It’s often been said that books shouldn’t be judged by their cover. But businesses and their local SEO? Now that’s a different story.
Today’s business owners understand exactly how important creating a strong online presence is and exactly how much this means to consumers browsing for your services on the world wide web. A solid online presence is similar to a dazzling book cover that just begs for the reader to open it and discover what’s inside. Reaching new customers online is a great way to bring in calls from new customers for your plumbing or HVAC Business.
Are you getting in the way of your own business by making simple mistakes in your local SEO? Here are some common SEO mistakes and practical solutions for correcting — or better yet — avoiding them.
1. Issues With Your Website
Just like that book cover, your website is representative of your business just as much — if not more than — your actual physical location. But issues common among many business websites may actually be keeping customers away instead of drawing them in. Luckily, all of these issues are can be remedied fairly easily with a little elbow grease and can make a significant difference in your online presence. Common problems include:
- Slow loading pages or posts
- Pages that are not mobile-friendly
- Site design that looks too busy
- Broken links and/or links to poor quality website
Furthermore, seemingly “small” issues such as spelling and grammatical errors and even irrelevant content can also negatively affect the overall quality of a website. Even though these mistakes may not seem like that big of a deal, in the long run they can impact both your local SEO presence and placement in search engine results.
2. Having Worthless Content
As previously stated, creating meaningful content that resonates with your customers is an absolute must, content quality is one of the most important components of local SEO. Search engine algorithms are able to easily sniff out content that is irrelevant or of poor quality, so never, ever, ever use content as a filler on your website.
Always be sure the content on your website is crystal clear in its purpose and delivers valuable information to readers. On the other hand, you don’t want to make seem as though your website has been forgotten or overlooked by search engines because you’re not making changes or post new content on a regular basis. The most effective way to have the best of best of both content worlds is to create a solid content marketing plan or schedule and follow it accordingly.
3. Not Taking Advantage of Google+My Business
No ifs, ands, or buts about it; all businesses must have an optimized Google My Business Listing. You’ll need to make sure that your citation data is 100% correct, as well as having a verified listing and links to your website. Just think, Google My Business is connected to the most used and powerful search engine on the planet, so why wouldn’t you want to be part of its directory? Choosing not to do so is a big mistake!
4. Not Submitting to Directory Sites and Data Aggregators
There are a variety of listing directories to choose from when deciding exactly where to list your business information, with the most popular and commonly used being Google My Business, Yahoo Local, and Bing. Listing your business with each one all at the same time can seem pretty intimidating, but starting by getting listed on some of the bigger, more frequently used sites can make this task feel more approachable.
Also, there are quite a few services available that can assist you with submitting and managing your business listings to the data aggregators which then feed that information to a number of directory listing sites where your business listing information, or NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number), might be listed.
Once listed, it’s extremely important to ensure this information is accurate! If the listings match, it can be considered accurate and your business listing stands a much better chance of being found in search results. On the other hand, if your business listings don’t match then your business may not even appear at all in search results or it may appear with the wrong information. Talk about a lose-lose situation! Either of these scenarios can negatively impact the SEO of your plumbing and HVAC business.
Whether it’s bad website design, poor content or issues with your local listings and directories that are the culprit, Contractor 20/20 has the expertise to help you fix these problems and get your phone ringing with new online customers in no time. Give us a call for more information and a professional assessment.
