SEO for Pool Cleaning Services: The Ultimate Guide [2024]

What is Pool Service Search Engine Optimization?

Pool service search engine optimization (SEO) is a set of strategies that help pool service companies grow their online presence by ranking high in search engine result pages (SERPs).

This involves optimizing their websites for business-related search terms, such as “pool service company near me,” to drive organic traffic and capture clicks, ultimately generating leads that may become customers.

In practice, pool service SEO involves the following:

• Discovering pool-related keywords

• Creating optimized, helpful, and high-quality content

• Link building

• Internal linking

• Website technical optimization

We’ll dedicate later sections to covering each strategy in detail.

Why Invest in SEO for Pool Services?

Investing in SEO to rank on the first page of SERPs is crucial since the second page is a digital graveyard.

Most internet users would rather execute another search query than view the second page. Semrush’s recent research report proves a connection between high rankings and click-through rates.

Therefore, it’s almost certain that companies without a solid SEO strategy will have a practically dead website—no clicks, traffic, or conversions.

Investing in SEO campaigns allows you to reach local customers searching for pool contractors online. For example, look at the search traffic for the “pool cleaning services” keyword from Ahref.

BrightLocal’s recent survey findings also agree with this data—87 percent of customers say they used Google to evaluate local businesses.

Here are other benefits that validate embracing SEO strategies. 

1. Saves advertising costs: Generating leads with a low-cost strategy like SEO allows you to spend less on paid traditional and digital marketing channels.

2. Generates measurable results: Compared to traditional marketing strategies such as TV and radio, SEO results are measurable with the right tools like Google Analytics, Semrush, and Ahref. Therefore, you can track your performance and identify where to improve.

3. Attracts high-quality leads: SEO helps your website appear when prospects search for your services. This boosts sales and reduces customer acquisition costs (CAC).

4. SEO is scalable and repeatable: You get from SEO what you put into it. As you create more content (input), you can rank higher, generate more website traffic, and attract more leads. This makes SEO extremely scalable.

5. Delivers customer behavior insights: Search engines like Google often rank websites and content that meet searchers' (aka customers') needs. So, tracking search engine ranking metrics and how visitors act on your website tells you what customers expect and need.

What Types of SEO Should Pool Cleaning Companies Know About?

Pool cleaning companies can implement the following SEO strategies to increase the odds of their web pages showing up at the top of the SERPs:

• Local SEO: Encompasses strategies that help your website appear for local-intent keywords such as “pool company near me.”

• On-page SEO: Involves optimizing web pages to rank on Google. This includes linking between related pages, publishing helpful content, and more.

• Off-page SEO: External actions outside your website to boost its search visibility and authority. Strategies include building quality inbound links, distributing content on other channels, etc.

• Technical SEO: Optimizing your website’s backend and technical aspects to increase rankings. This includes improving your website’s loading speed, minifying its HTML code, and optimizing its architecture. 

How to Do SEO for Your Pool Service Company

Here’s a breakdown of the pool service SEO strategies we’re going to cover:

Let’s explain them further.

1. Local SEO for your pool business

Local SEO is optimizing your website for local-intent keywords so it ranks high in local search results.

This SEO strategy generates high-quality leads as people searching with local-intent keywords are often looking to hire a pool technician right away.

Local search results typically have two major sections—the conventional organic blue links and the local map pack.

The local map pack displays a list of three high-ranking local pool cleaning businesses and their details and a map insert with pins identifying their locations.

Here’s how to earn a position in local search results and increase the odds of getting featured in Google’s local map pack. 

Create and optimize your Google Business Profile

Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) is a free business listing service companies use to decide how they appear in search results.

Your Google Business Profile (GBP) is a key local ranking factor. Google search engine bots use its information to decide how to display your company in local result pages and validate your credibility.

After creating your GBP, use the following tips to optimize it:

• Include business details such as your company name, phone number, address, and a brief service description.

• Keep updating your profile to ensure the information is accurate and consistent with your other listings.

• Use a phone number with your coverage area’s local extension.

• Obtain Google’s Guarantee badge.

Get reviews

Reviews are a key Google local search ranking factor, as they lend credibility and legitimacy to your company. Most customers also read reviews and evaluate a company’s review response rate before picking a local business.

When picking companies in the local map pack, Google considers the quality and quantity of reviews. Here’s how you can increase your review quantity and quality:

• Encourage technicians to solicit reviews by offering them rewards for each positive review.

• You can request reviews upon a job’s completion, send review forms via email, or include a review panel at the foot of customer invoices.

• Respond quickly to customer reviews, whether positive or negative.

• Leave a postcard with a customer containing step-by-step instructions for leaving online reviews.

To enhance review requests and management, ServiceTitan’s Reputation Management feature helps pool cleaning companies automate the customer review request process with three key features:

• Automated review request workflows: Set up customer review request workflows triggered immediately after a technician clicks “complete” on their mobile tablet.

