What if I told you a 6-person plumbing company now outranks national brands on Google, even when those brands are literally throwing money at ads?
That is what happened with S&L Plumbing Co. They focused hard on local SEO, but not in a complicated way. They stacked a few simple web tools, tracked what actually brought calls, cleaned up how they show up online, and kept doing what worked. No fancy agency. No secret formula. Just a small, repeatable system.
Here is the short answer: they win local search by treating their website, Google Business Profile, and review funnel like products, then wiring them together with basic SaaS tools and a few boring habits. That mix is all about three things: be findable, be trusted, and be easy to contact in under 5 seconds.
How a small plumbing company thinks about SEO like a SaaS product
Most trades businesses think SEO is a one-time project. S&L Plumbing Co does not.
They treat it more like how a SaaS founder thinks about their app:
– Ship something simple.
– Measure what users do.
– Fix one clear thing at a time.
– Ship again.
Nothing more complex than that.
They have one core question they use for every SEO decision:
“Will this make it easier for a local person with a plumbing problem to find us and contact us today?”
If the answer is no, they drop it, even if some SEO blog says it is “best practice”.
This mindset drives how they use web tools. They do not chase every new SaaS product. They pick a small stack and stick with it until it stops working.
The core web stack S&L Plumbing Co uses for local SEO
Just to keep this practical, here is a simplified version of their main tools.
| Area | Tool type | What they use it for |
|---|---|---|
| Website | Simple CMS (WordPress) | Service pages, local pages, blog posts, FAQ |
| Tracking | Analytics + call tracking | See which pages and keywords bring phone calls |
| Reputation | Review request SaaS | Send review links by SMS and email after jobs |
| Local signals | GBP + citation tool | Keep name, address, and phone consistent everywhere |
| Content | Simple SEO plugin + basic AI assistance | Help with titles, meta descriptions, and schema |
None of this is rare or special. The part that matters is how they actually use it every week.
Step 1: Publishing “boringly clear” service and city pages
If you look at S&L Plumbing Co’s website, it is not pretty in a design-award way. It is clean, fast, and very obvious.
They started with one goal: every service they want to sell must have its own page, and every main city they serve must have its own local page. No vague “Services” wall of text.
“Each page should answer one question: can this company fix my exact problem in my exact area, and how do I call them now?”
Here is how they structure it.
How they plan their pages
They built a simple content map inside a spreadsheet:
| Type | Example URL slug | Main goal |
|---|---|---|
| Service page | /drain-cleaning/ | Rank for “drain cleaning near me” style searches |
| City page | /plumber-frisco-tx/ | Show up for “[city] plumber” searches |
| Emergency page | /24-7-emergency-plumber/ | Capture high-intent “emergency plumber” traffic |
| Problem page | /water-heater-leaking/ | Catch symptom searches that lead to calls |
They keep language simple. Short sentences. No clever phrasing.
A typical service page covers:
– A clear H2: “Drain cleaning in [City]”
– One short paragraph on what they actually do
– A “Call now” button near the top
– A short list of common problems
– A simple price cue or at least mention of free estimate
– A short FAQ at the bottom
Is it keyword rich? Yes, a bit. But not stuffed. They use words real customers say on the phone.
If you are in SaaS or web development, the principle is familiar: separate use cases into focused pages, watch which ones convert, then add more of what works.
Step 2: Treating Google Business Profile like a second homepage
For local search, half the battle is that box at the top of Google with the map and 3 nearby businesses.
That little map pack is where S&L Plumbing Co gets a huge share of calls. They treat their Google Business Profile (GBP) almost as seriously as their website.
“Most people never see our homepage. They see our name, stars, and phone on Google Maps, then hit call. So we treat that profile like our storefront.”
What they actually do with GBP
They focus on a few routine tasks instead of editing everything all the time.
- Make sure the name, address, and phone are identical to the website.
- Pick a clear primary category like “Plumber”, not something weird or overly niche.
