Plumbing companies are uniquely local business concerns by their very nature. The plumbing industry is one of the relatively few left that can never be wholly automated or managed remotely through apps, chat, customer service lines, or email. At some point, plumber and customer must inevitably connect in the real world and in real-time, in the customer’s living space and likely in high-stress, high-pressure moments, to get the job done.
Local SEO for Plumbers
Businesses like plumbing companies learn fast that all business is local—but how do they reach potential customers, get their attention, and educate them about local plumbing businesses across the street or across town?
The answer is local SEO for plumbers, and it could easily be the difference between life and death for your plumbing business, depending on how well or poorly it’s managed. But to understand how local plumber SEO works, we first need to examine how Google searches and other search engine algorithms work and how they impact your online presence to get you in front of local prospective customers. Let’s take a closer look at how local plumbing SEO lets you attract customers and get more of the useful leads you need to stay competitive in an increasingly crowded space!Plumber SEO 101: A Quick Primer for Digital Marketing for Plumbers by Online Advantages
The answer is local SEO for plumbers, and it could easily be the difference between life and death for your plumbing business, depending on how well or poorly it’s managed. But to understand how local plumber SEO works, we first need to examine how Google searches and other search engine algorithms work and how they impact your online presence to get you in front of local prospective customers. Let’s take a closer look at how local plumbing SEO lets you attract customers and get more of the useful leads you need to stay competitive in an increasingly crowded space!But as a plumbing business owner or manager, you need to know how search engines work so you can understand why your business appears where it does in search results.
This, in turn, allows you to make changes that will help your business be more visible and gain more customers. We’re going to pretend, for purposes of this discussion, that the only search engine is Google. There was a time when if you simply built a plumbing website, you would—well, plumb and wouldn’t have to worry about local SEO for plumbing. Today, just having a website isn’t enough, because search engines are far more sophisticated than they used to be. Businesses like plumbing companies learn fast that all business is local—but how do they reach potential customers, get their attention, and educate them about local plumbing businesses across the street or across town?
The answer is local SEO for plumbers, and it could easily be the difference between life and death for your plumbing business, depending on how well or poorly it’s managed. But to understand how local plumber SEO works, we first need to examine how Google searches and other search engine algorithms work and how they impact your online presence to get you in front of local prospective customers. Let’s take a closer look at how local plumbing SEO lets you attract customers and get more of the useful leads you need to stay competitive in an increasingly crowded space!
Plumber SEO 101: A Quick Primer for Digital Marketing for Plumbers by Online Advantages
Chances are, you use search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, and Bing every day in your working and personal life. But have you ever asked yourself how they work, and whether what words you enter affect how and in what order you see results? If you haven’t, you’re not alone, and that’s okay!
But as a plumbing business owner or manager, you need to know how search engines work so you can understand why your business appears where it does in search results.
This, in turn, allows you to make changes that will help your business be more visible and gain more customers. We’re going to pretend, for purposes of this discussion, that the only search engine is Google.
There was a time when if you simply built a plumbing website, you would—well, plumb and wouldn't have to worry about local SEO for plumbing. Today, just having a website isn’t enough, because search engines are far more sophisticated than they used to be.
Today, search engine optimization SEO affects everything about how you interact with your customers.
SEO touches everything about your web presence, including how you’ve optimized your website for pagespeed and user performance, as well as the other onpage SEO (everything they see) and offpage SEO (everything that happens behind the scenes that your site needs and does to ensure it will perform for the user as needed across platforms and device types), makes a difference in how and where you show up in search results.
When a user first enters a search string (or “query”) into Google searches, Google algorithms deploy specialized programs backed by numbers to “crawl” or evaluate the websites they encounter that meet the user’s stated criteria.
Based on a mix of signals known as factors that are well-known and weigh heavily in how these results are elected, such as location, industry, relevant keyword analysis, and time of day, and ranking factor resources that are confidential or guarded and whose presence can only be inferred, Google focuses its attention on the results it deems most likely to be of use to the user and displays those first, using a complicated ranking scheme, followed by others which may be relevant but are deemed less so. When the list is compiled, usually in less than half a second, the user can see the results and decide what link to click.
This kind of search is known as organic search, because it’s not specific to a particular area or time of day.
For example, “best plumber 2022” is a set of keywords that will deliver very different results than “best plumber [my hometown]” or “top emergency plumbing services in [my state].” Organic traffic is great for franchise companies with national or international online visibility and locations around the country, such as Roto-Rooter, but this kind of traffic is less likely to be helpful for a plumbing company with a local focus. Thus means that you need to think locally—and hopefully illustrates why having a local platform for your digital marketing matters!