• Review monitoring and listings management: Using one central hub, you can view and respond to reviews from different listings. You can also monitor your company's appearance on different listings to ensure information consistency.

• Review tracking: Tie each review to each technician and job. 

With these features, you can generate reviews with less effort and better manage your online reputation, which boosts your local search rankings and credibility.

Build citations for your pool service business

Citations refer to online mentions of your business. Claiming and creating listings in directories and other places across the internet is a good practice for increasing your local rankings.

Beyond creating listings, you must ensure the details—name, address, and phone number (NAP)—are consistent. Your website can rank higher if search bots crawl and discover your online mentions have consistent and accurate information.

Optimize your website for local search

Google uses your website’s information to weigh your relevance to a user’s search query. Therefore, it’s advisable to signal to Google’s algorithm about the areas you serve by:

• Creating a homepage with details of your area, contact information, and services. 

• Including a brief description of your services and embedding a pinned map insert on your About page.

• Creating location-based and service-specific pages that target only one keyword (more about keyword research in the next section).

• Including your location and services in your meta descriptions and meta titles.

Besides local SEO, another way to generate local and high-intent leads is to run Local Services Ads (LSAs)—special ads that allow customers to contact you directly from the search page.

To supercharge your LSAs, consider using ServiceTitan’s Local Services Ads integration. It empowers pool service providers to stay on top of LSA job bookings by automatically pulling them into ServiceTitan’s CRM.

ServiceTitan’s Local Services Ads integration also delivers performance insights via intuitive dashboards that reveal each LSA’s profitability, allowing you to identify campaigns to pause or discontinue.

2. Keyword research

Keyword research refers to finding the search terms potential customers use when searching for your company and analyzing them using metrics such as search volume, keyword difficulty, and popularity. 

It’s the foundation of every other SEO strategy.

Keyword research is important because using keywords correctly can improve search rankings.

Keyword research involves two steps:

• Finding keywords

• Picking the right keywords

Finding keywords

To find potential keywords, you can use Google’s Auto-complete feature and Related Searches section.

Simply search a pool company–related keyword and wait for Google’s predictive algorithm to generate a list of keyword suggestions.

Then click on any keyword suggestion and scroll down to the Related Searches section.

Repeat this process for each keyword suggestion.

You can also use specialized SEO tools such as Google Analytics, Semrush, and Moz to find keywords and discover what competitors are doing to rank.

Picking the right keywords

The next step is strategically narrowing your keyword list to a select group that matches your website's achievable ranking potential.

To do this, use specialized SEO tools to evaluate each keyword:

• Search volume is the number of times users search a certain keyword monthly.

• Search intent is what the user expects to achieve by searching that keyword. You can identify the search intent by looking at the content ranking on the local search results for that keyword.

• Keyword difficulty is a metric that describes how competitive a keyword is and how challenging it is to rank for it.

You should pick a keyword with the right search volume and difficulty balance. Also, match each page with the search intent. 

For example, a page optimized for “pool safety tips” should contain detailed tips for ensuring pool safety, and a page optimized for “pool cleaning equipment” should contain a list of basic pool cleaning equipment and instructions for using it.

3. On-page SEO

After picking the right keywords and creating your website, the next thing is applying on-page SEO.

On-page SEO optimizes your website’s content to generate traffic and rank high on search engines. It involves strategically placing relevant keywords in your website’s content, optimizing meta descriptions and titles, etc.

Search engines scan your website's content for relevant keywords. This helps them understand if your website matches a user's search intent, ultimately determining whether it appears in search results.

Here’s how to implement on-page SEO:

• Use SEO-friendly meta descriptions and titles: Include each page’s target keyword in its meta description and title. Both should be kept short (51–60 characters for meta tiles and 50–160 characters for meta descriptions) and aligned with the page’s content.

• Link to related pages: Always link to at least one other page to help search bots easily crawl and index your website. 

You can also include navigational links (found in the menu or sidebar) and footer links (found at the bottom of a web page) to encourage website visitors to stay longer on your website, potentially boosting search rankings.

• Use headings and subheadings: Structure each page’s content with headings and subheadings—H1 for titles, H2 for topics, and H3–H6 for further explanations.

Read more about implementing on-page SEO strategies.

4. SEO Content

This refers to keyword-optimized content covering what potential customers are already searching for.

The goal is to rank, provide helpful information to searchers, and potentially convert them into new customers.

For example, you can create content on pool maintenance tips to attract clients who maintain their pools. This positions you as an expert, making your company the first name that pops into their head when their pool needs attention.

Here’s how to create SEO content:

• Find the topics to write about: Use our keyword research tips, ask customer-facing employees about customers’ frequent complaints, and search online pool industry forums.

• Write the content: Align it with the keyword’s search intent and break it up with subheads and bullet points. You should also include images and relevant keywords.

• Build links to the content: Link to related pages on your website and build backlinks to it (more on this later).

5. Technical SEO

Beyond creating optimized content, you must make your website discoverable to search engine bots. Otherwise, your content won’t rank. That’s where technical SEO comes in. 

