiming, verifying, and optimizing your Google Business profile. You will be surprised to know that Google Business Profile is a FREE platform.

Google Business Profile Management

Google Business Profile doesn’t come with a paid version, and as soon as you register and confirm your plumbing company, you can access all the features and tools that the platform has to offer. While setting up is relatively simple, here are some hacks to make sure that the process goes seamless for the first time. Here are some strategies that will help you get started with plumbing Google Business listing:

  • Add a Location

Business Address

The initial step towards claiming your Google business profile is to add a location. Including a public address depends on your preference, but it helps create transparency if you put your company address in the public domain.

  • Service Area

Add areas where your business provides deliveries or home and office visitsA service area typically depicts how far your business is willing to go in order to serve a client. You can set this area as a perimeter around your physical office, or you can select the service area to be relatively small.

  • Add Correct NAP citations

we cannot overemphasize this enough. Your GBP will request your plumbing website URL and phone number. Ensure that you enter these details properly or else you will lose an opportunity of booking new jobs.

After ensuring the above three crucial information is entered correctly, follow the steps outlined below to claim or register your plumbing business on Google:

  • Step 1: Head over to https: //business. Google.com/ add.info/
  • Step 2: Search for your plumbing company by address and name
  • Step 3: If your business doesn’t appear. Click “No”, these are not my businesses
  • Step 4: When prompted, enter the correct information about your plumbing company
  • Step 5: Click “Submit”

Among the areas your plumbing company can show up include Google Maps, Local 3-pack, conventional organic results, and knowledge graph. Registering or claiming your plumbing business on Google Business listing is typically the initial step of a process of ranking at the top spot for plumbing keywords in your service area. But a properly optimized plumbing company GBP increases your chances of ranking #1 on Google.

How to verify Your Plumbing Google Business Profile

Your free plumbing Google Business Profile can do more than you think. When optimized properly, it can showcase your best traits and make it hassle-free for clients to discover, learn more about and even call your business. But for it to do this, you should verify your listing with Google to show that you are the plumbing company owner.

Google offers various options to help you verify your plumbing business Google Business Profile as outlined below:

Verify your GBP via Email or by Phone

Verify your GBP via Email

The most common way to verify your Google Business profile is through a regular email. However, before you request verification by email, ensure your business address complies with the address entry guidelines. To request your GBP verification by email, follow the steps below:

  • Sign in to your Google Business Profile and choose the company you want to verify
  • Among the options offered, choose to verify by email
  • Tap to verify. When you get an email in your inbox, follow the steps outlined to complete the process.
  • Remember to check whether you can access the email you want to use for the verification process.
  • Verify Your GBP using a Postcard

This is the most common method. Google will send your plumbing business a physical postcard (normally via a snail mail). You will then use the code in the postcard to verify your Google Business Profile.

Verify Your GBP by Phone

If you choose this option, Google will send a verification code to your plumbing company phone number. You will then enter the code to verify your plumbing company on Google. This will be instant and will help you enjoy the benefits of your Google Business Profile faster.

Google Business Profile Optimization Tips for Plumbers to Rank Higher in Local Search

Any plumbing business today requires targeted and higher visibility on Google. Most plumbers know that this needs optimizing their Google Ads and website, but what they fail to understand is that there is a third entity that should be optimized; their Google Business Profile. When properly used, your Google Business Profile can assist your business to generate new plumbing customers and leads. Consider it this way, right now homeowners are searching Google for plumbing services, and they will either find your business or your competitors.

To improve your chances of being found by prospects or clients, this post will discuss proven tips that will boost your visibility on Google. Without further ado, let us dive in.

Use Your Legal Plumbing Company Name

Name of your business

Your company name is one of the most crucial aspects of Your Google Business Profile. It is highly recommended that you strictly follow Google’s guidelines when it comes to the company name that you want to use in your Google Business Profile.

There are multiple ways you can attempt and trick the system for higher visibility and rankings. Don’t do them. One thing plumbers try and do is place their geographical location in the name on the GBP. For instance, Bryan owns a plumbing business and the legal name of the company is Bryan’s Plumbing. Bryan services Murfreesboro, TN area. The name he should use in his Google Business Profile is Bryan’s Plumbing, not Bryan’s Plumbing Murfreesboro.

