Plumber SEO: How a Local SEO Campaign Can Grow Your Business

Ranking higher in local Google search results can bring in a dizzying amount of revenue for your plumbing business.

A lot of plumbers work in your area. So, how do new clients decide to call you instead of your competitors? Two important factors: 

• How easy is it to find you via a Google search?
• What kind of an impression do you give potential customers once they do find you online?

A local SEO campaign addresses both of these issues, helps you gain more clients, and distances you from the competition.

How Do You Currently Rank on Google?

Go ahead and run a little experiment by going to Google and typing “plumbers in [your city].” If you already have some sort of web presence, such as a website or a social media page, you would hope that clients would see your company name fairly quickly (ideally first) in the search results. Searchers tend to focus on the top three results, and not much beyond that. 

Did you find yourself on the second page or beyond? Forget about clients finding you via a search engine (until you come up with an SEO strategy, anyway). Searchers trust Google to provide relevant and trustworthy results. As long as the first few companies seem reliable and professional (which we’ll discuss more in a moment), that’s who folks will contact.

Also, check out the Google Maps results in the side bar. Where do you appear in those? Unless you’re already in the top three for “plumbers in [your location],” you need a local SEO campaign to help you push aside the competition and position yourself exactly where clients will look for you.

What is local SEO?

A local SEO campaign is search engine optimization with a particular focus on local keywords and Google Maps rankings. Plumbers need local SEO campaigns because their service area is limited. You don’t need to waste time attracting traffic from across the country, so don’t go with an SEO campaign that will target irrelevant audiences. 

Some common strategies seen in local SEO campaigns include:

• Local keywords on your website (if you have one). Local keywords include the neighborhoods, cities, and counties you service. But your website shouldn’t have these keywords “stuffed” into every sentence or even on every page, because that can lead to over-optimization penalties and lower rankings. Google knows how to analyze data to understand where your location is, especially if you do a good job building citations.
• Citation and directory building. This step reinforces your company’s legitimacy and tells Google’s algorithm that your name, address, and phone number (NAP) are correct. In SEO terms, a citation is any instance in which your NAP appears online, so adding your plumbing business to online directories can help achieve this.
• Google Maps ranking. Many people now use the Google Maps app or website to search for goods and services when they only want to see local results, but Maps results also show up on a basic text search above the normal results. Getting ranked on maps requires you to have a Google My Business page and a strong SEO strategy. 
• Google My Business ranking. When you Googled “plumbers in [your location],” did one company show up on the right-hand side of the search results, complete with contact information, photos, and reviews? That featured company could very well be yours if you focus on building out and optimizing your Google My Business page.

Does this mean you need a website?

In order to do a local SEO campaign, you have to have a web presence that can show up in the results. This doesn’t necessarily mean you need a website, but a website does increase your chances of success, in terms of both the Google search algorithm and in attracting clients. 

A website gives you more opportunities to integrate keywords and create a specific strategy for other marketing techniques, such as landing pages, content marketing, and pay-per-click advertising. And when professionally designed, written, and maintained, a website tells clients that you care enough about your business to give a great first impression. In the customer’s mind, if you put that much effort into a website, surely you also put a great deal of effort into your plumbing services.

With that said, a website just isn’t in the budget for every company. From design to hosting, websites cost money. Two free alternatives exist: a Facebook business page and a Google My Business page. With a Facebook page, your efforts will be geared more toward social media marketing⁠—which can be powerful for local service providers too—rather than SEO. But Facebook pages can and do show up in search engine results when the title contains relevant keywords.

As for Google My Business, plan to claim and flesh out this listing even if you do decide to get a website. It’s the best way to get ranked on Google Maps, and when you take the time to fill it in completely, it gives potential customers a positive introduction to your company.