As the saying goes: ‘build it, and they will come’. However, that’s not necessarily the case when it comes to your website. You might be doing what you think are all the right things, such as SEO, but you may find that you’re still not generating as many leads as you would want.
The first step, however, is to understand why this may be the case. You may not be aware of it, but there are two sides to SEO, which will we refer to as National SEO and Local SEO throughout this article.
National SEO affects traditional organic listings and can be applied to any website/webpage to answer any search phrase found in any country across the planet. An example of a national search would be ‘How efficient are heat pumps?’ or ‘How to top up your boiler pressure’.
Local SEO, however, contains different factors and strategies to help a business get found for search phrases with local intent, for example, ‘Sheffield boiler repair’ or ‘Leeds air conditioning service’. Because Google knows that searches that contain place names have ‘local’ intent, it will display a map area, normally with three local companies above the national results.
Even though an understanding of both sides of SEO is required for the best results, those are not the only factors. Building reviews to improve SEO is a well-known solution. Still, you should be aware that long-term review building is preferable to a quick sprint of reviews over a month followed by nothing for a year.
The number of Google reviews achieved by a website/business is extremely important, but just one of many factors Google will consider. If you have four reviews, you will struggle to get traction on Google Maps in competitive boiler-related searches, but may find it easier with less competitive searches such as ‘heat pumps’ and ‘solar installation’.
In addition, a poorly managed Google Business Profile (GBP) could be hurting your ability to generate leads.
Google Business Profile, formally known as Google My Business (GMB), is relatively easy to set up but should have your full attention and dedication to complete it to the best of your ability.
The obvious areas to fill are business names, primary and secondary business categories, business descriptions, service areas, and opening hours. However, you can also provide the link to book appointments, add quick Q&As, and products organised into categories, and, like social media, create posts including blogs, images, and videos with call-to-action buttons to take the user directly back to the relevant page on your website.
GMB/GBP and website relevance to the customer’s search phrase is the least understood and the most challenging part of Local SEO. Building your reviews and completing your Google Business Profile is well within the skillsets of most trade businesses.
There are many areas within your Google Profile to tell your customers what you do and optimise for that service, such as boiler service or heat pump installation. However, most trade businesses don’t understand how their website influences GBP/GMB on Google Maps.
If you work towards ranking in the national searches using National SEO strategies, you may not be the top national result, but if you have one of the best ‘local’ websites that answer the search phrase, you will most likely rank in the organic national results as well.
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You can learn more about websites and SEO for our industry and grab a free Local SEO report by popping your details on The Boiler Business web page.
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