The Best SEO For Plumbers Guide

People who urgently need a plumber, are likely to call the companies that show up on the first page of Google, so if you want to be able to contend in one of the most competitive niches, maximize your potential and increase your customer exposure, you’ve got to find a way to get your website on Google’s first page.

Before we look at some proven strategies, let’s find out why is SEO for plumbers important?

Why SEO for plumbers is so important: When searching for local plumbing services, most people go to Google and type in: “plumber” + the area they live in.

Also, most users choose to ignore the paid ads and click on one of the TOP three organic search results.

First, SEO is an important traffic driver. When analysing the importance of SEO, ask yourself, have you ever scrolled down to page “two” in search results? Probably not that often!

I won’t lie, SEO takes a lot of time and effort, but when done right, it brings impressive and sustainable results. Your site will most probably stay in Google’s TOP even years after your SEO efforts, so it is definitely worth it.

Now that we’ve covered why SEO for plumbers is important, let’s jump straight into the practical steps you’ll have to take to promote your plumbing site.

But before we dive in, let’s list some general local SEO for plumbers guidelines that you may find helpful and informative.

General Local SEO Guidelines

Claim Your Google My Business Page

Google My Business page is a simple step that will ensure your appearance in the Google “map-pack” section, as shown below:

You can easily add your website to Google My Business by following these steps:

Visit: “https://www.google.co.uk/intl/en/business/”
Click Manage Now.
Follow the instructions.
Wait for the confirmation code to be sent to your email (usually within 3-4 days)
Check your code page.

By including a good description and lots of photos of where you work, you will be perceived as a reputable and trustworthy plumber.

It is very important to get positive reviews on Google as it will help increase your SERPs and CTR.

Always Use Unique Service Pages

If you have separate pages for each service, your website will rank higher. When you create original content for every type of service, such as burst pipe repairs, plumbing repairs, furnace leak repairs, and more, you can create relevant authority on your website.

The point is to link the service pages to each other so that Google crawls your website and understands the depth of its content. The more services you can cover, the more authority you can get without link building.

Create a Quality Blog

Most plumbers make a common mistake on their blogs from day one. They either write thin and low-quality posts that waste their crawl budget, or they don’t write any blog posts at all. The key to blogging for SEO is to create related resources that attract a large audience.

Unlike service pages, blog posts don’t have to attract only your target audience. Instead, it should be aimed at a wider range of readers who might be interested in what you have to share.

Carefully Use City Pages

Do not publish more than 15 city pages to keep a reasonable crawl budget and not clog the Google index.

Customize each page with logical and informative content. For plumbers whose primary city is a small city, additional city pages become critical to generating enough leads. But, again, each page must be individual and unique. When done right, this practice can:

Boost your site’s ranking.

Drive more localized web traffic.

Highlight different customer solutions from each location.

Create different calls to action on each page.

KEYWORDS RESEARCH

A successful SEO campaign is impossible without keyword research. You need to identify the most relevant search terms for which you want to rank.

For example, you might want to rank in search results for keywords like:

“Plumber in New York”, “Plumber in The Bronx” and other nearby areas.

Each keyword will produce different results, so it is essential to determine which one will be the most effective and will mostly reach your target audience.

Luckily, there are some SEO tools you can use to find the best keywords. We recommend using Ahrefs. You won’t be able to conduct keyword research using the free version, but you can get a paid trial for $7.

Alternatively, you can use Moz, Semrush, Ubersuggest, etc.

It doesn’t really matter which tool you choose. The most important thing is to understand the principles. When analysing keywords, there are two main points to pay attention to:

– Keyword search volume (number of search queries for a given keyword. The higher the better)

– Keyword Difficulty (how difficult it is to rank for that particular keyword. The lower, the better. We recommend using keywords with a KD below 12).

The chosen keyword “plumbing” will not necessarily be the only keyword you will rank for. However, it will be your primary focus before targeting others. Once you’ve decided on your main keyword, you can then focus on ranking subsequent keywords, which can be more specific.

Important! There are two main categories of keywords, depending on users’ search intent.

The 2 Types of Keyword Intent

Commercial intent: This type can also be called a “hire now” intention. This means the user’s firm desire to find a specialist. Typically, these will be key phrases containing the following modifiers:

hire;

near by;

price;

phone number, etc.

People are more likely to make a purchase as a result of these types of searches. You should use commercial intent keywords on your home page and on the service pages.

Informational intent: Informational intent refers to the situations when the users want to learn more about a topic. You can create a blog and teach your visitors how to fix various plumbing issues. When people use these search terms, they’re not going to hire a plumber, but quality articles on your blog will help you get backlinks, promote your brand, and showcase your expertise.

Plus, with quality guides and tutorials, you can get your business in front of people who might become customers when they decide to hire a plumber. Finally, quality articles on your blog will help you improve the behavioral factors on your site.

You should mainly use these keywords in your blog articles.

Requests for purely informational intent may contain the following modifiers:

How . . .

Why . . .

The best way. . .

What means. . .

On-Page SEO FOR PLUMBERS:

Once you’ve determined your main keyword, you should use it in the title tag and meta description of your page.

The title tag is the title you’ll see on Google, and the meta description is the description that appears below the title.

Ideally, the title should be no more than seven words and the description no more than 156 characters.

We recommend using the Yoast SEO plugin. Yoast is handy, and it will also automatically install your XML sitemap.

Make sure you set up a privacy policy page, as Google prioritizes sites that follow their privacy protocol.

Another recommendation is to add your location in the footer.

The next step in optimizing your page includes image-alt tags. Google treats images as long lines of code, so it’s important to describe the content of the image you’re using.

Find the image in the media gallery and add an appropriate description in the “alt text” section.

