If your Hemet or San Jacinto service business is barely hanging on, and you haven’t even thought about updating your service descriptions, you might as well start planning your closing sale for 2025.
Local competitors and online giants are pulling customers away because they’ve mastered one thing: getting found in Google searches locally. The days of relying on walk-ins or drive-bys or word-of-mouth to fill your appointment book are long gone—especially during the holidays when people want quick, reliable services they can find doing quick searches with no hassle.
Here’s the truth: no matter how great your service is, if Google doesn’t know how to match local shoppers to the actual niche services you provide, they will never find you online. And they sure aren’t going to randomly walk through your door, because if they were, you wouldn’t be struggling in the first place.
What You’ll Learn
This post gives you straightforward, DIY holiday SEO strategies that will help your local Hemet and San Jacinto customers actually find your business online. If you’re struggling to bring in foot traffic or boost your bookings, these tips are designed to fix that.
I’m sharing valuable insights from BigCommerce, a trusted ecommerce platform that has helped businesses of all sizes—small startups to big-name brands—grow online. Their expertise makes them a reliable source for strategies that work, and these tips will help you stay competitive this holiday season. BigCommerce knows what it takes to succeed in today’s digital world, and so can you.
But let’s be clear: none of this matters if you’re not focusing on SEO—especially for the holidays. If you don’t start optimizing now, you’re in trouble.
For brick-and-mortar businesses in the San Jacinto Valley, SEO is essential. Locals need to find you in searches they do at home and when they’re on the go. When they’re looking for service providers, if you don’t show up in local searches, you’re missing out on business.
Why You Need Holiday SEO for Your Local Service Business
SEO (search engine optimization) isn’t just for online shops. It’s just as critical—if not more so—for local, service-based businesses. You need to show up when people in the Hemet/San Jacinto area are searching for the services you offer. And here’s the thing: a lot of those searches happen on mobile devices, while they’re on the go or in a bind.
For example, someone who typically searches for “catering near me” might switch to “last-minute holiday catering near me” during the holiday season. Holiday-related searches are your opportunity to grab leads, but only if your services are appearing in local searches.
This post includes specific, easy-to-follow SEO strategies designed to help local service providers like you get noticed by nearby customers, based on insights from BigCommerce:
“SEO can be tough for smaller, local businesses. But by focusing on long-tail keywords and understanding what potential customers are searching for, you can outsmart larger competitors. Create content and landing pages that target holiday-specific needs, and keep your efforts aligned across your SEO, social media, and marketing channels for the best results.” — BigCommerce
Now that you understand why DIY holiday SEO is so important for your mom-and-pop service business, let’s dive into the 7 Critical SEO Moves you need to take right now to boost foot traffic and fill your appointment book.
7 Critical SEO Moves to Save Your Service Business This Holiday Season
If you want your service business to survive the 2024 holiday season, these steps aren’t optional. Your competitors aren’t just online—they’re down the street, and they’re getting the calls you should be getting.
Implement these local SEO strategies right now so you show up when potential clients search for services like yours—whether they’re at home, at work, or out running errands.
This isn’t just about making your website look good. It’s about making sure search engines like Google know your business exists and direct local traffic your way. Without SEO, people won’t find you, they won’t book you, and your business could fail by 2025. Period!
Step 1: Make Your Website Fast and Easy to Use
Your website needs to load quickly and work well on mobile devices. Whether someone’s looking for a handyman, HVAC repair, or cleaning service, they’re probably searching from their phone. If your website is slow or hard to navigate, they’ll move on to someone else who’s easier to find. Use free tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to find out where your site needs work and fix those problems before holiday traffic hits.
Step 2: Learn from What Worked (or Didn’t) Last Year
Take a close look at last year’s holiday season. What services were in demand? Did you get bookings from your website or social media? Use tools like Google Search Console to see which keywords led people to your site. If you didn’t get enough traffic, now’s the time to find out why and adjust your strategy. Google Analytics can show you what pages worked and where visitors dropped off—critical information for making this year better.
Step 3: Use Keywords that Local People Actually Search For
Forget about competing with huge companies for general keywords. Focus on specific, long-tail keywords that local customers use. These are more targeted phrases like “last-minute handyman services Hemet” or “emergency electrical repair San Jacinto.” Tools like Google Keyword Planner and Moz can help you figure out which keywords to target, so you’re showing up when people are ready to book your services—not just browsing.
Step 4: Get Holiday Service Pages Up Early
Are you offering special services during the holiday season—like last-minute repairs, emergency services, or holiday-specific offerings? Create landing pages for these services now. Even if you’re not ready to launch promotions, getting these pages up early gives search engines time to index them, so they’ll be ready when customers start searching.
Step 5: Align SEO with Your Other Marketing
Your SEO strategy should work hand-in-hand with your social media and paid ads. When someone sees your service ad on Facebook or Google, they should find the same service when they search online. Consistency is key. This helps build trust with potential customers and keeps your messaging clear across all platforms.
Step 6: Make Your Service Descriptions Stand Out
Don’t let your service descriptions blend into the background. Make them personal, specific, and emotional. When people are looking for services during the holidays, they want to feel confident that you’ll deliver—whether it’s a last-minute cleaning, an urgent repair, or holiday decorating. Update last year’s service descriptions to reflect the holiday season, focusing on how you’ll solve their holiday-specific problems.
Step 7: Don’t Forget Local SEO
For a local service business, local SEO is everything. Make sure your Google My Business profile is fully updated with holiday hours and service options like emergency calls, after-hours service, or even curbside consultations. When someone searches for “local electrician holiday hours,” your business needs to be the first one they see.
Time’s Running Out—Don’t Let Your Business Fail
Let’s be real: if you don’t start taking these steps right now, your business might not make it to 2025. Every day you wait, your competitors are getting stronger, and customers are choosing them over you. Ignoring these SEO tasks means you’re basically inviting your business to fail.