If the name of the region or city you serve is part of your legal company name, then go ahead and include it. But, if your legal business name doesn’t have the name of the region or city, don’t add it to the name in your Google Business Profile. This is a strategy that might give you short-term results but can also make your profile to be suspended by Google.

Choose the Right Primary and Second Categories

Categories

Selecting the right category is a must for optimizing your plumbing Google Business Profile. This is because the categories you select for your GBP can assist Google to connect your plumbing business to customers based on what they are actively looking for. There are two kinds of categories- a primary category and numerous secondary categories, and you choose your secondary categories and primary category from a predefined list.

We highly recommend that you choose the right category. In our case of a plumbing business, the primary category you choose should be “plumber.”

If you provide more services other than plumbing, for instance, electrical and or/HVAC, you can include these as secondary categories- “Electrician” and “HVAC Contractor.” You may add other categories depending on the services you provide accordingly.

Focused Plumber Marketing: Define Your Service Areas

A service area depicts a geographical area or perimeter where you can deliver your plumbing services. You can choose up to 2 service areas where you offer plumbing services. Service areas can be defined by cities, postal codes, or by provinces. It is important that you choose the right service areas because the service areas you select will determine how your business appears on the search results when prospects search a geographical location.

For example, if you provide plumbing services throughout the Middle Tennessee area, you may want to choose Murfreesboro, Franklin, Manchester, Nashville, Smyrna, and more. Choose all the areas you serve (up to 20). If you only serve five areas, then choose those five-no more.

Set Your Operating Hours Generously

Hours of operation

Spelling out your business operating hours helps Google inform customers if you are closed or open. If your plumbing company is closed, then Google can alert customers when you shall reopen for business. Besides, setting your normal business hours, you can also indicate your special hours for public holidays like Christmas or Easter.

Give Your Correct Phone Number

Set up Google Business Profile

One of the crucial elements of your Google Business Profile is your company’s phone number. Your number will prominently have displayed on your Google Business profile and helps customers to contact you directly from your profile without necessarily having to visit your plumbing website. This is particularly applicable if customers are accessing your GBP on a mobile device like a smartphone.

All they need to do is click on the phone number to contact your plumbing company. It is convenient and faster for customers. The reverse is also true, it can be overwhelming as a client if you are trying to contact a plumbing business but you cannot easily and quickly locate their phone number. You can give a secondary and primary phone number in your Google Business Profile.

Use Google’s Appointment Booking Function in Your Plumbing GBP

Google’s appointment booking

Google’s appointment booking button can help your plumbing company outrank the competition. If your plumbing company requires clients to schedule appointments and you utilize built-in scheduling software, clients can book appointments with your business right from your Google Business Profile. This can make it hassle-free even to attract new customers they don’t have to click off from Google to book an appointment with your plumbing business.

Using your appointment booking links, clients can easily book your offer anywhere can find your business. Plus, you can also share your appointment booking URL link on Yelp, Facebook pages, and Instagram Profiles. Take advantage of this feature of Google Business Profile when you hire booking providers to get new clients.

Add Attractive but Real Photos and Videos to Your Plumbing GBP

Manage photos or videos to your Plumbing GBP

Sharing videos and photos of your plumbing company and those tagged by your clients is an effective and easy to boost engagement and traffic to your site and place of business.

To leverage the benefits of this feature, use good-quality photos, ensure high resolution, and upload new photos regularly-don’t use stock photos. Real photos help Google differentiate your plumbing company and thus represent your brand.

As one of the hacks here, we highly recommend taking quality photos of your office, photos of your staff at work, and the before and after photos of completed projects. Such photos and videos can help to increase trust and build brand awareness in your target audience.

List Your Plumbing Services

The services section of your Google Business profile helps you list all the services you provide. You can add the service name, a description, and a price for every service.

Unlike products that are shown up as part of your GBP, services are normally visible on mobile devices. On such devices, a service tab is shown along with your listing. When a client clicks on the tab, they will have a chance of viewing all the plumbing services you offer.

Including your plumbing services is an efficient way to differentiate your plumbing company from the competition and may help to skyrocket your local search rankings.

