If homeowners can’t find you online, they’ll find your competitors. Search engine optimization (SEO) is how you improve your visibility on Google and other search engines. A strong SEO strategy can help you rise to the top of homeowners’ search results — without paying for ads.
And the numbers back it up. According to our analysis of 1.1 million leads, including 200,000 home services businesses, Google Business Profile, Google Ads, and organic search are the top three sources of qualified leads for home services businesses. With 22% of qualified leads coming from organic search, it’s crucial to make your business easy to find on search engines.
In this article, we share what you need to know to help more customers find out about your business online.
What is SEO?
SEO (search engine optimization) is the process of helping your business show up in search results, like Google, when local customers are looking for a plumbing expert.
There are both free and paid methods you can use to increase your online visibility. Paid, or pay-per-click, advertising is essential to home services marketing, but you should not rely on it blindly. In the plumbing industry, some companies keep expensive paid search ads as a line item in the marketing budget without knowing whether the ads are even generating revenue. That approach can eat up your marketing budget quickly without a lot to show for it. With your other expenses like labor and materials increasing, you can’t afford to have this happen.
SEO for plumbers
The good news? You don’t need a big ad budget to get found.
Free strategies — like optimizing your Google Business Profile and improving your website’s visibility in local search — can be just as effective as paid ads. Local SEO gives you an edge because you’re not competing with the entire internet, just other businesses in your area.
To boost your chances of showing up in Google local results, including the Map Pack and platforms like Yelp, take simple steps like:
- Complete your Google Business Profile
- Gather positive reviews
- Respond to customer reviews
- Keep your contact info consistent and up to date.
Local results are high-visibility spots that often display your business hours, services, and reviews directly on the search page. This allows customers to find and contact you quickly, sometimes without even visiting your website.
Showing up in the right places makes it easier for customers to find — and choose — your business.
Less than 1% (only 0.63%) of Google searchers clicked a result on page 2.
Organic results earn their place through relevance and SEO — paid results buy their way to the top.
Local SEO drives Map Pack rankings, while paid ads buy premium placement around the map.
Why invest in SEO?
A key part of reaching your customers is maintaining a strong online presence. Here are some reasons that you, as a plumber, should prioritize SEO:
- It generates leads and wins you more customers. Most people vet who they do business with online. It shows that you’re competitive in the space, attuned to your customers’ needs, and savvy about what you do.
- Word of mouth is not a scalable growth strategy. Word of mouth is valuable for a home services business, but since it’s impossible to control when (or if) the leads will come, it’s an unpredictable customer acquisition strategy at best. Organic search volumes, on the other hand, tend to hold steady over time.
- It shows customers that you’re ready and willing to work with them. If you’re able to meet more of your customers where they are and when they need you, that can generate goodwill for your business. You also build loyalty, drive positive reviews, and earn repeat customers as it’s always cheaper to retain former customers than acquire new ones.
- You won’t max out your marketing budget to pay for ads. Ads alone won't sustain your business. Keeping costs down will require running a lean operation and diversifying your customer acquisition strategies.
SEO is constantly evolving, but here are some plumber SEO basics.
7 ways your plumbing business can get more customers through local SEO
There are many effective ways to help customers find your plumbing business online, but it’s all too easy to get stuck on where to place your focus. These seven methods of sharing your business online will help customers find you.
1. Google Business Profile account
Sign up for a Google Business Profile, or claim your business through Google if it already exists. One of the most important steps is to keep your information current so it’s crystal clear how you can be contacted.
Why a Google Business Profile?
For any small or local business nowadays, a Google Business Profile is a prerequisite for doing business online. But this is especially important for plumbers for the following reasons:
- Google Business Profile results are high on the page for local searches. If you're starting from scratch, it can take months for your newly created website to rank well in organic search. Google Business Profile is a quick entry point to visibility in local search results.
- Google Business Profile also provides a form of social proof. Your business profile can appear directly in the search results. 5-star ratings and reviews weigh heavily in an online customer’s decision about whom to work with. For your business, it’s advisable to seek honest, balanced reviews from your customers. It’s also important to get as many as possible from unbiased reviewers.
- Basic information can boost your ranking. To improve your local SEO, it’s essential to optimize your Google Business Profile, amass reviews, and build NAP (name, address, phone number) citations. These efforts can improve your ranking and help you get featured in the Google Map Pack — the set of three results featured on Google Maps.
Key steps you can take include:
- Keep your business name, phone number, address, hours, website, and services up to date.
- Regularly check Google updates and accept relevant changes.
- Add photos of your business and products.
- Encourage customers to leave positive reviews on your profile.
- Respond to customer reviews left about your business.
- Check for NAP consistency across the web and social platforms.
Taking these small actions on your Google Business Profile can give you a significant boost in organic search results.
2. Yelp
Sign up for a Yelp account, or claim your business through Yelp if it already exists. Like Google Business Profile, it’s important to prioritize keeping your Yelp profile updated in real time, like you would your own website.
Other markers of relevancy are key here too for Yelp users: Reviews of your business and related photos, check-ins, a comprehensive list of services your plumbing business offers, and responsiveness to reviews, especially negative ones.
Why Yelp?
Yelp ranks highly in local search results because of the value of user-generated content (UGC). Despite Yelp’s lawsuit against Google, Yelp’s SEO search rankings still benefit businesses hosting profiles on their platform.
3. Meta for Business
Sign up for a Meta for Business account, or claim your business through Facebook if it already exists. The approach to optimizing your page is similar to that for Yelp and Google Business Profile, meaning your profile should be comprehensive and updated frequently.
Why Meta for Business?
