The 5 Marketing Priorities for a Home Service Business, in Order
By Clay Lawrence, Review Harvest · · 10 min video
The short version
Work on five things in this order: optimize your Google Business Profile, get quality reviews every week, follow up with every lead by automated text and email, make your website clear about the next step and about what you do and where, and stay somewhat active on social media. The Google Business Profile comes first because it is the easiest to fix and is where many home service businesses get most of their customers.
Do this, in order
- 1
Optimize your Google Business Profile
Fill out every section: hours, FAQs, services and service areas. Set the primary business category to the service you most want to rank for, add relevant additional categories, and upload real photos of you, your team and your branded vehicles.
- 2
Get quality reviews every week
Ask every customer for a review, and have an automated system do the asking after each completed job or invoice so it does not depend on someone remembering. Google is weighting how recent your reviews are, not only how many you have.
- 3
Follow up with every lead until it is a booked job
Set up a simple automated text and email sequence so no lead goes unanswered. Keep a person monitoring the texts so that when someone replies, you reply, turn it into a quote, and turn the quote into a booked job.
- 4
Make your website convert and tell Google what you do and where
Put a clear call to action at the top of the page and let people either call or request a quote online. Add pages dedicated to specific services and service areas so Google knows what to rank you for and where.
- 5
Stay somewhat active on social media
Have a profile on the other platforms and post a couple of things every week. You can sit down once a month, plan the content, and be done. Do this only after the first four are in good shape.
Why does the Google Business Profile come first?
It is the easiest thing to fix and the one that brings in the most customers. Some home service businesses get 70 or 80% of their customers from their Google Business Profile.
Search “HVAC companies near me” and look at the page. At the top are Google Guaranteed ads, where businesses pay $50, $60 or $70 a call. Then cost-per-click ads at $20, $30 or $40 a click depending on the area. Below those is the map pack: three organic local listings. The people searching there are looking to buy today, many of them scroll straight past the ads, and every click and call from those three spots is free.
To get your profile ready:
- Type your business name into Google while signed in with the email that manages the profile.
- Click Edit services and add all of your services.
- Click Edit profile and add your service areas and hours.
- Click Business category and set your primary category to the one you want to rank for. Think about the one service that makes you the most money and leads to other work. Or run a local search and see which category the businesses ranking for your term use.
- Add any additional categories that are relevant.
- Upload photos of you, your team and your branded vehicles. Stock or AI-generated photos hurt your conversion rate. People want to see the owner and the technician who will be coming to their house.
Having your main keyword in your business name, such as “plumbing” for a plumber, is one of the most powerful ranking factors. Clients have gone from barely ranking to showing on the first page across 80% of their service area that way. Adding it to your profile name is technically keyword stuffing, and there is a right way and a wrong way to do it.
How many reviews do you need, and how often?
You need new five-star reviews every week. Reviews raise your ranking and build trust with the people comparing you to someone else, and more trust means more sales.
Recency is what Google is pushing. A business that had just started using Review Harvest was nowhere to be found on Google. Two days and 10 new reviews later it was number two in the local pack, above a business with 167 reviews, while having only 20 itself.
The easiest way to keep reviews coming is an automated system that asks every customer. Get your technicians and staff to ask too, since more requests is better. But people get busy, forget, find it awkward, or the customer says yes and never does it. An automated system connects to the software you already use and sends the request each time you complete a job or create an invoice.
What does a good lead follow-up process look like?
A simple automated text and email sequence, with a person watching the replies. This step gets skipped because it feels overwhelming, but that is all it takes.
When a lead answers, a human responds, turns the conversation into a quote, and then turns the quote into a booked job. Here is what it costs when you skip it: a contractor came out and gave a quote, the homeowner said he needed to talk to his wife, they decided to go ahead, and the contractor never followed up.
What should your website do?
Two things: turn visitors into leads, and tell Google what you do and where.
For leads, make the next step obvious the moment the page loads. A good example has a clear value proposition, a line about 24-hour emergency service, and a “schedule now” button at the top. A bad example has blurry red text that blends into the background and contact details only at the very bottom. Visitors often leave after four or five seconds, so most will never get that far. Offer a quote form as well as a phone number.
For search, name your services and your service areas in the content. Build pages dedicated to individual services or service areas. A headline like “Expert plumbing and drain services in Tampa” tells Google the main service and the main area in one line. It is real work, but ChatGPT can help you produce additional pages relatively quickly.
Where does social media fit?
Last, and only once the other four are in good shape. Google is still where most home service customers come from. But more searches now happen in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Facebook, and those tools look across your Facebook page, LinkedIn, Instagram, Yelp listing and directories.
You do not need a complex strategy or several posts a day. Have a profile on each platform and post a couple of things every week. If you have no profile at all on those platforms, your ranking in AI searches will suffer.
Common questions
What is the most important marketing for a home service business?
An optimized Google Business Profile. It is the lowest hanging fruit, it is relatively easy to do, and some home service businesses get 70 or 80% of their customers from it. It is also the only way into the map pack, the three organic local listings that people looking to buy today tend to click.
What is the Google map pack?
The map pack, also called the local pack or snack pack, is the top three organic listings Google shows for a local search, below the paid ads. Depending on who you ask, 40 to 50% of search traffic goes to one of those three businesses, and the clicks and calls cost nothing. You get there with an optimized Google Business Profile.
How often does a business need new Google reviews?
Every week. Total reviews, star rating and review quality all still matter, but Google is pushing review recency. If you are not getting five-star reviews every week, competitors who are will start ranking above you.
What should a home service website have at the top of the page?
A clear value proposition and a clear call to action, such as a schedule now button, so a visitor knows the next step right away. Give people the choice to call or to fill out a quote form online, because many do not want to pick up the phone. Do not make them scroll to the bottom to find your contact information.
Do home service businesses need to be on social media?
Yes, but last. ChatGPT, Perplexity and other AI search tools look at your Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Yelp and directory listings when deciding which businesses to show, so being completely inactive hurts you there. A couple of posts a week is enough, and it only makes sense once your Google Business Profile, reviews, follow-up and website are handled.
What is LLMO or AIO?
LLMO stands for large language model optimization and AIO stands for artificial intelligence optimization. Both mean ranking higher in AI search tools such as ChatGPT and Perplexity. These tools take a more holistic view of your business across many platforms, so your Google Business Profile and website are not weighted as heavily as they are on Google.
