Key takeaways
- Start with hours, phone and tracking: a night call that goes to voicemail is a job lost before any ranking matters.
- List only the categories, services and towns your own crews actually cover inside your response window.
- Give every loss type its own page, and add an insurance page and a partner page for plumbers and property managers.
- Put a date on each item, and do a full pass before storm season and the first freeze forecast.
This local SEO checklist for a restoration company has fourteen items you can work through this week, in four groups: Google profile, website, reviews and tracking. Each one is tied to how restoration jobs really arrive: an emergency call at night, a plumber's referral who checks you online first, or an insurance customer comparing two names.
The checklist
- Profile: primary category. Use Water damage restoration service if water losses are most of your work. Add Fire damage restoration service or Mold remediation only for work your own crews perform (Google's category rules).
- Profile: services in the customer's words. Water extraction, structural drying, sewage backup cleanup, board-up, smoke odor removal, mold remediation, emergency tarping. One entry per service, not one long line.
- Profile: service area. Hide the warehouse address and list the towns or ZIP codes a crew can reach within the arrival time you promise, at night as well as by day (service-area settings).
- Profile: hours. Set 24 hours only if a person, not a voicemail box, answers at 3 a.m. If an answering service takes the call, make sure it can dispatch.
- Profile: photos. Your lettered vans and trailers, crews in protective gear, air movers and dehumidifiers set up on a real job. Get the homeowner's permission and keep house numbers out of frame.
- Website: one page per loss type. Water, sewage, fire and smoke, mold and storm each get their own page with the arrival time, the first-hour steps and a tap-to-call button.
- Website: the emergency number in the header. Tappable on phones, repeated after every section, never only in the footer or inside an image.
- Website: an insurance page. Explain what happens with the claim: what you document for the adjuster (photos, moisture readings, a drying log) and what the homeowner should do in the first hour.
- Website: a partner page. A short page for plumbers, property managers, insurance agents and HOAs: how to send a job, how fast you respond, and who to call.
- Website: area pages only where you would take the job. A page for each town inside your response window, with jobs you have done there. Skip towns you would turn down at night.
- Reviews: one fixed moment to ask. Ask every customer the day the drying equipment comes out, and send the link by text that day (Google's review tips).
- Reviews: reply to all of them within a few days. Thank the homeowner by first name, mention the kind of loss, and never repeat claim details in public.
- Tracking: a tracking number on the profile. Put it in the primary phone field, keep your main line as an additional number, and tag the website link so profile visits show up in your analytics.
- Tracking: a lead source on every job. Make source a required field in your restoration job management software or field service CRM, with options for Maps, organic, paid, insurance program and each referral partner.
The local SEO checklist at a glance
Google profile
- Primary category matches your main service
- Service area set, address hidden
- Services and photos filled in
Website
- A page for each main service
- Tappable phone number on every page
- Fast on a phone
Reviews
- Requested from every customer
- Every review answered
Listings
- Same name and phone everywhere
- Duplicates removed
What to fix first
Fix the items that decide whether an emergency caller reaches you tonight, then the ones that decide whether Google shows you at all.
| When | Items | Why this order |
|---|---|---|
| Today | 4, 7, 13 | An unanswered night call or a number nobody can tap loses a job you already earned. Tracking from day one shows what the rest of the work is worth. |
| This week | 1, 2, 3, 5 | Category, services and service area are what Google matches to "water damage" and "flooded basement" searches. |
| This month | 6, 8, 9, 14 | Pages and a source field take longer, and each one gives an emergency caller or a partner a reason to pick you. |
| Ongoing | 10, 11, 12 | Area pages and reviews build over months. They only work if they become a routine. |
If you want to go deeper on item 1, the category guide for restoration companies covers each option and when it fits. For items 11 and 12, see how restoration companies get more Google reviews.
How often to review
Check the profile and the phones monthly, and run the whole list again before the two seasons that bring your biggest call spikes.
- Monthly, about 20 minutes. Read the profile's edit history for changes you did not make, confirm the hours, look at new reviews and replies, and compare jobs booked from Maps and organic with the month before.
- Before storm season. Run all fourteen items. Add fresh storm photos, recheck the after-hours answering setup and confirm every area page still matches where crews can reach.
- When the first hard freeze is forecast. Test the phone path at night: call your own profile number and see who answers and how fast a dispatch happens.
- After every big event. Look for new listings in your area. Storm-chasing outfits and lead sellers often appear after a major storm, and your ranking can shift while they are active.
- Whenever something changes inside the business. A new phone system, a new answering service, a new warehouse or a crew that no longer covers a town means updating the profile and site that week.
For a deeper look at the site itself, the SEO audit guide for restoration companies walks through a one-hour self-check.
How VETS Growth Marketing helps
We work through this checklist with you as a dated project, finishing the items that protect the night call first and the slower ones before storm season. Every change is made in your own Google profile, website and tracking, and you can see it the day it happens. We report in booked jobs by source, not in tasks completed. Book a growth consultation and we will run the fourteen checks on your business and hand you the results, whether or not you hire us.
Sources
- Manage your business category, Google Business Profile Help
- Manage your service areas for service-area & hybrid businesses, Google Business Profile Help
- Tips to get more reviews, Google Business Profile Help
- SEO Starter Guide, Google Search Central