It is important to put yourself in the best position to bring in new customers. And when people look for service businesses, like pumpers, they often turn to the internet.

Investing in search engine optimization techniques will move you up the Google rankings, allowing you to draw in more clients.

There are many SEO strategies you can use to boost your website’s ranking. Here are five key ones to think about.

Add service pages

A common mistake septic service companies make with their website is having a single service page. This holds your website back from ranking well in Google.

Instead, create individual pages for every service you offer. If you have a dozen different problems you can solve, create 12 different pages. 

Write original content for your service pages. Don’t copy from other websites. Doing this will build topical authority on your website. Plus, every page will have a chance to rank for different search phrases, which is the main benefit of this tactic. A single service page isn’t going to rank for dozens of phrases, but separate pages can.

As you create these pages, be sure to add them into your main navigation so that they are easy to find.

Be in the right directories

An online directory is a website like Yelp or Yellowpages.com. It provides visitors with information to find the right company for their needs. Google will use this information to get an accurate picture of your business and the services you provide.

The place to start building your local online directories is with your Google Business Profile. A Google Business Profile allows you to list your business on Google Maps and show up in local search results. If your business already has a Google Maps listing, you should go through the process to claim it. Make it as robust as you can by adding some of your pictures, logo, services, hours of operation, etc. 

Once you’ve done that, start claiming or creating your profiles on other directory websites. Make sure your name, address and phone number are consistent in all of them. The more directories you claim, the more Google will recognize your business, but you don’t need to go overboard. Just make sure you are in the 10 to 20 biggest directories for your area.

Consistently get more reviews

Reviews are important for your search rankings. The most important place to collect reviews is on your Google Business Profile. Having more reviews than your competition doesn’t guarantee that you will outrank them, but it helps. 

What is more important is consistently getting reviews. If you are a smaller firm, maybe you can only collect a couple of reviews a week, whereas a larger company might be able to get 10 a week. Find a pace that fits you and be consistent with it.

It’s natural that business owners forget to focus on reviews, but this is a negative signal for Google. After the December 2021 update, this has become even more important, and we have tracked businesses that lost 20% of their search traffic because they took their eye off the ball.

You can avoid this with consistent attention to asking for reviews. Pumpers can also increase reviews by using online software like Birdeye or a CRM like Podium. These websites will connect to your database and request reviews from satisfied clients, but they do have a relatively high cost. The most cost-effective way of receiving reviews is to simply ask the customer for a review at the end of every job.

Speed up your website

When designing your website, it’s essential that you optimize for mobile devices. Google uses the mobile version of the website when ranking and indexing. A still overlooked factor in this is having a fast-loading website.

Run your website through Google’s PageSpeed Insightstool. Google recently incorporated the scores from this tool into its algorithm. Pay particular attention to your mobile score. If you have a poor score — anything under 70 — talk to the person who built your website about speed optimization.

Position yourself as an expert

As an expert in the septic pumping industry, you are uniquely qualified to speak on every aspect of the business. One way to do this is by writing articles on septic system topics in industry or local publications.

Reach out to editors to see if their publication accepts guest authors. If so, see what kind of stories they are looking for in the future. Write an article on the topic, including an author bio stating your name, business name, and experience in the industry. As Google crawls the internet, it will recognize your company name in a publication associated with your industry and, in turn, will trust your website more.

This strategy will only work if you create high-quality content for these publications. Avoid being spammy. Instead, be assertive in your writing. Teach other pumpers something they do not know within the industry. If the publication will allow you to link to your website, then do so.

Developing a clear SEO plan is an excellent way to increase your online visibility. It’s essential that your SEO strategies land you on the first page of Google searches. Doing so allows you to capture more leads to potential clients.

You can handle many of these strategies yourself, but if you feel it is too much, contact an SEO marketer for help with your company’s individual needs.

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About the author: Hernan Charry is the director of marketing at Split One Technologies, a search engine marketing firm in Phoenix, Arizona. Split One Technologies has been creating unique SEO campaigns for contractors for the past 12 years.