This example is for a business that does pressure washing, but the same ideas work for any site.
First, make a list. Who locally is your competition?
I don’t mean who are your enemies. I mean, if someone is looking for someone to pressure wash, who locally might they think of? Make a list. I use Microsoft Word.
Look for their websites. Put a link to each website below the name of each business name.
Next, Google “pressure washing” and see what comes up. Ignore the paid ads at the top of the page.
Look at what comes up by the map. If these are not businesses on your Local Competition list, add them and the link to their business. (This might be a good time to add your business to the map, if you haven’t already.)
Now look at the businesses that show up on the first page. Ignore anything that is not actually a business offering pressure washing. Home Depot selling pressure washers is not your competition.
List these businesses with the link to their site.
If someone is using the internet to compare, these are the sites that they will be comparing.
DO NOT PLAGIARIZE
Now, you have a list of businesses and links.
Look at each of these sites and list the pages on each site. They may have different names, but they will likely have these pages; Home, Services, About, maybe some other pages…
Don’t steal their words. But take notes on what each of these businesses puts on their pages.
This gives you a really good idea for what should be on each page of your site. Just find what applies to you and your business and write it in your own words.
Make it easy for someone to be able to compare. Make it clear what services your business offers and why they should choose to call you.
Be really sure to make it easy to contact you. People should not have to click a Contact page to find your contact information. It should be on every page of your site, prominent and easy to find.
If you only work in one area, make it clear where that is. This should be easy to see on every page, especially the home page.
Remember, a search may not bring someone to the home page of your site. Make sure that whatever page is the first page the visitor sees, they know what and where your business is.
Keywords and Phrases for Search Engine Optimization
Don’t get bogged down with writing for search at this point. It might be good to just target a single search phrase.
If you were going to try to find a business exactly like yours, what words would you put into the search bar. Google may give you some other optional phrases. Scroll to the bottom of the search results page to see the Related searches. Click on a couple of those to see if the results are a better fit.
Once you have settled on a single phrase that you think is the one most likely to be used by someone looking for you, look at what you have already written. You probably have already used this phrase or something similar.
If you find you have something similar, try putting the words you’ve already come up with into the search bar. If the results go directly to one of the sites you used as a model for your words, perhaps you have inadvertently plagiarized. Modify your site so that it is not copying theirs so closely.
Decide which phrase is best. Then use it exactly three times on your Home page. Try once as a Heading, once in your first paragraph, and once as a text link to an inner page on your site, likely Products/Services.
Don’t stuff in every variation of search phrases you can think of. Just focus on this single phrase at first.