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Whether it’s because of a leaky faucet, clogged drains, or a broken water heater, people need plumbers and, more often than not, search online to find the nearest and most reputable plumber before making arrangements. As a result, if your plumbing business isn’t showing up near the top of these search results, you’re losing valuable calls and new customers. Local SEO strategies can help take your business to the next level by fine-tuning your online presence and allow you to fix more faucets, unclog more drains, and grow your business.
Understanding the Challenges Faced by Plumbing Businesses
High Competition in Local Markets
In a given local area, there are often many plumbing services for potential clients to choose from, including established companies and independent contractors. This crowded field can make it difficult to stand out, especially for new or smaller businesses.
Urgency of Customer Needs
Plumbing issues often require immediate attention, so customers often call the first plumber they find online with good reviews and legitimacy. As a result, you need strong visibility in search results to capture these urgent leads.
Reputation and Trust
Trust is absolutely essential in the home services industry, especially for a job as critical as plumbing. Clients want to choose a plumber who is reputable, reliable, and trustworthy to fix important, immediate concerns and to allow into their homes.
Geo-Targeted Service Areas
Since plumbers typically service specific areas rather than operating a physical storefront, local SEO strategies should be optimized for multiple locations. This can complicate local SEO efforts, especially since it can span multiple cities, towns, and neighborhoods.
Seasonal Shifts and Demand Fluctuations
Even though plumbing emergencies can happen any time, weather and seasonal shifts can influence the frequency of plumbing emergencies, like frozen or burst pipes in winter. During the busy periods, marketing efforts may naturally fall off the radar as the focus shifts to responding to calls and managing technicians.
Limited In-House Marketing Expertise
Since many plumbing businesses don’t have the budget or resources to maintain a large marketing team, day-to-day staff often juggle multiple responsibilities, including SEO. This can leave limited time to learn and implement effective SEO strategies.
Establishing Your Local SEO Foundation
Success in local SEO begins with the basics. These are the foundational elements that carry your message to search engines and potential customers.
Leveraging Your Google Business Profile (GBP)
Robust Google Business Profiles are perhaps the most critical local SEO tool for service-based businesses like plumbing and help you appear in the Local Pack and Google Maps results. Businesses that frequently update their GBP listings are 70% more likely to attract local visits.
Claim and Verify Your Profile
This is a very simple, but necessary step to enhance your visibility. Simply go to Google Business Profile, claim your profile, and go through the verification process. This process typically involves receiving a postcard with a code at your business address.
Optimization Tailored to Plumbers for Maximum Impact
- Accurate and Consistent Information: Make sure your name, address, and phone number (NAP) exactly match the details on your website and other directories.
- Title Tags and Meta Descriptions: These should be concise (about 60 characters and 150 characters respectively) and include local keywords and meta descriptions like “emergency plumber in Raleigh, NC” or “24/7 leak and drain plumber”.
- Business Categories: Select “Plumbing” or “Plumber” as your primary category and add secondary categories like “Drainage Service” or “Water Heater Repair” if relevant to your specialties.
- Services and Service Areas: List and keep updated all major services and service areas, like major cities, neighborhoods, and ZIP codes you serve.
- Business Description: Use this space to highlight your expertise, experience, and local relevance using keywords.
- Photos and Media: Add high-quality images of your office, staff, and branding. Profiles with photos receive 42% more requests for directions than those without.
- Set Up Posts and Q&A: Share promotions, service updates, or seasonal tips and demonstrate your commitment to customer service by responding quickly to questions.
On-Page Essentials
Create or Update Your Website
Your website is a crucial trust-builder as it is the first interaction customers most likely have with your business, so it needs to provide essential information, reflect your identity, and instill confidence. This includes:
- User Experience (UX) that makes it easy and convenient for visitors to find important information with load times under 3 seconds.
- Clear Calls to Action (CTAs) like a prominent “Call Now” button at the top of each page and “Request a Free Quote” forms on service pages.
- Mobile Responsiveness that keeps mobile-users engaged with your site.
- Structured Data Markup for local businesses to help search engines understand your content and improve your visibility in local searches.
Keyword Research for Plumbers
Keyword research guides your content strategy as it ensures you’re targeting terms that your customers use in their searches. Planning and executing a keyword strategy effectively helps you create relevant, high-value content that aligns with what customers are actually searching for.
- List Your Main Services (i.e. drain cleaning, water heater repair, leak detection, pipe installation, etc.) as they form the basis of your keyword ideas.
- Add Location Modifiers like city names, neighborhoods, or ZIP codes.