Plumber Local SEO Guide for the Perplexed
Local SEO plumbing strategies for plumbers are directly oriented toward and focused on customers and businesses in your area. In the section above, we talked about “best plumber [my hometown].” This is what’s known as a locality search because it stipulates exactly where you want the search engines to focus. You can try this yourself by typing in your favorite kind of food and seeing what results come up. Experiment with the word order and different locations. For example, if you type “best Mexican food Mooresville 2022,” you might get different results than if “Mooresville” is missing from the search string.
The first thing to do when you start local SEO campaigns is claiming your Google Business Profile, formerly known as Google My Business, because this simple tool gets information about business listings that are entered into Google Maps and in Google searches as a nearby business right away.
The information your business listing needs includes your hours of operation, location, website link, and a little bit about your business and what it does, among other basic guidelines. This is a hugely important first step that many marketing strategy guides overlook, because getting a mention on Google SERPs, or search engine results pages, helps increase your reach and can boost your local SEO plumbing campaign immediately—for FREE!
Now that you’ve done that, it’s time to start your plumbing keyword research.
You can use a keyword planner or you can just spitball keywords that make sense for your website. Some examples might include “best local plumbers [my city]” or “local emergency plumbing services near me.” When you include local tags and identifiers like suburb or neighborhood names, you can improve local search engine ranking quickly and easily. If your plumbing company is also an HVAC business, be sure to add that in too, because HVAC SEO works exactly the same way and is helpful for letting customers know exactly where you are and what you do.
You might think, “What’s to know? We’re a plumbing company. We replace worn-out garbage disposals and deal with clogged pipes and other plumbing problems. It’s right in the name! So why do I need to tell people what a plumber does?”
Consider that one of the best tools for customer engagement is to tell them what they DON’T already know. Sure, you do the things plumbers do—but what if your company also installs garage door openers and security systems, or offers foundation-to-roofline construction and restoration? When this information is added to directories, it’s a very effective way to easily encourage more customers to contact you because these days, no one wants a company that only does “enough.” They expect superior service that leaves happy customer reviews in its wake, and companies that go above and beyond will survive and thrive.
This kind of search is known as organic search, because it’s not specific to a particular area or time of day.
For example, “best plumber 2022” is a set of keywords that will deliver very different results than “best plumber [my hometown]” or “top emergency plumbing services in [my state].” Organic traffic is great for franchise companies with national or international online visibility and locations around the country, such as Roto-Rooter, but this kind of traffic is less likely to be helpful for a plumbing company with a local focus. Thus means that you need to think locally—and hopefully illustrates why having a local platform for your digital marketing matters!
Plumber Local SEO Guide for the Perplexed
Local SEO plumbing strategies for plumbers are directly oriented toward and focused on customers and businesses in your area. In the section above, we talked about “best plumber [my hometown].” This is what’s known as a locality search because it stipulates exactly where you want the search engines to focus. You can try this yourself by typing in your favorite kind of food and seeing what results come up. Experiment with the word order and different locations. For example, if you type “best Mexican food Mooresville 2022,” you might get different results than if “Mooresville” is missing from the search string.
The first thing to do when you start local SEO campaigns is claiming your Google Business Profile, formerly known as Google My Business, because this simple tool gets information about business listings that are entered into Google Maps and in Google searches as a nearby business right away.
The information your business listing needs includes your hours of operation, location, website link, and a little bit about your business and what it does, among other basic guidelines. This is a hugely important first step that many marketing strategy guides overlook, because getting a mention on Google SERPs, or search engine results pages, helps increase your reach and can boost your local SEO plumbing campaign immediately—for FREE!
Now that you’ve done that, it’s time to start your plumbing keyword research.
You can use a keyword planner or you can just spitball keywords that make sense for your website. Some examples might include “best local plumbers [my city]” or “local emergency plumbing services near me.” When you include local tags and identifiers like suburb or neighborhood names, you can improve local search engine ranking quickly and easily. If your plumbing company is also an HVAC business, be sure to add that in too, because HVAC SEO works exactly the same way and is helpful for letting customers know exactly where you are and what you do.
You might think, “What’s to know? We’re a plumbing company. We replace worn-out garbage disposals and deal with clogged pipes and other plumbing problems. It’s right in the name! So why do I need to tell people what a plumber does?”