- Add service areas that match actual jobs, not the whole state.
- Upload real photos from jobs every week.
- Respond to every review, good or bad.
- Use short Q&A entries that mimic real customer questions.
One small detail that helped them is how they write the description. They do not stuff it with keywords. They talk like a person, but they include the core phrases:
– “plumber in [city]”
– “water heater repair”
– “emergency plumbing”
Short, honest, and easy to read out loud.
Step 3: Using SaaS tools to capture and grow reviews
The number one ranking factor that S&L Plumbing Co points to when they talk about local SEO is not links or fancy content.
It is reviews.
They did not want to chase people manually, so they added a simple review system that connects their job scheduling tool with SMS and email. When a job is marked complete, a message goes out.
Nothing complicated. Just:
“Thanks for choosing S&L Plumbing Co, would you mind sharing a review on Google?”
With a single clean link.
How they keep review requests natural
Two key things help them:
- They ask in person first, at the end of the job.
- They send the automated message within 30 minutes while the customer still remembers the visit.
For readers who build SaaS products, this is basically a post-transaction NPS flow but pointed at Google.
Over time, the impact compounds:
– More reviews.
– Higher average rating.
– Keywords in reviews like “water heater” or “slab leak”, which reinforce what they rank for.
They also respond to reviews with actual human text. No canned message copied a hundred times.
If someone writes “They fixed my burst pipe at 2 AM”, they reply in a way that reflects that story, not just “Thanks for your business.”
Step 4: Basic tracking that tells them what actually brings calls
This is the part many small businesses skip, and where most SEO talk gets a bit detached from reality.
S&L Plumbing Co did something simple: they set up separate tracking numbers for:
– Website calls
– Google Business Profile calls
– Google Ads (when they run them)
These numbers all forward to the same main phone, but the tracking software logs where the call came from.
They combine this with basic analytics on the website:
– Which page did the visitor land on?
– Did they click the call button?
– What city were they in?
Nothing fancy, but enough to answer questions like:
– Are “emergency plumber” pages worth the time?
– Which city page is sending the most calls?
– Are people finding us by brand name or by problem?
You can think of each local page as a small funnel. You send organic traffic into it, calls come out the other side. Tracking is how they tell which funnels are actually working.
What this looks like in practice
Imagine they see that the “slab leak repair” page brings 60 calls per month, while a generic “plumbing repair” page brings 15.
That leads to clear, practical choices:
– Add more content and photos to the slab leak page.
– Mention slab leak repair more on the homepage.
– Create a “slab leak repair in [city]” subpage for nearby towns.
The data loops back into their content plan without a big strategy document. It feels very incremental.
For SaaS and web development readers, this is almost the same mindset as feature usage analysis. If a feature is used and tied to revenue, it gets more attention. If not, it sits or gets cut.
Step 5: Using content to answer real, local plumbing questions
S&L Plumbing Co does not run a big content farm. They post fairly slowly.
The key difference is that they pick topics from phone calls and on-site visits, not generic keyword lists.
Someone calls and says:
– “My water heater is making a popping noise.”
– “Can you fix roots in sewer lines or is that a city thing?”
– “Do you charge extra to come out on a Sunday?”
Those questions go into a simple list. Once or twice a month, they pick one and turn it into:
– A short blog post.
– Or a new FAQ entry on a related service page.
How they write posts that still rank without being robotic
Most posts follow a calm, predictable pattern:
– A plain question as the title.
– A clear 2 or 3 sentence answer at the top.
– A bit more detail, maybe one or two short sections.
– A reminder that they can help, and how to reach them.
For example, a post like “Why is my water heater leaking from the bottom?” might:
– Explain the most common reason.
– Name one or two cases where it is serious.
– Mention rough repair or replacement outcomes.
– Invite the reader to call if they do not feel safe checking it themselves.
No hype, no scare tactics.
They also use basic structured data (schema) through their SEO plugin to mark up:
– FAQs
– Local business info
– Service types
For developers, this is the sort of task that makes a difference in search rich results, yet only takes an hour when set up correctly.
