Service-based businesses are all around us. People need the expertise of serious professionals from various industries. As an owner of a service-based business, you need to ensure that the quality of the service you provide is above the expected level. However, an even more important part is to “help” your potential customers find you.
The competition is fierce, and your marketing strategy will go against the strategy of your competitors. Furthermore, the number of online service-based businesses is also growing at a rapid pace. The quality of your website will play a crucial role.
The higher rating you have, the better. You need visibility, and that’s where SEO plays a vital role. Today, we want to talk about the essential SEO strategy elements for service-based businesses, and how to use them to attract customers and grow your business.
1. Thoroughly Inspect Your Website
If you own a company website, you must always work on improving its SEO. Service-based businesses do not rely on selling products, so you have to make sure your website reaches the number one page on Google. If you are creating a new website, this will help you avoid the usual mistakes that many people make. Multiple key elements determine the quality of SEO, so let’s examine each of them individually.
Work on the subpage structure
If you are providing more than one service, make sure to create multiple subpages for them. At Growth Hackers, we have helped countless service-based brands climb Google rankings by auditing and structuring websites for maximum SEO impact, ensuring every service gets its spotlight. Putting everything on the same page is not good for two reasons:
- Google likes to see structured websites with multiple pages. This way, it can redirect your customers to more than one page, which is very good for your SEO.
- Your clients will dedicate more time to researching all the services if they have dedicated pages. If everything is on the same page, they might become overwhelmed and skip a section or two.
It might require more planning and effort, but creating multiple subpages is very efficient.
2. Know your Keywords
It never hurts to repeat this time after time; you need to really invest time into creating useful keywords. Service-based businesses mostly benefit from local SEO, so don’t forget to add the location. When a local client struggled to appear in search results, Growth Hackers analyzed competitors, refined keyword strategy, and soon their business consistently appeared at the top for relevant local searches.
A good strategy for building keywords is to analyze the competitors’ websites and see what they use. Do not copy their keywords because that will not be efficient. Instead, create improved versions that will work the best for your business.
Create a blog for your website
A blog is an extremely powerful tool, and it is definitely one of the essential SEO strategy elements for service-based businesses. First of all, let’s look at the blog from the customer’s point of view. It is primarily the source of free information. If you are running a service-based business, you also want to educate your clients on the services you provide. The more they know, the closer they are to your business.
Second, a blog is also beneficial for your SEO. Google likes to see quality and relevant content. Also, articles are the perfect ground for link building and creating backlinks for your website. If you create a network of links leading to and from other quality websites, you are more likely to receive a higher rating.
Before we added a blog to one of our B2B SaaS clients, traffic and client engagement were sporadic but after Growth Hackers implemented a strategic content plan, search rankings improved, and visitors stayed longer while exploring services.
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Optimize your content
Optimizing content does not only mean doing SEO in the background. It has more to do with publishing relevant material and creating diverse content. Besides the usual articles or social media posts, content can also be in the form of infographics, guides, educational videos, and so on.
Videos are very useful because the customers can listen and watch them while doing other things. They are also free to post thanks to public platforms like YouTube, which means you don’t have to waste storage space on your website. Additionally, there is an array of incredible YouTube tools to easily optimize your videos and enhance your reach.
3. Should you Provide the Price List or Not?
Adding a price list to your website is a matter of preference. Keep in mind that the cost of services is not as precise as the cost of products. A pair of shoes priced at $50 will always have that price. However, paying an architect depends on multiple factors, like the size of the property, the amount of work, potential additional services like hiring masons, purchasing materials, etc.
It is generally a good idea to create a rough pricing list. Also, write a disclaimer that the price may change depending on the job.
If you do add the price, this will favor your SEO ranking.
4. Add Customer Reviews to your Website
If a person starts searching for a service they need, the first thing everyone does is to check the reviews from the previous clients. Ask your clients to leave a review since it will help your business. Simply speaking, having reviews is a must, and a presence on business review sites can benefit you greatly. However, whatever you do, do not fabricate reviews. Google will see that all of them come from the same IP address, and they will penalize your website by lowering your ranking.
Reviews are a credible source of information and a free commercial for your business. When one of the local clients we helped added verified customer reviews strategically across their website, Growth Hackers saw trust increase, site engagement grow, and conversion rates climb within weeks.
5. How Website Loading Speed Affects your Business
It is imperative that your website loads quickly. Potential clients looking for services are usually already thinking about hiring someone. It is a bit different than browsing websites that sell products. You might buy something, or you might change your mind.
If the customer is looking for a service, it is because they need it very soon. If your website takes ages to load, they will look for a different option. Consequently, this will negatively impact your bounce rate and lower your SEO rating.
Work on website security
This is vital for all websites, no matter whether they are service-based or not. You need to purchase the SSL certificate and protect customer information. Furthermore, Google trusts HTTPS websites more because they are secure. An SSL certificate will get you closer to the number one page on Google.
6. Use Local Citations
Aside from working on the website, there are other SEO strategies you can use to boost your service-based business. Since service-based companies benefit more from local customers, look for local directories like Yelp. Once you add your website, the customers will find you more easily.
This will directly affect your traffic numbers. If they go up, so will your SEO rating. Furthermore, local directories are perfect for collecting customer reviews. They are all public which only makes things better.
There is one word of caution, though: Do not pay for local directory listings. This is a huge red flag for Google because you are trying to buy website traffic.
Local citations are the signposts that guide customers straight to your business, and at Growth Hackers, we ensure each listing points directly to your services.
7. Create a Google Business Profile Account
Another essential tool for local service-based businesses is Google Business Profile (GBP). Once you create an account and link your business, you are accomplishing a couple of things:
You are placing your business on Google Maps, which means it can be found everywhere.
You are verifying your business. Google likes to work with legitimate companies.
This is also a version of a local directory. You can reach a wide audience, which will, in turn, affect the SEO rating.
When one client’s GBP account was incomplete, Growth Hackers optimized every detail (from photos to service descriptions) and local inquiries and website visits skyrocketed.
When setting up the account, be as descriptive as possible. Add all of the contact information, photos, service description, working hours, the average price, and so on. All of this information will make it easier for clients to see what you are offering.
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8. How Much Should You Spend on SEO?
Defining your SEO budget is not easy. If we consider how many SEO strategies there are, it becomes apparent that you will have to spend a large sum of money. First, do you have a limited budget to work with? If yes, it is crucial to set the goal and find the optimal solution that will get you there.
Try not to exceed your budget. If you spend more on SEO than you actually earn back, you will not be able to make any profit. Also, know what you are spending money on. Some SEO strategies are more efficient than others. Unless you have a large budget, try to prioritize. In that case, it is crucial to focus all of your resources and energy on improving local SEO.
At Growth Hackers, we have different SEO packages depending on your needs and capabilities. They start at $1,500/month up to 10K+.
Use These SEO Strategy Elements for Your Service-Based Businesses Company
Staying at the top of the market while running a service-based business will be a challenge. The progress is slow, so take your time. It is crucial to focus on the quality of the service you provide. Use these SEO strategy elements for service-based businesses as helping tools that will increase your SEO rating. Help your clients to find you so they can help you to grow your business.
On another note, you need to be aware that SEO is just one strategy. You have many other ways to grow your eCommerce business. At Growth Hackers is a reputable search engine optimization company, we help startups, small businesses and entrepreneurs succeed by designing for them business SEO strategies filled with growth hacking techniques. If you think that a bit of extra help might be necessary to help you grow your business, contact Growth Hackers and we will start to help you from today.