Customers seek help where they already spend lots of time — Facebook. You never know when your name could come up as a recommendation in a neighborhood Facebook group. With a Facebook business page, someone can pop over to your Facebook profile to see contact information, a list of services, and reviews.
Facebook is important for plumbing companies because it helps businesses rank well in search results. When set up well, your Facebook page can rank for the company brand name, and as an added bonus, social results are a way to claim more spots on the search engine results page.
4. Local business directories and apps
Get listed in your choice of local business directories and apps, like Houzz, Thumbtack, Nextdoor, etc., where people in your community are already looking for help.
Why local business directories and apps?
- They offer a more level playing field. Unlike competing with giant companies for paid ads, local directories give you a space to show up next to other businesses in your area.
- Platforms like Nextdoor are where people ask their neighbors for recommendations and often discover businesses they wouldn’t have found through a Google search.
- These directories attract customers who want to hire local experts, not national chains. If your business appears in multiple places, like Google, Yelp, Facebook, Nextdoor, and others, you increase your visibility without overspending.
5. Pay-per-click ads for emergency work
- Pay-per-click (PPC) is table stakes for the plumbing industry. Paid results dominate the top rankings on searches for plumbers, no matter where you work. Plus, the PE-backed home services rollups are pouring money into this type of marketing as one of their only competitive advantages. If you need to brush up on PPC best practices, check out this guide for home services providers.
- Google’s Local Services Ads provide added credibility because a Google verification can earn you badges that say “Google Guaranteed,” “Google Screened,” or “License verified.” This can instill confidence and trust among new customers. They are bringing you into their house after all.
LSA ads appear above both organic results and paid search—reserved for verified, local businesses.
Verified LSAs give customers an easy way to book services right from the ad—thanks to the Google Guarantee and connected booking systems.
Why pay-per-click (especially for emergency work)?
PPC can quickly become one of your most expensive marketing strategies, but according to our analysis, Google Ads drive 42% of calls to home services providers, which makes PPC ads essential for your online visibility. However, we recommend using PPC as only one of several tactics so that it doesn’t take up most of your marketing budget.
Putting targeted effort into PPC for emergency work, specifically, can lead to significant results. Because PPC dominates the searches for plumbers (usually organic results get only a few spots on the first page), bidding for keywords like “emergency plumbing work,” “emergency plumber near me today,” and “plumber for work today near me” can connect you with leads that need your services immediately. This allows you to spend on these when your job margins are the highest.
6. A great mobile customer experience
How likely are customers to contact you from their desk at work versus when they’re in their basement, looking at a leak? Most homeowners look for home services providers on their mobile phones. If you meet your customers where they are in their time of need, you’ll get more phone calls from leads.
Why make mobile a great customer experience?
Everyone is connected now, so homeowners expect service providers to be accessible. If you have unanswered messages or ‘contact us’ emails in unmonitored inboxes, you’re sending business to your competitors. Instead, you might consider meeting customers in a chat window on your website or in Facebook Messenger, for example. You can also use CallRail features, like Voice Assist, which serves as a virtual receptionist, to quickly answer and screen calls.
7. Track and optimize PPC keywords on an ongoing basis
Make reviewing your marketing spend and analyzing results a part of your weekly activities. Go back through and review the data, keywords, and results of these marketing activities to learn what is working and what’s not.
Here’s what to look for in weekly checks:
Which PPC keywords are driving the most leads from your various customer sources? Continue investing in those that are working well and ditch those that aren’t. The sooner you shed underperforming keywords, the sooner you can reallocate spend to high-performing keywords that drive real results.
From the PPC keywords that are doing well, identify new variations or review customer calls for new trends. CallRail’s Call Tracking and Conversation Intelligence® automate keyword call recording and keyword tracking to uncover and highlight keywords used by customers.
Also, by using visitor-level tracking on your website, you can track exactly which leads responded to which messages.
By watching customer trends, your team can create reports and analyze where your best leads are coming from. Then, you can implement lead scoring, which helps you prioritize follow-ups based on which high-value leads are more likely to become customers.
Get more from your SEO with CallRail Call Tracking
If this feels like a lot to manage, don’t worry. CallRail makes it easier.
CallRail makes it possible to do the following:
- Keep better track of and prioritize leads from your new customer acquisition sources.
- Maximize opportunities to connect with new leads by using Voice Assist to answer calls even if you’re out in the field.
- Route calls and prioritize high-value leads based on how they interact with call menus to keep your lean team focused.
- Track everything back to the bottom line with CallRail’s easy-to-customize dashboard.
Bottom line: A constant flow of qualified leads and new customers is vital to growing your business, especially in project-based work like plumbing, where ongoing contracts are few and far between.
Improve your plumber SEO to win more future customers online
After following the seven steps, you should expect your business to rise in the search rankings for a lower cost and at a sustainable growth rate, which means a gradual investment over time.
For plumbers, top lead sources like Google Business Profile, Google Ads, and organic search reveal the power of local SEO in driving qualified leads.
By keeping your business listing information up to date and CallRail in your tool belt, your business can book jobs and connect with customers even when your hands are full.
Try CallRail free — no credit card required.
Disclaimer: Data in this article comes from a report based on aggregated and deidentified data and is provided for informational purposes only. To ensure the privacy of our business customers and comply with applicable data protection regulations, the analysis and insights presented herein are derived solely from deidentified data, excluding any sensitive or protected information as defined by privacy laws and regulations such as GDPR, CCPA, and HIPAA. This report aims to provide a comprehensive overview of market trends without compromising individual privacy. Any reliance on the information presented in this report is at the user’s own risk, and we disclaim any liability for decisions made based on this report.
