Keywords for Home Service Businesses, Trade by Trade

Keywords are the words people type into Google. For your business, they're the jobs you do, said the way your customers say them: "water heater repair", "roof leak repair", "AC not cooling", often with the town or "near me" on the end.

So you don't need a list of 500 keywords. You need a page on your website for each job you want more calls for, written in your customers' words, and the same jobs listed as services on your Google listing if it offers them.

The examples below are patterns, not search counts. Swap in your jobs and your town.

What a customer's search is made of

The jobwater heater repairPlus whereyour town, or near meGoogle matchesthe words, and how far you areYour pageabout that one jobThe callfrom someone who needs that job

What your customers actually type

When you search "plumber keywords", you're thinking like an owner. Your customer isn't. They type the job they need done, like "drain cleaning", or the problem in front of them, like "no hot water", and often the name of their town or "near me".

Google says "The most basic signal that information is relevant is when content contains the same keywords as your search query," and that if "those keywords appear in the headings or body text of a webpage, the information might be more relevant." It also recognizes that "many queries have a local intent," and for the map it works out "how far each business is from the customer who's searching."

So you don't need to stuff "near me" anywhere. You need to say, plainly, what you do and where you do it, in the words your customers use. Google's own example is two people after the same thing, one searching "charcuterie" and the other "cheese board." It adds that its "language matching systems are sophisticated and can understand how your page relates to many queries, even if you don't explicitly use the exact terms in them." Still, when the plumber says "water heater" and the customer says "no hot water", a page that uses both says plainly what it's about.

One job, one page

A keyword only helps if there's a page on your website about it. If "water heater repair" is a job you want more of, it needs its own page, not one line on a services page that lists everything you do. That's the idea behind the electrician with a page for every service.

On each job page: what the job involves, the towns you serve for it said in a sentence, the questions customers ask about it, reviews that mention it, and a call button. Give pages to the jobs you want more of and have room for, not to every job you've ever done.

One page per job, not one page per town. Twenty pages that say the same thing with a different town name aren't twenty chances to show up. Google's spam policy lists "Creating substantially similar pages that are closer to search results than a clearly defined, browseable hierarchy" as doorway abuse, along with pages "targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page." We walk through where Google draws that line in location pages vs doorway pages.

A page for each job, not a page for each town

A page for each jobyourwebsite.comhomepage

/drain-cleaningdrain cleaning + your town/water-heater-repairno hot water, water heater leaking/sewer-line-repairsewer line repair near me/leak-detectionleak detection + your town

A page for each town, same wordsyourwebsite.comhomepage

/plumber-town-onesame page, town name swapped/plumber-town-twosame page, town name swapped/plumber-town-threesame page, town name swapped

Where the words go

On the job's page. Put the job in the page title, the main heading and the first line or two. After that, write for the person reading. Google: "Excessively repeating the same words over and over (even in variations) is tiring for users, and keyword stuffing is against Google's spam policies."

On your Google listing, as services. Google says businesses "in certain categories, like service businesses, might have the option" to list services, and "When local customers search Google for an offering you provide, that service may be highlighted on your profile." You can pick Google's suggestions or add your own, and Google asks you to avoid "profanity, gibberish, personal information, prices, or phone numbers in custom service names." Here's what we do on a Google listing.

Not in your business name. "Your name should reflect your business's real-world name," and "Including unnecessary information in your business name isn't permitted, and could result in the suspension of your Business Profile." One of Google's own examples of what not to do is "Midas Auto Service Experts." Adding "Emergency Drain Cleaning" to yours is the same mistake.

The words, trade by trade

Below are the kinds of jobs customers search for in each trade. They're patterns, not search counts: swap in your jobs, your words and your towns, and give a page to the ones you want more of.

Plumber keywords

Plumbing jobs make good pages one at a time: "drain cleaning", "water heater repair", "sewer line repair", "leak detection", "toilet repair", often with a town or "near me" on the end. If a customer's problem is "no hot water" or "water heater leaking", use those words on your water heater page too. And if you really do answer at 2 a.m., a page for emergency calls says so. Rather have us do it? Here's how we market plumbing companies.

HVAC keywords

The trade says HVAC. Customers may just say AC or furnace, and they type what's broken: "AC not cooling", "furnace not turning on", "AC blowing warm air". Give repair and replacement their own pages, because someone with a dead unit and someone pricing a new one are asking different questions. Tune-ups, heat pump installs and duct cleaning each get one if you want more of them. Here's how we market HVAC companies.

Roofer keywords

Roofing splits in two: people with a leak right now, and people planning a new roof. "Roof leak repair" and "roof replacement" are different searches from different customers, so they're different pages. If you do storm damage inspections, that's its own page too. Customers may describe the problem their way: "roof leaking", "missing shingles". Here's how we market roofing companies.

Electrician keywords

Electrical work is a long list of different jobs, and each makes a good page of its own: "panel upgrade", "EV charger installation", "generator installation", "whole house rewiring". Their words are often the symptom: "breaker keeps tripping". A page for each puts the job in a heading and in the body text, where Google says matching words can make a page more relevant. More on how we market electricians.

Keywords for painting contractors

Painting customers often search for what they want painted: "exterior house painting", "cabinet painting", "interior painters", "deck staining". If cabinets are your best-paying work, they deserve their own page with photos of cabinets, not a mention on the homepage. Here's how we market painting companies.

Pest control keywords

"Pest control solutions" is how a company talks. A customer is more likely to type the thing in their kitchen: termites, bed bugs, mice, wasps, sometimes with the problem attached, like "mice in the attic". Each pest you treat, and want more of, is its own page. Here's how we market pest control companies.

Landscaping keywords

Landscaping covers a weekly mowing customer and a one-time design job, and they search differently: "lawn mowing service" against "landscape design". Sod, mulch and irrigation repair are jobs of their own. If you run a tree service, "tree removal" and "tree trimming" are separate pages for separate customers. See how we market landscaping companies.

Every other trade, same rule

Trade	Jobs that could each have a page
Cleaning, including window cleaning	house cleaning, deep cleaning, move-out cleaning, window cleaning
Garage doors	garage door repair, spring replacement, opener installation
Fencing	fence installation, fence repair
Pressure washing	driveway cleaning, house washing
Junk removal	junk removal, furniture removal, cleanouts
Pool service	weekly pool cleaning, pool repair
Remodeling	kitchen remodel, bathroom remodel
Handyman	the small jobs you want more of, each named

Find your own customers' words, for free

Google shows you what your customers type in three places, and your phone is the fourth.

1. Your Google listing's Performance report. Google lists "The search terms people used to find your business." Open your Business Profile, go to Performance, pick a time period and click Apply. Google says "The searches metric is updated at the start of each month. It might take up to 5 days to show up."
2. Google Search Console, if your website is connected. Its Performance report groups results "by the search query users typed." Setting it up is part of getting your website to show up on Google.
3. Google's suggestions as you type. Google says "autocomplete predictions reflect real searches that have been done on Google," and that they consider "The location a query is coming from." Type your job and your town and see what comes up.
4. Your phone. The way a customer describes the job on a call is a good clue to how they typed it. Here's how to see which searches led to calls.

What to skip

• A block of town names in the footer. Google's spam policy lists "Blocks of text that list cities and regions that a web page is trying to rank for" as keyword stuffing.
• A keyword count or percentage. You'll see advice to aim for a set keyword density. Google gives no number, and calls repeating the same words over and over "tiring for users."
• The keywords meta tag. "Google Search doesn't use the keywords meta tag."
• A bought list of 500 keywords. National counts don't tell you what people type in your town. Your listing's Performance report shows what people typed when they found you.