SEO for Plumbers: A Complete Guide
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Just as people call you to repair their pipes, leaks, and toilets, you should do the same when you’re not getting website traffic. Your plumbing site can be a great source of leads and customers, but only if people can find it online.
In this article, I’ll be discussing how SEO can help make finding your website much easier for potential customers. I’ll share how you can leverage search engines to generate more prospects from your site to convert into clients. I’ll also list agencies who can execute a custom SEO strategy that drives results so you don’t have to.
But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s start with the basics, shall we?
What is Plumber SEO?
Search engine optimization (SEO) helps improve your plumbing website’s online presence by appearing on top of Google search. To do this, optimize your site pages for search terms your prospects search for.
Why Do You Need Plumbing SEO?
To fully comprehend the value SEO brings to your plumbing business, you must understand the click-through rate (CTR) of pages ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs).
The top three positions on Google search have an average CTR of 39.8%, 18.7%, and 10.2%, respectively. The percentages decrease as the position decreases.
So, let’s say your website is ranking second on SERPs for keywords that user searches 100 times every month. That means your page is guaranteed to receive around 18-19 monthly visitors (100 x 0.187).
This is very important because thousands of people search for plumbers on Google. Among the different keywords, “plumbers near me” receive the most searches with 339K.
This reason alone should be more than enough to compel you to do plumbing SEO. Even if you rank third for “commercial plumbers near me,” you can get roughly 347 monthly visitors (3,400 x 0.102) for that page alone.
Also, people are looking to hire someone for their plumbing needs by searching for the keywords above. So, by ranking your site for these terms as high as possible on SERPs, you can attract new customers and maximize your profits.
Can You Do SEO Yourself for Your Plumbing Business?
Yes. While you will need help in some of the more technical areas of SEO, its foundations are simple and anybody can do them. The only requirement is for you to become an expert plumber, which you already are.
How to Start SEO For Your Plumbing Company: 7 Simple Steps
To help you get started with SEO, follow the step-by-step process below. This ensures that your website will appear on Google and generate potential customers for your plumbing company.
Set Up Your Google Business Profile
Formerly known as Google My Business, Google Business Profile (GBP) helps your company appear on Google local pack on SERPs. This section appears above organic search results and shows the top three local businesses most relevant to the search query. You can also see their locations on Google Maps.
To set up your GBP, go to Google Maps. Enter your business address on the search bar or right-click on your map location. If your business appears on Google Maps, click “Claim this business.” If not, click “Add your business.”
Once verified, you can now fill out your business profile. Enter the latest and most accurate information about your contact details, location, and hours. Also, add photos of completed jobs to show on your GBP. Then, indicate the different plumbing services your business offers.
Conduct Keyword Research
For starters, use Ahrefs or any tool that shows keyword difficulty (KD) and search volume. Type in your seed keyword and brainstorm suggestions. From here, filter the list to show keywords with low KD and high search volume to maximize your SEO efforts. To get better results, narrow down your search to specific plumbing services you offer as your seed keyword.
Identify the best keywords to optimize for existing or new web pages on your site. This increases their chances of appearing on top of Google organic and local search results.
Also, search for question keywords your prospects search on Google. Publish blog posts answering these questions as part of your content marketing strategy. This helps you establish your plumbing expertise and gain the trust of your target audience.
Create Optimized Content For Your Plumbing Website
For your SEO to be truly effective, you must create great content for the following pages on your website:
- About – Talk about your plumbing knowledge and experience to establish your site’s E-E-A-T. Just as important, discuss your journey as a plumber, the hard times, and how you overcame them all. This lets you connect with your audience on a deeper level that could turn them into customers.
- Services – Address the pain points of potential customers and offer your services as solutions. Mention selling points that make you different–if not better–than your competitors. Also, include testimonials and accreditations to give searchers more reasons to choose your plumbing services.
- Location – Build a page that shows locations you offer your services. If you have a branch in each service area, indicate their respective contact information as well. You also want to publish individual pages for each location to utilize multi-location SEO.
Get Your On-Page SEO Right
Once you’ve produced high-quality content for your pages, next is optimizing them for their relevant keywords. The idea is to mention the keywords in the content without compromising its quality and readability. But it’s not just how you include them on the page–it’s also where you place them.
There are three page elements where you should include your keyword: title tags, URLs, headers, and meta descriptions. They help communicate to search spiders what your page is about so they can index it to its appropriate search queries.
Also, you need to write these page elements in a compelling way. The reason is that people see these on SERPs for each page. So, how you write the page’s meta title and description can influence users to click on your page even if it’s not ranking atop SERPs.
Ensure Robust Technical SEO
The goal of technical SEO is to make crawling your website much easier for search spiders. When done successfully, Google will index your site pages for their target keywords.You can start by organizing your site’s structure. If you’re offering different plumbing services, for instance, create individual pages for each. Then create a page that links to these different services.
Displaying your website structure on your navigational menu also helps improve their crawlability. If visitors hover over Services on your menu, it should open a submenu that lets the different service pages you create.
To help you spot other technical SEO factors, run your website on Ahrefs Webmaster Tools. Wait for a few minutes as it scans your site for issues. The tool loads the Overview page after and shows your site’s Health Score. It determines how easy or hard crawling your site pages is for search bots. To boost your score, Ahrefs identifies the top issues you must focus on and how to solve each.
Start a Link Building Campaign
Aside from content, backlinks are another ranking factor determining where your site pages will appear on SERPs. To build links that will help your site rank higher, check out your competitors’ link profiles. Filter the results to show referring domains with high Domain Rating (DR). This score indicates a site’s quality and trustworthiness.
From here, identify how your competitors acquired the link from the website. Expect to see guest blogging as the link building method of choice. This process involves pitching site owners a topic to write on their site and including a link to your site in the content.
