How to write a service page for a home service company

A homeowner in Columbus texts the office line: "I looked at your website. Do you do tankless water heaters?" You do. It's one bullet on the Services page, between drain cleaning and gas lines, and she couldn't find it.

The fix is a page for each job, written for the person about to pick up the phone. Where Google's or the FTC's own pages say something, I'll say so. The rest is what I'd do.

What does a service page have to do?

It answers six questions before the buyer has to ask. Do you do this job, where, how does it go, roughly what does it cost, can I trust you, how do I start? One bullet in a list answers the first one, at best.

Those buyers don't call to say why, so the page has to answer before they go.

Which jobs deserve a page of their own?

A job earns its own page when customers ask for it by name or you'd quote it separately. Tankless water heaters, repipes, panel upgrades and standby generators qualify. So do vinyl siding, fiber cement siding and storm repair for a siding contractor. A faucet swap can share a page with the other small repairs.

Start with the jobs you want more of, even if they're rare today. I'd write the three pages you're proud of before the twelve you could fill. Our local SEO plan by quarter adds one page at a time.

What goes on the page, and in what order?

Put the parts in the order a buyer asks the questions, and lead each part with its answer. Here's one page laid out that way for a plumbing company in Round Rock.

Every line has to be true for your company. If you don't haul away old heaters, don't claim it.

Two lines are hard to write: the price and the reviews.

I'd give a range you'll honor for the standard job, say what moves it, and write the month you checked. The FTC lists price among the claims that matter to a buyer's decision, and says advertisers need evidence for their claims.^[1] I'd treat "licensed and insured" the same way: show the license and the certificate, or leave it out.

Photos and reviews have their own posts: how to photograph your jobs and how to ask for Google reviews.

What does Google say about a page like this?

• Titles and headings. Google wants a distinct, descriptive title on every page, and warns against repeated or copy-and-paste text in titles.^[2] Its self-assessment questions ask whether the main heading is a descriptive, helpful summary.^[3] I'd name the job and your main town once in the title and once in the main heading.
• Length. There's no preferred word count, Google says.^[3] Its starter guide adds that length alone doesn't matter for ranking: no minimum or maximum, though you'd probably want at least one word.^[4] I'd stop when the six questions are answered.
• Links. Google generally follows only regular links with an address, and wants link text that describes the page it leads to, not "click here".^[5] It also says every page you care about should be linked from at least one other page on your site.^[5] I'd link every job page from the Services page, by name.
• Photos. Google reads the text around a photo, captions included, to work out what it shows.^[6] It calls alt text the most important attribute for describing an image, and says it doesn't index CSS images.^[6] Ask your web person whether your job photos are regular images, not CSS backgrounds.

What should you avoid on a service page?

• A copy for every town. Google's spam policies name city-targeted pages that funnel visitors to one page as doorway abuse.^[7] Our post on when city pages help and when they become spam has a find-and-replace test. I'd say where you work in one sentence.
• A heading and a phone number. Google's people-first checklist asks whether a reader leaves feeling they've learned enough to reach their goal.^[3]
• Stock photos. A buyer can't judge your work from someone else's.
• Copied manufacturer text. Google's starter guide says not to copy others' content in part or in its entirety.^[4] The FTC tells catalog sellers, online ones too, to ask a maker for proof instead of just repeating its claims.^[1] I'd link the spec sheet, write what you install and why, and drop any claim you can't back up. If a chatbot drafts it, see using ChatGPT to write your website.

How can you check one page in ten minutes?

Read it on your phone like a stranger, and work down this list.

1. Cover the logo and read the heading and the first two lines. Can you tell the job and the town?
2. Find the phone number and the form without scrolling, then again at the bottom.
3. Look for what's included, what isn't, and a price range or a plain line on how you quote.
4. Check that every photo is yours, with a plain caption. Ask your web person about the alt text.
5. Tap each link. The link text should say where it goes.
6. Hand the phone to someone outside the company for a minute. Ask what you do, where, and how they'd book. Whatever they hesitate over, fix that first.

Then ask each new caller which page they read, and write it in your lead log. For the hand-the-phone test with a timer, see the five-second test.

If you'd like a second opinion, our website clarity audit looks at your site the way a first-time visitor does on a phone. The Expert Action Plan ($149) is the full report plus a 30-minute consultation. Neither writes the page for you.

Where the page stops and Google starts

Google's starter guide says it has no secrets that automatically rank a site first.^[4] A change can take anywhere from a few hours to several months to show, and the guide suggests waiting a few weeks before judging.^[4] A clear page can still sit behind a competitor's, and it won't change what your Google Business Profile says.

If a new page never shows up at all, the cause may be indexing, not writing. Start with why your website doesn't show up on Google, then check the page in Search Console.