In today’s digital landscape, having a robust online presence is essential for businesses of all sizes, but especially those in the local service industry. With more people relying on search engines to find what they are looking for, businesses that are easily found online and have a solid online reputation will have a major advantage over their competitors.

So in this post, I’m going to show you how you can improve the local online presence of your service-based business using two fundamental marketing strategies: SEO and PPC

9 best ways for local service businesses to get found online

As a digital marketing instructor and consultatnt, I have had the privilege of not only teaching my students about the importance of combining search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising for businesses, but also experiencing the positive impact of this combination firsthand. Here’s how to leverage these two strategies to drive traffic, generate leads, and maximize a limited budget.

1. Pick the right company and domain name

Naming your business should be a thoughtful process. You want something that reflects your brand personality and is not easily copyable.

As a local business, it can be extra helpful to pick something that aligns with your target audience’s search intent, but don’t force it. I once came across a dentist that named itself “Dentist Near Me” and secured the domain dentistnearme.com. Taking this approach to an extreme certainly has its SEO benefits but it may not always be the best idea as others may follow suit and adopt similar names, potentially rendering the strategy ineffective.

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A helpful tactic is to include your city, town, or service area name in your business name but it isn’t essential.

2. Get your listings in order

Having an up-to-date Google Business Profile is also a great way to improve your local business’s online presence. Regularly update your business information, add photos, and create posts with deals and helpful articles to build trust and credibility with potential customers. You should follow suit for the rest of your online listings as well to increase your chances of ranking in local searches.

This will make it easy for them to find and connect with you.

3. Target keywords with blog posts

Publish keyword-rich blog posts that answer common questions from potential customers—not just about your business specifically but about things related to the products and services you provide.

This will not only improve your website’s search engine ranking, but it will also build trust and credibility with potential customers.

You can use our SEO-optimized blog post templates to get started!

4. Put your highest value CTA at the top right of your homepage

Make sure your website is user-friendly and provides a great user experience. We have plenty of website examples you can browse through here. Implement prominent call-to-action buttons, such as a clickable a phone number in the top right-hand corner and footer, and a large contact form in the footer. These buttons are easily accessible, intuitive, and make it simple for customers to get in touch with you, book a lesson, start a free trial, etc.

Your highest value CTA should go in that right-hand section.

5. Track your SEO performance

In addition to reporting on your PPC performance, you should also keep track of your organic/SEO performance. Use Google Tag Manager and GA4 to analyze SEO metrics and customer behavior against your goals, as well as Google Search Console. You can also use Google Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio) to monitor organic performance.

6. Reduce your PPC spend with location targeting

This is a key home service business marketing tip. One challenge many small businesses face with advertising is a limited budget. One client I worked with had only $10 a day to spend. To overcome this challenge, I used location targeting to reach a 5km radius around the business’s location. This approach helped them save their advertising budget while also reaching the right audience.

7. Bid on commercial intent keywords

When running Google Ads, you have to tell Google which keyword(s) you’re bidding on. While there are tons of keywords relevant to your business, the ones to bid on with your PPC campaigns should have high commercial intent.

Do extensive keyword research to identify the keywords that potential customers would be searching for when looking for what you have to offer. Informational intent keywords should be used for SEO. For PPC, use commercial or transactional intent so that your ads won’t just appear for those searches, but so that they’ll get clicked on by people, and those most likely to convert.

8. Maintain a negative keyword list

In addition to targeting high commercial intent keywords, be sure to use negative keywords—which are keywords that you do not want your ad to appear for. This will prevent your ads from showing up for and getting clicked on by people for whom your product or service is not a good fit.

In my view, even with broad match, this is especially important when your daily budget is low.

9. Set up conversion tracking

Another important aspect of running a Google Ads campaign is measuring your success with conversion tracking. With this visibility, you can harness the campaigns, offers, settings, and strategies that are working and eliminate what’s not and improve your ROAS (Return On Ad Spend).

Check out our list of conversion tracking mistakes to make sure you’re getting the most accurate data possible.

Improve your local businesses’s online presence with SEO & PPC

The best way to improve your online presence for your local service-based business is to use SEO and PPC together. Both will help to improve your presence on the SERP for a wide range of keywords, and with the tips I provide, you’ll be able to reach your target audience and build trust and credibility with potential customers.

