How to Get More Water Damage Restoration Jobs FAST

Growing your water damage restoration business and getting jobs might not be as hard as you think it is, especially if you haven’t tested out internet marketing before.

When you hear those words, however, you likely feel dread and are tempted to click away because people are cold-calling and cold-emailing you every day about their SEO, Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Web Design, and other services.

But, hear me out, at least for a couple of minutes. Because, if by end of this article you haven’t been convinced to at least test internet marketing, nothing will convince you, and you’re better off doing something else anyway.

Having that said, this guide will show you from A to Z how to get more water, fire, and mold damage restoration jobs FAST!

Let’s get into it!

How Water Damage Marketing Works

Water damage marketing is a bit different compared to marketing for most other types of businesses, like, for example, dentists, restaurants, hotels, and lawyers.

The key is that water damage marketing has, on average, a much shorter sales cycle, so you don’t have a lot of time to convince a customer that you’re their one-stop shop for all of their water, fire, and mold needs.

Many of your customers won’t even read past the first couple of sentences on your site before they call you.

And then there are the customers who won’t even read your website at all.

This type of customer behavior changes the game because we have to go all out to convince the customer in the first couple of sentences that they can indeed trust us.

How to do this?

Let’s rewind for a bit.

"Need" vs "Want" Marketing

What do all of the types of businesses I’ve mentioned before have in common?

I am referring to lawyers, restaurants, hotels, and dentists.

You hire them when you want to hire them.

Sure, you don’t hire a lawyer because you really want to, but you don’t have only a couple of hours to make a decision. Instead, you take your time, dig, and do your due diligence before you find the right expert for your needs.

You go to a restaurant when you want to. You don’t need a restaurant to eat, you can cook yourself, but you are still going there for the experience.

None of this is the case with restoration companies. Your business is not “sexy”, and customers ideally would never want to hire you in their life.

They only do it when they HAVE to. They don’t have the choice. Which is why your marketing shouldn’t be the same as that of a local restaurant.

It all starts with the platform.

What Platform Works Best for Restorers?

So, what platform should you invest your resources in to get more restoration jobs?

There are only two that are really worth it – Google and Facebook, out of which Google is the clear winner, whereas Facebook should only be used in very specific scenarios.

Instagram, TikTok, and others are not as useful. Why?

People on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok aren’t there because they’re looking for something specific. Quite the opposite.

They’re there to just scroll around, maybe exchange some texts, and that’s it. The only types of ads that can draw their attention away from the meme they just saw to an ad from a restaurant are if it’s “cool” or “sexy.”

Restaurants can do this, but you can’t. So you have to find a better option.

And because of this, Google is IDEAL for restoration companies:

People use Google to find SPECIFIC information
People on Google aren’t there to waste time, just to get to the point and find their answer
People trust Google the most out of all the “big tech” firms

Google has a 90% market share in the search engine business. Most people see Google as a “default” for finding their answers, like “how to cook [XYZ] meal” and “best restoration company in [their city].”

The only time I’d consider using Facebook is when there is a bigger storm or a flood that affects a large portion of the population in your target area and when the chance of an average Facebook user in your city needing a restoration service drastically increases. But that’s a few weeks per year, not an entire year.

How to Use Google to Get More Restoration Contracts

Let’s get into it. How do you actually get the business? How many customers can you even get on a monthly basis?

First, you need to know how we’ll even get them. To give you an idea of what we’re going to be doing, take a look at the image below:

Different Google Marketing Channels

Google search results show up when a user, your potential customer, looks up a keyword. Then, they’ll see (in order):

Local Services Ads, also known as Google Guaranteed
Text Ads, also known as “classic” Google Ads
Google Business Profiles, often referred to as GBPs or GMBs
People also ask section, which is of not much use to us
Websites

Our marketing strategy will involve claiming a spot in each of these sections (or some of them) to position ourselves in front of customers ready to buy.

Market Research

Calculating your potential monthly customer acquisition is actually pretty easy. It involves the following steps.

1. Sign up for Mangools

Simply go to Mangools.com, open up an account with their 2 week free trial, and go to their KWFinder tool at:

https://mangools.com/kwfinder/

2. Enter Your Location and a "Head" Keyword

You want to narrow down your research to only your city because, well, if you don’t serve Fort Worth, you aren’t really interested in the demand there unless you’re planning to expand (more on that later on).

