How could an electrician spark their local SEO efforts through directories?
To help electricians spark their local SEO efforts through directories, we asked SEO experts and business leaders this question for their best tips. From adding photos to dialing efforts into Google My Business, there are several great tips to help electricians to spark their local SEO through directories.
Here are seven things an electrician can do to spark their local SEO:
- Reverse Engineer Competitor Backlink Profiles
- Focus Your Effort On Relevant Directories
- Add Photos
- Keep Your Directory Entry Data Consistent
- Get Neighborhood Specific
- Focus On Google My Business And Yelp
- Try Obtaining Reviews
Reverse Engineer Competitor Backlink Profiles
The best way for electricians to spark up some local SEO success is to reverse engineer their competitor backlink profiles. By analyzing the backlinks of 5–10 competitors, you’ll discover some relevant and niche directories that can build better visibility for your business, especially if you find a directory that lists the majority of your competitors—but not your business! These opportunities are low-hanging checklist items that can strengthen your local SEO efforts.
Brett Farmiloe, Markitors
Focus Your Effort On Relevant Directories
There are countless directories out there, but it just would not make sense to submit your site to all of them. Talk to your existing customers about how they found you, and direct your effort towards that. Search for industry magazines, leaflets, and associations around your area and push hard to be included in those lists. Make a mental note of your competitors, and trace where they are listed, and make an effort to replicate them.
Jill Sandy, Constant Delights
Add Photos
When you add your business to directories, make sure to include photos of yourself, your team, and the wiring jobs you’ve worked on in different properties. By including photos on local directories, it adds that personal human touch that can help promote your services that little bit more.
Joe Flanagan, VelvetJobs
Keep Your Directory Entry Data Consistent
Directories are fast going the way of the Do-do. If you manage to find some at this point, it’s likely because they require no maintenance, and it’s not worth the effort required to shut them down. Most web crawlers actually penalize directory results. While a directory link may not increase your ranking, it can have its uses, though. When Google shows results, it will often give preference to businesses that are “local” to the searcher. They know where your business is located based on data found on your site and data from other sites. The more places Google can verify your address, the more likely you’ll be presented as a local search result. If your site is on a directory and your data is inconsistent, as in your contact information doesn’t match, it will actually hurt your chances.
Mark Varnas, Red9
Get Neighborhood Specific
A valuable way to make even better use of the SEO boost that directories can give your business is targeting neighborhood-specific wording and links back to your website. It can be worthwhile to conduct keyword research into specific neighborhoods, parts of your city, or areas in your state/province that may have untapped search volumes you can rank your site for. If you service these areas, look at creating a web page specific to the area, optimize for search, and then look at getting backlinks to your content from relevant directories to boost your more granular local search efforts.
Colton De Vos, Resolute Technology Solutions
Focus On Google My Business And Yelp
Electricians can boost their local SEO efforts by submitting in various local directories, but you should be focusing on Google My Business and Yelp. You can also create content (anything that has the keywords related to your work like “electrician near you,” “electrician for hire,” or “electrician available”) that is based on or tied to local news or events. You can also activate review sites like Trustpilot and include them in your site or Facebook page. Submitting consistent and accurate company or service information like your name, contact number, and location across all platforms will improve your SEO performance. Lastly, you can try using location or general info pages like Yelp or a location-specific “About Us” page and online business directories available.
Anton Konopliov, Palma Violets Loans
Try Obtaining Reviews
An electrician shouldn’t focus on paid directories. These can get quite expensive, and if they are a sole proprietor, their advantage is personal service and lower prices versus large competitors. Let the big companies pay for leads and pay to rank high on broad “electrician near me” Google searches. An electrician should absolutely take advantage of free directories such as Google Maps but focus on word-of-mouth referrals, leading to valuable reviews. People trust word-of-mouth recommendations much more than marketing campaigns. Tesla has never spent a nickel on advertising. Offering up an incentive for referrals will get a small operation a lot further than paying for leads.
Keesjan Engelen, Titoma
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