Plumbing SEO changes year after year. In fact, the industry shifts so much, we go to conferences to stay on top of all the latest news and practices! In this latest podcast, Jason and Nolen share some of the juicy tidbits they picked up from their latest SEO conference.
Look for key changes GMB management, online brand development, on-page optimization, and more! If your website has struggled to break into premium rankings, be sure to listen in.
Helpful Lessons for Plumbing Professionals
Keyword strategies must incorporate synonyme usage. Variety creates healthier optimization.
Remember the big four: Google, BBB, Facebook, & Yelp. You need reviews from all of them.
Continue to monitor your GMB account, including your Q&A section in the Knowledge Graph.
Keyword optimization and mobile friendly optimization are basic essentials.
What’s Changing in Search Marketing?
Let’s start by analyzing some of the key industry updates that your business will need to keep on top of. In 2020, your Google My Business account will become even more important to your success in local search. The search engine continues to add new functionalities to the listing service, including new ways for potential customers to interact with your company.
Thanks to the Knowledge Graph, people can check reviews, operating hours, location, and contact information without ever interacting with your website.
While that might seem like an intimidating prospect for some plumbing SEO professionals, these changes could mean great things for your business in 2020. For one, clients who direct search your name won’t need to dig through your site to find a phone number or determine if you provide emergency services. This increases the chance of people calling your business.
Showing Up in Google Maps Listings
In search marketing, visibility equals success. That’s especially true in the case of Google Maps listings, whose top ranks generate some of the most impressive traffic. Apart from the usually website optimization (more on that later), we’ve seen GMB play a larger role in these search listings. Since Google only awards this premium search real estate to dependable businesses (as best they can), it’s essential that your GMB data is continually checked and re-checked for accuracy.
Local Maps Listings Earn Exceptional Traffic and Lead Generation.
Reviews also serve as a make or break criterium for Google Maps listings. Lately, Google has emphasized diversity in review sources as a healthy indication of trustworthiness. In other words, don’t put all your rating eggs in one basket! While there are hundreds of rating websites to choose from, start with these four:
Google Reviews
Facebook
Better Business Bureau
and Yelp
These four feedback sources are considered by many to be the most essential citations for plumbers. If you want even more plumbing SEO power from your client reviews, we’ve seen a rising trend in geotagging. That’s the tagging of reviews with GPS location data. It provides stronger evidence to Google’s search engine that you provide services in tagged locations, giving them more reason to rank your site over competitors.
Breaking Digital Language Barriers
With the release of Google’s BERT update still fresh in our minds, the search giant continues to advance towards a deeper algorithm understanding of human speech. With latent semantic indexing (LSI), keyword optimization has gone beyond the simple “3% focus keyword formula” – no more flooding pages with unnatural keyword volumes – to create a more human reading experience. Keywords still play a foundational role in SEO for plumbing. They determine how Google understands and ranks, but now professionals must take a different approach to writing content.
Mix in Related Phrases and Synonyms of Your Focus Keyword for Better Content Performance.
It’s more essential than ever before that your content provides unique insights for would-be clients. Businesses can finally stop the ridiculous barrage of “plumbers near me”s and start presenting information in ways that people can easily digest. The most insightful content (usually) gets rewarded these days, not the most keyword redundant. Keyword spamming is a remnant of past plumbing SEO strategy, but it will hurt your results today.
What elements can you use to create more helpful resources for your customers?
Bullet points,
Keyword synonyms,
Infographics,
Related (original) images,
and Numbered lists.
Continue to produce keyword (and synonym) optimized content, but infuse all your expertise and problem solving skills into the mix! If consumers truly find your content valuable, your rankings will naturally rise and your broad excel.
Keeping Your Google My Business Updated, Including the Knowledge Graph Q&A, is Essential!
Final Words of Advice
Because Google My Business and the Knowledge Graph continue to draw in more eyeballs from the community, it’s important that you monitor these tools for information accuracy. If your company makes significant organizational changes, or if you start offering new services, make sure your GMB reflects the updates. Also, be on the lookout for consumers in your Questions & Answers section (halfway down the Knowledge Graph). This Q&A section is open to the community, meaning anyone can contribute questions and answers.
You don’t want a random stranger (or worse, a competitor) answering questions on your behalf.
If you carefully manage these assets, your business can expect continued growth for your company brand. In the meantime, keep creating fresh content for your website filled with hot topics and questions from your target market. Even if you can only blog once a month, it’s worth the effort!
