Because Google’s mission is to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful,” it’s important your website, and marketing content appeals to customers’ needs. The best way to achieve this is through SEO.
Yet, 47% of small businesses aren’t currently investing in SEO. Considering 81% of customers perform searches online before they make a purchase, water damage restoration companies without an enduring online presence will lose out to businesses with strategic SEO campaigns.
A concrete SEO strategy permits water restoration companies to position their websites and content higher on search engine results, attracting qualified leads and bringing them into the sales funnel.
Read on to find out about the benefits of SEO and what strategies you can use to acquire more leads.
Benefits of Water Damage Restoration SEO
SEO for restoration companies helps businesses create fast, robust, and user-friendly websites that rank higher in search engines, which in turn brings in qualified traffic and increases conversion rates and sales.
An SEO campaign also builds brand awareness, as search engines are more likely to trust a website on the first page of search engine results pages (SERPs) than businesses that aren’t. Any reputable and experienced marketer will tell you consistent SEO leads to measurable, long-term growth.
In fact, organic traffic from SEO results is 8.5 times more likely to be clicked on than paid search results, and 60% of clicks go to the highest-ranking website. While you may not rank in the top spot overnight, the long-term ROI far outweighs the short-lived immediacy of pay-per-click advertising.
Google is the world’s most trusted search engine, with 90% of the market share. A favorable ranking lends your water damage restoration company authority and credibility, increasing the level of trust quality leads hold towards your business.
Examples of Gaining More Water Damage Clients With SEO
So, how does water damage restoration SEO work in reality? Let’s say a potential customer in Miami has experienced flooding and needs to hire a water restoration company to repair the damage.
They’d search online (probably via their smartphone) something like “water restoration company near me” or “best water restoration company in Miami.”
Google will then use their location and show the most relevant water damage restoration companies in proximity to where they are. This is how local SEO works.
You can see in the example below how there are businesses that show up for a “water damage restoration services” search. This type of display is called a Local 3-Pack. It’s a prominent map listing that presents consumers with the three businesses Google considers the most relevant to the searcher’s location and query and, of course, is of the highest quality.
It works the same way for general on-page SEO strategies. Let’s say a house owner has minor water damage. They might search “DIY water damage repair.” Now, if your content marketing strategy is on point, it will include keywords like “water damage repair,” and so, theoretically, it should rank in Google search results when a user types in those keywords.
Obviously, this is a simplified explanation as there are countless facets to water damage SEO, but you get the idea. Essentially, your water damage restoration website has to be optimized for particular searches.
If not, potential paying customers will just go to your competitors. And it’s not just that single query; it’s every single query like it! Hence, why your businesses must appear in local searches. Without effective SEO, your company will literally be invisible online.
Search Engine Optimization Strategies for Restoration Companies
No SEO process is possible without a strategy to maximize organic traffic opportunities. From keyword research to content creation and analytics, here is a brief primer on SEO tactics to help you understand how water damage SEO works.
Keyword Research
Proper keyword research is about better understanding your target audience and how they are searching for content and services. It helps businesses find new and relevant keywords to expand SEO campaigns, whether organic or paid.
By conducting keyword research, you can determine:
- What potential customers are searching for?
- How many people are searching for it?
- In what format are they seeking information?
Keyword research is vital because it reveals target audience information to grow your business online. In addition to discovering the right keywords, it also highlights the competitiveness of keywords and guides your content marketing plan to increase website, visibility, and keyword rankings.
In digital marketing, we speak a lot about keyword intent, i.e., the user’s purpose for a search. For example, you might think “water damage” is a great keyword, only to learn those terms are being used for something else, at a different stage of the buyer’s journey.
As you do keyword research (Google Keyword Planner and SEMrush are good free tools), you’ll want to consider the user’s intent behind certain keywords and whether your content matches it.
There are four types of search intent:
- Informational: When potential clients want to learn something
- Navigational: When users are looking for a specific company or website
- Transactional: When customers compare specific products before purchasing
- Commercial: When leads are ready to buy
When your on-page content matches a potential client’s intent, they’ll stay on your website longer, which helps your company to rank higher. To quote SaaS platform SEMrush:
“By performing keyword research for all stages of the buying funnel, you’ll be able to provide answers to users’ questions and drive them toward a purchase.”
