Skyrocket the SEO of your mold removal company with these 20 proven strategies

What is a 404 page?

A 404 page is the page you land on when the original page you looked for isn't available.

Are 404 pages bad for SEO?

Actually no. 404 pages provide an indirect SEO benefit because they add to a great user experience. They are also there for a reason.

They are to inform users that the page they were looking for is no longer available. 

But what happens next?

How can you have a 404 page that adds to the user experience? Take a look at Hubspot's 404 Page

1. Don't just send your visitors back to the home page - Offer them alternatives, perhaps a list of your core services, a helpful article, or your most interesting blog posts.
2. Stay on brand - Keep the experience consistent with the rest of your site. If your brand generally carries a serious tone, don't use this opportunity to be funny. 
3. Keep the design consistent - You want your 404 to look similar in style to the rest of your website. You don't want  your visitors to think they landed on a totally different website.

At the end of the day, you don't want people leaving your site just because they landed on a 404 page.

You want them to continue to navigate your site and ultimately get in touch!

Now that you've created a sitemap you need to get it to Google. Without that, you haven't done yourself too many favors.

How do you submit your sitemap to Google?

There are several ways to get Google to pick up your sitemap. However, we are going to show you the simplest way.

No coding. No fancy website knowledge is required.

All you have to do is submit your sitemap using Google's Search Console Sitemaps Tool

1. Log in to Google Search Console
2. Navigate to Sitemaps
3. Enter the URL of your Sitemap

You can keep your website secure by ensuring that your site has an SSL Certificate. It is one of the most important aspects of your website's security.

You can see if a website has this certificate based on the URL. A secure website will start with HTTPS and an unsecured website will say HTTP.

What exactly is an SSL Certificate?

SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer. An SSL certificate is a digital certificate that accomplishes a couple of things.

1. It verifies a website's identify 
2. It encrypts information that gets sent to your website's server.

It's a fancy term for a simple concept:

A tool for keeping your user's information safe.

How do you get an SSL Certificate?

Every major website host offers this certificate to their clients. Rather than attempt to explain every scenario for every web host, here are links for the most popular ones, explaining exactly how to set up your SSL certificate.

What is a CDN?

A CDN is a "Content Delivery Network." This is a network of servers that work together to get website content to users quickly. The server that is physically closest to the user of the website is the one that gets used.

Again, more technobabble. In short, it gets your website to people faster.

Why are CDNs good for SEO?

CDNs dramatically speed up load time for the end-user. It gives them the best experience possible.

As we already discussed, page speed is a MASSIVE ranking factor.

Do you need a CDN and if so, how do you get one?

Here's the deal:

If you have a small website, probably not. Your website is already lean enough that it doesn't take a lot to deliver the content to a user.

If you're a larger franchisor with a page for each of your franchised locations, yes, you do. (You know who you are). For the sake of all of your franchisees who send you money every year, utilize this resource to boost THEIR revenue.

Dear franchisees, please make sure that your brand takes note of this article.

If you're on a WordPress site, there are numerous plugins that make it incredibly easy to take advantage of a CDN. Here are 5 really popular options.

1. MaxCDN
2. StackPath
3. Sucuri
4. Cloudflare
5. KeyCDN

If you're using Wix, congratulations! Wix already uses a CDN.

Every other provider has its own nuances to setting up a CDN.

What are meta descriptions?

Meta descriptions are an aspect of a website's HTML code that is intended to explain what a webpage is about. This helps both users and search engines get a glimpse into the content, without having to read the whole thing.

You've probably seen them before and didn't even realize it. This is what a meta description looks like.

Do meta descriptions impact SEO?

Yes and no. Meta descriptions aren't much of a direct ranking factor anymore. After years of abuse, the search engines smartened up. You can't put "mold removal" into your description 5 times and expect a positive effect.

Nowadays, meta descriptions have an indirect effect on SEO. 

Once again, Google wants to offer users a good experience. Google takes into account things like Click-Through Rate (CTR) to determine how well a search result matches what people are looking for.

Click-Through Rate is simply how many people click on a website compared to how many people saw that result.

If a page is getting a really high CTR, that's a positive sign to search engines.

How can you optimize your meta descriptions?

Keep your meta descriptions short and compelling.

You want to encourage people to click on your website. Briefly tell them what the page is about and use words that entice them to click to get the information best for them.

Here are some things you might include:

• Service area
• Hours of operation (probably 24 hours)
• A blurb about your services
• A star rating
• How long you've been in business
• Your phone number

Check to see what search results look like in your city and then think about what you could do to set yourself apart from the field.

Why Are Reviews Important?

In this section, we're specifically talking about the reviews in Google My Business. They're another factor incredibly important to local SEO for any mold removal company.

Reviews indicate how popular your business is in the community and what kind of experience you're giving customers.

Both the number of reviews and the rating are important. Both are shown in Google Maps

All things considered equal, a company with more reviews at a higher rating will rank better than a company with either fewer reviews or a lower rating.

How can you optimize reviews?

A lot of companies never focus on this because they think reviews are something that happens naturally. 

You get what you get, right? We disagree.

You tend to get what you ask for.

Although you can't change the rating you're given, you can do the following: Influence what people write.

How can you influence what people write in their Google My Business reviews?

Here's what you can do:

When you ask for a review say something like:

We've already explained why reviews are important to the local SEO performance of your mold remediation company.