Technical SEO refers to enhancing your website’s technical aspects so that search engine bots can discover, understand, and index it. 

Some important technical SEO elements to know for your pool service’s website are the following:

• Robots.txt: This file contains instructions directing Google’s bots on the pages to index and which to ignore. Regularly check it to avoid accidentally preventing Google from crawling important pages like blog content or service pages. 

• Sitemap implementation: This is a list of all your website’s key pages. Create and submit your website’s sitemap to Google to make it easier to crawl and index all pages.

• Page speed: It’s crucial to ensure your website loads fast, as Google uses page speed as a key ranking factor. Website loading speed also impacts customers’ buying decisions. Use compressed images and minify your website’s source code to increase your page’s speed. You can measure your page’s speed with Google’s PageSpeed Insight tool.

• Mobile friendliness: Optimizing your website for mobile devices is crucial, as most website visits occur on mobile devices. Also, Google prioritizes your website’s mobile version for indexing and ranking.

Use Google’s mobile-friendly test to discover if your website design is mobile-friendly. 

• Website architecture: Clear website architecture makes it easy for search engines to navigate, crawl, and index your website. Organize your website pages using a logical hierarchy so that every page is easily accessible, just a few clicks away from the homepage.

• HTTPS: This secure variant of HTTP prevents hackers from intercepting sensitive data between your web server and the user’s browser. Google ranks websites with HTTPS protocol higher to protect users.

6. Off-page SEO

Off-page SEO refers to strategies employed outside your website to increase rankings and discoverability. The goal is to improve the site’s authority, relevance, and popularity.

Key pillars of off-page SEO include getting quality backlinks, earning local citations, and generating branded searches.

• Link building: Build links to your website from other sites. You can use guest articles, contact local directories, etc.

• Claim unlinked mentions: Find sites that mention your brand, use your images, or misspell your domain name without linking to your website, and encourage them to do so. You can use Google Search or specialized SEO tools.

• Partner with local journalists and website publishers: Connect with journalists and local website publishers to provide quotes for relevant news articles. You can also organize special events, such as free workshops and fundraising events, to earn mentions on local news websites.

7. User experience

Beyond evaluating your website’s technical aspects, Google considers users’ experience when interacting with your website to decide your search ranking.

Excellent user experience (UX) also keeps visitors returning, signaling to Google that your website is valuable and generating even more traffic. This can propel your website to the top of search results.

Here are some basic ways to increase your website’s user experience: 

• Leave sufficient white space around design elements.

• Use relevant examples and analogies to explain technical subjects.

• Include images and infographics.

• Use relevant CTAs with anchor text that matches what’s on the other side of the link.

• Have a clean web page structure.

What SEO Practices Should Pool Cleaning Businesses Avoid?

Implementing the abovementioned strategies can increase your website's ranking, although it might take a little while. We advise against using black-hat SEO techniques to cut corners.  

Black-hat SEO involves strategies that violate Google’s terms of service. While these strategies might yield quick results in the short term, they can lead to penalties or even bans from search engines, ultimately hurting your website in the long run. 

Here are examples of black-hat SEO strategies to avoid:

• Stuffing keywords in your Google Business Profile name: Avoid overusing keywords in your listing so Google doesn’t ban or suspend you.

• Paying for backlinks: It’s not advisable to try to manipulate the Google PageRank algorithm by paying for backlinks. If discovered, the algorithm will discount the backlinks (meaning they won't help your ranking) or de-index your website entirely.

• Keyword stuffing: Don’t jam-pack your content with keywords to rank higher in search results. Keyword stuffing damages your website’s authority and can cause Google to remove your website from SERPs entirely.

• Excessive backlink exchanges: Reciprocal link schemes are red flags to Google’s algorithm. Using them can get your website banned from search results.

What SEO Tools Should Pool Cleaning Contractors Know?

Here are some free tools for researching and analyzing keywords, tracking SEO performance, and optimizing your website quickly:

• Google Search Console is a free tool for monitoring your website’s performance in organic search results. It delivers data insights about which keywords people use to find your website and any pages with issues.

• Google Analytics provides data reports on your website’s conversion, bounce, and lead acquisition rates. You can use these insights to support your SEO efforts and track the customer journey.

• Google Keyword Planner is a free tool from Google Ads that helps you find and analyze target keywords. It can provide pool-cleaning keyword ideas and metrics such as search volume and cost per click.

Over to You

Applying the above strategies can help you rank highly on search engines, allowing you to appear prominently whenever someone needs a pool cleaning company. This can generate leads.

Remember to use the right tools to track and measure your SEO campaign’s performance.

Consider using pool cleaning company software like ServiceTitan to support your SEO efforts with other marketing campaigns and generate positive online feedback.

ServiceTitan is a cloud-based software designed to help home services providers streamline their business processes, deliver exceptional customer service, and generate more revenue. Over 100,000 contractors nationwide trust the software.