You feel like you have a kick-ass website with tons of great content. You’ve been promoting your business on local directories, too. You’re getting plenty of calls and leads for some of your services, yet there’s a noticeable lack of leads for one service in particular. For example, you own a landscaping company and you’re getting lots of calls for lawn mowing but no calls for tree removal–even though you’d much prefer to book tree removal jobs.
Needless to say, this is most likely caused by the fact that you’re not ranking in search results for tree removal. But why aren’t you ranking for that service? And, more importantly, how can you fix it?
There are two possible explanations for why you aren’t ranking for a given service:
- You don’t have a dedicated page on your website for this particular service; or
- You aren’t using the right keywords
Keep reading to hear more about these ranking issues and how to fix them!
Do You Have a Webpage Specifically for This Service?
The most common reason you aren’t appearing in search results for “X” service is simple: You don’t have a page for it on your website.
Google will only rank you for services you explicitly advertise or offer—meaning, it will only rank you for services you have dedicated content for. This is simply because Google isn’t a fortuneteller. It won’t know you offer a specific service unless you emphasize it on your site. Therefore, the ideal solution is to go through your website and make sure there’s a page for every service you offer.
Google Can’t Predict Which Services You Offer
Sometimes we think Google is smarter than it really is. Sure, when it comes to keywords, Google is good at detecting natural language and synonyms–but only when there are slight variations between words and phrases. That’s why each page can–and should–have a variety of closely related keywords.
For example, let’s say your landscaping company offers tree removal services. Google won’t automatically place you in results for tree removal searches unless you have a specific page titled, “Tree Removal.” Why? Because, linguistically, “tree removal” is different enough from “landscaping” or “lawn care” that Google won’t automatically put them together. So, if you want to get leads and book jobs for tree removal services, then you need to make sure there is content on your website dedicated to talking about this service. This is the only way your business will rank on Google for tree removal.
Appliance repair services are another great example of Google’s limitations. You can’t assume Google will rank you in searches for “refrigerator repair,” “dryer repair,” or “dishwasher repair” just because your website mentions “appliance repair” a bunch. Rather, you must write content aimed at each service specifically, including keywords closely related to these specific units.
How to fix it:
So, what’s the takeaway here? Go through your website and make sure you have a separate page for every single service you want calls for. (Or, at the very least, make sure you have a substantial amount of content dedicated to each service so Google can detect those keywords.)
Are You Using the Most Appropriate Keywords?
The other issue we see often is that you’re not using the most fitting or popular keywords for your services. This happens most commonly when there’s a certain regional slang or phrase at play.
Here’s a prime, real-life example we saw with one of our clients recently:
We were working with a towing company and testing out different keywords for their services. We were having difficulty getting this company to rank for “tow truck” in their geographic area, so our client asked us to include “wrecker” as a keyword for that service. They were right!
As it turns out, “wrecker” is a popular term for a tow truck in this client’s locale. Although Google’s natural language index didn’t consider it a synonym for “tow truck,” enough people were searching for the word “wrecker” in the context of tow trucks that this keyword wound up driving a lot of traffic for our client’s service.
How to fix it:
The takeaway here is to think about the words and phrases your local customers use most often. At the end of the day, you know your customers best! Then, make sure these overlooked keywords are included in your copy so you can capture as many keyword variations as possible.
Of course, Prospect Genius is always here to help, too! We can give you a free consultation over the phone and look into what services you rank for as compared to what services you want to rank for. Give us a call or fill out the form below!
