Hey there, fellow digital marketing enthusiasts and service industry mavericks! Once again, it is your friendly neighborhood digital marketer ready to drop some serious SEO knowledge. Now I know, I know, many of you are already “cringing” at the mere mention of SEO – and honestly, I get it. It is a complicated task, with late results and even that without any guarantee. It honestly sucks. And let’s not get started on the complicated labyrinth of keywords, algorithms, and technical jargon. However, there is no denying that if done right, SEO can completely change your brand’s online presence. In fact, it is best for you to think of it as your secret weapon.
When it comes to the service industry, SEO plays a crucial role. With this, you can attract high-quality leads who are actively searching for the specific services you offer. Just imagine the possibility. It is like having a 24-hour salesperson working tirelessly to bring potential customers right to your doorstep. Now, where else can you find someone like that in this day and age?
Here, I have listed some nuggets that have helped many service businesses when developing SEO strategies for their businesses. These are five essential things that you have to keep in mind while crafting your SEO Strategy.
5 Must When Creating SEO Strategy For Service Business
#1 – Know Who Is Your Ideal Client (Inside Out)
Before you do any kind of SEO work, you need to first understand who you are doing the SEO for. Think about who you are trying to reach. This is what I like to call your “Ideal Client Avatar”, and here is how you can go about finding them.
- Start by digging deeper: Who is your audience? What are their pain points? What keeps them up at night? What do you want from your business? Even what language do they use when trying to describe their problems? — You need to answer all these questions.
- Create a Profile: Give your ideal client a name, a face, and a personality. The more detailed you can go about it, the better. It will only help you target your audience better.
Why It Matters: Now, if you are asking – “Why the frick do I need to do all that?” then the simple answer is the many benefits that come with it. Having this knowledge in your possession will allow you to do better keyword research, create more engaging content, and ensure better overall messaging for your brand.
#2 – Master Local SEO
Local SEO is the most underutilized asset when it comes to SEO for the service industry. Think about it: if you are in the service industry, then it is more than likely that you are serving a specific geographic area. And you know what can help you with targeting a better set of customers – Local SEO.
- Claim Your Territory: You must create and optimize your Google My Business (GMB) listing immediately. It goes without saying. This is, after all, your digital storefront on Google Maps and local search results.
- Local Citations: It is crucial that your business get listed in online directories that are popular not just in your country, but also in your local area. Some examples are: Yelp, Zomato, Yellow Pages, and other industry specific sites.
- Location-Specific Keywords: Incorporate your city or region into your website and content copy
Why It Matters: Local SEO helps your business get found by people searching for services in your area. It is a powerful way to drive foot traffic (or website traffic) and increase brand visibility.
#3 – Content That Connect (Not Just Converts)
Naturally, if you are doing SEO (and handling all the challenges that come with it), you obviously want your website to rank at the top of the search results. While a suitable objective, it should not be your end goal. What you want instead is to attract and engage potential clients.
- Go Beyond Keywords: Start by writing content that is not just filled with keywords, but is actually helpful. It must be informative and relevant to your target audience (just take a look at this blog post). Anything that you create must provide value to your audience.
- Solve Problems: Do you know what is the best way to attract an audience to your brand — by solving their problems. Address your ideal client’s (covered in the first pointer) pain points and offer solutions.
- Showcase Your Expertise: Never shy away from showing how much of an expert you and your brand are in the industry. Experience and Credentials sell and build value; it position you as a trusted authority in your field.
Why It Matters: In simplest terms, engaging content keeps visitors on your site longer, encourages social sharing, and ultimately builds trust and credibility.
#4 – Build Backlinks
Those who are familiar with SEO might have heard phrases like “Backlinks are Dead” and “Backlinks are not worth it anymore.” However, I can categorically state that this is not the case. Backlinks are like votes of confidence from other websites. The more quality backlinks you have, the better your website will perform in SEO.
- Earn It: Create high-quality content that others naturally want to link to
- Reach Out: Alternatively, you can contact industry partners, local businesses, or relevant bloggers and ask them to link to your site
- Guest Posting: Write articles for other websites and include a link back to your own
Why It Matters: Backlinks are a crucial ranking factor. They signal to search engines that your website is trustworthy and authoritative.
#5 – Technical SEO
Finally, we must talk a bit about the nitty-gritty details of SEO. Sure, this might get a little technical, but bear with me! Technical SEO is all about making sure your website is easily readable to search engines.
- Page Speed: Your website must load quickly – end of discussion. There is no room here; if your website loads slowly, your audience will move somewhere else.
- Mobile-Friendly: With 70% of internet searches happening on mobile devices, you must make sure that your website looks great and functions smoothly on these devices as well.
- Site Structure: Also you must organize your website in a logical way. What is the logical way, you might ask? Well, the purpose is to make it easier for search engines to crawl through your website.
Why It Matters: Technical SEO might not be to everyone’s liking, but there is no doubt about its necessity. Fixing these issues before they become a huge challenge will significantly improve your visibility in search results.
Final Thoughts
And there you have it, folks! My take on 5 essentials that you need to consider when creating an SEO strategy for your service business. Sure, SEO might not be the magic quick fix that you are looking for, but when it works, it booms!
Now if you are not sure where to get started and might be feeling just a little overwhelmed, don’t worry, your personal digital marketing auditor is here to help! Schedule a consultation with me, and together we will create a custom SEO roadmap for success!
