SEO for Service Industries, How it’s Different and What You Should Do

SEO isn’t a one size fits all approach. While the fundamentals stay the same, there are things that you will need to do different across industries and business types. Getting traffic is the end-all, it has to be the right type of traffic, which is why where the focus is and how the SEO is done is important. When it comes to service industries, there are a few different approaches you will want to take. Let’s discuss how to run a successful SEO campaign in service industries.

But first…

What is a Service Business?

In this context, when we refer to service businesses, we mostly mean businesses that don’t revolve around e-commerce or the selling of tangible products online. SEO for services businesses can include an SEO campaign for an insurance agency or a local realtor. Even a marketing agency would be considered someone that provides a service. So now that we have that defined, let’s jump into how it’s different and a few strategies that can help you when you’re doing SEO in a service business.

How Service SEO is Different

With service SEO there are going to be a few traditional differences than doing SEO for a typical blog or an eCommerce website. Here is how:

It’s More Competitive

Service businesses are usually lucrative ones. This is because there is no product to manufacture and very little overhead to run the business so it results in great margins. Because of this, it can be very competitive. The insurance industry, for example, is riddled with huge companies and agencies are competing for digital real estate. This can make it very hard to compete if you’re just starting out.

A lot of Regulation

One thing you have to be careful within some service industries is the laws surrounding it. For example, doing digital marketing as a financial advisor can be hard. Imagine doing local SEO only to find out that you are not allowed to have reviews. This can create extra challenges.

Ton of Oppurintity

Despite many of these spaces being competitive, not many of them have adapted to the digital age correctly. Everyone is fighting for real estate, but there are a ton of pockets that you can find to be successful. Unlike many e-commerce companies, it is much easier to stand out in a service industry because your “product” is a lot harder to knock off, especially if you find ways to market it correctly.

Doing it Right

There are a few concepts you can take advantage of when doing SEO for a service industry. The few examples we use below would work great for insurance SEO or real estate SEO.

Niche out

The first thing that will give you a huge advantage over others in your space is picking out a niche to dominate. This is a two-fold benefit, on one end it will help you position yourself as the leader in that particular niche in your customer’s eyes, so they will be more like to go to you rather than a competitor. On another end, this will do the same thing in Google’s eyes, they will see you as the expert in your particular niche, and rank you higher in regards to that topic. This will give you a  huge SEO edge and make it easier for you to create a dominant website. This will also make it easy for you to partner with competitors and earn links from them, because they may be in a different niche than yours, so you won’t be directly getting into each other way.

Give Out All Your Secrets

These days the buyer wants to know everything before they even call you to make a purchase. They trust their research more than they will ever trust you. So don’t be scared about giving out all of your information and don’t be worried about your competitors seeing it. What will happen is you will be the main source of information for these people and position yourself as an expert. The more knowledgeable you are on the topic, the more likely they will not want to go anywhere else and would rather work with the expert that gave them all this info. It is a good way to say “look what I know and how I can help you.”

Plug Yourself

One of the things that are a must when doing SEO is to not forget converting that traffic.  Make sure you mention yourself within the content or at least have a call to action somewhere visible to let them know that not only are you providing the information but you can actually help with the solution to whatever you’re educating your reader about.

Focus on Buyer Terms

When lining up articles to write, make sure you pick keywords that indicate the person is farther along in the buying cycle. You want to target keywords that are informational but make it evident that this person is seeking your service and close to making a buying decision. For example, if you’re a realtor, you may want to focus on keywords that discuss moving to your city more than you would want to discuss keywords that talk about vacationing there.

Flex Your Knowledge

Overall the service industries will require you to flex your knowledge if you want to run a successful SEO campaign. Make sure to study your competitors and outdo any content that they have ranking for your target keywords. Roll up your sleeves, show what you know, and earn that traffic!