Wednesday is for the questions people ask at the counter. This week's is the one every plumber, cleaner, groomer with a van and mobile hairdresser hears straight after how much: do you come to me?
It sounds simple. It costs you bookings when the website does not answer it, because the customer is not going to ring to find out. They will try the next business, whose site says "Stockport, Marple, Bramhall and Cheadle" in the first line.
The four lines that answer it
- Your base, in one line, at the top. "Based in Heaton Mersey, Stockport." People want to know where you start from, because they know distance is what you charge for.
- The towns you cover, by name. Not "the North West". Not "a 20 mile radius". The actual places. If you cover eight towns, list eight towns. A customer in Marple searches for Marple.
- What happens at the edge. "Further out, we still come, with a £20 travel charge." That one sentence turns a no into a yes for the people just outside the list.
- A map people can read. A plain map with a pin on your base and the area shaded is worth more than a paragraph.
One page per town, done honestly
If you really work in several towns, give each one its own short page, written about that town: the jobs you have done there, the streets you know, the parking, the local quirks. That is the page that can match when someone in Marple searches "plumber Marple".
What you must not do is make ten copies of the same page with the town name swapped. Google calls those doorway pages and treats them as spam, and customers can tell too. A town page has to say something true about the town, or it should not exist.
The question behind the question
When someone asks "do you cover my area", they are really asking two more things: "how soon can you come", and "what will the trip cost me". Answer those on the same page. "Usually within three working days. Emergencies the same day. No call-out charge for quotes." Three sentences, and the customer has nothing left to ask before they book.
For shops and salons
You are not mobile, so the question flips: "how do I get to you". The answer is your full address with the postcode, which car park to use and what it costs, the nearest bus stop, and whether there is a step at the door. The step matters more than people think.
The concept sites we built for a plumber, a café and a dog groomer each handle this in their own way, and they are all made-up businesses, so you can see the idea without anyone's real address on it. Example businesses, for illustration.
Google's guidance on doorway pages, for the curious, is in its spam policies.
Dale, Pagefive