Podcast Summary

Podcast: Service Business Mastery for Skilled Trades: HVAC, Plumbing & Electrical Home Service
Episode: 433: My Website Review w/ Stephen Christopher from Wit Digital (Part 1)
Date: January 29, 2020
Hosts: Tersh Blissett and Josh Crouch
Guest: Stephen Christopher (Wit Digital)

Episode Overview

This episode launches a new, transparent series where host Tersh Blissett teams up with Stephen Christopher from Wit Digital to openly review and improve Tersh’s home service business website. Their “open book” approach allows listeners to see real successes and struggles as they optimize the site, focusing on SEO, analytics, benchmarking, and digital marketing best practices. The content is rich with actionable insights for fellow HVAC, plumbing, and electrical home service business owners looking to truly understand what their SEO/marketing investments are doing—and how to properly evaluate digital marketing partners.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The "Open Book" Website Review Project ([00:07]–[03:19])

• Tersh and Stephen outline their collaboration: Stephen conducts monthly reviews of Tersh’s website, uncovering what’s working, what needs fixing, and sharing these insights candidly with listeners.

  "Good, bad, or ugly, Steven's on board with sharing our wins and losses and successes and struggles so that everybody can see—like it's open book." (Tersh, [00:25])

• Background: Tersh wasn't proud or satisfied with previous SEO results and wanted expert input. Stephen’s team at Wit Digital has now been working on the site for about two months.

2. Laying a Strong Foundation: Analytics & Tracking ([03:19]–[08:10])

• Setting up analytics is crucial before touching anything else:
  • Google Analytics
  • Call tracking (distinguishing new SEO-generated leads from existing customers).
  • Form tracking/data aggregation.
• Benchmarking: Wit Digital takes comprehensive screenshots of the current site and social profiles to clearly see starting points and track improvements.

  "We take a ton of screenshots ... it's really helpful for us and clients ... to see [what changed]." (Stephen, [05:44])

• Beware of misleading SEO reporting: Many agencies inflate their impact by counting all calls through the website as SEO leads, even from existing customers.

  "A lot of SEO companies ... will just swap out the main number on your website ... and then when you get your reporting, it'll say, oh, SEO phone calls. Well, that's kind of BS..." (Stephen, [06:34])

3. Name, Address, Phone (NAP) Consistency Across the Web ([08:10]–[15:02])

• NAP Consistency improves Google's trust: Essential for SEO to have matching business info across all directories.
• Fixing NAP Issues: Tools are shared to check across 60–80 listing sites.

  "Just pick one that makes sense. Pick the one that's on the side of your truck." (Stephen, [10:16])

• Tracking Numbers Caveat:
  • Main business number should be consistent.
  • Google My Business allows both a tracking and a primary number ([12:06]–[12:49]).
  • Facebook offers flexibility for custom call tracking in CTAs without disrupting the primary listing number.

4. Optimizing Google My Business (GMB) Profiles ([15:15]–[19:15])

• Fill everything out: All services, areas, correct categories, and respond to every review (positive and negative).
• Less is more: Only select GMB categories you truly want to rank for to avoid diluting your relevancy.

  "Every one of those categories ... divides the relevancy of that category by that percent." (Stephen, [16:28])

5. Targeting Service Areas and Keyword Prioritization ([19:15]–[23:51])

• Be specific with geographic targeting, but don’t pad with areas you don’t serve.
• Keyword Research & Rank Tracking:
  • Identify key services and top towns to prioritize.
  • Use data to focus on gaps instead of blanketing every page with SEO changes.
• Don’t change what’s working: Focus efforts on underperforming services/locations ([22:23]).

6. Website Conversion: Ensuring Landing Pages Work ([23:51]–[29:00])

• Quarterly usability audits are performed across new devices and platforms to ensure continued functionality and mobile friendliness.

  "Go to the interior pages of your website on your phone and act like you're a consumer. Can you find what you're looking for?" (Stephen, [25:29])

• Role clarity: Home service business owners should collaborate closely but let the SEO experts drive the technical and strategy decisions.

7. Communication and Reporting Best Practices ([27:10]–[29:21])

• Transparent, regular updates: Wit Digital follows up constantly, not just monthly, with video reports and proactive scheduling.

  "There's always some video saying, 'here’s what we’ve done, here’s what we plan to do, and here’s the results'." (Tersh, [28:15])

• First 100 Days Approach: Inspired by Joey Coleman's book, they focus on a great onboarding and ongoing engagement experience.