Consider that one of the best tools for customer engagement is to tell them what they DON’T already know. Sure, you do the things plumbers do—but what if your company also installs garage door openers and security systems, or offers foundation-to-roofline construction and restoration? When this information is added to directories, it’s a very effective way to easily encourage more customers to contact you because these days, no one wants a company that only does “enough.” They expect superior service that leaves happy customer reviews in its wake, and companies that go above and beyond will survive and thrive.
The fact is, plumbers that do podcast and blog post episodes talking about all things plumbing, answering FAQs and so forth, have found it’s easy to get new customers because you’re giving customers information they need in a manner that makes you relatable.
You can do this for both organic and local search, but whatever format you choose, if you’re engaging, it could be a crucial factor in getting customers to think of and contact you before your competition. Why? Because plumbers tip content gives them a hand and a fresh perspective on not just plumbing, but plumbers in general. And that means when someone Googles local plumbers near them, they’ll be thinking of you specifically—and they’re more likely to choose you for their plumbing needs!
Once you’ve got local business citations set up and your business name is plastered all over Google and other search engines, you should check on your current online reputation through the Better Business Bureau and other websites.
You could make campaigns to capture customer reviews part of your local SEO planning process. However, getting reviews is only half the battle; you need good, high-value reviews to really help. This means you’re going to need to be focused on providing exceptional service in the real world, from dealing with a clog to giving the customer a clean new build of their entire plumbing system, as part of your marketing strategy. When it comes to making sure you promise and deliver aligns with the customer experience they get from start to finish, you put yourself ahead of competitor companies and are more likely to be standing when your fellow contractors have lost their customer testimonials—and money—to you!
Conclusion
Obviously, local SEO requires a lot more than we’ve spoken about here, from the backend architecture of your company's website, to the keyword string variations you use to attract customers, to the link building that connects your site to other websites with authority in your niche.
However, if you just do the things we mentioned above as part of your plumbing local SEO campaigns, you’re already lightyears ahead of most of your competition in the digital marketing world.
Digital Marketing for Plumbers by Online Advantages offers local SEO for plumbers that delivers the best results and marketing ideas, no matter what services your company offers or what marketing strategy you need to grow, for less money than you might think. Click here for a free SEO audit and website evaluation from Digital Marketing for Plumbers by Online Advantages today and let us show you how easy and affordable it can be to get the respect and free traffic you need on search engines while optimizing your Google and other online presence to get the business your company deserves today. And to find out more about local SEO for plumbers, we invite you to read our answers to questions about local search engine optimization from business owners like you!
Frequently Asked Questions About Local Plumber SEO and Digital Marketing for Plumbers by Online Advantages
SEO shouldn’t have to be complicated in order to perform for your business, and Digital Marketing for Plumbers by Online Advantages lets you focus on taking of your customers while we take care of all that digital marketing stuff!
Local SEO is a little more than just having your business listing show up in local citations. It also means doing everything you can to ensure when customers need plumbing services, they’ll walk through your door! It includes your website schema markup, primary keyword strategy, local link building, and creating a brand presence that boosts your local search ranking, from your website’s meta description content to your social media marketing channel output. If you’re not comfortable doing that on your own, or if you’re not sure if you’re missing any of the multiple ways your competitors might be getting ahead of the curve and your business, you should contact a marketing agency with experience in local SEO to help you create an end-to-end marketing solution that really works for your company—like Digital Marketing for Plumbers by Online Advantages!
Your customer’s time is just as valuable as your own, and when SEO for plumbing companies is done well, it shows because it makes it easier for customers in your service area to see and interact with you—and that means they’re more likely to spend money on your company and stay loyal customers since they already know you and the caliber of your work. Optimizing your website means making it accessible to as many people as you can, including hearing- and vision-impaired users; using targeted keywords so they can feel confident they’re in the right place, backed by content and text that takes the guesswork out of solving whatever issue they’re facing; and technical SEO that delivers the best possible experience for them, regardless of the platform or device on which they’re searching for you. If you’ve done that, you’re probably already ahead of most businesses in your town, and you’re going to be in better shape when it comes time for customers to write hard-won great reviews about your company!
If there’s one thing we know, it’s that every web page on your site should have a local focus and fully and accurately describe the services your company provides. If you provide pest control as a service, make that one of the primary topics of a single page. If you offer specials, financing, or discounts, make that the topic of another page. If you have dedicated location web pages for each town your company services, make sure the content on those pages is geared strictly toward that specific place, rather than a general or regional focus. The more opportunities you give web crawlers to find your company, from the moment you verify your business and set up your URL structure to the moment you start to write your latest blog post, the more traffic you’re going to attract and the better your company will perform in SERPs!