Step 6: Cleaning up citations and local signals with simple web tools
“Local SEO” people talk a lot about citations, which are just mentions of a business’s name, address, and phone on other websites.
S&L Plumbing Co had the usual mess:
– Old addresses in a few directories.
– Different phone numbers in older ads.
– Slightly different business names.
Instead of manually fixing every directory one by one, they used a local listing SaaS that pushes the correct NAP (name, address, phone) data to many sites at once.
Is this magic? No.
But it does two useful things:
– It reduces confusion for customers who see old data.
– It gives search engines a consistent set of signals about where the business is and how to reach it.
Again, simple and repeatable.
Step 7: Tying SEO goals to actual business outcomes
This part is where S&L’s approach feels a bit different from how many people talk about SEO.
They do not set a goal like “rank number 1 for plumber near me”.
They set goals that are closer to:
– “Add 40 more qualified calls per month from organic search.”
– “Reach 250 Google reviews at 4.7 stars or higher.”
– “Own page 1 for ‘slab leak repair [city]’ plus three surrounding towns.”
They then compare these goals with:
– Closed job count from their booking system.
– Average revenue per job.
– Channel: review-driven, organic search, direct, or ads.
So if organic search brings them an extra 30 slab leak jobs a month, and they know the average ticket size, they can attach clear revenue to their SEO work.
That feedback loop drives which web tools they keep paying for and which ones they drop.
A simple example of how they decide what to do next
Say they notice this:
– City A page: 400 visits, 5 calls, 2 jobs
– City B page: 150 visits, 20 calls, 12 jobs
Instead of trying to get more traffic to City A right away, they ask a practical question:
“Why does City B convert better?”
Possible answers:
– More specific copy people relate to.
– Better photos.
– Clearer call to action.
– Stronger local reviews.
They look at these pages side by side and adjust the weaker one. It is not always perfect, but it is grounded in what visitors are actually doing.
What this means for people building SaaS, doing SEO, or shipping web projects
There is a pattern under all of this that crosses over into your world, even if you are not fixing leaks.
It is the idea that local SEO is not just about rankings. It is about creating a small, practical product around “finding and hiring you” and then improving that product over time.
Some takeaways that carry over well:
- Give each intent its own focused page rather than one bloated catch-all.
- Treat Google Business Profile as core product UI for local customers.
- Connect your transaction system with a feedback or review loop.
- Measure calls or signups per page, not just traffic.
- Answer real customer questions in your content, with plain language.
From a SaaS or web dev angle, there is also a quiet opportunity here. Most local companies are still not doing half of this. Their “stack” is usually:
– A template website they cannot change.
– A GBP profile they set up once and never touched again.
– No review process.
– No tracking that ties visits to calls.
Helping them set up a small, sane web stack like S&L Plumbing Co’s is not glamorous, but it is valuable.
Common questions people ask about S&L Plumbing Co’s local SEO setup
Q: Do they buy backlinks or do big PR campaigns?
A: Very rarely. They get some natural links from local chambers of commerce, vendors, and community sites, but they do not run big link-buying programs. Most of their gains come from reviews, good content, and strong local signals. You could say they under-invest in links compared to typical SEO theory, but their calls keep growing, so they accept that tradeoff.
Q: How often do they change their website?
A: Not constantly. They add or tweak something meaningful 2 or 3 times a month. Maybe a new city page, an updated service page section, or one more FAQ. They care more about consistency and clarity than about constant redesigns.
Q: Is this all something a small team can manage without a full-time marketer?
A: Yes, if they stay disciplined. S&L Plumbing Co has one office staff member who handles review requests and content scheduling, a part-time SEO consultant for structural work, and the owners who provide ideas and approve content. They do not have a big team, but they have a clear routine and a short list of tools.
If you look at your own business or your clients, what is the one part of this process that is missing right now: clear pages, good reviews, tracking, or local signals?
