Local SEO For Plumbers
Be visible when people are searching and get more calls, jobs and customers
What Is Plumber SEO?
Search engine optimisation or SEO is one way to promote your plumbing business. If you want to find out more about that, read on.
SEO is the whole process of improving the visibility of a business in Google's organic search results. That's the area without the advertising labels. Local plumber SEO works like any other local business SEO service. It focuses on plumbing and its related services such as drain clearing and hot water.
Plumber SEO is not the same as other SEO for other business types. Plumbing is a credibility based service. Potential customers have to trust that you can do the job before they hire you.
There are several differences that we take into account:
- Plumbers are local businesses.
- Business reputation and reviews are vital to success.
- Plumbers who own the company do not want to become local celebrities in order to gain publicity.
- Most plumbers don't want to create and produce a Youtube channel or write lots of content for blogs.
- It’s also important to note that the initial “conversion” is a potential customer lead. This can come from your website or a local listing. Leads come in as quote requests, contact form completions, or phone calls. It's not a sale of a product.
How Does Plumber Local SEO Work?
So SEO is the process of improving your web pages and local listings to meet "searcher intent". The job is to meet the information need of the person searching Google. It's also about adjusting the page to make sure Google recognises and understands it.
Basically, if Google thinks your webpage is the best answer to the question a person is searching Google for, they will show your page.
Then Google can compare it against all your competition. Their machine can decide what pages to show on page one of the search result and what order to show them in.
The Benefit Of Local SEO For Plumbers
People go online these days when they want to find a plumber. Your plumbing business needs to be visible online in your local area. That way, a potential customer looking for a plumber will see your business. Search engine optimisation or SEO is the process that enables that.
Sometimes plumbers are attracted to the free traffic that comes from SEO. Sadly SEO isn’t free. It requires time, effort, and money. The good news is that the traffic that comes from SEO work continues to come for a long time. That's completely different from paying for clicks from Google Ads where the traffic stops the second your budget runs out.
How Does SEO Help My Plumbing Business?
In short, SEO will get you more customers. Here's how:
Google has at least 18,000 searches a day for just one term like “plumber near me” in Australia. There are lots of other keywords you can also target. Here are some examples of the "near me" ones:
These are excellent search terms from a commercial point of view. People searching for them have a pressing plumbing problem they want to solve. You can use SEO to increase the visibility of your business in the local area.
For SEO, this increased visibility comes from two places:
- Your website and
- Your Google Business Profile listing.
When people see pages from your website or your Google Business listing, your credentials and your phone number details are close at hand. And given that they are looking to solve a problem, they are likely to call you or message you.
So the increased visibility turns into more traffic to your website. And it also turns into more phone calls. And more leads.
And there's also an authority element to that. People can see the good reviews for your business on Google My Business. And you can also show these on your website. All this adds credibility to your company and your business offerings.
Potential customers notice the Google ranking. Reviews combined with ranking gets your business more traffic. And you're also likely to get more contacts from that traffic. Page one and good reviews will give a higher conversion rate than;
- A website on page two with good reviews/testimonials
- A website on page one with no reviews/testimonials.
Can I Get By Without Doing Plumber SEO?
Yes, you can. There are other marketing tactics you can use to generate leads. For example:
- Paying for leads from a lead generating site like HiPages, Service Seeking and WOMO.
- Paying to generate leads from Google Ads.
- Paying for referrals from other home services businesses in your area.
- Using our Social SEO system to create local awareness and build your profile.
- Doing regular letterbox drops in your local area.
- Advertising in local newspapers.
These marketing tactics have their pros and cons.
Lead generation companies typically share the leads between several plumbers listed on their site. To get the job:
- You will have to respond extremely quickly to the customer.
- And offer pretty close to the best price.
- Shared leads are great for the lead generation business. But not great for the plumber because of this.
The Google Ads Problem For Plumbers
Google Ads, for instance, is the ‘easy button’ for plumbers these days. By default, a lot of plumbers are using it. This makes it nearly impossible to make a buck out of it because the lead cost is so high.