Water Damage Keywords Examples
Once you’ve completed keyword research, you’ll have a list of potential words and phrases you can use throughout your internet marketing. Choose the right ones, and you’ll produce content with the potential to attract a high volume of traffic month after month. Select the wrong ones, and you’ll only attract very little traffic or none.
Many business owners have made the mistake of ranking for the highest-volume keywords, when it’s actually about optimizing your website and content marketing material for the right keywords.
Two of the most important factors are search volume and keyword difficulty. You’ll see in the table below that each keyword’s difficulty score is a percentage. Anything above 70% is difficult to rank on, while any word below 30% is substantially easier.
Why does this matter?
Well, let’s say, for example, the keyword “water damage restoration business” is a high-volume keyword. Suppose other businesses are already using this keyword and ranking on the first page of Google with it. In that case, it will be almost impossible (very, very difficult) to rank in the first position for the same word.
This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use high-volume keywords, but rather that they should be utilized with other types of keywords. You can tell from the table below which keyword is most popular for your industry, how difficult it is to rank for, and what other keywords might be better options.
Another keyword metric to consider is search volume. This describes the estimated number of searches for a specific keyword in a selected time frame. As a rule of thumb, you should always aim to use keywords with a minimum volume of 100-1,000 searches per month.
Of course, doing some industry research will give you a benchmark of average keyword volume per month. You’ll typically want to rank for a balance of low-volume and medium-volume keywords. This allows you to compete using more focused topics while using moderately competitive keywords.
Analytics and Improvement
Digital marketing is largely successful because it is laser-targeted and data-driven. It provides you with the information needed to shape your marketing strategy. The wealth of data derived from analytics tells you two pivotal things:
- Where your users come from and;
- What they do on your site.
Whether it’s tracking sales and conversion, measuring time spent on your website, or merely visitors arriving at a specific landing page, analytics keeps track of all your marketing KPIs. As a business, you’re looking to acquire more customers, but you won’t know where to improve your marketing if you don’t monitor your efforts.
Without a purpose or vision, data will just be numbers on a screen, so it’s vital you have clear and specific business goals. At Comrade Digital Marketing, we always advocate for a data-driven, precise approach with clear goals. It’s how we ensure our clients get the most value for money.
Clear and strategic goals might be something like: Increasing leads by 35% over one year, or having 2,000 newsletter subscribers in three months. With analytics, you’ll immediately be able to see what’s working and what isn’t, and then pivot your budget and strategy accordingly.
Some common internet marketing metrics you should track include:
- Website traffic: The number of users who visit your web page.
- Bounce rate: The percentage of visitors who leave your website after viewing only one page.
- Conversion rate: The number of visitors who complete a desired goal (a conversion), like making a purchase or subscribing to a mailing list.
- Click-through-rate: The number of clicks your paid ads receive divided by the number of times your advertisement is shown.
- The number of sessions: A session is a group of interactions a user takes within a given time frame on your website
There are other useful metrics as well, such as average time on page, and customer lifetime value, for example. What and when you track them will largely depend on your internet marketing goals.
Google Analytics, Ahrefs, Moz, and Google Search Console are useful tools used by professional marketers that can help you keep track of your restoration marketing KPIs.
Leveraging Local SEO
About 97% of people who use online search look for local a business. We spoke about local SEO a bit earlier; now, let’s dive into why it’s pivotal for restoration companies. Regardless of your industry, there will always be aggressive competitors with more budget to spend on optimizing SEO for their websites.
This is where local SEO can help you cut through the competition. With local SEO, you can target local prospects in your area, and use local-based keywords to improve visibility in the area you service.
For example, if you’re in Miami and you search “water restoration services near me”, the results will be extremely different if you were searching for the same thing in Boston.
Once you register and verify your business with a Google My Business account, your business will have a profile Google instantly recognizes as authentic, providing credibility that will boost your profile visibility across local search results.