Another On-page SEO recommendation is to place your keyword and its subsequent ” commercial intent” keywords on the homepage.

Use the keywords naturally and don’t exaggerate.

According to Google’s guidelines, using a keyword multiple times can help, but there’s a point where adding the same keyword repeatedly has a negative impact not only on rankings, but also on user experience and readability.

We recommend reading your content out loud, and if it sounds stilted, you’ve probably over-optimized it to the point where it loses its value.

Each page must have at least 400 words.

Google’s content-driven preference is one of the main reasons why companies create blogs. Content helps you rank higher and you can also naturally attract customers if they see one of your blog posts and are attracted to your services.

Just make sure you write useful content which people will love to read.

Check our full SEO guide to lean more SEO recommendations and strategies.

Off-Site Plumbing SEO

Ask your clients to leave Online Reviews:

According to MOZ’s 2017 Local Search Ranking Factors, review signals are among the most significant local ranking factors.

and search engines.

Send out an email asking your customers to check out your Google My Business page or Yelp page where they can leave a review. By acquiring reviews on a regular basis, you’ll gain authority and higher search rankings. ‘ Important Note: Don’t ask for reviews on Yelp as this is against their rules and recommendations. Instead, just tell your clients to check out your Yelp page. Link Building: Google still relies on backlinks as the primary indicator of authority and visibility, and those who spend time and resources building quality links reap the rewards of rankings. Important: Local businesses must focus on local links. When it comes to local SEO for plumbers, not all traditional link building strategies work the same. There are some nuances and some individual strategies that should be implemented. What distinguishes local link building from general link building is its specificity. You should aim to post your links to more locally oriented resource lists and blogs. So let’s take a look at the best SEO link building practices from a local SEO perspective, but first, let’s figure out what is local link building: What is Local SEO Link Building? What distinguishes local link building from general link building is its specificity. You should aim to post your links to more locally oriented resource lists and blogs. A local SEO link building strategy should always focus on: – Getting links from local sites. – Create content that connects with your local customers. So now that we’ve covered what local SEO link building is, let’s find out why local backlinks are an important part of an effective local SEO strategy. Why are local backlinks important? – Local backlinks can drive targeted and relevant local traffic to your plumbing site. – With local backlinks, you can establish your brand as an authoritative and trusted resource in your area. – Local backlinks require outreach and communication, making them a great way to connect and build relationships with other local businesses in the area. Now let’s move on to some strategies you can implement to get local backlinks. Check out our TOP five local link building opportunities for plumbing sites:

Directories:

Directories are among the most effective sources for building local links. There are three different types of them: Large local directories These are directories that provide information about various businesses in all locations across all industries. Here are some examples: – Squeal – Manta – Yellow Pages Niche/industry directories These directories contain listings of businesses based on the industry, including those for plumbers. Most of them require payment, but some are free and attract large numbers of visitors, which can provide valuable referral traffic and leads. You may want to consider listing your business in: – brown book – Thomasnet – Zykon – rusty plumbing – Directory Critic – BrightLocal Regional directories These are directories that contain listings of businesses from your area. If you run a local plumbing business in, let’s say: suburban Detroit, you would love to be in these directories: – Michigan Business Directory – MLive – Michiganbd

Job/Career Page

If you’re looking for new hires and have a job page on your website, you can use it as a link building resource. In particular, internships are an ideal link building resource as they are interesting for .edu websites. Even if you work in a wide geographic area, you can take advantage of this link building opportunity. If you represent a company with multiple regional offices, you can post a job page for each of the regions you represent. Many major universities, private colleges, and community colleges post vacancies on their career service pages and would be interested in learning about new and ongoing entry-level vacancies that are available to students in their area.

Competitor Research

You can find link building opportunities by analyzing your highest ranked local competitors. By analysing your competitors’ directory listings, the resource pages they’ve created, the places they sponsor, etc., you can find plenty of link building opportunities. We recommend using a backlink analyzer like Ahrefs or Moz. This way, you’ll collect a lot of data about your competitors’ backlinks, what pages and domains they are promoting, how their backlink profile has evolved, etc.

Links/Resources Pages

You can find awesome link building opportunities through simple advanced search queries. Here are two examples: – “Your city” intitle: links OR intitle: resources – displays pages relevant to your city with the words “links” or “resources” in the title tag. – “Your county” inurl:links OR inurl:resources – displays pages relevant to your county with “links” or “resources” in the URL. It can often be difficult to find pages with links and resources that are good for your business, but this is a strategy you should definitely consider.

Local forums:

You can use one of the most effective link building techniques and attract new customers through crowd marketing. Simply find the most relevant local forums, register, participate in discussions, offer recommendations, be useful to the audience and establish yourself as an authoritative resource. Besides the fact that you can get a lot of quality backlinks, this SEO strategy is also effective in terms of marketing. When people want to hire plumber, they may go to local forums to ask for recommendations, or read some reviews. If you succeed in boosting a positive brand image on local forums, you will reap huge benefits. Check out our complete guide on how to pick the forums for link building. Also, if you’re looking for a reliable partner that can help you manage your brand’s image on local forums and build quality backlinks, reach out to our SEO specialists and we’ll help you get the full benefits of this SEO strategy. Just make sure you specify your goals so we know which forums we should focus on.

Conclusion:

SEO is a complex topic and cannot be fully covered in one article. We have tried to mention the most important, yet little-known local SEO practices that you can implement on your own. Of course, you can’t forget about usability, page speed, technical errors and much more. Be sure to check out more of our SEO related articles, or take a look at a few local SEO companies. Hopefully, the tips we have listed will help you get your plumbing site on Google’s top, at least locally.

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