Search engine optimization is one of the best tools to boost your website traffic and get your website on the first page of search results. However, SEO constantly changes and improves, so you have to keep up with the latest requirements to maintain your ranking. Also, your SEO will differ depending on your needs, industry, or even type of business. With that in mind, we want to explain how SEO is different for service-based businesses.
The rapid growth of service-based businesses
Service-based businesses are different from other business models because they don’t rely on production and manufacturing in the traditional sense. You are instead offering a service to your customers.
The payment model is also different. Services are usually billed as a recurring model instead of a one-time fee that the customer would pay. That provides many benefits to the business and guarantees more revenue long-term. Due to those benefits, a lot of businesses are transitioning to the service-based business model.
We now see how service-based businesses are different from other business models. That is why SEO is different for service-based businesses and why it is necessary today.
There are a couple of essential SEO elements that substantially affect service-based businesses.
Those elements are:
- Local search
- Service pages
- Customer reviews
- Content marketing
While other SEO elements will also contribute to your marketing strategy, these four are crucial for a service-based business. Let’s see why that is and how to leverage these factors to improve your website ranking.
Why local search matters
Local SEO is one of the most potent factors of any SEO strategy. As a business, it is a general rule of thumb that you want first to take control of your neighborhood and develop a strong base of local customers before you expand. This is even more important for service-based businesses.
People who require service cannot afford to travel across town or another city to find it. That will spend too much money and time. They will first look for a local vendor. Let’s look at a moving company, for example. If you want to hire movers, you will look for someone in your area. In fact, moving companies can benefit from this because local SEO for movers allows them to go directly to the closest customers.
Local SEO is crucial for service-based businesses.
Besides adding your business to local search directories, such as Google My Business and others, adding location-specific keywords to website copy is crucial. This will improve search quality for your customers and allow you to become visible in your area. Furthermore, using a location-specific schema markup for your website would be best.
When it comes to optimizing your website, another crucial piece of information is your contact details. Every business, especially service-based ones, should have a contact page showing the address, email, phone number, and working hours. For businesses that have multiple locations, it’s best to have a list of relevant information for each location. If you have multiple accounts made on different business directories, this contact information should match across all accounts. Consistency is the key.
Service pages play a crucial role in SEO
Service pages serve to provide detailed information about the service you are offering. That includes everything from pricing, service area, coverage, and so on. Also, if your services require certification qualifications, you should display that on the service page.
If you offer multiple services, each should have a dedicated page. On top of that, each page should be optimized for specific keywords regarding that service.
This is a crucial part because you want to be specific about the keywords you use. If you mix everything on one page, there will be a lot of irrelevant searches, and people might get confused.
Use customer reviews
Per experts from Movers Development, customer reviews are another factor that plays a massive role in local SEO for service-based businesses. People will always believe those who have already used a service or a product.
Customer reviews are also necessary feedback to improve your services.
When it comes to customer reviews, they will do more than help you to build reliable connections and sell your services. They are also valuable in terms of SEO. Google values honest reviews and websites that provide what was promised.
Do your best to encourage people to leave reviews on your website or use third-party services like Yelp or Google reviews. That is how you build authority as a leading brand in your industry.
Content marketing as a part of SEO
Another way to build authority as a business is to use content marketing. People want content because it is interesting, engaging, and educational. When it comes to services, your business will benefit from blog articles, social media posts, infographics, videos, eBooks, and other types of content.
Sharing this content allows your customers to learn more about the business and the services. That means you are very transparent in sharing relevant information, substantially improving customer experience.
Furthermore, if you create shareable content, those same people will spread the word about the business for you. If you publish a useful article, people will share it on social media, giving your business more visibility.
Diverse content will significantly affect SEO for a service-based business.
Consequently, this will also affect your SEO. The more relevant visibility you have, the better. This approach will drive more organic traffic to your website and substantially approve the search ranking.
Understand how SEO is different for service-based businesses
As we mentioned at the beginning, SEO is different for service-based businesses. However, that only means you should shift your focus to different strategies. You can use these same SEO factors to rank a website for a product-based business. But, it will not be as efficient as product-specific SEO strategies. The same applies here. While other SEO factors will help rank your website higher, the ones we talk about in this article have the highest rate of success.
