As a home inspector trying to grow your non-referral business, local SEO is the most important aspect of online marketing. Google has prioritized local results in recent years to allow customers to find you directly.
First let's recap:
Local Search (also referred to as Local SEO) refers to the results shown by Google or Bing where they believe the person searching has "local intent" - meaning they used geographically related keywords or tend to click on local service providers.
A search for "home inspector" or "mold testing" always results in the "local 3-pack".
This is where you want to be!
These 3 areas are not the only aspects you should focus on. They are the most important to prioritize for home inspectors and their SEO.
You will maximize the benefit from these activities by also paying attention to other foundational areas of SEO & online marketing:
Without this, Google has no starting point for knowing your business's information.
If you know you've claimed & verified your listing, make sure to take note of the exact wording of your business & address & skip to the next section.
If you're unsure, go to the Google My Business home page and click "Start Now".
You'll see a prompt to log in with your Google account (if you don't have one, you'll need to create one). Make sure it's the Google account you registered your business with.
You'll be presented with a map and a search box. Start typing in your business name.
For example, I started to type Jim's Inspection Services, and I get a list of potential businesses to claim.
If you see your business, select it. If not, click on "None of these match" and enter in your business information.
*Remember, pay close attention to using consistent wording of your business name.
After you click on your business name, you'll see a prompt asking you if you're authorized to manage this business.
Check the box and hit continue to "claim your business".
Google will ask you how you want to verify your business to ensure you are the actual owner. Most businesses will only have the option to verify by postcard, which usually arrives in 5-10 days.
Once you receive the postcard with the verification code on it, you'll go to the Google My Business account hub, choose the business you're verifying and click "Verify now".
You will also have the option to continue and verify later if you want to update your business information.
We recommend verifying sooner rather than later, so you can move on to increasing your local citations.
Google has a help page with videos that walks you through this process.
Local citations might be the most important aspect of Local SEO that is overlooked.
A citation is an online mention or reference to your business that includes the official business name, address & phone number (often known as "NAP"). Examples could be a local chamber of commerce or business association, a local blog or large local data aggregators like Infogroup.
Citation are a key piece of Google & Bing's ranking algorithms. They become even more important in an industry like home inspection, where the overall online presence is low.
Google & Bing have to rely more on information from around the internet, usually in the form of citations & business listings.
A business listing is a type of citation, also referred to as "structured citations". Think Yellowpages, Yelp, Foursquare or industry sites like Thumbtack & HomeAdvisor.
Having a profile on these sites is important, as they are well-established and well-indexed domains. Consistent NAPs here help search engines have a higher level of trust in your business contact info, thus making them more likely to rank you!
You may already have accounts with these sites, but you'll want to make sure to have a presence on all the most credible & well-established ones.
The bottom line is that local citations & listings can drastically improve your local search ranking and drive more client direct business.
Google reviews are a key input to their local SEO algorithm. They also increase click-through rate when customers are looking at search results.
But asking for them is hard, we get it. That's why we help with that.
This is an often ignored aspect by many home inspectors, but the ones that are paying attention to it are reaping the benefits of more non-agent referred business.
Remember my first screenshot above? Think those first 2 inspector's are getting business from being there? Especially when you consider that mid-size cities get hundreds of home inspector related searches a month.
Here are some tips on asking customers for reviews: