Not every business has consistent customer activity throughout the calendar year. Just as a public swimming pool doesn't do much business in the winter, certain businesses know their biggest earnings opportunities only come around during certain months of the year.
For home services companies, that peak season is the summer. Consequently, successful SEO for home services requires that these companies plan their marketing schedules with this cycle in mind. Data shows that online search volume for most home services businesses begins to rise between April and May, peaks between June and July and drops sharply in September. How do small to midsize businesses plan a marketing and SEO strategy that takes this cycle into account? It all starts well before the summer business heats up.
Understand Seasonal Swings
Home services providers know why their business increases in the summer. For many consumers, the warmer months are when they tend to relocate or move to a new apartment. Landscaping isn't even an option in the winter in many parts of the country since the ground is frozen, so spring is when companies see business rise. Meanwhile, high summer temperatures can strain HVAC systems, especially air conditioners.
When this summer crush hits, these home services providers have a tough time keeping up with demand. In other words, there's no time to tinker with marketing strategy. Instead, they have to put their heads down, work fast and hard and hope they can capture as much work as possible. This means the real SEO work should happen during the slow season.
Do Your SEO Homework
When customer demand is low, use your free time to shore up your SEO foundation, so you can ensure you're being found when searches increase. This means doing simple work like focusing on adjusting keyword strategy, producing consistent website content and other SEO considerations. It also means updating and managing your listings to ensure your phone number and address are correct,and making efforts to manage your online reputation as it's reflected in online reviews, testimonials and the like.
Meanwhile, it's important to make sure your website is optimized for SEO and mobile since this now factors greatly into your organic rank on search engines.
Provide the Solution
All home services consumers have one thing in common: They're trying to find quick solutions to stressful problems. When they're looking for a service provider, the best thing you can do is make it easy for them to find you. In addition to your SEO homework, this means enabling click-to-call functionality through your online search listings and on your mobile website, according to ThinkWithGoogle. You should also consider using Schema to create structured data on your website, which search engines can use to then pull pertinent information — such as your address, hours and other key details — and display it prominently to consumers interested in your services.
It's worth also considering the use of retargeting campaigns to help reach consumers who have done their research and are still looking for a service provider.
SEO for home services has unique features because of seasonal swings in search volume, but this dynamic is something most companies experience to a certain degree, and there's no excuse for failing to prepare a winning strategy.