8. Results Tracking & Understanding Progress ([30:42]–[44:44])

• Choose keywords and towns that generate business: Don’t be fooled by top rankings for irrelevant or obscure queries.
• SEO can involve temporary losses: Some secondary rankings may temporarily fall as you focus the site toward high-value areas.

  "As we're trying to prove to Google what we want to be relevant for ... some things are going to become less relevant and we don't freak out." (Stephen, [49:56])

• Progress even before phone calls: Showing upward movement for target keywords is a sign your investment is on the right track—long before the phone rings.

9. Technical Must-Dos: Site Speed and On-Page SEO ([34:52]–[44:07])

• Site speed: Crucial for both SEO and conversions. Top slow-down factors include oversized images and unoptimized video in hero banners.

  "You were loading at like eight seconds. Ideally we like to be in the two to three second range… now we're down to around the 5 second range..." (Stephen, [34:52])

• On-page SEO details:
  • Meta titles/descriptions
  • Header tags
  • Avoid keyword cannibalization—don’t optimize multiple pages for the exact same term.
  • Use alt tags on images that are both specific and keyword-relevant ([43:39]–[44:07]).

10. Collaboration & Choosing a Digital Marketing Partner ([54:44]–[59:00])

• Ask your SEO company questions: Clear, constant communication boosts results.
• Partnership, not vendor: Treat your agency as a partner; keep each other accountable and share information openly for the best result.

  "Your digital marketing company is a partner ... Don’t expect them to catch everything. Work with them..." (Stephen, [58:20])

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On honest reporting:

  "If you're not sure what those questions are ... reach out to me or Terse and we'll happily give those to you. I'm always open to talking about SEO and how it can benefit you. And is yours being done well right now or is it not?"
  — Stephen, [53:19]

• On collaborating not micromanaging:

  "You shouldn't be the driver in what's going on. You should be, you know, the passenger and the navigator helping, kind of say, hey, like, I want to go over there. How do we get there?"
  — Stephen, [26:29]

• SEO as a process, not magic:

  "Even though we're not seeing this huge uptick in phone calls this early, we know that that is coming based on all of the data that we're seeing."
  — Stephen, [49:56]

• On digital marketing industry reputation:

  "I just am pretty sure, and I'm convinced that every digital marketing company are crooks ... that's just the experience that I've had so far..."
  — Quoting a potential client, Stephen, [03:34]

• On customer experience:

  "We spent a lot of years figuring out how to do [client onboarding]. And, you know, a lot of our onboarding process came from Joey Coleman's book, How to Never Lose a Customer Again, and creating a first hundred days experience..."
  — Stephen, [28:15]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Intro & series premise: [00:07]
• Establishing benchmarks/tracking: [05:13]
• Explaining misleading SEO call tracking: [07:42]
• NAP consistency for SEO: [08:10]
• Tracking number caveats for GMB/Facebook: [12:06]
• GMB optimization advice: [15:15]
• Category relevance & targeting: [16:28]
• Service area targeting strategies: [19:15]
• Keyword research & prioritization: [22:23]
• Conversion optimization & quarterly audits: [23:51]
• Role of owner vs SEO expert: [25:57]
• Standout client communication: [28:15]
• Choosing where to focus SEO: [30:42]
• Site speed technical troubleshooting: [34:52]
• Hero images, videos, and bounce rate: [36:39]–[39:47]
• Avoiding SEO cannibalization: [40:27]
• Alt tag optimization: [43:39]
• Tracking real progress (ranking data): [44:27]
• Open Q&A: how to get honest SEO feedback: [53:19]
• Agency/client partnership advice: [58:20]
• Free scan tool/resource links: [55:07]

Useful Resources & Contact Info

• Wit Digital Facebook: ItDelivers
• Home Service Marketing Facebook Group: Search "Home Service Marketing" on Facebook
• Free scan tool: witdelivers.com/scan
• Contact Stephen: stephen@witdelivers.com

Final Takeaways

• Transparency and communication are at the core of a successful website and SEO relationship.
• Make tracking and benchmarking a fundamental first step.
• Regular, honest updates—paired with a collaborative, proactive agency partnership—drive sustained results.
• Don’t settle for vanity metrics; focus your SEO on keywords and geographies that genuinely contribute to business growth.
• The right partner is not just an executor but a collaborator, educator, and advocate for your long-term digital success.