A “head” keyword is the main search term in your niche. This will be the search term customers use to find companies like yours the most.

We can verify the intent behind it and its variations is highly commercial. Nobody Googles “water damage restoration near me” unless they’re:

A customer looking for a company to help them (majority)
Competition checking out their market and who is winning over them in the search (minority)

And this “head” keyword is usually [your service] + “near me”. In water restoration, that would be “water damage restoration near me”, in mold that would be “mold remediation near me”, and so on.

Once you look up a keyword, you’ll see a screen like this.

Add up the volume as shown in the image, and the blue number “Search” you see down left will show total monthly demand for the “head” keyword and its variations in Dallas County (example area I chose; I know it’s really competitive there in this industry).

Then, you apply to following calculations.

🥷 Ninja Tip! 🥷

Look up all services you're selling with a "near me" modifier - "mold remediation near me," "fire damage restoration near me," "carpet cleaning near me," "commercial cleaning near me," "crime scene cleanup near me," and others, and then search all of them again but put [your city name] instead of "near me" to get the full picture. This all quickly adds up to thousands of potential leads per month.

3. Industry Standard Calculations - Here's How Much You Can Make

So, now we’ll calculate just how many jobs you can get.

Here are industry standard click-through rates (visits from the entire traffic) for all of the assets on the first page of Google. And no, nobody goes to the second page.

Local Services Ads get around 3% of all traffic
Text Ads get 1%-2% CTR
GBPs get the highest CTR, with each GBP in the top three getting 15%-20% of all clicks
The first site gets 20% CTR, the second 15%, and the third site 10%
The rest of the page takes a little bit of what’s left

In theory, this would mean that, out of 4,500 monthly searches for water damage restoration across the entire Dallas County, if you were a #1 website and a #1 company among all Google Business Profiles, you’d get 40% of all traffic, which would equate to 1,800 targeted potential leads.

Again, these would be water-only leads. When you apply these calculations to all the services you’re selling, you’ll realize the true potential of Google marketing.

Here’s the actual money you can make. Most websites get 2%-5% conversion rate (phone calls you’ll get from the total number of clicks). That’s the default, and anything above means you’re very good at what you’re doing.

And then, the average close rate across all industries is 20%. In restoration, I can confidently say it’s more because it’s an emergency service. Let’s take a 30% close rate, although we know it could be more.

The average water damage repair job is $3,000, while I am fully aware a job can be worth much, much more to you.

The exact amount of money you’ll make is:

(1,800*5%)*30% = 27 customers per month * $3,000 = $81,000 per month

Once again, from water jobs only.

BUT, just because this sounds great, it doesn’t mean it will happen to you. There can only be one company that’s #1 on Google. And in Dallas County, there are hundreds of competitors you’re dealing with.

Most of them don’t do marketing on Google as well as they should, true, but the ones that do are more than enough.

Now, I’ll show you how to get to the #1 spot. Keep in mind that I am not an Ads expert, and will only talk about GBPs and websites.

Google Business Profile

Google Business Profile (GBP) is your company’s most valuable asset. It will be used for collecting your customers’ reviews and also ranking for keywords.

The first step to using a GBP is to get your company verified.

Get Verified

If you have not already, make sure to verify your business on Google.

Follow Google’s steps to open a location, and apply the following tips:

Keep the business name 100% correct and match your LLC’s name (you don’t have to include “LLC” though)
Enter “Water damage restoration service” as a category
Opt to NOT show the address before verifying. Google considers “water damage restoration services” as “service area businesses,” meaning that customers don’t need to visit your address and therefore you should have yours hidden (although many companies have them displayed after).
Enter your service area. NOTE – Enter city by city for the best results. DO NOT enter a large area, like an entire state. Enter cities within 10 miles of your location, max.
Enter your website and phone number. Now, you don’t really need a site right away but having one helps A LOT to get verified

And boom, you’re good to get verified. You’ll likely be asked for video verification. This one is a bit tricky, but once you get through it, you don’t have to worry about this again.

How to record a video?

