Are you a home services professional or local contractor? If so, then you’re probably wondering if there’s an easier way to generate quality leads from the internet. Well, I have great news for you: there’s still tons of traffic out there for you to capture online, and it doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg. In fact, there are a few things you can put in place that will get you the majority of your results.
Your Contractor Google My Business (GMB, or Google Business Page) listing won't do you any good if it isn't verified, optimized and current.
Go to https://business.google.com/locations to claim or find your listing. You need a Google account (any old free gmail address will work, or sign up for Google Workspace, etc.)
If you want your GMB listing to work for you, follow these steps:
- Claim your listing (or create one) and then verify your account. This step can be frustrating because you need to have them send you a postcard that you get in the old snail mail. Then, you need to enter that code into your GMB listing. If you don’t do that, they will not make you visible to the public and it’s a total loss. You NEED to do this step. Sometimes, in some conditions, they will allow you to verify by text or phone, but most of the time, for new businesses, the postcard method is required.
- Make sure your name, address, and phone number are correct and consistent across all directories.
- Add photos (lots of them).
- Add attributes that describe what makes your business unique.
- Add posts and specials to keep customers informed about what’s happening with your business.
- Add offers from time to time to drive foot traffic in the door or encourage more appointments made online.
- Add products/services so people can browse through them on Google without picking up the phone or emailing you first (this saves you time).
- Answer customers’ questions as they come up so they get answers immediately when they look at your listing (this also saves you time).
Quality home services leads from Google My Business come from doing some simple things consistently.
As a long-time Small Business Owner, I know that having quality leads is essential for your business to be successful. For home services contractors, who are often in uncharted waters and don’t have the time or money to create a website of their own, I recommend using Google My Business (GMB). In fact, if you’re not using GMB yet, you should do it now.
GMB provides businesses such as yours with a comprehensive profile on Google Maps and Search. It allows people to find your business on the map and use search tools directly from the website to find your business based on the information you provide in your profile. This means that no matter how busy you are running your small business, this is one place where potential customers can always find it.
To get the most out of your home services Google My Business traffic, a dedicated home services website with an attractive design and a strong user experience is essential.
The fact is, to get the most out of your home services Google My Business traffic, a dedicated home services website with an attractive design and a strong user experience is essential.
Think of your website as the place where you can be more persuasive, more engaging, and more informative than your GMB listing allows you to be. It’s where you can guide prospective customers through every stage of their journey before they call or email for an estimate. It’s also where techniques like conversion rate optimization can help you make every visitor count.
Having the right elements on your website increases the number of leads you will get from your home services or contractor website
A website is the hub of your marketing. It’s a place that potential customers can go to learn about you and what you do. But a poorly designed website can do more harm than good. So make sure you have these elements on your home services or contractor website:
- Mobile-optimized
- Fast (you can check it with Google’s tools, like this one: https://pagespeed.web.dev/
- SEO-friendly
- Quick and easy call to action
- Prominently displayed contact information
- A form with relevant questions
- Lots of pictures
- Your services spelled out using great keywords
By having all of these elements on your website you will drastically increase the number of leads you get from your site and decrease the number of tire-kicker, fake, or spam leads.
These are just a few of the most important elements that should be incorporated into all home services contractor websites. There are many others that can be implemented to help improve the quality of leads a site gets. For example, adding ReCAPTCHA V3 to forms on your site can help reduce spam form fills by identifying malicious users and removing them from your lead funnel before they fill out a form.
Continually focus on getting new customer reviews on Google My Business and then proudly display them on your website
This one is a no-brainer for many contractors, but it’s still worth mentioning because so many do not do this. Just by asking your customers to leave reviews on Google My Business, you can increase the number of reviews you get by 100x!
How to Get New Reviews on Google My Business
You should be collecting new customer reviews on Google My Business consistently. The easiest way to do this is by putting a little bit of effort into it when talking to your customers.
After you complete a job, immediately send an email or text message asking the customer for feedback, and include a link straight to your GMB listing. That way, they don’t have to try to find it. If they have to find it themselves, some people will procrastinate and never get around to it. Make it easy for them so they do it!
Most people who have been online before know how big leaving reviews for businesses is, so all you have to do is point them in the right direction and let them know that their review would mean a lot to you. 99% of people will follow through with what you ask them, granted that they had a good experience with your business services.
Getting quality leads from the internet doesn’t have to be expensive or difficult. There are still loads of people searching Google daily, which means there is still a great deal of traffic to be had. That said, there are some things that you can do that will make it easier for you to get leads consistently, and don’t require you to pay hundreds of dollars or spend hours doing so anymore.
At Stoddard Agency, we make sure the websites we develop include lead generation tools. Our Google My Business page optimization services give your business a boost on Google maps. Contact us to learn more about our digital marketing packages for new home services businesses.
