How do I get more sealcoating jobs?

Your Google Business Profile

Google says local results are based mainly on relevance, distance and how well known a business is, and that businesses with complete and accurate info are more likely to show up. Add each job as its own service: driveway sealcoating, parking lot sealcoating, crack filling, line striping, asphalt patching. Google says a service may be highlighted on your profile when someone searches for it.

List the towns your trucks cover as service areas. Google allows up to 20, and says the whole area shouldn't reach past about 2 hours of driving from where you're based. If customers don't come to your yard, Google says to take the address off the listing.

Keep your hours true to your season. Google's guidelines say a business with seasonal hours can use its current seasonal hours as its regular hours. If you take calls and book spring work over the winter, keep hours on the listing that say so.

Parking lots

If you want parking lots, say so where a property manager or a business owner will see it: on your website, in your services and in your photos. Show lots you've sealed and striped, with the town and the kind of property. Google's photo tips say to add at least three photos that represent the services you offer.

Ask the property manager for a review when the lot opens back up, the same way you ask a homeowner. Google says more reviews and positive ratings can help your local ranking, and a review from a lot tells the next property manager you do lots.

Before the season starts

Google says some changes show up in a few hours and others take several months, and suggests waiting a few weeks before judging whether a change worked. For a sealcoating company that makes the website, the listing and the service areas winter work, so they're in place when the calls start.

Reviews build over the season. Ask every customer at the end of every job, with the link or QR code Google gives you for reviews, and answer the ones you get. Google's rules don't allow paying for a review, with money or with free or cheaper work.

Ads for sealcoating

Google says there's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking, and that it doesn't accept payment to rank pages higher. What you can pay for is ads, and they stop when the budget does.

Local Services Ads, Google's pay-per-lead kind, are open only to certain service categories. Google's list includes landscaping, fencing and snow removal, and has no category for sealcoating, asphalt or paving. Google says the list is what's available at this time, so check it before you pay for anything sold as one.