Start by walking outside your office and make sure you have some kind of signage indicating your business is at that location. Also, look for street signs near you that prove the street address is valid.
Turn on the recorder, and tell Google who your are (your personal name), the business name you’re trying to verify, and then record the business and street signage.
Quickly record any vans outside with your branding, if you have them.
Walk inside the office, showcase your equipment, your team, and then enter your desk where you have business documentation.
Google looks for any utility bills that have your BUSINESS (not personal) name on them, along with the address you just said you’re based at. Also, company formation letters or annual fillings can be used.

You’re done! The trick is that all of this should be recorded in less than 1-2 minutes.

Once you submit a video, it might take a day or a few days to get approved.

How to Rank Your Google Business Profile

Once you’re verified, it’s time to get ranked.

Now, I’ll quickly outline the steps you need to take, but not that I wrote an eBook-long article on how to rank higher on Google Maps, and I highly encourage you to go through it because it goes DEEP into how Google Maps results work.

Here’s a quick overview:

Fill out ALL of the fields (except “Products”). You’ll have the “Services” option show up as soon as you get verified, and make sure you add all the services you provide. Google will make many autosuggestions, like “water damage restoration,” “mold removal,” and so on. Select all that apply.
Add as many photos as you possibly can. Google loves images and video, so use any media you have. When I take over a client’s GBP, I immediately upload dozens of photos at the beginning. Customers also like seeing these. DO NOT use stock photos.
Enter an in-depth “Description.” In this field, you’ll list out all the services you provide and the CITIES you serve (not just a county name).

You’re done.

Then, you’ll go back to your “Edit services” tab, click on each service you’ve added, and further add an additional description to each of your services.

You’re going to post at least once a week. If you truly can’t make a post once a week, 1-2 times a month at least.

And then, it’s all a matter of reviews. At the start, leverage all your connections, business partners, and existing customers for reviews. Never have anyone leave biased reviews, because it will show.

From there, ask every single customer you have for a review, RIGHT AFTER they see the results. This is when they’re the happiest and most excited.

Do this consistently.

Also, post and upload project photos and videos consistently. That’s it with a Google Business Profile.

Website

What will truly rank your Google Business Profile is your website.

You might be like: “Wait, what does a website have to do with anything?”

Well, my friends, it does. In fact, this is where I would give special attention to because most of your competitors’ websites are dog s**t! If you put some effort into it to stand out with a website that has a great portfolio, case studies, and testimonials, you’re way ahead.

Why a Professional Website?

Here are the main benefits:

Websites, if ranked, can get the same amount of business as the top GBP on search
Without a website, you can’t truly build “prominence”, a local ranking factor (more about that later)
Google “reads” websites and feeds the data to your GBP, making up for easier ranking
People click-through your GBP to your website, and if they have nothing to see, they will “bounce”
If you ever want to run ads, you’ll need a site

How to Make a Great Website?

Now, this could be a series of blog posts on its own. But essentially, you first want to understand the “library” concept. A library has a ton of content, and it’s all perfectly segmented. A section for drama, a section for horror, and so on.

Your front page or homepage—the main page people will see—is like a library. It has different sections, and they are all separated from each other. A “section” for services, a section for service areas, and more.

The main mistake I see business owners make is trying to rank for a few keywords with every page of their website.

For instance:

site.com/water-damage-repair-houston
site.com/mold-removal-houston
site.com’s homepage also has “Water Damage Repair Houston” in the title

And so on.

This is a mistake.

Your homepage’s job is to just serve as a “hub,” where things you do are all listed out, and then there are dedicated pages on your website that further elaborate on each of the topics.

On the homepage, you simply want to list out your services, service areas, a little bit about your company, contact info, reviews, gallery, and that’s it. Each of these sections will then have dedicated pages that go in-depth:

This is how you should ideally structure your restoration website.

If all of this seems complicated, it’s because it is. It took me a few years of doing SEO before I figured out the perfect way to do this. And it’s only my way of doing it; many other SEOs have their own approaches, many of which are also great.

To elaborate on the “Service Areas” section, most get confused. The “city 1,” “city 2,” and other pages on your website would target an audience from each of the cities you serve.

Sticking to our Houston example, you likely wouldn’t just serve Houston, but the entire Harris County, which has many other cities, like Pasadena, Katy, and others.

You would want jobs from all of these locations, not just Houston itself, and the way to get them is to rank a page in each of the cities whenever someone Googles “water damage restoration Katy,” “water damage restoration Pasadena TX,” and so on.