Here are the tips I mentioned in this post:

1. Pick the right company and domain name
2. Get your listings in order
3. Target keywords with blog posts
4. Put your highest value CTA at the top right of your homepage
5. Track your SEO performance
6. Reduce your PPC spend with location targeting
7. Bid on commercial intent keywords
8. Maintain a negative keyword list
9. Set up conversion tracking

It’s April and we’re about to make it rain on your business with creative marketing ideas for the whole month.  There’s National Grilled Cheese Day, Take Your Child to Work Day, Autism Awareness Month, Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and more. These observances and themes provide opportunities for you to connect with your customers, express your voice and values, and creatively engage your audience—especially on social media.

Read on to learn all April themes, holidays, and awareness causes you can leverage for promoting your business and see well as real examples from businesses across various industries to give you some creative inspiration.

And for ideas for the whole year, check out this awesome marketing calendar by our friends at LOCALiQ.

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April national month awareness

April presents us with plenty of options for socially aware marketing. Here are some of the many themes and causes recognized in April:

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April diversity, equity, and inclusion

We like to highlight the diversity, equity, and inclusion-friendly observances for each month anyway, but it’s especially important during Diversity Month! Here are the holidays that can help you celebrate diversity:

• World Autism Awareness Day (April 2)
• Palm Sunday (Christian) (varies)
• Passover/Pesach (varies)
• Maundy/Holy Thursday (Christian) (varies)
• Theravada New Year (Buddhist) (varies)
• Good Friday (Christian) (varies)
• Day to Remember Rwanda Genocide Victims (April 7)
• Easter Sunday (Christian) (varies)
• Day of Silence (Students take a day-long vow of silence to protest the actual silencing of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students and their straight allies due to bias and harassment) (April 14)
• Orthodox Good Friday (April 14)
• Vaisakhi (Sikh) (April 13 or 14)
• Yom Hashoah (Jewish) (Sunset April 17 to Sunset April 18)
• Laila Al-Qadr (Islamic) (Sunset April 17)
• Eid Al-Fitr (Islamic) (Sundown April 21 to Sundown April 22)
• Festival of Ridvan (Baha’i) (April 21 to May 2)
• Armenian Martyrs’ Day
• Yom HaAtzmaut (Jewish) (Sundown April 25 to Nightfall April 26)

We have lots of DEI resources here to help you out!

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April holidays

Here is a list of the many holidays and national days celebrated in April that can make for creative marketing for your local business:

• April Fool’s Day
• Easter Sunday
• World Party Day
• Walk to Work Day
• World Health Day
• Siblings Day
• National Grilled Cheese Day
• Tax Day
• High Five Day
• Get to Know Your Customers Day
• Earth Day
• Picnic Day
• Denim Day
• Administrative Professionals’ Day
• Take Your Child to Work Day
• Arbor Day
• Email Debt Forgiveness Day

Creative April marketing ideas and examples

Between your website, blog, social media accounts, and Google Business Profile, there are plenty of channels by which you can share your April content and promotions. Below you’ll find a plethora of creative April-themed ideas from real businesses just like yours.

Autism Awareness Month

Autism affects one in 59 children in the United States. If you or someone you love is affected by autism, this is a great opportunity to raise awareness by getting involved in activities to give back to the community or raising money to donate to an organization dedicated to autism. Here’s a link to get involved in an event near you. Or you can show your support with applicable products, as with the example below:

National Child Abuse Prevention Month

Show your support for National Child Abuse Prevention Month with a blue pinwheel, which is the national symbol for the cause.

Or plant a pinwheel garden at your place of business and share it with your followers in hopes of raising awareness.

Financial Literacy Month

In honor of Financial Literacy Month, publish a blog post on a finance-related topic. Or, encourage followers to start a conversation about how they’d choose to spend extra cash if it fell into their laps. These comments could get pretty creative! This is a great way to increase Instagram engagement and spark a conversation.

Prom season

Many types of businesses can figure out a post to tap into the prom season frenzy. This restaurant is cashing in on the popularity of “promposals.”

Think about posting something useful for parents who may be concerned about the goings-on of prom night…providing helpful information is appreciated by your followers – no one wants to be sold to 24/7.

If you happen to have an offering that is right in line with prom season, don’t be shy about promoting yourself either.

April Fool’s Day

Have some fun with your marketing on April 1. April Fools Day is the perfect excuse to play a practical joke on your customers—just be sure to keep things light and fun. Fitness centers can offer calorie-free cheeseburgers, preschools can offer a class for teaching ABCs to dogs, and massage studios can offer touch-free massages. These are all obvious jokes related to your business. Another way to market your business for April Fools Day is to run a competition for the best prank, or to share photos of your employees partaking in the fun.

National Siblings Day

If you run a family business don’t forget about National Sibling Day. Celebrate your togetherness while promoting your business. Or simply provide ideas on ways to honor the day.

