Key takeaways
- Search from the job sites you serve, not from the yard, because results change with location.
- Search Console shows which pages Google has indexed and which searches already find you, for free.
- Try to book a 20-yard on your own site from your phone; wherever you would give up, customers do too.
- Booking widgets Google cannot read and copied town pages are the problems that show up most on rental sites.
An SEO audit for a dumpster rental company website answers two questions: does Google have your size, area and price pages indexed and trust them, and can a homeowner on a phone book a can from them? Most of it takes an owner about an hour, using Search Console, PageSpeed Insights and the phone in your pocket. Then you can check what an agency tells you against what you see.
What an audit checks
An audit checks five things, and each one answers a question you can verify yourself:
Indexing : Are your size, area and price pages actually in Google's index? If a page is not indexed, nothing else about it matters.
Speed and mobile layout : Does the site load fast enough on a phone, held in one hand at a job site, for someone to reach the booking button? Google's Core Web Vitals measure loading, responsiveness and layout shifts (Core Web Vitals).
Local signals : Do the Google profile and the site agree on name, phone, services and the towns you deliver to? Does the profile link to the right page?
Content : Is there a page for each size and rental type, a plain explanation of how pricing works, and real pages for the areas you serve?
Booking and tracking : Can a customer pick a size and a date without calling, and does each booking reach your dispatch software with its source attached?
What an audit checks
Google profile
- Categories and services
- Service area and hidden address
- Photos and review replies
Website
- Speed on a phone
- A page for each service
- Titles and descriptions
Reviews
- How recent they are
- Whether each one is answered
Listings
- Name and phone consistent
- Duplicate listings
Tracking
- Calls tracked by source
- Forms tracked to bookings
Run a quick self-audit
- Search your core terms from the job sites, not the yard. On your phone, search "dumpster rental" and "roll off rental" while you are out on deliveries. Results change with location, so note who shows up in each town, brokers included.
- Search site: plus your domain. Type site:yourdomain.com into Google. Count the results and look for your size pages. If your 30-yard page is missing, Google may not know it exists.
- Open the Pages report in Search Console. It lists pages Google has not indexed and why (Search Console). "Crawled, currently not indexed" on several town pages often means Google did not see enough in them worth keeping.
- Read the queries in the Performance report. They show the searches that already bring up your site. Searches where you sit on page two are the cheapest wins on the list.
- Run PageSpeed Insights on mobile. Test the home page and your most-booked size page (PageSpeed Insights). Note anything marked poor.
- Book a 20-yard for next Tuesday on your phone. Use your own site, with your thumb, and time it. Note every point where you would have given up.
- Open each size page and look for three facts. The weight allowance, the rental period and what an extra ton or extra day costs. Missing facts mean phone calls you have to answer, or shoppers you lose.
- Put the profile and the site side by side. Name, phone number, hours and services should match exactly.
- Read two town pages one after the other. If they say the same thing with the town name swapped, they are thin, and Google treats them that way.
- Send a test booking and find it. Submit the form or the booking, then check that it reached Docket or your CRM with a lead source on it.
Most common problems for dumpster rental companies
The same handful of problems shows up on most rental sites, and nearly all of them are fixable in weeks. Here is how they look and where to start:
| Problem | How it shows up in the audit | The fix |
|---|---|---|
| One "sizes" page for every can | Site search shows a single page for all sizes, so size searches go to brokers | A page or a clearly marked section for each size |
| Prices hidden behind a quote form | Visitors leave from the size pages without booking | Publish the price structure, even as ranges |
| A booking widget Google cannot read | Size pages look nearly empty when inspected in Search Console | Put sizes, prices and rules in the page text, with the widget alongside |
| Bookings on another domain with no tracking | Booked rentals cannot be matched to search | Cross-domain tracking, or a lead-source field the booking fills |
| Copied town pages | "Not indexed" warnings, and no rankings outside the yard's area | Rewrite a few pages from real deliveries, and drop the rest |
| A redesign that blocked search engines | Indexed pages fall away after a site launch | Remove the noindex setting and resubmit the sitemap |
| A profile pointing at an old page | The website button leads to a dead or generic page | Point it at the main rental page |
What to do after the audit
Sort what you found into three groups and put a name and a date next to every item: what blocks bookings, what blocks Google, and what can wait. Fixes to booking and tracking go first, because they pay off on the traffic you already have. Indexing and speed come next. New pages come last, and the local SEO checklist gives them an order.
If someone else does the work, ask to see each fix where you can check it: the page live on your phone, the warning cleared in Search Console, the test booking landing in your CRM. Run the same ten checks again a month later. If you are rebuilding the booking flow, the online booking guide covers what a good one includes.
How VETS Growth Marketing helps
We run this audit live on a growth consultation, on your site and your profile, with you watching. Then we put the fixes in order with dates. When we do the work, it happens inside accounts you own, and each fix is shown where you can check it yourself, with booked rentals as the measure. Book a growth consultation and bring your Search Console login if you have one.
Sources
- Google Search Console, Google
- PageSpeed Insights, Google
- Understanding Core Web Vitals and Google search results, Google Search Central
- SEO Starter Guide, Google Search Central