Website Content

You’re likely wondering what you should even put on a website. Let’s take an example page—a service page for water damage restoration. I like to follow this approach, step by step.

The page starts off with a large banner photo with a title on it that says something like “5-Star Water Damage Restoration Service.” Right below, I’ll list out a few key bullet points on why our company stands out (100+ 5-Star Reviews, BBB+ Accredited, Licensed and Insured, etc.). I’ll also make sure to add social proof right away (more on this later).
Below this first part of the page, I’ll add some additional social proof. Company accreditations, a project worth pointing out, being featured in the media, and more reviews are all an option.
Then, I’ll dive deep into the benefits of the service. Why water damage restoration? Well, not only does the damage pose risks of disease (especially to children and the elderly), but it also decreases home value. Say things that will hit the deepest in the consumer’s mind.
After that’s done, I’ll list out the different types of damage we can repair. For mold, these would be the types of mold we can remove.
From there, I’d go about answering most commonly asked questions customers might have. If you have a lot of experience, perhaps you can name these off the top of your head. But if not, that’s okay; simply use the “People also ask” section I mentioned right at the beginning of the article.
Lastly, after answering 3-5 questions, before ending the page, I’d simply mention our service areas and other services we provide. That’d be it.

Social Proof

Social proof goes a long way on your website. Most people won’t actually read past the first few sentences/paragraphs on any of the pages they visit, so you need to make those count.

Right at the top of every page, add your social proof:

The blue line circles a review that site users see RIGHT AWAY, as soon as they visit the page.

The yellow line circles the company’s accreditations, establishing credibility, and the red line circles a review slider, which showcases ALL of the company’s reviews and perfect rating.

This SIGNIFICANTLY increases the trust people will have in calling this company for their restoration needs.

There are more tips on website design and SEO, but these are a great starting point.

Link Building and Reviews

Once the site and GBP are done, what next?

Follow my article on building your prominence. That is all of your work from there.

Unfortunately, in some cases, especially in very competitive areas like Dallas, Houston, and others, it’s not enough to just have a great website and a GBP. You need that prominence.

What the h**l is prominence?

Prominence, simply put, is how well-known your business is across the web. Google uses a few methods to figure this out:

Reviews

The more and better reviews you have, the more prominence you have and the higher you’ll rank. But it’s not GBP reviews alone that matter. Google picks up reviews from other sources to the web and adds them all up.

Backlinks

Again, I suggest you go through the post I linked a couple of sentences earlier. It outlines what backlinks are, why they matter, and how to get them fast.

But in an essence, you want to do these things:

List your business on directory websites and social media websites. Here’s your to-do list: Yelp, YellowPages, BBB, Alignable, Indeed, Glassdoor, ZoomInfo, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Houzz, and Nextdoor.
Fill each of these out with information, don’t just make blank profiles. Upload some photos.
Try to get reviews to some of these profiles that allow them. If a customer leaves you a GBP review, ask them gently if they could dedicate a few more seconds to rate you on Facebook or another platform they have an account on.

My link building post covers more advanced techniques for building your web prominence that you can do after you’re done with these steps.

What About Ads?

Ads are great, but a bit overpriced at the moment, at least on Google.

I am not a paid ad expert. I may do some ads in the future, and when I do, I’ll be sure to update this post with expert insight. But I am not an ad expert and won’t pretend to be one.

Maybe in the future I will run some ads and provide more tips on that.

But if you follow what I said for SEO, you’ll start making money quickly.

And no, the thing you may have heard about ads providing instant results is not true. Sure, you can get a call here and there, but the worthwhile results that allow you to grow your company are only going to kick in after a few months of serious testing (similar to SEO). Most restoration owners are not willing to do that.

Also, be aware of Google ads CPCs, which are the costs of each click you get. They’re super expensive in the restoration industry, so be prepared to spend at least $3,000-$5,000 just to TEST out Google.

Those would be my words of caution.

Wrapping up

I spilled all the beans for you, so now you better go and use them for your benefit.

It takes only a few months of doing this to start getting valuable jobs that could make you thousands of dollars.

Most marketing agencies charge only a fraction of what you’d make if you put all of this to work. I doubt you have the time to DIY, but if you do, great!

If not, let us help you with our own restoration SEO services.

Hit the SEO front with all you have, because you can bet your a*s that your competitors are doing that as well.

Good luck!

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