A Complete Guide to Keyword Research for Plumbers, Roofers, and Contractors

Intro

In the home services industry, it takes more than just having the right skills and tools to build long-term success. If you’re a contractor handling plumbing, roofing, and other types of work, you should know that you’re not the only service provider active in your area.

You may be dealing with so much competition locally that it becomes increasingly difficult for you to generate leads and fuel your business’s further expansion. In this article, we’ll explain why keyword research is important to boosting your online presence and how you can do it right.

A Word About Keywords: Why They Matter

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

Before we jump into the importance of keyword research, let’s learn more about why keywords serve as crucial pieces of your online marketing strategy. With online access becoming even more widespread, consumers could easily connect with businesses that sell the products and services they need.

A quick Google search by a homeowner who has to deal with a major roofing problem can just type the words “local roofing repair” in the search bar and browse through the results of nearby service providers. More likely than not, they will click on the business listings they see on the first page of the search results, with more than 28.5% clicking the first Google result they see, according to an article on Search Engine Journal.

Reaching the top of the search rankings should be just as much a priority for you as a provider of home services as anything else, especially if you’re planning to outgrow other contractors in the area, boost your earnings, and increase brand awareness.

Having a website doesn’t guarantee a good return if it’s not optimized with the keywords your target audience searches for. To make the most of your investment in setting up a website, you need to zero in on keywords that offer the best opportunities for improving visibility and engagement. This is where effective keyword research comes in.

The What and Why of Keyword Research for Home Services Businesses

You might assume that keyword research is just as simple as using the most likely search terms homeowners use to find your services. However, it’s anything but straightforward. Keep in mind that your competitors are also using the same search terms in the content they produce.

Even if you focus your efforts on generic keywords like “plumbing services” or “roofing repair,” reaching the first five search results (or even the first page) isn’t guaranteed. Your competitors are also doubling down on their digital marketing efforts and investing a lot of time and effort to rank higher, especially for generic keywords.

Keyword research is a process that lets you focus on search terms that offer the best opportunities for engagement, sales conversions, and clicks. It lets you come up with an online marketing strategy that leads you towards keywords with fewer competitors and better conversion prospects. In a way, keyword research offers a wide range of benefits, but a few stand out the most:

1. Focusing on better ranking opportunities: Opting for generic keywords won’t bode well for your business. Even though these keywords entail higher search volumes, ranking can be difficult since they often yield a large volume of results, which could bury your website. Through keyword research, you can uncover other search terms to rank for that provide a better chance of reaching the top of the results page. On that note, check out Ranktracker’s SERP checker to get a better look at ranking opportunities you shouldn’t ignore.
2. Competing for conversions: By incorporating the best keywords into your website content, you can increase your home services brand’s visibility and, eventually, market share through a higher organic search traffic. A good keyword strategy supported by sound research can lead to you reaching the top alongside your closest competitors.
3. Providing the basis for your content marketing efforts: When you build content especially for your business’s website, you want to make sure every piece you produce will engage users. If you lack a keyword strategy, then the content on your website, no matter how well-crafted, won’t do its part. Hand in hand, your keyword and content strategies could bring the results you want, so make sure your keyword research counts.
4. Knowing your audience’s behaviors: Along with improving search visibility and traffic, conducting effective keyword research brings the added benefit of understanding how your audience behaves. Homeowners who are looking for contractors for home improvement projects use search engines differently from those who are shopping for shoes or office supplies. By taking the time to do keyword research, you are not only finding the right terms to include in your website, but you also get to understand how potential clients use search engines and engage with the information they find, allowing you to adjust your content strategy to better align with such behaviors.

Keyword research is one step in your online marketing strategy you shouldn’t take for granted. About 51% of businesses say that they conduct keyword research whenever they are “required,” according to an article on Startup Talky.

Keyword research should be performed constantly so that your business won’t miss out on valuable ranking opportunities. As you come around towards improving your current website or building a new one from scratch, the next section should help you conduct keyword research that leads to the results you want.

Keyword Research for Home Services Businesses: 6 Steps to Take

Keyword research takes time since your goal is to make sure you come up with a list of high-value search terms. Regardless of your main objective, it's crucial to go through the following steps:

Set Clear Goals

For the most part, you will want to establish the main reason why you want to conduct keyword research in the first place. It pays to set a clear direction for how you want to optimize your business's web marketing efforts, so here are a few suggestions you might want to check out to form the basis of your keyword research.

1. Increase visibility
2. Boost engagement and conversions
3. Improve your site's click-through rate
4. Increase organic traffic
5. Reach the first page of the search engine results

When coming up with goals for keyword research, consider your business’s top priorities for the long haul. You will want your services to dominate the local market or build a strong reputation. No matter the case, having clear goals will help you avoid spending unnecessary amounts of time and effort on keyword analyses that won’t deliver the outcomes you want for your business.

Focus on What You Offer and to Whom

After you have set up the goals for conducting keyword research, you should be able to determine core keywords. These are the search terms that relate directly to the services you offer and the location of your target audience.

For instance, if you provide plumbing services to homeowners in Rochester, New York, your core keywords should include the phrase “plumbing services in Rochester NY” and other close variations.

You can further narrow this down to specific services such as “plumbing installation” or “water heater maintenance and repair”. You can come up with a long list of keywords you can work on and further refine. In addition to core keywords, your website should bank on a growing and evolving list of terms and phrases that can help enhance its presence.

Diversify Your Keyword Mix

The initial list of keywords you generated won’t be enough to help you accomplish your goals. Since Google’s search algorithm is constantly changing, certain keyword groups may suddenly rank lower, thereby affecting your overall SEO strategy.

It’s for this reason that you will need to develop a diversified list of keywords that allow you to broaden your audience, boost organic traffic, and manage performance downturns caused by major search algorithm updates. As you build your business’s keyword strategy, consider adding the following types:

1. Long-tail keywords: Because of how detailed and specific they are, keywords such as “roofing repair and rehab in Rochester NY” represent less competition. What’s more, these keywords resonate closely with a user’s intent. In short, people who are clear about the type of service they want would use long tail keywords to refine their searches.
2. Secondary keywords: These are iterations of your core keywords that serve to provide more context about the content you publish on your site. By adding these keywords, you help search engines understand the information better, allowing your content to rank better across different core keyword variations that your audience is likely to use.
3. **Niche keywords: **As your keyword list grows, make sure to include highly specific terms that your competitors may have overlooked. With niche keywords, you match your content with users who need solutions to highly specific problems, such as “corroded roofing components” or “malfunctioning fill valve in a toilet tank.”

Keep in mind that keyword research isn’t about identifying as many possible terms and phrases as possible. You need to be strategic in making sure the keywords you include in your website’s content match the intent of your audience.

Use Tools and Get Help from an Expert

It will take a long time for you to sift through a long list of keywords and keyword variations that align with the needs of your web marketing campaign. Fortunately, there’s a wide array of platforms that can aid you throughout the process. Keyword analysis tools offered by Ranktracker are a notable few that provide insights into user intent and keywords that your closest competitors are using.

Through these tools, you can zero in on terms and phrases that offer high search volumes that your competitors have yet to bank on. Additionally, you can focus more on keywords that yield the results you want, whether it’s a better web presence or an optimized click-through rate.

Considering the technical nature of this process and having a lack of resources or expertise, you might be better off onboarding an agency that provides home services SEO solutions that align with your goals.

Endnote

The fact that you’re not the only home services provider in your area shouldn’t keep you from aiming higher with your online marketing campaign. You just have to do keyword research the right way and bring your business front and center.