Success is not measured by what you accomplish, but by the opposition you have encountered, and the courage with which you have maintained the struggle against overwhelming odds.

Orison Swett Marden

Online businesses face many challenges, but few as daunting as search engine optimization. It is not always easy to rank high on search engine results pages, and it can often be a frustrating struggle. Online local handyman businesses may have to deal with the influx of competition, expensive content marketing services, and coping with negative reviews. Luckily, there are some things we can do to mitigate these struggles and create an easier path for businesses to flourish in the digital landscape.

Following are SEO struggles local handyman startups can face and tips they can use to solve the problems.

SEO Struggle 1: Not Knowing What SEO Is And What It Can Do

A large part of the struggle with ranking your handyman service high in search engines has to do with the simple fact that many business owners don’t know how to achieve success online. Some entrepreneurs are unaware of the power of search engine optimization. They may think that it’s a waste of time or that they can’t afford it.

For local handyman businesses, search engine optimization services help with hyper-targeting and customer-centricity. Homeowners will often search for the services of a professional handyman service before calling one. This is why it’s vital that your company can be found in the search engines with high rankings, if not on the homepage then at least in the top 3 spots of search results pages.

Explore: Let SEO Do The Bidding!

Being one of the ten business links on a search engine results page is surely competitive, so make sure you have the following things with you.

Learn what search engine optimization is and why it is important for local service-providing businesses.

Following are some helpful resources to understand the basics of SEO.

SEO Training Course
Beginner’s Guide to SEO
SEO Starter Guide
Introduction to Google SEO

Below are some SEO influencers to explore.

Hire a professional SEO expert who not only ranks you high but also helps to attract leads and convert them to customers

SEO Struggle 2: Knowing The Trade But Not How To Sell It

A handyman is a person with skills in a variety of trades, like carpenters, electricians, or plumbers. They typically do small jobs such as changing light bulbs and unclogging toilets. However, being in the handyman business isn’t just about knowing the trade but also having marketing and sales skills.

When marketing your local handyman business with SEO, there are several things to consider. Following is a quick list to keep a check on.

Create a Google My Business account that registers you as a local business and shows all the important information (contact number, website address, physical address, and reviews) to potential customers.
Research and collect local keywords relevant to the handyman business niche to target the right customers for growth and success.
Optimize metadata (page title and meta description) to best describe the handyman services web pages so that users know exactly what they’re getting into. Avoid misleading people.
Practice link building whereby you need to generate backlinks from authoritative websites for business recognition. How? Write guest posts or reach out to publishers for links.

Explore: 15 SEO Videos From Gurus On Quality Backlinks

Make sure to format content for search engines, and don’t forget to get your handyman business in the featured snippets.
Remove any graphical elements that make the handyman website slow in loading to avoid an increase in bounce rate.
Fill your handyman website with enough content that is relevant, helpful, educational; and is structured well. Focus on headings, paragraphing, and hierarchy.
Prepare your website for mobile use by creating a dedicated app design for your handyman business.
Create a blueprint for your handyman website to help search engines crawl and index the content, in the form of an XML sitemap that links to web pages on the website.

Explore: 20 SEO Tools To Optimize Your Website For Search Engines

Apart from this, there are several more tips on how to market your handyman business online using search engine optimization. The idea is to keep yourself updated on the changes in this industry and to keep working on the site to improve its presence.

SEO Struggle 3: Not Investing And Settling For Mediocre Results

Expecting good results from a mediocre search engine optimization agency is a mistake many business owners make. The thing is that you may get the work done for pennies, but the results will be worth only that. With unprofessional SEO, there are chances of getting your handyman business blacklisted by search websites.

The following are some bad SEO practices handyman business owners should avoid at all costs.

Overusing and over-emphasizing keywords in the website’s content by repeating them in an unpleasant and unreadable way.
Letting stale content sit on your website despite changing customer preferences and buying habits is a bad idea.
Delaying fixing technical SEO errors such as no HTTPS security, misleading redirects, slow page speed, broken links, duplicate content, and missing metadata, etc.
Settling for low-grade links from link farms and non-authoritative websites that are spammy and contain useless or irrelevant content.

Explore: Organic SEO Vs. PPC: A Practical Guide For Startup Owners

Search engines are increasingly honing the way they rank websites, so beware that any malicious attempt can harm your business.

SEO Struggle 4: Striving To Rank For Befitting Keywords

Businesses providing handyman services can not rank for the wrong keywords or too broad and vague keywords that do not help them position themselves locally. Not scaring you here, but local SEO service is one of the most difficult types of SEO to execute effectively.

As a handyman startup, you need to plan your SEO strategy carefully. It will take time and effort, so do not have unrealistic expectations. A large portion of your customers will search for your services online before deciding whether or not to hire you. So if your website isn’t ranking high on Google’s first page, then you’re going to be losing out on customers.

Many people have a hard time getting good rankings for their keywords because they either target the wrong keywords or there is too much competition. Following are some factors that contribute towards achieving a high ranking for relevant keywords.

Research is critical to success. Be aware of all the words and phrases your target audience uses to search for businesses that fall in your category or niche. You can then choose between targeting a broad term or a more specific one based on your needs.
Content should be relevant, up-to-date, and helpful. Content relevance is an essential factor that drives rankings; it indicates how well a page matches the intent of what the user is searching for. Make sure you do this right.
Getting links on localized and/or high-ranking keywords will increase the website’s domain authority, and build strong brand connections.

Here are some tips to get local keywords that relate to your business.

Use a keyword research tool.

Always remember to rank for keywords that are closely related to your content.

To the selection of keywords you have, add a location name where you operate.
Handyman jersey city
Handyman near me
Handyman NJ
New Jersey Handyman
Include keyword modifiers like:
Quality of the service: best, top, top-rated
Occasions like weddings, birthdays, parties
Special offerings such as discounts

The purpose for doing these activities is that if your company is a local services business, then you should be trying to rank for local keywords. When people search for handyman businesses in their area, they want to find the most suitable one for them, and this will help you do that.

With local SEO strategies, it is important to consider the needs of the customers. Customers are using search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo to find what they need, and if you are not on top of their search, then your competition will be.

SEO Struggle 5: Connecting Handyman Brand Identity With SEO

When doing search engine optimization, brands forget about their identities and focus on either the competition or the trends. While it is important to be competitive and trendy, handyman businesses need to keep their brand’s visual identity in focus and align all digital marketing activities to achieve their goals.

A brand’s identity can be linked to SEO in many ways. For example, the URL of the website could be made to look like the company name or it could be used as part of the domain name. The logo of the company that is used on all marketing materials should also be used on other marketing channels like social media, ads, websites, etc.

The content that is created should also represent the brand’s identity. The tone of voice should be maintained throughout. For example, if a company has a friendly tone, then it should have friendly content as well. If it has a serious tone, then it should have serious content too.

SEO benefits brands in many ways. It helps them reach more customers, generate more sales, and increase their brand awareness. But before implementing any SEO strategies, it’s important to know what your brand identity is and how you can use it in the best possible way to rank higher.

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With so many different competitors in the market, it becomes difficult to grab people’s attention and convince them to hire your service. Small things matter a lot in search engine optimization, and although GOOD SEO services take time, it is the best thing for your local business.

The post SEO Struggles In Starting A Local Online Handyman Service appeared first on ZD Blog.