- Use Keyword Tools like Google Keyword Planner, Moz Keyword Explorer, or Semrush to help you discover search volume and variations. Long-tail keywords such as specific phrases like “24-hour emergency plumber for burst pipe in Seattle” may have a lower search volume but convert better because they match higher-intent searches.
- Monitor Trends and Seasonality since searches like “frozen pipe repair” might spike in the winter. Monitoring patterns like these can help you optimize your content schedule.
Building Local Citations and Directory Listings
Local citations are any online mention of your company’s name, address, and phone number. Consistent and high-quality citations improve local rankings, increase your online visibility, and signal to search engines that your plumbing business is legitimate and well-established in its local area.
How to Build Citations Strategically
- Claim Your Listings: Make sure to not only be on general directories like Yelp, Yellow Pages, and Bing Places but also on law-specific directories like Avvo, FindLaw, Justia, or Chambers.
- Check for Consistency: Ensure your details match across all platforms because even small discrepancies, like using St. vs. Street, can confuse search engines.
- Prioritize Quality over Quantity: Focus on reputable directories and local business listings like GBP, Yelp, Angie’s List, HomeAdvisor, Thumbtack, etc., but avoid spammy directories or link farms which can negatively impact your SEO.
- Industry-Specific Sites: If you specialize in certain services like commercial plumbing or eco-friendly solutions, look for niche directories that cater to those specialities.
Local Link-Building Strategies
Backlinks are links from external sites pointing back to your site. Again, quality is better than quantity so work to build relationships in your community that translate to relevant, reputable backlinks.
- Collaborate with Local Organizations and Businesses, such as HVAC companies or electricians, to link on their “Trust Partners” page.
- Sponsor Community Events, whether is a local kids’ sports team or community event, event sponsorship often comes with public mentions and backlinks and demonstrates community involvement.
- Industry Associations and Suppliers, like the Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors Association (PHCC), local news sites or magazines, or supply companies, where you can write educational content or give testimonials in exchange for backlinks.
Reputation Management and Social Proof
Your local SEO strategy can hinder your online reputation and push clients to your competitors or help cultivate a positive online reputation that builds higher local rankings, customer loyalty, and more referral business.
Monitor Mentions and Feedback
Use tools like Google Alerts, Mention, or Brand24 to monitor for any new references to your firm. As they come in, some comments might be critical or raise concerns. This alone does not deter potential clients, but how you respond can tell potential clients about your character. In other words, address client concerns calmly and promptly since unresolved criticism or negative publicity can deter prospective customers. Also, look for patterns in your negative reviews and use that improve your services.
Showcase Client Testimonials
Reviews can heavily influence how your firm is perceived online. In fact, 84% of people trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Encourage satisfied clients to leave a Google review and respond promptly to both positive and negative feedback to show you value client opinions. However, avoid pressuring clients for overly positive reviews or offering incentives since it can violate Google’s guidelines. Additionally, don’t just collect reviews on Google; instead, share them on your website as well. Video testimonials can be particularly powerful since they put a face and voice to the story as well as before and after photos of major plumbing jobs, including details about the problem, your solution, and the customer’s reaction.
Engage on Social Media
Even though social media isn’t the biggest driver of local SEO, it can support your overall online presence and brand-building efforts because it helps to keep your business top of mind. That way, when someone’s pipes burst, they’ll remember the friendly plumber who also posts helpful tips. Facebook, with its community groups and marketplace features, is a stable for local businesses. Instagram and TikTok are increasingly popular and useful if you’re open to posting short, informative reels or videos about various topics, including quick fixes or behind-the-scenes snippets. On these platforms, include hashtags and location tags to improve discoverability and showcase team culture by highlighting birthdays, work anniversaries, or community service projects to humanize your brand. Social media is also a great platform to announce promotions, special offers, or new services.
Content Marketing for Plumbers
Content marketing can be a game-changer for local service providers. By offering free, helpful information, you build credibility and establish yourself as an industry expert. As you publish content, maintain a consistent posting schedule and organically weave location-specific phrases to tie local specifics into your content and signal to Google and potential clients that your material is the most relevant resource.
Types of Content to Produce
- Blog Posts about common plumbing issues, like “How to Unclog a Kitchen Sink” or “Top 5 Ways to Prevent Frozen Pipes”, etc., and include location-specific keywords.
- Seasonal Guides that include tips such as preventing flooding in spring or maintaining pipes in freezing weather or an end-of-summer checklist to prepare for cooler weather.
- Video Content in which you demonstrate simple DIY fixes or behind-the-scenes footage of a typical day in your company.
- Case Studies and Success Stories through which you share metrics and data, like how a quick response time by your team minimized water damage, for example.
If you own a plumbing business and need help ranking in the local search results or Google Maps feel free to reach out to us for a free quote.
