How to Optimize Your Houston Plumbing Website to Get More Traffic

---

Houston is a busy city with many people living there and frequent construction activities. 

If there is one thing that requires constant attention and other necessities at home, it is plumbing tasks. 

It is not uncommon for people to experience a pipe leak or a blockage in their closet. This is when they will call a plumber, i.e., you. 

As a result, the demand for plumbing businesses makes it one of the most competitive industries.

Suppose you're a plumber; word of mouth isn't going to cut it. Instead, you must have a strong online presence to ensure that your name is heard throughout Houston. 

While this may be difficult, here are ten plumbing SEO tips to follow if you are a plumber in Houston. 

Follow these SEO tips to increase traffic and, eventually, sales.

10 Plumbing SEO Tips for Houston Plumbers to Get More Traffic 

---

1. Claim Your Google Business Listing

This is necessary to ensure that your business is listed on the maps. This is the list that people refer to when looking for plumbers in Houston. It appears beneath the advertisements and just above the organic listing. However, you must ensure that it is properly optimized.

• Besides adding other essential information, ensure you add these - opening hours, phone number, website link, and email address.
• As a plumbing business in Houston, you should mention the areas you cover and the list of your services.
• If you deal with any plumbing-related products, ensure you add their pictures and a CTA that connects to your website.

To claim a business, click on the “Claim this business” button:

Read: Step-by-step Setup Guide for Google My Business Set up

2. Add As Many Reviews As You Can

Plumbing is an expensive business, and no customer will let you fix their pipes if they don't trust you. 

And, to build trust, you must have reviews from previous customers to whom you have provided your services. Reviews have a direct impact on a customer's decision-making process. 

Furthermore, reviews on multiple websites help Google recognize and help you rank higher. When customers have better trust, they make an effort to spread the word about your business, be it word of mouth or online.

• Use simple tools like SurveyMonkey or Google Forms to get feedback from your customers. 
• Add pop-ups on your website for customers to leave an honest reviews. And add redirects to pages like Yelp, GMB listing, and Trustpilot so customers can add reviews.
• Tools like SocialMention or Google Alerts help identify what customers say about your business. If you find them giving you a shoutout and a review, add that to your testimonials. If you find a review, make sure you respond to it immediately.

Here’s a screenshot of Google Alerts:

3. Have A Structured Site 

Any business would aim to have the most basic pages on their websites. These are About us, Services, and Contact.

However, if you aim to rank higher as a plumber in Houston, you need to do more. For instance, you can add a page each for all your services. If you are wondering why here's how it helps:

• You can leverage the opportunity to add more keywords meaningfully on various pages.
• You also let Google rank your page higher for these individual services by adding so. So if someone is searching for pipe restoration in Houston or sewer pipe repair in Houston, your page will still pop up under suggestions.
• Use website structure designing tools like Octopus, WriteMaps, and FlowMapp to ensure your website is easier to understand for your customers.

Here’s a screenshot of FlowMapp:

4. Run Timely Technical Audits

Even after you have done everything in your SEO checklist, if you still find something holding back your website from ranking for your local area in Houston, you should run a technical site audit. It helps you identify the problem areas to get down to fix them, just like fixing pipes!

• SEMrush lets you create a free account. You can also use Moz, GTmetrix, or Screaming Frog for your audit.
• Under site audit, major things to fix are sitemap errors, harmful links, duplicate content, broken links, and your website's responsive design.
• Always use an SEO checklist to ensure you are not missing out on any necessary aspects.

Here’s a screenshot of the site audit tool by SEMrush:

5. Keyword Research

One thing to remember about SEO is that keyword research is at the heart of it, and it is a continuous process rather than a one-time event. Yes, the keywords that are popular today may not be popular tomorrow. 

Determine which keywords will help you rank as a plumbing company in Houston.

• Use competitor analysis tools to figure out the best keyword ranking for your competitors.
• SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Google Keyword planner are the best tools. You can also use Soovle to find keywords.
• Focus on the ''Related Searches' section in Google. This is a simple yet powerful way to identify trending keywords easily.

Here’s a screenshot of the keyword generator by Ahrefs:

6. Using Right Keywords

If you have a plumbing business in Houston, you must pick the right keywords. While keyword research is a part of the process, seamlessly adding them to your website is another. Overdoing keywords can make it so obvious, negatively affecting your rankings.

• Ensure you add your keywords in the page title, meta descriptions, URL, as alt-text for images, in H1 tags, and at least once in the first paragraph of every page.
• Your keywords should be between 1-3% of the total content you write for your website. 
• Ensure you add local keywords and geo-targeted keywords. For example, it could be plumbing services in Houston, pipe fixers in Houston, plumbers in Houston, or Houston's top plumbing services.

Avoid keyword stuffing. It looks like this:

Read: Benefits of Using Long-tail Keywords for SEO

7. Being Active On Social Media

If you are not engaging with your customers, you might not find the same reciprocation. Get into social media and show your customers what it is like in a plumbing business. 

Customers love to know the back story and how it all works. But if you don't show them the behind-the-scenes, they might as well consider you as just another plumber in Houston.