You can't get payback on your ad spend unless you make a lot of money from each transaction. This means plumbers have to up-sell, cross-sell and charge high prices.
Google Ads: How the lead costs blow out for plumbers due click costs.
Relying On Others Is..Well Unreliable
Sure, you can get your business from 3rd parties. That's developers, builders and real estate agents for example. But you can tjem become dependent on them as your source of customers.
And what they give you depends a lot on a couple of things. Who you know in the business and how that business is doing itself. For example;
- When your contact at a real estate agent moves, the new person brings in their own plumbers.
- Or when the pace of new building drops off. So too does new plumbing business from developers and builders.
It happens. So it's not a reliable way to build your own business. And let’s not talk about margin compression or late/no payments.
What's Included In Comprehensive Plumber SEO?
You can't just launch a new website and hope to rank a page at the top of page one on Google. The relevant page on your website needs to be good enough to kick another plumber's website page out of the top ten listings.
So some of the things that you should expect to see in comprehensive SEO on a plumber's website are the following:
- An analysis of the locations you want to serve. Then there's a review of the plumbing services you want to provide in each of those locations. This is so we can carry out a comprehensive keywords study.
- Then we look at the strengths and weaknesses of visibility. This includes your website and your online presence. We also look at those of your competitors in the same location.
Then we can develop a customised SEO strategy for your particular situation. One size does not fit all.cThe elements of a comprehensive SEO strategy will vary but should include:
- Dealing with any fundamental problems on your Google My Business (GMB) listing.
- Dealing with fundamental or technical problems on your website. These can be issues such as a slow site or pages that are not mobile responsive as they should be.
- Mapping target keywords or themes to pages. Once we know what keyword or theme belongs to a page, we can improve it. We can make sure that the on-page SEO for each of those pages is the best it can be.
- We then add missing pages to your website. With a plumbing website, this will be absent services or missing location pages.
- Making sure you have all the local profiles that you need, so for example, Apple maps or True Local.
- Installing all the relevant analytics on your website.
- Setting up tracking on your Google My Business listing. This helps to understand sources of traffic and conversions.
From there, the strategy can branch out a little bit more to cover;
- Producing content that earns visibility on social media.
- Producing content that earns visibility on Google.
- Producing content that earns backlinks from other websites and webmasters.
- Local link building.
Should You Hire An SEO Company?
I guess I can turn that around the other way and say should I do my own plumbing?
In reality, there are a few plumbing-related tasks that I could do myself - changing a tap washer, for example. That's the same for you as a business owner. There are some SEO tasks that you could also do yourself.
But the main issue is that SEO work takes weeks, months and sometimes even years, and you have to be able to stick at it. Most business owners can start stuff with a hiss and a roar. But then all the other things they have to do in the business divert them, and it stops.
One of the core components of search engine optimisation is writing content. From my experience with plumbers, most of you don't love writing long-form content. You hated it at school, and you still hate it now. It won't be your strength, and thus you should outsource it.
Furthermore, link building is a specialist skill in SEO. It's challenging and requires a lot of talent. That skill relates to;
- Developing linkable content.
- Selecting content link targets.
- Approaching those targets to get the links.
If you've never done SEO before, it will use a lot of your time. Like my three trips to Bunnings, every time I have to change a tap washer! SEO experts have specified processes and knowledgeable, skilled staff. They will get the work done faster than you would do. So it's a much more cost-effective process to outsource.
Learning SEO and keeping up with changes in the market is a full-time task. You should have some understanding of the process so you can manage it. You can read more about local SEO here. But it's something you should leave to the professionals.
This is Google’s advice. Do I Need An SEO? It also contains an excellent section on Choosing An SEO.
Our Local SEO Packages for Plumbers
Our approach about doing the right stuff for your business. It means strategy before tactics and full tracking. We also know that managing your business' reputation is an important foundation element.
All our packages include; a full website audit, search term/keyword analysis and keyword mapping, the development of your SEO and content stratgegy, and the presentation of the road map. Also included is the free set up and use of our RepBuilder+ software to help you build, manage and promote your business' online reputation.