To get the most from your Google My Business profile, be sure to:
- Fill out NAP (business name, address, and phone number) accurately, and keep it the same spelling across online directories. For instance, if you have typed out the word “street,” don’t abbreviate it in another listing.
- Include as much detail as possible. To optimize the “from the business section,” use all 750 characters, and keep key information in the first 250 characters.
- Don’t repeat information already visible in the other sections of your business profile. Use the space to highlight what sets you apart from competitors.
- Gather as many positive reviews as you can, which brings us to the next point…
Reputation and Reviews
90% of customers read reviews before visiting a business or making a purchase. If you were a customer looking for a professional water restoration business, you’d probably research what other clients had to say about the company’s services.
Nowadays, customers trust positive reviews as much as word-of-mouth from their family and friends. And, the better your reviews, the greater your search rankings for local SEO. When implemented properly, reviews improve Google’s understanding of your website, which is a considerable plus for local SEO.
Google’s main priority is to present users with relevant results. The search engine is always on the lookout for businesses with brand signals that have proof of a satisfied customer base, instead of those with poor user experience.
Put it this way: If you and a competitor’s business were on equal footing, but your competitor had more positive online reviews than you, Google would prioritize your competitor and rank them above your business.
Remember, customers want to see authentic reviews, so encourage honest feedback. And, don’t freak out if you receive a negative review, respond as professionally online as you can and resolve the matter offline.
Customers are usually quick to identify complainers. Simultaneously, if you only have 5-star ratings, they might sense something is amiss. Running a professional company that delivers quality service is key to good reviews. Now all you have to do is implement a strategy.
Whether you need to improve your online reputation, create a valuable feedback loop with your customers, or boost on-site conversions—a review management strategy can help with all of it.
Content and Optimization
Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience, and essentially, drive them toward a business goal.
When we refer to content marketing, we mean creating, curating, and sharing valuable and free content to generate website traffic, build an audience, generate leads, and convert them into sales to support business growth.
The type of content you create (videos, blogs, infographics, etc.) will depend on what your audience consumes. And, don’t forget, a successful marketing strategy combines water damage SEO with content marketing.
Valuable content appeals to your target audience because it answers questions and solves problems. Using on-page SEO (Remember keyword research?) can help you figure out what content to create.
For example, if “how to remove water from wooden floors” is a popular keyword, you might consider creating a “how-to” blog post explaining the different steps involved, or perhaps a short social media video.
When it comes to writing killer SEO copy, you can use the following tried-and-trusted techniques:
- Incorporate water damage SEO naturally throughout the copy.
- Align your content with search intent.
- Always write for readers, not for search engines.
- Using headings and subheadings to improve flow and increase readability
Find a Good Water Damage SEO Company
The age-old question: Should you hire an SEO company, or can you just do it yourself?
Here’s the bottom line: An SEO company offers more expertise with pro strategies. It’s like learning a new skill. Sure, you could probably do some basic SEO, but there’s a lot that we haven’t mentioned here, like technical SEO, for instance, that requires specialist knowledge unless you’re a professional coder.
SEO is a long-term strategy that takes three to four months to start raking in results. Now, imagine if you spent that amount of time trying to do it yourself, only to be disappointed by a lack of progress?
Especially if you could just pay professionals to do it for you.
An SEO company can guarantee growth in sales and revenue and has the case studies to back it up. They have professionals dedicated to all things SEO!
Even if you hired a freelancer to assist you, chances are they don’t have the same manpower as an agency to provide your businesses with everything you need from A-Z.
You might intend to improve your SEO strategy, but learn through the process that you actually need to redesign your website as well. This is where hiring an agency is advantageous because they can assist with all your online needs at once.
Conclusion
Need more convincing? 95% of search traffic goes to the first page of search results. To get a foothold in the market, you require a fine-tuned SEO strategy. As an internet marketing company that specializes in SEO processes, we can improve your business’s online presence to target clients and increase revenue.
On average, we provide a 150% increase in leads for all our SEO clients. If you’d like to experience the same business success, then contact us for a free SEO audit to learn where you need to improve and how we can help!
