SEO For Home Services Businesses: 10 Tips To Improve Your SEO
What Is SEO And Why Is It Important?
Being able to effectively reach your target audience is one of the challenges home services businesses face in online marketing.
Because even if you have great service and great content, it wouldn’t really make a difference if no one can find you.
That’s where SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) comes in.
You optimise your website and it shows up on the search results page when people look for your services on search engines like Google.
It will help you get more traffic and attract more customers to your business.
Now that we know why SEO is important, let’s get into some tips to help you optimise your website for it.
Start With Keyword Research
What is a keyword? Keywords are the words and phrases people type into Google to find answers to their questions.
For example, when someone is looking for a plumber, they can search for something like ‘Plumber in London’, and that’s the keyword.
Keyword research is the process of finding words and phrases your target audience uses when looking for your services.
By finding these keywords you can start using them and optimise your content for them.
This way, Google will understand that the topic of your content is about the keywords you’ve chosen.
So when people search for your target keywords, Google will show your website to them on the search results page.
(There are a lot of other factors that influence your rankings, this is just an example to help you understand the concept.)
Some of the best tools you can use for keyword research are:
When making your list of keywords, pay attention to 3 key factors:
Search Volume: The average number of monthly searches
Keyword Difficulty: How hard is it to rank in Google's top 10 results
Search Intent: What the searcher wants to find out or accomplish
These factors will help you choose the right keywords based on what you want to achieve with your content.
Also, an important tip here is to only use your keywords when it makes sense and sounds natural.
A lot of beginners make the mistake of stuffing keywords into their content when it doesn’t make sense, thinking it improves their SEO.
But the truth is it will just lower the quality of your content and cost you more than it can ever benefit you.
Create Quality Backlinks
A backlink is a link from another website that points to your site.
Google considers backlinks to be one of the most important ranking factors. The reason for that is when another relevant and reputable website links to your content, it shows Google that the other site trusts your content.
This will help you improve your rankings and credibility in search results.
There are a lot of different strategies out there you can use for link building. Some of the common ones home services businesses use are…
Guest Posting: Write guest posts for blogs and websites related to your industry. Then include a link back to your site.
Local Directories: List your business in directories like Houzz and Yell.
Collaborations: Partner with complementary businesses (e.g., partnering with furniture stores as an interior designer) and exchange links.
Content Creation: Publish valuable content like guides, tips, or trend reports to attract natural backlinks.
Networking: Build relationships with bloggers and influencers in your space for link opportunities.
Press Releases: Announce new projects or milestones to get coverage and backlinks from media outlets.
Competitor Analysis: Analyse competitors’ backlinks by using tools like Semrush and then target similar sources.
Improve User Experience (UX)
Good user experience is crucial for SEO. Users will leave in seconds if they don’t enjoy browsing or find it difficult to navigate your website.
This increases your bounce rate and harms your rankings. To Improve UX…
1. Improve Your Website Design: A website that is visually appealing and easy to navigate is crucial for home services businesses.
It’s the centrepiece of your brand’s credibility and usually the first impression you make with potential customers. So it has to be nothing other than great.
2. Increase Your Page Speed: If your website takes too long to load, a lot of people will leave before they even get a chance to see what you do.
This leads to customers going elsewhere while also increasing your bounce rate.
To check your page speed, go to the Google PageSpeed Insights tool and enter your website’s URL. It’ll help you find potential errors and also get recommendations on how to fix them.
Make Sure Your Website Is Mobile-Friendly
Google values the mobile-friendliness of websites because of something called ‘mobile-first indexing’.
It means that Google web crawlers prioritise indexing the mobile version of a website over its desktop version.
That’s why you should make sure your design, content, menus, and buttons are all responsive on the mobile version of your website too.
Optimise Title Tags
A title tag is a clickable headline for a website on the search results page that helps Google and potential customers know what your page is about.
Make your title tags as clear and compelling as possible and include your target keywords in them.
It will improve your rankings and also attract more people to click on your website.
Optimise Meta Descriptions
A meta description is a brief summary of your page that shows under the title tag in search results.
Meta descriptions don’t impact rankings, but a good and compelling one can attract more people to click on your website.
Optimise URL Slugs
URL slug is the unique part of your webpage address that describes a specific page.
Making sure your URL slugs are SEO-friendly can impact your rankings. Here are some tips you should pay attention to when writing these:
Use your target keyword
Keep it short and clear: “free-guide” is better than “free-guide-for-home-services-businesses-11-01-2025”
Use hyphens to separate words
Optimise Images And Alt Text
When adding images to your website make sure that 1) You add alt text to them 2) You optimise their file size so they don’t slow down your website.
What is Alt text? Search engines can’t see your images like humans. Alt text is a description of your image that helps search engines understand what the image is about.
Add alt texts to your images and if possible, use your keywords in them. It helps your overall SEO and your images can also come up in search results.
Local SEO
Local SEO is different from regular SEO. By optimising your business for it, you’ll show up on the ‘Local Pack’ when people in YOUR city/area search for your services.
Make sure you read our blog post on Local SEO to learn more about this.
It’s crucial for home services businesses so don’t miss it.
Set Up Google Analytics And Google Search Console
Once you start optimising your website for SEO, it’s important to track progress and improve your results.
Google Analytics and Google Search Console are two great tools you can use.
They give you valuable insights into how your site is performing, what users are searching for, and how you can optimise your content further.
Final Thoughts
Remember that SEO is a long-term investment and takes some time to see results. So don’t expect to rank number 1 for important keywords after a week or two.
Make sure you keep monitoring and improving consistently. Once you get it right, it’ll be extremely valuable for your business.
Also, remember that this post was a beginner’s guide. There is much more to SEO and we could write hundreds of pages about it, but since they’re advanced and have a lot of technicalities, we didn’t include them here.
If you want us to take a look at your business and see how we can help you attract more customers online, feel free to click here and get in touch with us.
Talk soon,
Leo Dousti
P.S. Besides SEO, another great way to get more traffic to your website is through Google Ads. It’s much quicker and you can target the exact type of customers you’d like to attract. Read our blog post below for more on this:
