If your service-based business isn’t ranking high in Google, then you’re not alone. Many business owners battle to get the visibility they deserve from search engines, regardless of offering excellent services. This leads to missed opportunities and fewer clients finding your business.
The good news is, with the right strategies, you’ll be able to discover and fix whatever has prevented your business from ranking higher in Google. In this blog post, we look at the five common reasons your service business isn’t ranking high on Google and provide actionable solutions to get you back in the game.
Reason 1: Your Google Business Profile (GBP) Isn’t Optimized
Probably the most common root cause as to why local service businesses do not rank well on Google is because of their incomplete or un-optimized Google Business Profile. Your GBP serves as your single most important ranking factor in determining whether your business will show up in any local search results, including the highly coveted “Local Pack,” which are map listings that usually show up at the top of many local searches.
The Problem:
Your business name, address, phone, and hours of operation may be incomplete or incorrect. Low-quality photos of your business actually decrease the appeal of your profile and general engagement. Few or no customer reviews result in much lower credibility.
Actions to correct this:
Complete Your GBP: Make sure your Google Business Profile is filled with complete information, and that the details are accurate. Be sure to have the business name, address, phone number, website, operating hours, and services.
Add High-Quality Photos: Add photos of the business, team, and services in order to give future clients a picture of your business. What Google simply loves are profiles where content is being updated consistently.
Encourage Reviews: Positive customer reviews are a major ranking factor for local SEO. Encourage your clients to leave reviews and make sure you are responding to positive/ negative feedback in a professional manner.
By optimizing GBP, you will send certain solid signals to Google that your business is active, credible, and relevant to the queries associated with local search.
Reason 2: Your Website Isn’t Mobile-Friendly
Did you know that more than 60% of Google searches are now occurring on mobile devices? Google has shifted to a mobile-first indexing approach, wherein the search engine gives priority to your website’s mobile version for ranking purposes. If your website isn’t optimized for mobile, then it’s likely costing you some precious search engine ranking positions.
The Problem:
Your website takes time to load on any mobile device, and this goes against having a good user experience.
It’s not responsive, and thus difficult for users on smartphones or tablets to navigate your site.
Poor formatting. Images are oversize, which makes the content hard to read at small screens.
The Fix:
Make Your Website Responsive: Ensure that the design of your website is responsive to work for all devices by automatically resizing on the screen size. This goes a long way in easing user experience and increasing the time that mobile users stay on your site.
Speed Up Page Loading: Compress your images, use caching plugins, and look into using a Content Delivery Network, or CDN. Use tools such as Google PageSpeed Insights to see how the website fares on mobile devices.
Easy to Navigate: Your menu and buttons need to be operable on a cell phone. Your content needs to be structured and easy to read: large font, clickable links that are easy to tap, things of this nature.
Optimizing for mobile is no longer optional. It’s required if you want to rank higher on Google and attract more local clients.
Reason 3: You’re Not Targeting Local SEO Keywords
If your service-based business depends on local customers, then local SEO is one of those big focuses when it comes to marketing. Not targeting the right local keywords is the major reason behind most service businesses struggling to rank in Google. In fact, it is highly unlikely that Google would understand what specific locations you serve when your website and content are not optimized for location-based search queries.
The Problem:
Your website content is based on general keywords, which are very broad, and not geo-specific.
Your business is not listed in local directories or websites that Google checks for verification of your location and relevance to searches made locally.
You do not have geo-targeted pages or even blog posts speaking to the particular needs of people who would come to you for service.
The Fix:
Employ Local Keywords: Use keyword research to find the location-based terms your target audience is using. Instead of “plumbing services,” use “plumbing services in Fresno”.
Create Geo-Targeted Pages: If you serve a number of locations, then create landing pages for each city or neighborhood. Make sure this page is optimized with unique content about that particular area.
List Your Business in Local Directories: Ensure that your business is listed in key local directories, such as Yelp and Yellow Pages, but not limited to these. These citations let Google know the location of your business and help them understand how relevant your company is to local results.
The integration of local keywords will tell Google to match your business up with relevant search queries from customers in your area.
Reason 4: Your On-Page SEO is Weak
On-page SEO relates to the optimization of elements on your website, such as the content, headings, images, and internal links. Poor on-page SEO makes it difficult for Google to ascertain precisely what your website is all about and why it deserves to be at the top of the SERPs above that of your competitors.
The Problem:
Your website doesn’t have relevant keywords in the important places, like title tags, meta descriptions, headings, or content.
Your content is not organized, where there isn’t really proper information hierarchy-things like H1, H2, H3 tags.
You are not linking to your other pages within your website; this is called internal linking, which helps Google comprehend your structure and content hierarchy.
The Fix:
Optimize Title Tags and Meta Descriptions: Place your most important keywords in the page title tags and meta descriptions. These help the search engines tell what the pages are about and help users click through from the search results.
Correct usage of header tags means that one should preferably display a clear information hierarchy with H1, H2, H3 tags. It is not only easier for users to go through your content but it also helps Google better understand your content when it is indexed.
Internal Linking: Insite linking is the process where you add links within your site to direct related pages. For example, if you write a blog on plumbing tips, you may refer your audience to the “Plumbing Services” page. This will enhance the flow of link equity within your website and enable Google to understand relationships between your content.
It only heightens both the user’s and the search engine’s ability to understand your site, hence earning you higher ranks.
Reason 5: You’re Ignoring Backlinks
The largest players in the SEO ranking factors are backlinks. When other websites link to yours, this means that your site has been deemed credible and authoritative by Google. But the reality remains that a large number of service business owners do not bother much with backlinks and instead focus their attention on on-page SEO.
The Problem:
Your website has few or no backlinks from other reputable sites.
You are reliant on low-quality or spammy backlinks that actually can harm your rankings.
You’re not building any relationships with other local businesses, industry websites, or community organizations to earn natural backlinks.
The Fix:
Focus on Acquiring High-Quality Backlinks: Go forth and start reaching out to local bloggers, news outlets, or industry websites that might be interested in talking about your business or allowing you to guest blog post. You have the possibility of earning a link back to your website in return.
Sponsor Events or Organizations within Your Community: You want to get involved in your community by sponsoring local events, charities, and organizations. This activity will provide you with an opportunity to create mentions or links on their websites creating high quality local links.
Utilize Industry Relationships: Partner with other business ventures in your locality. As an example, a plumber is in a good position to return a favor to an electrician operating in his locality and vice versa by devising a strategy of placing backlinks on each other’s websites. This would not only build your SEO but also develop networking within the industry.
The quality backlinks signal Google that your business is trusted and reputable, therefore improving the ranking.
Conclusion
Ranking in Google is important for a service-based business wanting more customers, yet a number of issues stand in the way of one pursuing this goal. Fix these five common problems: optimizing your Google Business Profile, having your website be mobile-friendly, targeting the proper local SEO keywords, improving on-page SEO, and acquiring quality backlinks to set a business up for success.
SEO isn’t achieved in the blink of an eye, but with some effort and smartness, it is achievable to start outranking your local competitors and making your potential customers aware of your existence. Focus on these areas, and watch your service business rank up the ladder on Google.
Article provided by ConsultSmart LLC