For the most part, the work that is needed is a chunk to get your business set up online. Thus these packages are for one-off work over 60 or 90 days. There may well be other work needed, and we will let you know about that after we develop your strategy.
Local SEO Starter
For plumbers with one truck in smaller cities and towns promoting 2-4 main plumbing services
$
1,200
Timeline: 60 days
Local SEO
For plumbers with one truck in larger cities and high competition areas promoting 4-8 main plumbing services
$
2,400
Timeline: 60 days
Local SEO Expansion
For plumbers with more than one truck, operating in multiple locations promoting 4-8 main plumbing services
$
3,800
Timeline: 90 days
Where Does It Fit In The Unlimited Customers Blueprint?
SEO is a crucial component of our Unlimited Plumbing Customers Blueprint.
The Local SEO elements of our Unlimited Plumbing Customers Blueprint. SEO elements are shown in red.
It's part of the foundation of building the website and part of the foundation of expanding your reach.
Why Choose Us As Your SEO Provider?
SEO Is Part Of Our Full Marketing System
Our SEO program is part of a comprehensive online marketing program. We designed this marketing system for plumbing businesses.
We're able to provide you with both SEO services and a range of digital marketing services. These include such as Google Ads, Facebook ads and email marketing. That gives you one person to contact. And it means one person takes responsibility for your outsourced digital marketing.
Australian Plumber Digital Marketing Specialists
We only work in the home services industry in Australia. This means we understand online marketing for home services businesses like plumbing. And we know the local environment better than most other agencies.
We are based here in Australia and operate out of Australia. You never have to take the risk of dealing with an agency that might disappear on you.
Transparent, Straighforward, Responsible
The services we provide are transparent. We will explain everything and anything to you at the detail level you want. Plus, we report on our activities and results.Our marketing approach involves solid tracking and reporting. That's because online marketing is both an art and a science.
Tracking, reporting and meeting with you regularly are essential.
It enables us to make sure that your marketing plan stays on track. And that it's delivering against the goals that you want to achieve for your business.
Lower Costs And Exclusive Focus
We are a small business, just like yours. So we offer competitive pricing. You won't be paying for corporate overhead or account management as you would with a larger agency.
We only take on a few clients every quarter. You will get personalised attention from a senior marketing expert.
While your business is an active client, we will not work with your competitors in the same local area for any marketing services.
What To Watch Out For When Choosing Plumber SEO
Many people globally see Australians as rich. Others perceive Australian business owners to be easy targets to rip off. Sadly the SEO industry has been and is currently still totally unregulated. I say the www stands for Wicked Wild West.
Problems with SEO provision fall into these main groups.
Actual scams. This is where people are just after your money and don't deliver anywhere close to the work they promise to.
Bad SEO work. This happens because the suppliers don't understand what's required for effective SEO. They do SEO work inconsistent with Google's Webmaster guidelines or does not work anymore.
Half done SEO work. Here the supplier promises to do certain things with good intentions. Then they don't follow through completely to deliver the work but still take the money. Poor or negligent project management is the leading cause here.
Expensive SEO. In reality, nobody publishes an SEO price schedule, and the work is not standardised. Thus you don't know what you're paying for and whether that's good value or not.
All of the above can have a detrimental effect on your business, from paying out money and not getting the services you paid for to having your whole website removed from Google.
Then you are left having to pay to unwind the lousy work another company has done.
What To Watch Out For When Comparing SEO Providers
Here are some things to watch out for to help you avoid getting hooked up with a bad SEO operation.
- They promise you results within a few days to a month or two.
- They claim they have some secret system, trick or contact in Google. And that they can use this to help your business get ahead of the pack.
By the way, it is not possible to partner with Google for SEO. Sometimes you see an SEO company advertising that they are a Google Partner. This is nothing to do with their SEO. They just meet the partner criteria (usually spend related) to be a Google AdWords partner.
- They guarantee results that are difficult to achieve—for example, getting your site to number one for plumber Sydney.
