How Electrical Contractors can Rank on Page 1 of Google.
The internet is a crazy place to be. If it were its physical world, it would dwarf our earth. We spend so much time on the internet these days, we seem to be more plugged in than not most of the time.
This expansive world we frequent every day has a balance of power, keeping it in check and organized. Google is the proverbial gatekeeper of the internet – almost nothing gets past its search bar. Nowadays, business is conducted online, which means your electrical business is now set with the task of establishing a relationship with Google.
Digital marketing is imperative for any business to succeed in getting traffic and retaining customers. It’s no cakewalk either, as digital marketing can be a whole other job in itself.
Your relationship with the Google algorithms is just that: a relationship. Attaining an online presence for your electrician company needs to grow and nurture its relationship to stay at the top of searches.
If this relationship isn’t properly maintained, however, it can have your business landing on the third, fourth, or fifth page of Google. This will place your business between a rock and a hard place, not between a neighborhood full of customers.
To fully understand the breadth of Google’s power, let’s take a took at some statistics:
- Google receives 13 BILLION inquiries per day
- 75% of searchers NEVER click past the first page
- 46% of all Google searches are local
- 68% of all online activities start with a search engine
- Search engines attain 300% more traffic than social media
- Almost 15% of SEO leads turn into sales
- The first three search results get 55% of ALL clicks
- Google accounts for 70% of all desktop traffic
The list of statistics that can be stated on Google’s sheer power doesn’t stop right here as this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Now you have one of the best electrical businesses in your service area, but will residents know that if your Google ranking is underwhelming? The short answer is: probably not.
It may be a long path in assuring a top position on Google searches, but getting started is half the battle.
Here’s how your electrical company can dominate Google.
Practicing SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the best way for you to start growing online traffic to your business’ website. Organic SEO growth comes by just that: growth.
Like a garden, your website’s search presence is a tiny seed sowed in the ground, out of sight and out of mind. If you give it proper sunlight and water, it will grow into a tall plant standing proudly from where it was just seed some time ago.
In short, what growing SEO means is your must establish and maintain a relationship with the Google algorithm to stick out on Google searches. The very basis of SEO growth is establishing target keywords.
Target keywords work like hunting apparel as they will be of key importance becoming noticed. Keywords will stick out amongst the rest of the words in the content of your website. These keywords will be the foundation of what your business does for its customers.
A good example of keywords for an electric business may be:
- Electrical technician near me
- Emergency electrical repair
Target keywords are just the beginning of SEO practices. You also need a digital marketing strategy to garner any type of success on search engines.
There are six facets of digital marketing strategy to follow:
- Web Page Structure
- Mobile Responsiveness
- Link Building
- Content Marketing
- Reviews
- Google Ads
Web Page Structure
Your website isn’t scored by the Google algorithms solely based on its performance as a whole. Rather, each page has a chance to rank on its own.
A great place to start would be inserting your target keywords wherever you can on the web pages you have and any future ones. Internal links routing customers to other pages on your website plays a large role in this as well, keeping potential customers there longer.
Mobile Responsiveness
Becoming a mobile-friendly website plays greatly into your web page structure. The simple explanation for this is that almost everyone in the first world owns a mobile device. Mobile devices have taken over our everyday lives in terms of how we seek out information.
In fact, 55% of all internet searches are done through a mobile device. This staggering number will not decrease any time soon. By 2025, 73% of internet searches will be done through a mobile device.
As these statistics are stated, it becomes clear the importance of mobile-friendliness for your electric company’s website. If you fail to play along, however, it will cost your website and your business.
With over half of all internet searches on a mobile device, having an underperforming mobile website can be a nail in the coffin for your business.
Customers will search for an electrician in their area with their smartphone, and your business comes up, but your website runs slow and takes forever to load. This will cause frustration almost immediately as customers, and people in general, are so used to getting information almost instantaneously.
The frustration beset on these customers will most likely result in them going straight to your competition.
You obviously don’t want to lose business to your competition, so becoming mobile-friendly is the best option for the short and long-term.
Start by compressing the pictures on your website. Compressing your images will free up data being used on your website, giving it more power to operate faster. The next steps are to levy your website’s cache and to use Accelerated Mobile Pages as your HTML.
Link Building
One of the major reasons websites get buried under a mound of other search results is the lack of linking building. In fact, 91% of web pages without backlinks fail to get organic traffic from Google.