Another method is to list your business on online local directories like Yelp and Bing Places. Aside from entering your name, address, and phone number (NAP), you can also include a backlink to your site.
Monitor Your Plumber SEO Campaign’s Performance
To see how well your GBP is performing, type your business name on Google search and click on “Performance.” It shows data about your interactions, website clicks, and search terms that showed your business on Google.
Google Search Console, on the other hand, shows how your site performed over time based on metrics like the number of impressions and clicks. It also lets you compare your site’s current performance to its previous one.
Also, consider using Google Analytics to see other sources of traffic aside from organic search.
Using the data from these tools, find ways to improve your search rankings. If your website traffic dropped, identify which pages lost traffic and review their content and backlinks. For GBP, review your profile, check your citations, and generate more positive reviews.
What Services Do Plumbing and HVAC SEO Agencies Provide?
The steps above will help your plumbing website rank on the first page of Google. But as a local plumber focused on closing more projects, you’d rather delegate these tasks to someone else.
Fortunately, there are agencies that will do the job for you. People hire them not just for their SEO services but also for their knowledge. They are aware of what Google’s algorithm prioritizes when ranking a website.
Also, these service providers will analyze your site and develop a custom strategy and campaign depending on its current performance. The strategy may include finding the right keywords, writing optimized website content, and performing off-page SEO on your website. All these techniques serve the purpose of helping you attract highly-qualified plumbing leads from organic search.
Finally, some offer digital marketing services like social media management, web design, and PPC to boost your online visibility further.
5 Top Plumbing SEO Agencies You Can Consider
Below is a shortlist of the best agencies to choose from with years of experience and success in the plumbing industry:
On The Map Marketing
We at On The Map Marketing takes a strategic approach to optimizing your website for organic search. First, our SEO specialists pride in using tactics that observe search engine guidelines to create sustainable rankings and traffic for our client sites. They also analyze your site and competitors to identify the best keywords to target for the campaign. From here, we will optimize existing pages on your site or new ones with the chosen keywords.
We then proceed to make sure that search engines can crawl all your site pages so they can appear on SERPs. Finally, we develop a link building campaign to show search engines that you have a trustworthy site. Eventually, expect to increase your ranking on search results, leading to greater organic traffic.
Whitespark
Aside from being a local SEO software, Whitespark has a team of SEO experts ready to help grow your business. The agency’s account manager optimizes your Google Business Profile by observing its best practices to help meet your business goals. The manager also helps you find ways to generate more Google reviews. Concerning your website, Whitespark audits it to find areas for improvement and ways to solve them. Finally, to help increase your organic traffic faster, it creates “in-content editorial backlinks in fresh posts on blogs that have real organic traffic.”
Blue Corona
Blue Corona observes the “three pillars of successful SEO services” to increase traffic and leads. First, it makes all your pages crawlable for search spiders. Also, the agency ensures that your site is secure and fast-loading to provide visitors with a seamless user experience. Second, the agency creates content optimized for target keywords your site isn’t ranking for. Over time, it updates the content with the latest information to help improve its search position. Third, Blue Corona builds relevant and authoritative backlinks and generates many positive reviews on GBP and others.
1SEO Digital Agency
Like Whitesapark, 1SEO Digital Agency assigns its staff who will understand your needs as a business owner and how SEO can help address them. The agency then develops an “outside the box” strategy custom-fitted to your goals. It also draws from its “deep understanding of the unique needs and challenges within the plumbing industry.” These enable them to launch campaigns that can help you get more website visitors, resulting in more phone calls and inquiries about your services.
Plumbing Webmasters
Plumbing Webmasters takes a “full-scale approach to delivering excellent results” for plumbing contractors. A big part of its SEO packages is content writing and marketing. The agency creates a blog section on your site to publish properly optimized content that provides “unique, user-friendly, and valuable information for their users’ sake.” The agency also conducts competitor analysis by looking at the online strategies of other plumbers. This way, it can identify effective tactics your competitors are using and apply them to your website.
How to Choose a Plumbing SEO Company?
Choosing a marketing agency that will take care of your SEO can make or break your business. So, you must know what to look for in an agency and whether they can truly help you generate more plumbing leads. Here are ways to help you vet the best agency for you:
- Check their credentials. Badges and certifications on the websites of agencies lend credibility to them. But they’re only effective if notable award-giving bodies grant them the credentials. These include Forbes, Inc., and US Search Awards. B2B marketplace directories like Clutch and Upcity also count. They all lend credibility to the agencies.
- Read their case studies. These should show the issues of the plumbing sites the agencies worked on and the techniques used to resolve them. The studies must also feature screenshots of the organic traffic and rankings of the site before and after the agencies stepped in. They serve as proof that the agency’s SEO strategy and campaign worked.
- See customer reviews. Ideally, focus on agencies with lots of positive client testimonials. You can find most of the reviews on GBP, but also check B2B marketplace sites for additional testimonials. Finally, prioritize reading detailed customer reviews about the agency, even if they gave a bad score.
- Ask for a free audit. The report should give you valuable insights concerning SEO issues on your website. This also allows agencies to showcase their knowledge as SEO specialists in the plumbing industry. Once you receive the report, ask questions about it. How and what they answer should be indicative of their expertise as well.
How About We Fix the Leak in Your SEO Strategy?
If your plumbing website isn’t attracting enough leads and clients, we at On The Map Marketing will fix it for you. Our team will first assess your site’s ranking problems to help us develop a custom strategy to address them all. This will help us launch an SEO campaign to make your website appear on top of SERPs and attract more traffic. So, if you want to strengthen your lead generation efforts with our process, sign up for a free SEO audit. We’ll get back to you soon with our report about your site.