How to Use SEO for a Cleaning Business with a Blog

Find out how using SEO for a cleaning business blog can give you all the free advertising you want.

It’s true that using SEO for a cleaning business blog sounds like the realm of marketing whiz kids and all sorts of computer magic and it can indeed be. However, when you’re in the cleaning industry, you find all kinds of ways to do a great job with the tools you have. This means you don’t have to be an expert to get the job done.

Is there anyone who hasn’t made it through a big job while working short-staffed? Managed to keep a dying floor buffer running just long enough to finish what you started? Pulled a few tricks out to make those mop heads last until the next shipment arrives? 

Let’s back up, though. What the heck is SEO, and why does it even matter? SEO stands for search engine optimization. That means that when you go to Google, and search for “janitorial software,” for example, one of the first things you’ll see (after you scroll past the ads) is yours truly– Janitorial Manager. That’s because we’ve optimized or “tuned” our website, so when people look for a janitorial software, they can find us. 

Think of it as walking into your local retail shop during a holiday, like Halloween. They “optimize” the store by decorating their doors and windows and putting all sorts of Halloween candy and decorations right upfront so you can find what you’re looking for. SEO for a cleaning business (or any business) works in much the same way. People are looking for a commercial cleaner, so they go to Google and search for something like, “cleaning company Dallas,” or “Miami cleaning business.” 

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Bid on jobs, manage projects and inventory, and so much more with Janitorial Manager. Get in touch with us today to schedule a free demo to see all the great features!

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How to use SEO for a cleaning business blog (and why you need a blog in the first place)

So we know that SEO sets up your website to give people what they want. Why bother with a blog then? Imagine walking into that retail store after Halloween, but they still have all those Halloween items in the front of the store. That might be fine for a few days, but slowly the end of the year rolls around, and then Valentine’s day but your store doesn’t have any Valentine’s decorations; they still have pumpkins and costumes out. 

It doesn’t seem like that store changes their inventory very much. They still have the things you want, like paper towels and laundry detergent, but it’s a bit boring walking in when it looks the same month after month. Meanwhile, there’s another retail store a block away. They have paper towels and laundry detergent, too. Plus every week, they have new window displays, and they change the decorations in front of the store, so there’s something interesting every time you walk in. It’s fair to say this store would probably get more attention and customers. 

Google thinks of your website the same way you think of these stores. When there’s always new stuff, it’s more interesting and Google gives it more attention. Where a website is mostly static, including things like your contact information, your specialties, and a little about your business, when you include an active blog on your website, you’re always giving Google new stuff to look at. That means more and better results when people search for a commercial cleaning business. 

There’s a bit more to it than just activity, though. It needs to be relevant. You can write blog posts all day long about baseball or your favorite hot dog or the rains down in Africa; that’s not going to help anyone looking for a commercial cleaner. 

Along with relevancy, you also need keywords. This is the real secret to perfecting SEO for a cleaning business blog. What are keywords? Keywords are the words or phrases you type into Google when you want to find something. 

Here’s where it gets a little tricky. You can take entire seminars and courses on SEO, keywords, and so on. There are also services like Ahrefs and Semrush that work well if you want to sign up for a subscription, but we’re going for simple and straightforward here. 

To attract people to your blog and website, you have to use the keywords they’re looking for. How do you know what they are? Here’s your quick and dirty guide to figuring out SEO for a cleaning business blog.

Write down what you think people would look for. That could be anything from “coronavirus cleaning” to “Brooklyn commercial cleaning company” to “cleaning company for offices.” 

Search for these phrases and see what comes up. Here are two examples. In the first one, we searched for “janitors in Brooklyn.” As you can see, the first results were job listings for janitors. That tells us that your customers probably aren’t using that search term. 

Next, we searched for “office cleaning Brooklyn.” The results here were much better. You may even notice other keyword phrases in these results that you can try, like “janitorial cleaning in New York.” 

 

As a bonus, Google gives you related search terms at the bottom of the page. 

If you really want to get into the details, such as how much competition there is for a keyword and how many people search for it, you can use Google’s keyword planner. Here’s what that looks like:

It can be a lot to take in, but the important part is that first column that tells you the average monthly searches. 

It turns out, for example, that no one is searching for “commercial cleaner Brooklyn,” but there are 70 monthly searches for “Brooklyn office cleaning,” and 260 monthly searches for “New York office cleaning.” 

Right beside that column, you have the level of competition for each keyword. In this case, both keywords have low competition. 

Now what? 

Now you have to use those words in a blog post! Write a post about “How to Find Brooklyn Office Cleaning Companies,” or “What to ask your New York Office Cleaning Company about Coronavirus.” Use your keyword phrase a few times throughout your post, but don’t stuff them in there; just do it naturally. To give you an idea of what this might look like, the keyword for the blog post you’re reading right now is “SEO for a cleaning business.” You’ll find it a few times in the blog, as well as in the title and subtitle, but hopefully, it feels natural and reads smoothly. 

When you’re done writing, publish the post to your blog, then start writing your next one. Remember, Google likes an active blog, so keep it rolling. You got this!

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Make your business stand out with Janitorial Manager, software designed by janitors, for janitors. Contact us today for a free demo and learn about all the fantastic features!

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