• To get more visibility through social media, you have to give some information to your customers. For instance, you can share simple tips to keep your kitchen clean or home hacks quickly fix leaking taps. Whether they do it or not is secondary, but when you share information like this, they will start trusting your services and refer you to more people.
• Use Instagram reels to show your WIP and finished projects. You can also use it to record video testimonials of your customers and share them on the platform.
• Use YouTube to share information about your business or useful videos that people will want to watch. Remember, more shares, more visibility.

Here’s an example an of a business offering tips on Instagram:

Read: Social Media SEO

8. Mobile-Friendliness

When a customer is in trouble, the first thing they will reach for is their mobile phone to find a solution. 

As a result, your website must be mobile-friendly so that when your customers search for plumbing services in Houston, your company appears. If you do not optimize your web pages for mobile, you may fall behind your competitors. 

Even Google considers it one of the most important factors in ranking any business online.

• Use Google's mobile-friendly test to analyze your site's performance on devices.
• Google Search Console helps you figure out crawl errors that you can fix to make your website mobile-ready without any glitches.
• Use alt-text for your images and optimize them in terms of quality to ensure they have no problem while loading.

Here’s a screenshot of Google’s mobile-friendly test tool:

9. Site Speed Matters

In 2018, Google made speed one of the important factors to rank on their SERP. Optimizing your page for good speed is always a smart way to stay ahead of your competition. 

Yes, your page will still rank for the relevant content, but your customers will not make an effort to check beyond the fifth suggestion thrown up on Google SERP.

• Use Test My Site to check mobile speed limits. And Page Speed Insights tell you if your web page is loading faster on all devices.
• Compress images but ensure that their quality is not getting compromised. This will boost your load time.
• Enable browser caching so they become easy and quick to access.

Here’s a screenshot of Test My Site:

10. Optimize Your Website Content For Local Search

When customers type in looking for some product or service, the first thing they type is using a tag ''near me. For instance, when someone in Houston is looking for plumbing services, they will search for them as plumbers near me, plumbing services near me, or pipe fixers.

• Ensure you are entering your NAP consistently across all websites and social pages.
• Always design your content with a mobile-first approach to make things easier and faster as a business.
• Check out how your competitors use 'near me' tags efficiently and incorporate the same if they are ranking ahead of you.

Now that you know how to optimize your website to rank as the best plumbing service in Houston, you will want to know three bonus tips. These three tried and tested tips are something you should not be missing out on.

You can use Google’s autosuggest feature to learn and incorporate ‘near me’ tags:

Bonus Tip #1 - Build Local Citation Links from Authoritative Websites

Here are a few websites to add your NAP for your plumbing business. 

• Best Plumbers helps you search, compare and contact a plumber in Houston.
• Fixr has everything related to home repairs and remodeling, where each of the services is shown along with their ratings.
• Master Plumbers is a dedicated site for plumbing services and is a great site for plumbers.
• Hi Pages helps you list where customers compare quotes and choose the best.
• Meet A Plumber helps customers find the top matches for plumbers in their area.
• Networ X is a contractor-centric website that helps in better visibility.
• The Construction Centre is one of the biggest industry-specific websites where you can list your business to be found.
• Build Zoom is a platform where property owners can find the best contractors for their home projects during pre-construction.

Read: How Local Citations Can Help You with Local SEO

Bonus Tip #2 - Include Your Site in Houston Plumbing Directories

Listing your business in directories is a perfect and cost-effective way to improve your visibility.

• Houzz lets its users save and get inspired by various projects listed. It connects homeowners with service providers.
• Angi has been in the game since 1995 and is one of the most trusted directories to list your business.

Bonus Tip #3 - Publish High-Quality Shareable Content on Your Blog

Believe it or not, blogging is one of the most effective ways to improve your visibility online. You can follow these blogs for inspiration and understand how to ace the game of blogging.

Blogging is also a great way to add keywords add the right way. You can also guest blog to improve your visibility.

• League is a community-based real estate website where blogs cover almost all necessary real estate topics.
• Fort Worth Real Estate has blogs about real estate tips and suggestions that anyone new to the subject can understand.
• DFW Urban Realty - You should follow to get current real estate affairs news and market information.
• Wilco Realtors has blogs written about basic real estate and come with in-depth topics which are easy to read even by first-timers.
• VIP Realty writes about area-specific properties and shares blogs like buyer tips or seller tips.
• Texas New Home Rebates have real estate blogs where you can find everything about the subject and some trending topics.

Key Takeaways

---

• Claim your Google My Business listing and optimize it.
• Get as many reviews as possible from your customers to build trust with your new clients.
• Add a proper site structure for a better user experience.
• Perform a technical site audit to find where your website is lagging.
• Write blogs and add keywords efficiently.
• Add your plumbing business in local directories to gain more visibility.
• Optimize your site with a mobile-first approach.
• Harness the power of social media and be active in engaging your customers.
• Track your site speed and take steps to make it the best.
• Optimize your website for better performance and user interaction.