Link building is necessary for great SEO practices. It creates a closely interconnected system of other helpful web pages – both from your own site and other outside sources.
The two types of links associated with link building are internal links and external links.
Internal links are your bread and butter when it comes to link building. Content that holds internal links routes the reader to a different part of your website, whether it’s a blog, a service page, or contact information. This gives the reader of your website more opportunities to stay on your website for longer, which can lead to a service request!
External links are any links from outside sources you may come across. This will bolster your credibility as the supplemental reading reinforces the topic discussed.
There are three main sources you generally use for external links:
- Other blogs
- Case studies
- Infographics
For example, a blog on “Everything You Need to Know About Hennepin County Lighting Codes” using external links from the county’s government website will prove a prudent idea. Citing sources from government websites, especially on lighting codes, proves the information is facts and comes straight from the source.
Keep in mind to NEVER link out to competition, as that might drive business to them!
Content Marketing
Content is everything in this day and age. It consists mostly of what our eyes see every single day. This article is content, the next one you read is content; even the billboard you see as you're driving to the next job site is content. With content being so prevalent in our society and culture, there’s a way to make it work for your business.
Content marketing is the practice of promoting your business in plain sight. The main thing to know with content marketing is-- you must keep up with it.
Monthly blogs and service pages are great ways to keep repetition. The more you publish content on the internet, the more Google will recognize your content which will increase your credibility.
Additionally, what makes good content marketing work is a good title.
A good title reels a reader in with either the answers they’re looking for or a spark in curiosity; sometimes both!
A couple of examples of good blog titles that could be found on your electrician website would be:
- “Is The Electrical System in Your Home Up to Code?”
- “10 Signs Your Outdated Electrical System Is Costing You Money”
Reviews
Just as you and your website have a credibility relationship with Google, so do your customers!
Customers can spread your business by word-of-mouth in reviews, which is the most effective and oldest form of marketing. This word-of-mouth is valuable for the Google crawlers as it sees honest reviews from real customers speaking highly of your electrician services.
Their authorship credibility will supplement your website’s credibility, thus making you more of a trusted business in the eyes of the algorithm.
Plus, who doesn’t like validation that their business delivers excellent service? Showing your reviews off on your website and with backlinks just emboldens the trust to make potential customers into repeat customers!
Google Ads
Now, we’ve talked about how to grow your SEO steadily, but let’s get into a shortcut.
Paid ads can be a great way to give you and your business an immediate boost in search engine rankings by getting you on to search results not directly related to electrical services.
For example, someone searching Google for the trendiest lighting fixtures in 2021 will get results for hardware stores that sell lighting fixtures. However, the paid ads will generate your website on the results because of the relation of the search topic.
Paid ads are generally a low risk-high ceiling investment. The way you pay for these ads is Paid Ads. This means the more the ads succeed at generating traffic to your website, the more money you will have to pay for the service. This is a small price to pay as it will lead to a drum up in business.
GMB Optimization
If SEO practices are a garden with sun and water, then optimizing your GMB account is like applying fertilizer. GMB stands for “Google My Business,” an account that businesses like yours can set up to establish a direct relationship with Google.
This account is free to set up and, more surprisingly, one may already be made for your businesses! Gaining access to the account only requires you to verify it as your business.
Once your account is set up, it’s time for optimization:
- Start by adding pictures of your business
- Link out your website and its subsequent pages
- Enable Google Reviews
- Add business location, phone number, and services hours
Getting this information on your account will kick off your business’ relationship with Google, generating better search results quickly.
Google Ads and Local Service Ads
Google Ads will maximize the efficiency of your target keywords. Anytime your keywords end up in a search, even if it isn’t service-intended, your website has a greater opportunity to land on the results.
Over 50% of searches are local. With that number being a majority, local service ads play a key role in your business appearing on those searches. For instance, you can become a verified Google Guaranteed provider for the searchers who are looking for a local electrician service.
Triton Provides SEO Services for Electrical Companies Like Yours
The main goal of your business is to provide top-quality electrician service to previous and future customers, not spending time worrying about your search result ranking on Google. However, for your business to gain the exposure it needs to thrive, it must be done.
A combination of slow-growing, organic SEO mixed with GMB optimization is a tough balance to attain on your own.
That’s where Triton comes in. We know what is needed for small businesses to break the plain and dominate search engines results, and we’re passionate about maximizing those results.