The way people are researching and hiring their home service providers has changed significantly since the turn of the century. Customers who intend to let a stranger into their home are doing more research than ever before, and they are turning to the web to find the information they’re after.
What these customers want to find is a trustworthy, reputable provider. They want to see a professional, high-quality website, plenty of five star reviews, and they want an easy way to get in touch to schedule services or ask additional questions.
Whether they’re looking for a heating and air company, and electrician, a general contractor, or a plumber, people want to know that they’re working with a well-respected local professional before they buy. Because many of your customers’ first interaction with you will be on the web, that’s where you’ll need to focus on creating your image.
We’ve worked with home service companies of all sizes to improve their image online, manage their web-based marketing assets, and generate more sales by helping them get listed in their most critical directories. In this article, we’re going to discuss the most important elements of digital marketing for home service providers.
Web Design & Development for Home Service Companies
Your company’s website is the most important marketing asset you have. Customers who are considering doing business with you will be measuring your website against your competitors’. They’ll read about your company philosophy, judge the quality of your previous work, and seek out reviews from your past customers.
Your website is a place where you can give your customers the information they’re looking for while showing off the best parts of choosing to work with you. You can highlight reviews from your most satisfied customers, show off your best work, and tell them all about who you are and what your company is all about. You’ll be able to connect and build trust with your potential customers every time they interact with your brand.
If you want to focus on your digital presence, your business website is the first place you’ll need to look. If your website is outdated, or you never had one to begin with, it’s time to invest. It’s the foundation from which all your other digital marketing efforts can be launched.
Home Services Business SEO
Most people’s first interaction with local businesses occurs online. When they need something, they Google it. If you want to get more business in your local area, or are expanding into neighboring areas, you’ll need a strong search engine presence.
First, you’ll need to create relevant, well-written content and web copy targeting your most valuable searches. There’s also a whole bunch of technical stuff you can do that will improve Google’s ability to read and understand your website, ensuring it can rank you for appropriate searches.
Our best advice is to work with an experienced SEO professional. While it’s not impossible to learn about how Google crawls, indexes, and ranks websites and take measures to improve your website’s performance, it sure takes a lot of time – something most business owners just don’t have.
Improve Your Business Listings
Another way to improve search engine performance is by getting listed in the dozens of business directories that Google trusts. Google pulls information about your company from all over the web to determine that you are active, reputable, and open for business. Google doesn’t want to show its users a company that went out of business last year but never took their website down, for example.
To establish that you’re a valid contender for the first page, you’ll need to be listed in the various directories that Google trusts. This is a lot of work, with many of the directories requiring you to open an account, validate your email address, and manually enter contact information, business hours and other information about your company.
If Google finds a lot of contradictory or outdated information about your company across the web, it’s going to prefer to rank your competitors which are showing more consistent and reliable information. Reach out today to see how we can help your business’s online presence today.
