What Is a City or Location Page for a Home Service Business
You want to be found locally, right? Well, there is a tried-and-true method of ranking locally.
All you need to do is create localized content, starting with city pages (also known as location pages).
When formatted properly, city pages communicate to Google and your prospective customers what services you provide and what areas you provide them.
In this blog, we will cover why you should create location pages, information you should include on them, and how you can optimize them to convert more online searchers to customers.
Why You Should Create Location Pages for Your Contract Service Business
A city page is a page dedicated to explaining the services you do and the areas you provide them. Cities and services are specified further on your location page with details on common issues that you solve with your service.
A prime example would be a snow plow company in the north. One of their city pages could include contextual information referring to the snowy winters common for the area. It is connections like these that you’re already aware of, that you will want to include in your city pages.
Your customers probably do not know all of the correlations between your area and your service. For instance, customers that live in the north may not be aware of plumbing issues like pipes freezing, until it happens.
A city page is an extension of the list of service areas you include on your website, because it takes it a step further. It shows that you’ve created content to talk about that area specifically, since it is one of your main service areas.
Information a Home Service Business Location Page Should Include
You should focus on one city and one service (sometimes two) for each city page. For instance, you could have a city page with the title “Top Heating and Cooling Services in Morrisville, NC.”
However, you will want to have two services that complement one another, rather than compete for importance. You would not want to have a city page titled “Roofing and HVAC Services in Morrisville, NC.”
While roofing and HVAC services might be related as home services, they are in two different categories in Google's mind. If you have a wide variety of services, you should switch between focusing on one service at a time.
Once you have the city and service you want to focus on for your city page, you should include information about the area, links to services you provide, and other useful information that makes your services relevant to that area.
How To Optimize a Location Page for a Home Service Business
To optimize a location page for a home service business, you should ensure that it highlights one service and one city throughout the meta data, the headings, and the body copy of the page.
“Meta data” encompasses the meta title (page title that shows on the webpage tab and above the URL in search results), the webpage URL, and the meta description (the paragraph of text that appears below the URL in search results).
A fully optimized location page will be one that adds value to the prospects that land on the page. You should include links to the services you provide so that customers can find them easily if this is the first page they land on.
To elevate your location page even further, you can include a map with a reviews plug-in and frequently asked questions for the service in the area. For instance, an FAQ question could be “How often do I need to replace my HVAC in Charlotte, NC?” To add value, you should include a response of 50-150 words below the question.
What Plug-ins Should I Add to My Location Page for My Home Service Business
One thing you can do to add more SEO value to your location page is to include a review plug-in at the bottom of the page. This plug-in would populate reviews from your current customers by area (if you set it up that way).
If you set up each of your location page’s with area-specific reviews, Google and your potential customers will see on-page proof that you actively provide services in that location. Some good review plug-ins include:
Despite how automated or unautomated the review tool you choose is, you will still need to ensure that it is set up properly to create a constant flow of new reviews.
Create Location and Service Area Pages for Your Home Service Business
Now that you know what location pages are, what they include, and how to optimize them, you can start creating them for your contract service business website.
Your location page doesn't have to be perfect or fully optimized on the first go around. You can edit your city page as you continue to build your website.
The key is to make sure that the page at least provides new customers an idea of how to find out more information about the services you provide in their area.
To find out more about optimizing the content of your home service website, stay tuned for our upcoming blogs. For advice on creating location pages, feel free to reach out to us today.