If applicable, run promotions specific to siblings with two-for-one deals. Or you can celebrate by simply snapping pics of all the siblings that come to your location and posting to social media.

The Boston Marathon

WordStream is based in Boston so we’re huge supporters of the marathon, but you don’t have to be local to support it. Show your support for local athletes who are running or traveling with family members running in the marathon. Fitness centers should show their support across the country for the marathoners. Local restaurants can offer “carb loading” pre-marathon meals and massage studios can offer discounts to runners.

Administrative Professionals Day

Make sure to thank your support staff on Administrative Professionals Day. This is a good way to make your business and brand personal on social media and on your blog. Highlight what your support staff does for your business and interview them on your blog or on a video. Customers who interact with support staff will love seeing them in the spotlight!

Get more April social media holidays and ideas to fill your calendar here!

National Grilled Cheese Day

Everyone loves grilled cheese sandwiches so you should absolutely find a way to incorporate a National Grilled Cheese Day post into your feed—whether you own a restaurant or not! See how these non-food related businesses made it work:

 

National High Five Day

On National High Five Day, drum up some customer engagement and ask them to pose for a #highfive and tag them. They’ll likely repost on their own feeds and get you some more visibility.

You could also publish an engaging Facebook post inviting customers to tag people they’d like to give a virtual high five.

Or give your own virtual high five as a thank you or special shout out to customers, vendors, or even a cause you support.

If you’re up for it, think about running a promo that coincides with the number five…it doesn’t all have to be about a literal high five!

Take Your Child to Work Day

If you have kids, bring them to work on this day and tell your customers about it. This is a great way to teach your child about starting and running a business and inspire them to follow their dreams.

Take their picture and post it on social media, encouraging customers to come in and say hello. Make your child the “boss” of the day. Posting pictures or stories on social media is a great way to engage customers and to personalize your brand. Plus, you can show off your adorable children!

Earth Day

Earth Day and Arbor Day are all about nature and trees. Use these holidays as a marketing opportunity for some green marketing. Flower shops can host a class or write a blog about reusing dried flowers for decor, interior designers can provide tips about decorating with nature, and fitness centers can take classes outside for a hike or workout that appreciates nature.

Easter & Passover

Restaurants, of course, can host Easter brunch or advertise their Kosher for Passover menu items. Photographers can run Easter picture specials. Daycares can make a special day for children to take pictures with the Easter bunny. Fitness centers can have a family fun day with an Easter egg hunt. Bakeries can post their themed baked goods to increase their orders. Or, run a “peeps” special like this business did:

Our friends at LOCALiQ have plenty more Easter marketing ideas for you to check out.

Tax Day

Tax Day is a day that people either love (because they’re getting a refund) or hate (because they owe money). This is prime time for accountants to market their business—if they haven’t already. But other types of businesses can benefit from Tax Day as well.

Restaurants and bars can host post Tax Day parties. Retail stores can have after-Tax Day promotions to help people looking to spend their refund. Filing taxes is stressful, so fitness centers or yoga studios can use this as an opportunity to have a boot camp class or a special yoga class. For a little extra fun, incorporate a playlist of money songs.

Or you can do something fun with numbers, like this restaurant did:

Spring cleaning

Spring cleaning is high time for cleaning services, organizers, and interior designers. Use this as an opportunity to give your customers and potential customers tips on how they can spruce up their house for the new season.

Cleaning Services should offer promotions or referrals for new or current customers to jump-start business for the warmer weather. Contractors or construction services should blog or post videos about common issues that arise in the spring. If you’re getting started on a blog, spring cleaning is a great topic for writing your first blog post.

Get to Know Your Customers Day

Get to Know Your Customer Day occurs on the third Thursday of the first month of each quarter, so January, April, July, and October—and is, of course, a great opportunity for interacting with your customers. Post questions on Facebook that engage them in a conversation. Ask for their opinions to help improve your services, what they like about your business, etc.

 

Denim Day

Denim Day is associated with Sexual Assault Awareness. Take a break from self-promotion and educate your followers on the history of the holiday.

Or show your support for victims of sexual assault by asking employees to wear denim to work on this day.

Creatively market your business this April

From spring cleaning and mother Earth to grilled cheese sandwiches and high fives, there are plenty of opportunities to market your business this April. And if you’re looking for more monthly marketing ideas, we’ve got plenty of ’em:

And here’s our full series of monthly marketing ideas

And for a year’s worth of marketing ideas, check out this marketing calendar template from our friends at LOCALiQ.