At Rocks Digital, we spend a great deal of time creating high-quality service pages for clients, using web design, content writing services and SEO to deliver results for our local business clients. When you understand that your website is a prime location for conversion-driven content, you’ll know why it’s imperative for business owners to make website service pages a priority.
We also spend an extensive amount of time auditing existing service pages. While this can be a daunting and time-consuming task, in most cases it’s well worth the effort. To get you started, we’ve decided to cover four components and break it down for you. If done correctly, this low-hanging fruit can improve your website’s visibility in search results, drive more traffic to your website – and ultimately get you more customers.
4 Key Elements of a Service Page Audit
We’ve previously shared how to write SEO-optimized website service pages, but haven’t really discussed how to optimize existing service pages. When evaluating an existing service page to see what needs to be added, we focus on these primary elements first.
1. Where does the page currently place in search results?
To begin, it’s important to assess where your service pages currently sit in the search results. Here’s a quick way to check – note the main keywords listed on the page, then run a Google search using incognito mode.
This approach can also be used with Google Search Console by running a performance report. You can use the data to look back at past performance for each keyword.
For a quicker alternative, a paid tool like SEMrush provides all the keyword data you need at a glance.
2. Does the content appear on the first page of search?
After assessing where the content is placed in search, you can take a closer look at the pages outperforming your own service page for the target keywords. Try to determine from a searcher’s perspective whether the content is better than your own and more accurate for the search query.
Is the content easier to read with more digestible sub-headings and bullets? Are keywords better positioned on the page? Does the content include internal links that improve site navigation?
In addition, analyze if the page exhibits more EAT – expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. Google uses these key metrics to determine page quality.
3. What content can you add to your service page to improve its placement?
An effective service page should give both readers and search engines what they want. Remember, writing SEO-optimized service pages does not need to shortchange consumers.
When writing content at Rocks Digital we look for opportunities to improve placement – while also adding value to readers. In practice, this means creating keyword-rich headlines, adding an FAQ section that could be used for rich snippets, linking to authority sites and creating a call to action that converts.
4. Are there types of adjustments you can make to improve the page?
An audit of an existing service page is also likely to reveal opportunities for new content sections, along with other types of changes you could make to the page.
For example, would changing the format of a section to bullets help get a featured snippet? What about adding the headings to include numbers within them? Changes like these (while subtle) can make a big difference.
Perhaps you have a video that would work well on the page. This would help you add a different type of content to the page and also allow you to add video schema, which can help the page appear in video search results.
If you have questions & answers on a page, or the page is formatted to answer specific questions, you can add FAQ schema. This can help with featured snippets, but also potentially get the page listed in the People Also Ask section of search.
Need Results-Driven SEO and Service Page Content Writing?
We’re all about improving SEO visibility for service pages, and making changes like those mentioned above can certainly boost visibility.
At Rocks Digital we combine web design, content marketing and SEO to improve placement in search results for local businesses just like yours. If you’d like to discuss how to increase your web presence, give us a call at (214) 989-7549 or request a website evaluation today.