- They use outdated or "illegal" SEO techniques. As a business owner, likely, you don't know what these are, but you can read about some of them here. Most of these days relate to link building. That’s because it is a challenging aspect of SEO. Some SEO businesses have taken to techniques that do not meet Google’s webmaster terms to achieve that. Examples are;
- They don't do the whole job. For example, they just produce content.
- They're not clear about their pricing. Or their pricing is very cheap compared to other prices that you've seen.
- They can't or won't provide references.
- SEO is not their core business. You often see this. Companies that do website development, print or branding are common examples. They say they do SEO. But if you choose to go this route, check they have the staff of the technical expertise to do SEO well.
We've all had them, people who call you, email you or fill in your website contact form. They tell you there's something wrong with your website or you are missing out. These people are likely to be SEO scammers.
Like this example from all the Mikes!
One last thing, do not ever allow a supplier to become the sole owner of any of these;
- Your website logins.
- Your domain name.
- Your social profiles
- Your Google tools. For example, Analytics, Search Console, Tag Manager or your Google (My) Business profile.
There are plenty of reliable ways to share these without handing over admin access or total control.
frequently Asked questions About Local SEO For Plumbers
Typically you need to know where your site is in the competitive context, where you can go (realistically) and how you are going to do that.
So normally Local SEO for plumbers will start with
- An audit and Google Analytics analysis
- Digital competitive analysis
- Keyword research and strategy
We address existing pages and missing pages on yourtwebsite with
- Onpage SEO to make sure Google understands the page.
- Website structure and content
- Adding service pages and service area/location pages. These are normally missing
- Technical SEO such as site speed, security, code and mobile effectivenetss
There are other elements of Local SEO
- Google Business Profile
- Citations - other cases of your business name, address and phone number showing up
- Local link building
- Reputation management, building and marketing
There may need to be content marketing work done to gain traffic and links. This involves;
- Content writing/production
- Reworking content for other uses
- Content promotion and link earning
To ensure everyong is on the same page, there's regular reporting which requires setting up tracking. And also there's learning and adjusting from what works (and what does not).
SEO for your plumbing business increases online visibility. This visibility comes from your Google My Business listing and your website.
Here's some information to help you understand why it's important
97% of people go online when they're searching for a local business with 54% searching each month.
A local search results and someone doing business with a local company within a few days. 18% of local mobile searches lead to a sale within one day.
People search on mobile phones these days. Thus search terms like “plumber near me” have grown over 200% in the last two years.
Google often creates featured snippets from content on local businesses websites. Those snippets answer over 4 and 10 voice searches.
There's no point in being on page 2 on Google for a particular search term:
- 90% of people check only the first page results
- 70% of people only check the first five results, and the number one result on Google gets about a third of all the clicks.
Organic search results get a lot more traffic than the Google Ads results (get the data)
Your website needs to appear on the first page to attract more potential customers. Even better if it shows up at the number one position.
And SEO is the process that helps you get there. It's unlikely that your website will get good visibility without SEO work. Plumbing is too competitive for that in most cities and locations in Australia.
It's difficult to give a definitive answer on this. Most studies show that SEO generates a higher ROI than other marketing such as, Google Ads, newspaper advertising, print, TV or radio advertising or letterbox drops.
There are a couple of ways to look at the return on investment calculation.
When you increase traffic you get more leads. Here’s an example;
If your website already gets 1,000 visitors a month and has a conversion rate of 2.5%, then by doing nothing, it generates 25 leads a month, and you convert 50% of those to jobs, so there are 13 jobs a month.
Let’s then assume that each job generates $250 in profit. Thus, the website generates 13 jobs at $250 profit each (not sales) or $3250 per month and $35,000 to $40,000 in profit per year.
After doing SEO work, two things will change. Traffic will increase, and conversion rates will also increase (due to better traffic and higher credibility).
So now your website gets double the traffic or 2,000 visits a month and a 4% conversion rate. That’s 80 leads a month and at the same 50% conversion rate 40 jobs.
