4 simple Ways to Improve SEO for Your Service Business
If you’re operating a service business and struggling with website leads, check out these 4 simple ways to improve SEO for your local audience.
Running a service business is hard work. You might have a few loyal customers, but what you need is a constant stream of people to keep the business afloat. A lot of this depends on maintaining your search engine visibility and reputation on the web.
Amidst the frequent algorithm updates and increasing competition, this can be quite challenging. However, you aren’t alone. Most people have never done search engine optimization, and many think that it is too unimportant or expensive for their business. Yet, it is the only way to outshine your competitors online.
In this blog post, we have compiled simple ways that will improve the SEO for your service business and maximize your organic traffic. But before we get to that, it is important to know why you should care about SEO and organic traffic for your business.
The importance of SEO:
In today’s competitive environment, it can be tough for your business to appear on top of the SERPs without a proper SEO strategy. Ranking in SERPs should be a priority for any business because search is still the leading source of traffic.
As per the findings of Imforza, 70 percent of the links that users click on are organic, while only 25 percent of them are paid.
This being the case, it is no surprise that organic traffic is still the #1 source of revenue for a business. However, you must have an effective SEO strategy to drive traffic and generate more sales.
Below, we share four ways that will improve your SEO and help you rank higher in online searches.
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Improve website usability:
Search engines are constantly looking at website usability when ranking them for search queries. If users don’t find your website attractive, whether due to design, speed, navigation, or any other factor, they won’t stay for long on your website.
To improve the usability of your website, you will need the help of a developer who is well acquainted with the technicalities of SEO. Here are a few things you can do to improve usability and, ultimately, SEO.
- Make the website more responsive
- Use a simple navigation layout
- Be smart with the visuals
- Reduce loading times
- Incorporate headings, subheadings, bullet points, and whitespaces to simplify readability
Website usability is a vital element to improve SEO and boost conversions. However, it will require some time and consistent efforts from your team to reap the benefits of these efforts.
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Provide quality content:
Quality content is still the most effective way to improve the SERP rankings of your service business, or any business for that matter. The content on your website should be related to your services and written for humans instead of algorithms. You need to offer content that is worth users’ time.
Start with the Service Description, About pages, main page blurbs, and announcements on your website. They should all be helpful, relevant, and written in a way that invites the user to stay on the site.
Search engines consider metrics like dwell time and bounce rate to determine the relevance of content to a query. Therefore, you need to improve these metrics and rank higher in search engines.
Studies also show that long-form content generally drives more organic traffic and encourage more conversions. According to backlinko, on average, articles shared on the first SERP of Google contain 1,890 words. This indicates a rising demand for content that is comprehensive and explains all the aspects of a subject.
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Use the right keywords:
While no one should overlook the importance of content, yet there are millions of pages with quality content but often overlooked by users. The reason is that those pages do not incorporate the right keywords in the right places and the proper density.
Keywords are the terms that your prospects are using when searching for your service on the web. For instance, if you are into AC repair or HVAC services, your customers might search for words like Heating, Ventilation, or Air Conditioning services.
You can make a list of the keywords that are related to your service and use Google AdWords to validate that the keywords are frequently searched by internet users. You can even hire a professional SEO company to do SEO for your service business.
Today, there are SEO companies who specialize in providing SEO services to all kinds of service businesses. You can hire a company that has expertise in specialized services such as HVAC SEO service to ensure that the keywords relevant to your business are appropriately used on every web page and that they rank higher when prospects search those words.
No keyword continually ranks higher for a long time. What worked for businesses a decade ago may not work for you today. For example, head keywords used to reign once, but today, long-tail keywords and queries perform 2.5 times better than head keywords.
Long-tail keywords are also responsible for sending around 70 percent of users to websites and blogs. This represents a lucrative opportunity for business with a low budget.
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Optimize your Google My Business page:
Google My Business (GMB) is a free tool for businesses to manage their presence across Google. The search engine is said to be receiving nearly 5 billion searches every day. To leverage this massive online market, you need to make sure that your business appears in search, Google Maps, and local pack listings.
GMB helps businesses to maximize their visibility and offers helpful insights. To get started with your GMB profile, you will need to have a physical location and address for your business. You can further optimize this page in the following ways:
- Provide accurate information about your business
- Include physical address, hours of operation, details about the services you offer, and the acceptable payment methods
- Respond to customer reviews
- Create content with Google Posts
Google My Business helps businesses to promote their services by showing up in search results. You can use it to attract potential customers and increase your business’ revenue.
Final word
SEO updates occur quite frequently. You never know when Google may introduce a new algorithm update or add new features to its SERPs. But you can count on the tips that we shared in this blog. By implementing these four practices, you will make sure that your business appears higher in search engines, even in the face of new SEO updates and features.
