JiggleFish Digital Marketing

A siding contractor in Collinsville called me frustrated last month. 4.9 stars, 23 reviews, years of solid work. He was getting outranked in Local Service Ads by a competitor with 15 reviews and a lower rating.

The difference was timing. His 23 reviews came in during a push he did last spring. The competitor had posted three new ones in the past two weeks. LSA's algorithm treats a review from six months ago almost like it doesn't exist. Recency carries more weight than most people realize.

A lot of owners think reputation is something you build once and then it works for you. It doesn't work that way. It's more like a garden. You can't water it in April and expect it to look good in October.

One new review a week, even just one, keeps the signal alive. Texting the last five customers you finished is usually enough to make that happen consistently.

Most HVAC owners I talk to think their Google reviews are fine because the number looks decent. Two hundred reviews sounds like a lot. It is a lot. But Local Service Ads do not rank you on count alone. They factor in how recently those reviews came in.

I had a guy in Belleville show me his LSA dashboard last month. Sixty total reviews, four of them from the past 30 days. His competitor had over 200 reviews and had not received a new one in three months. The guy with 60 was showing up above him consistently.

If you run LSAs, open your dashboard and look at the review date column. Not the total number. The dates. If your most recent review is more than 45 days old, the algorithm has already started moving you down the list. It does not care what you built last year.

Pay-Per-Lead vs Pay-Per-Click: which model really fits home-service pros? Learn how each approach handles lead quality, cost control, and ROI, plus a practical checklist before you commit. Read the full article: https://reviews.jigglefish.io/blog/699e2cccbfc46b99035a981b/pay-per-lead-vs-pay-per-click-which-model-makes-sense-for-home-service-contractors

Talked to a paving contractor in Highland last month. He was spending $2,000 a month on Angi and felt like it was working because the phone was ringing.

Then we pulled his invoice and did the math together. He was paying around $150 per lead, but those leads were going to three or four other paving companies at the same moment. His close rate on Angi leads was low, which made sense once he saw that. The real cost per booked job was closer to $600.

The same $2,000 in a geo-targeted Google Ads campaign for his service area was producing exclusive inbound calls at $70 to $80 each. People who searched, found him, and called him directly. His close rate on those was nearly double.

The exercise worth doing: pull whatever lead source invoice is sitting on your desk, divide total spend by booked jobs, and run that same number on every channel you're using. Leads are not jobs. The cost per lead number that gets quoted to you almost never tells the real story.

A handyman in Waterloo called me last spring. Good reputation, steady work, booked out three weeks. He wanted to bring on a second guy and asked how to make that happen.

I asked him where his jobs were coming from. He said mostly word of mouth, some yard signs, a few from Facebook. I asked him which ones actually closed and paid. Long pause. He had texts going back two years and a paper calendar on his fridge, but no way to pull a number out of either one.

That second hire never happened. Not because the work wasn't there. Because he couldn't show anyone, including himself, where the work came from. A new tech is going to ask how steady the pipeline is. A bank is going to ask the same thing if he ever wants a truck loan. Neither one accepts a gut feeling as an answer.

Jobber runs about $49 a month. It logs the lead source, the job type, the close date. After six months you have something you can actually read. That paper trail is not a luxury for a guy thinking about scaling. It is the whole argument for why scaling is even possible.

Your crew can do great work and still get buried on Google Maps. 🧰

A common issue we see with contractors in Clayton, Kirkwood, Webster Groves, and Chesterfield is a profile that’s “claimed” but not tuned to rank. Google Business Profile optimization helps you show up in the top 3 map results when homeowners are ready to call.

With steady Google Business Profile management and smart google maps marketing, the right searches turn into real estimates and booked jobs in Ballwin, Creve Coeur, St. Charles, and O’Fallon, Missouri, plus Edwardsville and O’Fallon, Illinois. 📍

Quick checks that often move the needle:
• Wrong or missing service categories
• Weak service area coverage
• Reviews not being supported by simple reputation management 🔧

If you’d like, send a message and I’ll run a free GBP ranking audit and show you what’s helping and what’s holding you back.

Ever wonder why you’re not showing up in the top 3 on Google Maps when you know you’re one of the best in town?

Google often rewards complete, consistent profiles, and small mistakes can quietly push you down. That means fewer calls, fewer bookings, and more slow days.

If you’re in Clayton, Kirkwood, Webster Groves, Chesterfield, Ballwin, St. Charles, O’Fallon (MO), Creve Coeur, Edwardsville, or O’Fallon (IL), this is worth a quick check. 📱

A solid Google Business Profile optimization plan and steady Google Business Profile management can turn map views into real jobs. This is also where google maps marketing and simple reputation management make a big difference.

Quick wins we look for:
• Wrong categories or missing services
• Weak photo and post activity
• Review signals that are holding rankings back ⭐

If you’d like, I’ll run a free GBP ranking audit and show you what’s helping and what’s hurting your visibility.

Positive Google reviews are great, but they don’t help much if your business isn’t showing up in the map pack.

A common issue we see in Clayton, Kirkwood, Webster Groves, Chesterfield, Ballwin, St. Charles, O’Fallon (MO), Creve Coeur, Edwardsville, and O’Fallon (IL) is this: reviews come in, but your Google Business Profile still isn’t set up to win local searches. That’s where Google Business Profile optimization and steady Google Business Profile management make a real difference. 📍

When your profile is dialed in, google maps marketing starts turning searches into calls and booked jobs. ✅

Quick wins we check in a free audit:
• Review signals and basic reputation management ⭐
• Categories and service areas for local SEO services
• Simple fixes that improve map visibility

If you’d like, send a message and I’ll run a free GBP ranking audit and show you what’s helping and what’s holding you back. 🔎

If you’re doing great work but still not showing up in the top 3 on Google Maps, it’s usually not your business, it’s your profile. 🗺️

For contractors and service pros around Clayton, Kirkwood, Webster Groves, Chesterfield, Ballwin, and out to St. Charles and O’Fallon, small Google Business Profile Optimization fixes can turn map views into real calls.

A solid Google Business Profile Management plan helps Google trust your listing, and helps customers choose you faster. That means more bookings, not more marketing talk.

Quick wins we check in a free audit:
• GBP optimization service issues that hold back rankings
• Review management service gaps that hurt conversions
• Local signals tied to local SEO services and google maps marketing

If you’d like, I’ll run a free GBP ranking audit for you. Send a message and I’ll show you what’s helping and what’s hurting. 📍

Pulled up Microsoft Clarity last week for a roofing client who kept saying his website was getting traffic but no calls. Filtered session recordings to people who hit the contact page and left without submitting. Exit rate was 61 percent.

Watched a few recordings. People were filling out the form, hitting submit on their phones, and nothing was happening. The button was broken on iOS Safari. Had been broken for months. He had no idea because nobody told him and he never checked it from his phone.

Clarity is free. Takes about ten minutes to set up. If you have a contact form on your site, filter for sessions where someone reached that page and left without submitting. If that number is above 40 percent, something is wrong. Too many fields, no option to just call instead, or a submit button that quietly fails on certain devices.

Most business owners assume if the form worked once, it still works. That is not always true.