For service companies, Google rankings are one of the most critical components for consistent revenue flow. Even with AI on the rise, today’s customers still typically find septic services by pulling out their phone and Googling. If your company doesn’t appear on Google’s first page, it may as well not exist.
Thankfully, there are steps you can take to improve your rankings, attracting high-quality leads and phone calls. Sometimes, all it takes is fixing a few mistakes on your website.
In order to improve rankings, you must focus on your company's search engine optimization. SEO comes down to essentially four things, all of which can be accomplished without a large marketing budget.
Have the correct pages on your website
Besides the home page, many small companies tend to have only a service page that lists everything they do. While this is better than nothing, it’s pivotal that you map out what your most profitable services are and create a page for each. It’s also critical that you add those services to a drop-down in the menu.
A dedicated page allows you to optimize for specific, high-intent keywords. Google views a site with an entire page dedicated to a specific service as more specifically relevant on that topic than a site that only mentions it in a bulleted list. And adding these pages to your navigation is another signal to search engines that this page is important.
Cut unnecessary pages
On the flip side of that, too many pages on your website can be counterproductive. Some companies have the misconception that a blog will get you where you want to go. The main issue that presents is that the blog tends to repeat the same topics.
Put yourself in the shoes of somebody looking for onsite services. If you need an emergency pumpout, chances are you’ll choose a company that has an septic pumping service page rather than just an informational blog post about septic maintenance. Service pages are designed to convert, usually with a phone number pinned to the top and a “schedule emergency services” button front and center.
If you have too many blog posts or pages all about the same topics, they will compete against each other, and Google won’t rank any of them as well as it would if you just had one good page about pumping.
Consider deleting pages that compete with your service pages. And make sure the pages you keep have unique, well-optimized titles. It’ll go a long way toward helping Google understand which search traffic to send to which page.
Take Google reviews seriously
Everyone thinks the person with the most reviews has a big advantage. It's true, but it’s not as big of a deal as you think. Google looks at how many reviews you have recently received as evidence that you run a good business. If you recently started getting more reviews than usual and can maintain that new pace, Google could reward you with higher rankings.
Google rewards businesses that it sees as having happy customers. Google doesn’t just look at the quantity of reviews; it also looks at the quality. Do not buy fake reviews or have people who haven’t recently utilized your business post them. Google is really good at catching fake reviews because you have to have an account to leave a review, and it can tell fake accounts from real ones. Generally speaking, it knows if you’re getting a review from an authentic customer or someone else.
Due to Google looking at reviews to evaluate the quality of a business, it’s important to be consistent. In the long run, it’s more productive to receive two reviews a week consistently, rather than 50 reviews this month and then nothing the next six months. Build a process into your workflow for regularly asking and getting reviews. Train your crew to ask the client when they thank them for the job.
Get your brand name on other sites
This is the trickiest step but probably the most important. Getting your brand name and website link on other sites that Google trusts is a great tactic to increase search engine rankings.
A fairly simple way to do this is to join a chamber of commerce or become a member of an association. Fill out your profile on sites like these, including a logo image and a link to your site.
One more powerful way to do this would be to connect with local media. One tactic is to come up with a fundraising event that other people aren’t doing and pitch it to local publications. If it is too much for your small company to undertake, then find a couple of other businesses and share the cost and effort. A second good idea can be free services for shelters, churches, or food banks.
Also, stay on top of the news and pitch stories to local reporters. For example, if you live in an area and there’s a big freeze coming, it’s a great idea to pitch stories on how to take care of your pipes. This builds trust with the community, and brand mentions in local media publications can help improve Google rankings. Small businesses are turning to AI to keep track of stories like this for them.
Follow these steps and your Google rankings will improve. Give the process a few months, then ask yourself if the phone is ringing more and if business is increasing. To track results, register your website with Google Search Console. It will tell you which searches your website shows up for and what your average position in the rankings is.
Improving Google rankings doesn’t have to be complicated or break the bank. Oftentimes, you can see improvement with just a few changes to the website. Take the steps necessary to improve SEO and make sure you’re the first one potential customers see. Your revenue stream will thank you for it.
About the author
Hernan Charry is the director of marketing at Split One Technologies. He’s been helping plumbers improve their Google rankings through PR powered search engine marketing for over 15 years.
