For this example, let’s go back to the Keyword Planning that we completed previously for a roofing contractor. Recall our keyword mapping spreadsheet from the previous lesson:
HOME PAGE
The home page is typically the most common point of entry. It is written for and optimized for the brand. As the old adage says, you’ve only got one chance to make a first impression. Your home page is that one chance. It needs to grab a viewers attention and immediately let them know that they are in the right place for their search query.
HERO SECTION
The Hero, or the “above the fold” as it is also called, is the section of the page that is visible to the viewer as soon as they land on the site, before they have decided whether or not to scroll. Most commonly, there is a relevant background image but more importantly, this section needs to include your “who, what and where”. For the home page, your H1 title should be the business name. Below that, include an H2 tag line that says what the business does and where they do it. For “what the business does”, use the primary category from the GBP. If you are torn between which category should be the primary, go with the broadest category for the home page and save the more specific categories for use on each of the respective service pages.
So for our example, we’d have a background image of a roof and our text would be:
<h1>BOB’S ROOFING LLC</h1> (brand)
<h2>Roofing Contractor in Houston, TX</h2> (GBP category plus target location*)
*Your target location will depend on whether it is a brick & mortar, single location vs multi location, SAB, etc., as we discussed previously.
There will be some viewers who already know your brand or for whatever reason, they are already to take the next step without having to read through the entire page. For that reason, include a “contact us” button in your hero section too. For those readers who aren’t ready to call just yet, moving on to the next section…
ABOUT SECTION
- You want to include a decent paragraph or 2 about the company. Include things such as:
- how long they’ve been in business,
- who are their clients (residential, commercial, industrial?),
- are they licensed and insured,
- etc.
When talking about the company, remember to use the keyword variations that we identified in our research. Alternate between roofing contractor, roofing company, roofers, etc. This not only makes the content read more naturally but gives more opportunity to rank for multiple keywords as well.
OUR SERVICES
This is the most important section in terms of SEO. Create a blurb for every service that the business offers. The blurb title must be an H2 to get the maximum SEO benefit. Add a sentence or 2 to summarize each service, then link each blurb to the respective service page.
If you are working with a business that has multiple GBP categories, then you want to have an h2 for each of those categories, and you want your H2 title tags to copy those categories verbatim. Ex: “personal injury attorney”, “divorce lawyer”, “estate planning attorney”.
In this example, we are using a business that offers roofing exclusively. We have already used the GBP category of “roofing contractor” as an H2 in our hero section, so we do not need to repeat it in our services section. Instead, we’ll use the top level seed words that we identified during our keyword research and create a blurb for each of: Roof Repair, Roof Replacement, Roof Maintenance, and Roof Inspections and optional, you could do Emergency Roof Repair or Emergency Storm Damage Roof Repair as a stand-alone page too.
Here, the design doesn’t matter. Give them an icon, image, or whatever. The main thing is that the blurb title is an h2, and the blurb links to the respective service page.
WHY CHOOSE US
Give 3-4 unique value propositions. What sets this business apart? Why should a prospect choose them over the other hundreds of competitors? I ask my clients this during every onboarding call: “What makes you special?” They’re all going to say great customer service, fair pricing, etc. Everyone says that. What TRULY makes this business special? Dig deeper.
WHAT OUR CUSTOMERS SAY ABOUT US
Add some testimonials or if the website is WordPress, use the Google Review plugin to display those, provided they do have some Google reviews. You can select the threshold to display in the plugin settings. It’s free in the WP repository.
OUR WORK
Add a gallery with a few images of their recent work.
OUR SERVICE AREA (THIS APPLIES ONLY TO A SERVICE AREA BUSINESS)
If it is a service area business and they have only one GBP, list the cities/towns that they service and embed the map from their GBP. Each of the cities/towns will ultimately link to a location page as you build out the site further. For the time being, just make them a bulleted list.
If it is a service area business and they have more than 1 GBP profile, use this section to define and link to the location page for each of the GBPs.
CTAs
CTAs, or calls to action, are anything that entices a viewer to take a desired action. It could be a click to call button, click for a free quote button, contact us button, or even a read more link, etc. By taking the desired action, the viewer is 1 step further along in the buying process. Use these liberally on the page so at any point, the reader can take the next step without having to scroll and scroll and scroll to find a button.
UX/CRO
User experience (UX) is an important factor in Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO). You want the page to be easy to read for everyone, including viewers who may have a disability.
- Use enough contrast between font and background colors that it is easy to read.
- Use a large enough font size, generally 14-15px for paragraph text is comfortable.
- Maintain a comfortable line height, 1.3em or greater.
- Avoid fancy fonts that are difficult to read.
- Avoid writing a wall of text. Break it up into short paragraphs, 3-5 sentences each, with some white space or images between sections.
- Use title tags to distinguish sections and sub sections.
- Use sectional dividers to break up the page.
- Write at a 5th grade level.
- Use every day language that the locals (and Google) will understand.
- Be concise. Don’t get so caught up in word count that the page becomes redundant or contains fluff.
- Put elements where people expect to find them. There’s a reason why most websites look similar. Nobody wants to go on a scavenger hunt to find what they are looking for.
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