If your team doesn’t have the time, knowledge, or capacity to manage these online marketing activities, our team at Plumbing Webmasters can help. We provide custom website design, keyword-rich content, citation assistance, GMB support, and reputation management. Our clients continually earn premium rankings in local search, creating more traffic and better leads!
To learn more about our SEO for plumbers, contact us today at (877) 388-9884.
Congratulations! You’ve just started your professional plumbing company. You’re also dirt poor and have no marketing budget to speak of. We’ve all been there.
Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to start earning brand recognition online, without breaking the bank. Today, we’ll discuss a number of free to cheap activities that anyone can handle. If you’ve been worried about getting noticed in local search, be sure to listen in!
Key Insights on Plumbing Marketing (on a Tight Budget)
Register a domain under your name! Make sure it’s distinct from common industry terms.
Set up your Google My Business listing and submit your address. Complete the free forms.
If you don’t have money, try a cheap service like WIX and GoDaddy.
Stay away from digital marketing services in the mid-hundreds. You’re better off going DIY!
Starting Fresh in Local Search
Normally, our team at Plumbing Webmasters likes to steer the conversation away from other web design companies. We may also go the opposite direction and show just how many people get royally screwed by other SEO companies. But we’re going to do something different today, because sometimes you just need a place to kick off your marketing plan.
If you have no marketing budget to speak of, starting up your out-of-home plumbing company can be a real challenge! With so many established businesses in the community, how can you start making a name for yourself? It all begins with a domain name and a company website.
Without an established budget, there’s only one solution left: go DIY (do it yourself)!
A 3-Step Starter’s Guide
While many marketing activities can help you cultivate clients, three are absolutely mandatory. Without these three steps, your plumbing SEO has almost zero chance of taking off and earning clients for your business.
Your Three Essential Steps
Step #1: Claim Your GMB (Google My Business) Listing.
Step #2: Register a Unique Domain Name.
Step #3: Create and Launch a Starter Website.
This Free Tool Makes it Easier to Earn Site Visitors. Image Source: Google My Business
Google My Business Account
Among the numerous qualities it has and the benefits it provides, your Google My Business listing is absolutely free. It’s Google’s way of getting to know your business location, basic service category, and operating hours. Fill it out as much as possible, and regularly come back to it as you gain more information. Your GMB listing helps you start showing up in local search queries. Then there’s the crucial ability to gather Google Reviews!
Be sure to use the same physical address for all your citations as your business grows. This makes the Google Search algorithm more confident in your operating area, increasing your chances of showing up for localized searches. When business booms, your marketing budget expands, and your company grows into an office, you’ll need to change the name for all of your citation listings (BBB, Angie’s List, Yelp, etc.).
Choosing a Domain Name
Your domain name isn’t just a web address. It’s also part of your brand identify, and it heavily impacts people’s ability to find your company online. Choosing a smart domain and guarding it carefully will help your business grow consistently over time.
Domain Name Examples
Great:purplemonkeyplumber.com
Poor:americafirstplumber.com
Great:pipefighter.co
Poor:seattleplumbingcompany.com
Great:rooterrex.com
Poor:bustedpipestx.co
What makes an ideal domain name? Memorability and uniqueness. Thousands of businesses shoot themselves in the foot by picking what they think will rank well in search. They use part of their small marketing budget to purchase a combination of their local city and a popular plumbing term. That’s a huge mistake! Many established companies already rank for similar names, and Google almost never ranks a new business over a seasoned competitor with a close name.
Craft Your Company Website
The most involved portion of your online marketing, website design requires careful planning, research, and patience. With that being said, it is possible to craft a beautiful website on a tight budget. With plenty of design sites and templates to choose from, anyone can build a basic but functional site for under $100. Your website may not be fully optimized for local SEO, but that’s okay for now.
Key Highlights on Website Design
Make sure your navigational menu is compact and fully functional.
Have your site inspected by several people for spelling and grammar errors.
Create a service page for every major category (at least). Do child pages if possible.
Test your site for usability and ease of navigation.
Need Help Getting Started?
One last note: Be sure to create listings in each of the major citation companies: Yelp, BBB, etc. Facebook Business profiles can also help you earn a handful of leads as you get the ball rolling. Starting a plumbing business is tough work (especially without a marketing budget), but success can be yours with diligence and careful planning!