For years, print, radio, TV, and Yellow Pages ads were as good as it got for a plumbing company’s marketing. If a plumber could afford to buy TV commercial time to plug their services, they were considered to be the crème de la crème of service professionals in their area. Today, of course, digital marketing is pulling customer attention and money away from these outlets because when people need a given service, like appliance repair or plumbing replacement, they need and expect it right now! If local SEO didn’t work, then the traditional marketing outlets mentioned above wouldn’t be struggling to attract advertisers. But just because you have a website and social media doesn’t assure your success. It all has to be done the right way, in the right order, with a clearly defined endgame and KPIs and milestones to hit before you get to that point, if you really want and expect your marketing plan to work.
Frequently Asked Questions About Local Plumber SEO and Digital Marketing for Plumbers by Online Advantages
SEO shouldn’t have to be complicated in order to perform for your business, and Digital Marketing for Plumbers by Online Advantages lets you focus on taking of your customers while we take care of all that digital marketing stuff!
Question: Why do I need to worry about local plumbing SEO if I’ve already got my Google Business Profile set up? –Barbara, Miami, FL
Answer: Local SEO is a little more than just having your business listing show up in local citations. It also means doing everything you can to ensure when customers need plumbing services, they’ll walk through your door! It includes your website schema markup, primary keyword strategy, local link building, and creating a brand presence that boosts your local search ranking, from your website’s meta description content to your social media marketing channel output. If you’re not comfortable doing that on your own, or if you’re not sure if you’re missing any of the multiple ways your competitors might be getting ahead of the curve and your business, you should contact a marketing agency with experience in local SEO to help you create an end-to-end marketing solution that really works for your company—like Digital Marketing for Plumbers by Online Advantages!
Question: What does it mean when you’ve optimized your website for plumbing customers? –Alex, San Mateo, CA
Answer: Your customer’s time is just as valuable as your own, and when SEO for plumbing companies is done well, it shows because it makes it easier for customers in your service area to see and interact with you—and that means they’re more likely to spend money on your company and stay loyal customers since they already know you and the caliber of your work. Optimizing your website means making it accessible to as many people as you can, including hearing- and vision-impaired users; using targeted keywords so they can feel confident they’re in the right place, backed by content and text that takes the guesswork out of solving whatever issue they’re facing; and technical SEO that delivers the best possible experience for them, regardless of the platform or device on which they’re searching for you. If you’ve done that, you’re probably already ahead of most businesses in your town, and you’re going to be in better shape when it comes time for customers to write hard-won great reviews about your company!
Question: What page should I have my local plumbers SEO content strategy focus on? –Derek, Amarillo, TX
Answer: If there’s one thing we know, it’s that every web page on your site should have a local focus and fully and accurately describe the services your company provides. If you provide pest control as a service, make that one of the primary topics of a single page. If you offer specials, financing, or discounts, make that the topic of another page. If you have dedicated location web pages for each town your company services, make sure the content on those pages is geared strictly toward that specific place, rather than a general or regional focus. The more opportunities you give web crawlers to find your company, from the moment you verify your business and set up your URL structure to the moment you start to write your latest blog post, the more traffic you’re going to attract and the better your company will perform in SERPs!
Question: Does this local SEO for plumbers actually work, or is it just content marketers trying to get me to spend money? –Mario, Portland, OR
Answer: For years, print, radio, TV, and Yellow Pages ads were as good as it got for a plumbing company’s marketing. If a plumber could afford to buy TV commercial time to plug their services, they were considered to be the crème de la crème of service professionals in their area. Today, of course, digital marketing is pulling customer attention and money away from these outlets because when people need a given service, like appliance repair or plumbing replacement, they need and expect it right now! If local SEO didn’t work, then the traditional marketing outlets mentioned above wouldn’t be struggling to attract advertisers. But just because you have a website and social media doesn’t assure your success. It all has to be done the right way, in the right order, with a clearly defined endgame and KPIs and milestones to hit before you get to that point, if you really want and expect your marketing plan to work.
That’s why Digital Marketing for Plumbers by Online Advantages is so effective, locally.
From basic WordPress SEO and ahrefs to complex content creation and social media marketing management, we’re the end-to-end solution that allows plumbers to develop a marketing campaign that’s always available and working away 24/7/365 to gain your business a greater market share and more customers.
To find out more about how we can help your business grow to the next level and beyond, click here to contact us today!