We also established that the number of reviews is important.

How can you get more reviews?

We're going to outline 2 different ways that you can get more reviews.

1) Getting more reviews through email

Hopefully, you're already engaging with your customers after your work is complete. A simple thank you email can go a very long way.

When you do email them, why not ask them to leave a review? Encourage them to share their experience with their world. 

Google gives you an amazing way to take this even further. Google will hand you a link that you can share directly with customers. 

1. Log in to Google My Business
2. Click "Home" and "Share Review Form"
3. Copy the link

Once customers click that link, they'll be taken directly to a place where they can leave a review.

It's a huge time saver, making it more likely that they'll actually share their feedback.

2) Get more reviews through a dedicated thank you page

Setting up a review landing page is a phenomenal way to solicit more reviews.

After customers purchase from you or submit a contact form, send them directly to a page where you request their feedback.

Here's where you apply all the things we just spoke about.

• Ask them to leave a review
• Tell them what to talk about
• Send them to where you want the review

If you apply this step and the one we mentioned previously, you'll end up with a ton of raving reviews with unbelievable SEO value.

Why is customer engagement important?

We already know that Google loves a good user experience. They also love engagement. Engagement comes in a variety of ways.

Generally speaking, businesses that are constantly interacting with customers are able to provide a better user experience. Engagement is an indication of user experience.

Good user experience = Better rankings

How can you engage with customers?

There are a number of ways that you can engage with customers.

 1. Respond to all of your reviews - Good or bad, respond to the reviews, no matter where they are posted

 2. Publish posts in Google My Business

 3. Take advantage of the Q&A section of Google My Business

 4. Posts photos of your team, your services, your office, and anything else that makes you relatable

We can guarantee that your competitors are not doing these things on a regular basis. By having a high rate of engagement, you'll stand out from the crowd, Google will reward you.

This one is a trick that rarely gets talked about. Truth be told, it's a little shady, though totally legal.

We're neither encouraging nor discouraging this. We're bringing it up so that you're aware of what is happening in the marketplace.

Your business name is your business name, or is it?

Have you ever seen companies showing up in Google maps and their name is something like "Mold Remediation Fort Lauderdale?"

Pretty annoying, right?

Naturally, something named "Mold Remediation Fort Lauderdale" is going to rank pretty well locally. How are they doing that?

A lot of companies are filing a DBA (Doing Business As), using a name that will rank well in search results. As long as you have filed a legal DBA you're allowed to use this name in Google My Business.

We're not saying that the business above is doing that. It's purely for illustrative purposes. But you get the point.

Legal? Absolutely. Shady? You better believe it. Effective? Very.

Worth it? That's up to each individual business owner's ethics.

This is one of our favorite link building methods for mold removal companies, and disaster restoration companies in general. It's tried and true. It works in every industry. Over and over again.

Here's how you can steal backlinks to bump up your own search rankings. 

Let's pretend that you're a mold removal specialist in Frisco, Texas. You recently set up a website and now you're ready to grow. You realize that in order to rank well on Google you'll need backlinks. What do you do?

Start by going to Ahrefs.com. It's a paid SEO tool. One of the best in the industry and well worth the small investment.

Navigate to "Keywords Explorer."

Enter the keyword you want to appear for.

Scroll down to "SERP Overview." You want to look for competitor websites. Ignore sites like. Yelp, BBB, HomeAdvisor. To the right of each website, under "Backlinks", you can see how many backlinks your competitors have.

Clicking on the number under "Backlinks" allows you to see exactly who is linking to your competitor. 

In this case, PuroClean is getting a link from this directory. Now you can reach out to that directory, get your name listed, and have the exact same link as PuroClean. Rinse and repeat that process for all your competitors.

Wouldn't it be awesome if you could see what people are actually searching for without:

• Guessing
• Doing Surveys
• Trusting Keyword Research Tools
• Asking customers over the phone

Well, it turns out you can.

Made possible by none other than our favorite friend, Google. To access this feature, you'll need to connect Google Search Console to your website.

Login to Google Search Console and select Performance.

Underneath the line graph, you'll see a table. Make sure "Queries" is selected.

On the right-hand side, you'll see a column called "Impressions." This tells you exactly how many times your website is showing up in search results for a given phrase.

Knowing the most popular phrases will help you narrow down your content strategy to focus on the terms that matter most.

Fiverr.com has become incredibly popular for getting things done at an incredible price. In many cases, you can get incredible value from freelancers who call Fiverr their home.

Purchasing backlinks from Fiverr is not one of the cases. It's a horrible, terrible idea. Stay away at all costs.

Unknowing business owners flock to Fiverr because they know they need backlinks. However, they don't know how to get them.

A Google search takes them to marketplaces like Fiverr. These sites are full of sellers promising to deliver amazing backlinks for mold remediation companies, for a very small fee. In fact, they claim to work for any business. There are over 12,000 of these services.

DO NOT BUY THESE LINKS

They are traps for your business. The promise of quick success.

In the end, it will hurt your business. Purchasing links is against Google's guidelines. Eventually, they will notice and your website will suffer. Your rankings will drop significantly.

Coming back from that is a long and expensive journey. When it is all said and done, Fiverr links will be the most expensive links you could ever buy.

Don't do that to your business. Hire a professional. Consult an expert.

Link building is important but it must be done the right way.