Want some professional insight as you begin your business? Call the Plumbing Webmasters for a free consultation! We support hundreds of plumbers around the country, and we’d be happy to support you however we can, even if you don’t have a big marketing budget.
2019 promises to be a big year for plumbers. Check out our SEO for Plumber’s guide if you have not done so already. Today, we will discuss an actionable checklist that every plumbing contractor can utilize to gauge the progress of their web presence and identify points on which improvement is necessary.
As a digital marketing agency working with plumbers for almost a decade, we have the resources at our disposal to put companies in a position to succeed in the online space. The goal for all plumbers is to make more money. The best way to do that is through online lead generation, the majority of which happens via digital marketing campaigns. In this 10 point checklist, we’ll touch on the most critical aspects of SEO:
1) Design
The front end of a website is what most consumers think about once they enter. It’s what most contractors think about when evaluating their plumbing websites. But the reality is that the front end is predicated entirely on a structurally sound back end. What good is a visually appealing website that nobody visits? What is its value to plumbers? The truth is that visuals only matter if you get the visitor to enter in the first place. That’s not possible without excellent website design.
So what makes web design suitable? For starters, a professional designer should create the framework. They should implement a clean and SEO-friendly code base, as well as SERP enhancers like schema markup. Does that all sound a little bit foreign to you? It should be because programming is not something that the general public understands. The need for professional web design is pressing, and it’s even more beneficial when the designer has a background in search engine optimization.
A solid codebase can place sites in an initial position to generate traffic. But the visual appeal, user experience, and navigability are what will keep them there. Google measures website performance in large part by how the user behaves after finding the site. If they exit immediately, the site’s bounce rate goes up. The higher the bounce rate, the worse your website is performing. One additional factor regarding design is how easy the website makes it for users to locate pertinent information. That means where to find you, how to contact you, how to review you, etc. These blocks of information should all be displayed prominently on a website. Plumbers should ensure their website excels in these areas:
Display
Navigation
User Experience
Visual Appeal
2) Code Base
Many points on the SEO checklist will tie directly back to design, which is why it is #1 on the list. The codebase is a prime example of an extension of design but requires its undivided attention. The back end of a website is made possible by coding. Whether it’s HTML, CSS, JavaScript, or any other kind of programming language, it matters for your website. What makes code so critical to website success is the language through which Google interprets the virtual object. What’s your company’s name, where is it located, what are the services, etc.
The front end of a website can promote these pieces of information through content, while the back end must use a microdata language known as schema.org. Most people reading this post use a template website for their plumbing services. Unfortunately, while it may have schema code, it isn’t likely to be optimal. Worse templates guarantee duplication of a codebase with other sites on the internet, sometimes even your competitors. But those listed above you for primary keywords more than likely have a custom code base rather than a premade template.
You can mark up almost every single component of your website with schema. Schema helps Google parcel your site’s data and understand its content to promote it best. The microdata tags can also encourage SERP enhancements which add exciting features to your search results, such as aggregate star ratings and site links. Much like ad extensions for PPC, SERP enhancements can make an organic impact outrank one that’s competing with it. A proper code base should exhibit these qualities:
Clean
Communicative
Custom
Structured (Schema Markup)
3) Content
There’s probably no word used more in the world of digital marketing than content. People swear by its value, and as Google’s algorithm has evolved, so has the standard for creating SEO-friendly content. Yet, to this day, many websites still exhibit shallow content. Content stuffed with keywords over and over again reads unnaturally and looks as if a 3rd grader wrote it with a poor grasp of sentence structure. The content that should be on your plumbing website is natural. Write your pages as you would want them described to your target customer. Consider identifying LSI keywords, natural synonyms, and terms related to your primary word, and place them within your content.
The presence of LSI keywords helps Google interpret a web page as robust and uses natural language that relates itself to the subject matter at large. The process of SEO writing has had difficulties shaking the tradition of keyword stuffing because old habits die hard. While using the keyword within the title tag and header tag is still encouraged, it should not be used more than once or twice within the body paragraphs themselves. A good rule of thumb is not to publish any content that doesn’t reflect how you would describe a service to customers in person. The written content is different from its spoken counterpart, but its entire presentation should mirror your direct intentions. Content on plumbing websites should favorably exhibit the following qualities:
Grammar
LSI Keywords
Readability
Sentence Structure
4) Google My Business & Maps
Google My Business is the easiest thing to get right for plumbers who are marketing their services online, and it happens to coincide directly with your company’s Google Maps listing. But there’s a caveat; it’s also one of the easiest things to screw up. Messed-up listings are usually a result of plumbers trying to do too much with their GMB account. It’s a fundamental concept. GMB tells Google the name, address, and category of your business so that they can adequately promote you to consumers in your local area on Google Maps. So that’s the very base level of Google My Business, but there are also additional steps that can make a GMB listing even more impactful.