Thus profit increases to $10,000 a month or $100,000 - $120,000 per year. If you are paying less than $7,000 a month for SEO work, then your business is making a positive ROI (provided the organic traffic increases are achieved)
Sure you can do that but like Google Ads, as soon as you stop paying the lead stop too.
The alternative to paying for Google Ads or a lead generation site.
Google Ads for plumbers average north of $6 a click. So buying 1,000 clicks per month will cost at least $6,000 (much more in the big centres). As before, if you are paying less than $6,000 a month, SEO is a lower-cost alternative.
Also, remember that SEO on your plumbing website may need to start at a higher level of work at the start of the project.
Frequently, when the work is done, it can be scaled back or stopped with no significant effect on rankings and traffic, so the ROI is often much higher when you look at a 2-5 year perspective.
This is also a tricky question to answer. It depends on what keywords you're going after and how competitive the market is.
Expect to see an increase in organic traffic to your website in the second quarter of an SEO campaign.
Organic traffic is the key measure here. It's far more important than ranking for a particular keyword. That's because the pages on your website can rank for many different keywords. You can't know and measure them all.
In our experience, you should not start doing SEO work if you do not plan to stick with it for at least 12 months.
In local plumber SEO, we have also found that the rankings and visibility increases tend to stick. Once done, you can often scale back SEO work or even stop completely (that's riskier). Your plumbing business could continue to get higher organic traffic levels from the SEO work.
Competitors or Google can and do make changes, so nothing is ever permanent.
Are you looking for faster results in getting calls and leads? Then there are marketing tactics such as
- Google or Facebook ads
- Lead suppliers like Service Seeking and Hi Pages
These can generate leads in the short term if that's what you need. Please contact us for more information.
In reality, no one can completely guarantee SEO results. This is because the person or agency doing the SEO work does not control everything going on.
- They have no control over what your competitors are doing.
- And they have no control over what Google is doing either.
So if you are coming across people who are guaranteeing SEO results, they are either:
- Taking a risk that they can generate the results
- Creating a guarantee around weasel words that they get out of when you try to claim on it
- Just aiming to take your money and not respond when you need to call on the guarantee. You won't be able to enforce it if they are based overseas.
SEO is a straightforward process. When appropriately done almost always succeeds. Your business will enjoy increased organic traffic and thus leads.
There is no lock-in contract.
Before you engage with us, we will outline the long-term nature of SEO work. And we will ask you to pay for the first three months in advance.
From there, your payment is a month by month proposition. You pay on your credit card each month in advance with a 30-day notice period.
This enables us to commit the resources required to your business. And we can put in some solid upfront work to help you get results more quickly. Without the initial payment, the work would need to drag out over the first three months.
Sadly, that's a very fair question. You may have been burnt in the past by SEO companies who promise the earth and give you an atlas.
We will provide you with a detailed monthly report as part of our commitment to you and your business. The report outlines;
- The activities we have done for you in the past 30 days.
- What we expect to complete in the next month.
- Variations.
You also get access to a reporting dashboard. This shows you the results of the work. In our opinion, this is more important than looking at the work done. You're only actually interested in the outcomes and results, not activity.
SEO is about increasing your organic traffic, primarily from Google. It's also about increasing the traffic conversion rate to leads that come to your website.
While you can measure local rankings, they don't mean much these days. That's because Google is smart. They personalise and localise each individual’s search results. So one ranking measure does not tell the story. Don’t focus on that - focus on the organic traffic trend to your website and the actual flow of leads. Many keywords that drive traffic to your website are never targeted for SEO.
No. We need to see the content task before giving you a price for that. Our SEO packages cost less because they do not include a content line.
That's because two or three 500-word articles per month will not be the task. It might need just one solid article that can attract backlinks. Or adding a calculator to your website may be a better way. We won't know until we do the SEO audit.
We want to do the right thing for your business and your specific needs in your competitive situation. Spitting out some basic blog posts or articles is not going to do the job (in most cases)
Yes, for sure. Just asking will be happy to refer you to some of our clients for feedback.
We don't usually publish clients details on our website because it leads to others contacting clients.