In this article, I offer to explain how to rank your local gas fitter website in Google. If you have invested in a website, you may wonder why it isn’t ranking highly in Google. In this article, I outline a number of steps you can implement today to get your website ranking higher in Google for gas-fitter related search terms.
Over the last decade, I’ve positioned myself as the ‘go-to’ online marketing expert for UK gas fitters, and in this article, I reveal some of my most guarded secrets to helping your gas-fitter business explode on the Internet in your local area.
What do we mean by ‘local listings’?
When we say ‘local listing’ we mean the results that appear at the top of Google around a map of the area being searched. This is often referred to as the ‘local pack listing’. These organic search results see an insane amount of clicks by your prospective customers. If you aren’t showing up here, you are missing out on business to your competitors.
Below, we include a screenshot of ‘local pack listings’:
Without further ado, we now list 6 steps you can implement to rank your local gasfitter website in Google.
1. On-page SEO factors
On-page SEO factors refer to meta tags and the written content you add to your website. It’s important that meta information is completed on all pages on your website, and ensure each page is correctly optimised for the keywords you wish to rank for. Omitting meta tags from only some pages of your website could get your entire website penalised in the search engines.
When writing meta titles and meta descriptions, it’s important you do not exceed Google’s character limits. Since this is where Google pulls the data for your Google listing, it’s vital you include benefit-laden descriptions so people are more likely to click on your Google listing when it appears in google.co.uk.
The below image illustrates the importance of meta titles and descriptions when trying to rank your website in Google:
2. Set up your “Google My Business” Listing
The first step towards Google local domination is to ‘claim’ your listing on Google My Business. Watch this cool video on setting up your free listing.
Ensure you choose the correct categories. If you do not do so, it’s unlikely your website will rank for your chosen keywords in the local pack listings. Upload as many photos as possible. If possible, add a local phone number to your listing. Also, include a long and unique business description. Do not simply copy this description from your website as this will count as ‘duplicate’ content.
Then add a business address that’s entirely consistent with your website and the local directory listings you create (see below for more on this). It’s essential your business name, address and phone number (NAP) is consistent across the various properties you control.
3. Use local schema markup
Another tip is to use Schema.Org markup on your business address, phone number and name as it appears on your website. This will tell Google in clear terms that this is your business’s location. This leaves absolutely nothing open to interpretation.
You can get the schema local markup here. This information will generally appear in the footer of your website.
4. Get local citations/directory listings
To rank in the local results pack, it’s essential for your website to be listing in either local or industry specific directories. Directory listings are also known as ‘citations’. At Max Web Solutions, we ensure our clients’ websites are listed in all the major directories such as Yell and Best of the Web, but we also ensure listings are added to local and industry specific directories.
These directories link back to your website. Google discovers these backlinks using web crawling software. Generally, the more high quality and relevant directory links you have, the higher your chances of ranking in the local search pack.
One tip to help you find relevant directories is to conduct a Google search of your competitor’s name, address and phone number. For instance, ‘LS Heating Edinburgh’ ranks in the local pack for ‘gas fitters Edinburgh’. If we search for LS Heating Edinburgh’s details in Google, we discover a number of directories that might be relevant to your business.
5. Get genuine reviews
Another local SEO tactic that will improve your rankings is to encourage your customers to leave positive reviews. You may incentivise your customers to leave reviews. This is not deemed as false advertising, whilst leaving fake reviews is. It’s important to obtain reviews across multiple channels, such as Google, Yelp and Yell. One tip is to contact existing customers for reviews. Perhaps you could offer them a future discount in return for leaving you a review. Another tip is to include an instructional page on your website that explains how your customers can review your business. Once customers leave reviews, the ‘review stars’ will appear in Google as illustrated below:
6. Build links to your website
The next item on our list is to build links to your website. Links from other websites are counted as ‘votes’ when Google ranks your website. The more votes you have, the higher your website will generally rank. However, not all votes are counted equally. For instance, if you have a link from the BBC, it’ll generally have more weight than a link from a spammy web directory. Google employs ‘web crawling’ software to find these backlinks across the internet.
So how do you build links? The answer to this question is complex, and every SEO professional will generally answer this question slightly differently. However, for the purposes of this discussion, we advise you to go after ‘easy wins’. This means asking friends, colleagues and other people you know to link to your website. Do not offer a ‘reciprocal link’ in return, since Google will discount both links. In fact, Google could even penalise your website if you obtain too many reciprocal links because it sends out a message that you are trying to ‘game’ its ranking algorithm.
One solid method to building links is to request other websites to link to you from their ‘useful links’ page. You can find these pages by searching Google for a phrase such as ‘Gas fitters inurl:.co.uk/useful-links’. This will return all ‘useful links’ pages about gas fitting. All you must do is reach out to the website owner requesting they link back to your website. This process requires you to make many such requests because many website owners will simply ignore your request or simply refuse to comply.
Another variation on this theme is to find ‘broken links’ on ‘useful links’ pages. You simply email the website owner to inform them of the broken link and then suggest they add your link when they come to fix the broken link. Now you are adding value to the website owner’s website, so they are more likely to comply with your link request.
You may use this browser extension for Google Chrome to find broken links.
Here’s a broken link outreach template you may use to build links to your gas fitter website:
Hey Donald,
I recently came across LocalWebsite.co.uk and saw that you link to various local websites. I really benefited from this list of websites when I was working on a rather strange job the other week. Anyway, when I was clicking through this list, I noticed three links were broken.
You can find these links here:
Link text www.linkaddress.com
Link text www.linkaddress2.comHope this helps and keep up the good work. When you fix the above links, I’d also be really appreciative if you could add a link to my new website. You can find my website here: www.mywebsite.com. Let me know if this is possible and I can write a description for the link, or you can use my ‘about page’ to add the description yourself.
Cheers,
-Mark
Want to take your rankings to the top? Get a free 30 minute strategy session with Mark
My name is Mark Ainsworth and I’m a digital marketing director at Max Web Solutions. Over the last decade, I’ve ranked hundreds of local clients in Google for location-specific search terms. For more information, book your free strategy session by contacting me directly on 0151 652 4777. Alternatively, contact me through this website.
Posted on Thursday, April 27th, 2017 in Digital Marketing.