One of those is the FAQ section, where the business owner answers frequently asked questions from consumers. Plumbers can also put in branded company photos, like pictures of your office, truck, etc. Don’t forget your company logo. Most plumbers understand that local SEO is essential, and Google Maps is the foundation of every local SEO strategy. Optimizing your Google My Business page encourages Maps placement. Here’s what you should attend to regarding your Google My Business:
Branded Profile
Company Pictures
NAP Accuracy
FAQ Section
5) Reviews
As we noted earlier, points on this checklist tend to relate to one another. Google My Business is one of the best sources of customer reviews, which brings us to the following checklist point for plumbers, which is online reviews. While Google should be a top source for reviews, it should not be the only source. For example, if you get ten reviews, about 5 of them should be on Google. The others can disperse to Facebook, Yelp, BBB, and several other worthy platforms. Google has even publicly discouraged the notion that all reviews should affiliate with Google My Business.
But to diversify reviews, you have to generate them and do it ethically. It would help if you actively pursued reviews by asking satisfied customers in person and integrating a reviews dashboard that automatically texts clients your review profiles on Google and Facebook. In addition, it would make it convenient for anyone on your website to click the review us button. Be careful about who you do ask for feedback, however.
If you had significant problems with one of your clients, and you know that they were challenging to work with, don’t promote your Google or Facebook account to them. Hopefully, clients like these are few and far between but don’t go looking for bad reviews. Although they will be inevitable at times, you can drown plenty of good ones, as well as your direct response to the bad ones with professional reactions. Make sure you monitor these aspects of your reviews:
Diversity (Google, Facebook, Yelp, etc.)
Quality
Quantity
Website Integration
6) Link Building
A website builds authority by the number of inbound links that point to it. MOZ measures their collective influence with a metric called domain authority. While DA is not a Google metric, it provides a general snapshot of the strength of inbound links pointing to a particular website. Domain authority (DA) measures on a 1-100 scale, with 100 being the most authoritative link profile imaginable and 1 being a link profile that ceases to exist. The whole concept of link building is dangerous for SEO. Not all links hold equal value, and many times, links can distract plumbers and other website owners from more manageable SEO tasks.
In 2012, Google’s Penguin update ended manipulative link building and heavily penalized sites that broke guidelines. Fast forward to 2019, and while penalties are no longer as typical, the value of low-quality links is pretty much zero, if not hostile. So how do you build links? The only avenues are creating great content, building citations, sharing on social media, and conducting PR and blogger outreach. The most valuable links come organically. If you write a great blog post about plumbing, share it on social media, and another blog links to the article, you’ve earned a precious organic link. This process is hard to execute; make no mistake. But consistency and attention to detail help make it more probable. Keep an eye on these link-building metrics.
Domain Authority: MOZ’s estimate of a website’s authority
Followed Linking Root Domains: The number of unique domains pointing to a site (with dofollow links)
Inbound Links: The number of total inbound links pointing to a website
Linking Root Domains: The number of total domains pointing to a site (both dofollow & nofollow links)
7) Social Media
Social media and SEO are related, whether you want to believe it or not. Many plumbers don’t want to hear that because they hate social media. And we don’t blame them. After all, how does an anti-social plumber utilize social media in 2019? Truthfully, you don’t have to be a digital celebrity to make an impact on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin, or YouTube. All you need is a legitimate presence on each platform. Unfortunately, Google has not been forthcoming about the direct influence of social media activity on search rankings. Still, evidence suggests that social signals take into account in one way or another.