Add a Questions and Answers Section in Your Plumbing GBP

Questions and Answers Section

Google Business Profile help prospects or clients to answer a question about your plumbing business. It is advisable that you answer such questions preemptively on your own. Go to the knowledge tab of your Google Business Profile, and you will come across an option for “Question & Answers.” Fill it with potential questions that clients may have about your plumbing company and answer them in advance to make sure that they have accurate information about your business.

Add Attributes

Attributes

Highlights or attributes help you share with the world about specific attributes or services of your plumbing company, and including them can assist you to stand out from your competitors. To know what attributes you can add to your GBP listing, click on the “info” tab in the dashboard of your listing. By clicking the pencil icon, you will know the kind of services or attributes you can add to your plumbing company.

Accurate Description of Your Plumbing Business

Your plumbing business description is one of the crucial places you can utilize to target the “business or money keywords.” But you should not overdo it- keep your customers in mind and highlight the best things about your plumbing company.

In business for more than two decades? Your clients will no doubt love this.

Veteran-owned? Make sure to include it.

Before you go ahead and write your plumbing business description, be sure to read Google’s business description guidelines.

Get Online Reviews for Your Plumbing company

Online Reviews

Before a homeowner contacts you for a plumbing repair or service, they will first go through your reviews on Google. Even before that, they will have made up their mind on whether to choose you or your competition based on the quality and quantity of your online reviews.

One of the most crucial things you can do to help your plumbing company rank higher in local searches is to ask for more reviews on Google. Customers’ reviews are great for improving your social proof, and they make it easier for prospects or clients to trust your plumbing business. You can add as many client reviews as possible to your Google Business Profile.

Review Your NAP Information

NAP Information

The initial thing to do is go through the “info tab.” Make sure that you review your NAP (Name, Address, and Phone number) citations on the tab.

First, review your plumbing company name. Is your name listed correctly? Is it consistent with other review platforms such as Yelp? If you note any errors, update the information here properly. Check also that your address is entered correctly in your Google Business Profile.

Lastly, review your business phone number. Ensure everything is correct and that you are using your plumbing company’s primary phone number. If your company has multiple numbers for employees, make sure to utilize the main phone number for your office.

Use the Google Posting Feature to Grab More Eyeballs

Google Post

Regular posts are like free display ads for your plumbing company. You should post promotional offers since browsers can see posts before they land on your plumbing website.

Posts display a brief description and a thumbnail image that shows up to a full-size image and more information when clicked. They are displayed at the bottom of your Google Business Profile on desktop and in a dedicated tab in the Google Maps app.

Frequently Asked Questions about Google Business Profile for Plumbers

Question mark

1. Is Google Business Profile for plumbers free of charge?

Yes, Google Business Profile is absolutely FREE. This means any plumbing contractor can claim, verify and optimize any listing Free of charge.

2. How can I get my plumbing business to show up higher on Google search or Maps?

here are some steps you can take to ensure that your plumbing company shows up on Google as illustrated below:

  • Step 1: Go to Google Business Profile
  • Step 2: Find your plumbing company
  • Step 3: Add or select your plumbing business
  • Step 4: Choose your category
  • Step 5: Verify your plumbing company
  • Step 6: Set up a connected Google Plus Page
  • Step 7: Request Google reviews

3. Does my plumbing company need an optimized Google Business Profile?

Yes, your business should be taking advantage of the power of an optimized Google Business Profile customized for your company. By offering your opening and closing hours, services, reviews, address, and latest business address, you will be able to successfully manage your online presence across Google properties from its local maps to its search engine.

Let Blackstorm Design + Marketing Team Manage and Market Your Plumbing Company on Google Business profile

A well-optimized Google Business Profile is an important component of a a winning local plumbing SEO strategy. Knowing how to claim, verify and optimize your Google listing as a plumber can help boost Google rankings and assist you to reach potential clients on a local level.

We trust that this definitive Google Business Profile optimization guide for plumbers will assist you.

Talk with an expert

But if you are still unsure of how to claim, verify and optimize Google Business listing as a plumber, we got you covered.

At Blackstorm Design + Marketing, we specialize in helping plumbing businesses of all sizes optimize their local SEO and outrank their competitors. We achieve this by helping you claim your Google Business Profile. We are a team of internet marketing experts dedicated to helping you skyrocket the growth of your plumbing services company.

Schedule a free strategy session with Blackstorm Design + Marketing to learn more about our services and how we can help you grow your plumbing company online.

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