That’s why publishing blogs on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn produce visual content for Instagram and YouTube. When people are engaging with your business, whether it likes, shares, views, comments, or otherwise, it signals to Google that your company is relevant and noteworthy. Again, you don’t have to be a typical social media personality to send out these signals. After all, you’re looking for engagement from plumbing customers. People who are your clients, or who will one day become them. One thing to consider with Facebook and Instagram is that you won’t get many organic impressions. If you want to be seen organically on these platforms, you’re going to have to pay to advertise on them. But branded searches still matter. So when consumers who have pre-existing knowledge of your company look for you on IG or Facebook and don’t find you, that’s a missed signal opportunity that could go to Google. Keep these things in mind when auditing your social media presence:
Branding
Signals
Syndication
Visibility
8) Ongoing Work
Is your plumbing website stagnant? Also, do you add new blog posts each month? Finally, Have you invested in a website redesign? In any case, you are jeopardizing your position on Google SERPs or preventing yourself from improving. SEO is not a one-time deal. To truly master SEO, plumbers must commit to consistent optimization tasks. Google constantly changes its algorithms as they evolve, and activity will also be necessary. That’s no different than any other form of marketing, whether it’s online or not. If you don’t make incremental improvements each month, year, and decade, you can’t expect to thrive in your marketplace.
An example of Google’s evolution relates to content advancements. Google used to reward content written a certain way and ranked pages with keyword stuffing. Today, those same techniques will hurt your rankings. So if you never updated your content, you lost major spots on Google’s SERPs. Ongoing work is imperative to sustain a certain level of ranking and improve upon it. And it goes beyond content. Other areas that require continuous attention are coding, design, and user experience. Plumbers will want to take special notice of the following areas when checking for ongoing work:
Coding: Is HTML, CSS, JavaScript, & Schema up to date and reflective of best practices?
Content: Is content up to date, and is it written for a 2019 reader?
Design: Is design fresh, engaging, and amenable to a 2019 visitor?
User Experience: Is a 2019 user going to have a positive experience with your site?
9) Paid Advertising
Plumbers tend to favor paid advertising, especially PPC from Google Ads, because it works quickly. PPC can be a significant part of an internet marketing strategy, as long as it coincides with macro-scale efforts like SEO, web design, etc. The problem with PPC is that it’s inherently short-lived. You can’t expect to make a living off of PPC ads. There are pockets of time when you can create significant ROI, but it cannot be your only source of traffic or lead generation if you expect to sustain success.
Furthermore, PPC only works with properly managed campaigns. Budgeting, targeting, and landing page optimization are crucial elements to Google Ads, and ignorance of them will result in a failed venture. Google is not the only paid advertising platform available to plumbers. Contractors can also invest in paid social media advertising like boosted Facebook posts or even Instagram posts. As we noted earlier, Facebook doesn’t show posts organically, so paying for promoted posts is one of the best ways to activate the social signals that influence SEO. Again, paid ads can be beneficial but only maximize when they are part of a more effective digital marketing strategy and one founded in SEO and website design. Ensure your paid advertising campaigns have these things managed:
Analysis
Budget
ROI
Targeting
10) Brand Authority
New forms of media have inserted themselves into the SEO discussion. Whether it’s video content, which has been around for some time but has recently started to become easier than ever to produce, or podcasts, which are an undervalued media format for any business, their collective influence over brand authority can be significant. The more signals a brand can send Google that is relevant and noteworthy, the more authority it can establish online. Podcasts and videos are great because they can be distributed and syndicated on multiple platforms. With podcasts, those can be Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, and embedment on your website. With video, it can be YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and also embedment on your website.
Multimedia provides seemingly limitless options for plumbers, but convincing them to participate in producing this content can be challenging. If you are a plumber looking to take your business to the next level in 2019, you should more than consider a multimedia campaign; you should invest the resources required to do it. Brand authority is measured in more traditional ways as well. In other words, website design, logo design, and content marketing are also indicators of brand authority. But for this checklist, focus on these newer concepts:
Audio Podcasts
Branded Media
Multimedia Distribution
Video Content
11) Google Homepage
The Google homepage is an industry term for a phenomenon that exists with branded searches. When a consumer with pre-existing knowledge of your plumbing company types its name into Google, the entire SERP shows up for branded features, including the Knowledge Graph. The Knowledge Graph appears on the top of SERPs and shows your GMB profile and NAP information. It should also include a page full of organic results associated with your company, which might consist of everything from your website, social media profiles, and other business directories across the web. The bottom line is this; you want your branded SERP to look great. It will only look great if you’ve attended to each primary point of this checklist. So what are the components of an optimal Google homepage?
Branded: The Knowledge Graph should show your GMB profile, and all results should be associated with your company
Feature-Rich: Several SERP features should be present, including aggregate star ratings
Healthy: There should be plenty of results, and all first page ones should be relevant
Robust: There should be diversity in the pages that show up, like website, social, & profile