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The name you put in the title isn't the one you use at the counter
By the end, you'll have written your first service page using the words your customer actually uses, not the technical term for your trade, plus the method to do the same for the rest.
By Yodai · Published September 6, 2026 · Updated October 12, 2026
You sit down to write the first service page for your website and freeze on the very first line: the title.
You type installation and repair of electric water heaters. That's correct. It's what you do. And it's a sentence no one who woke up without hot water on a Monday morning would ever type.
That person doesn't write that. She writes no hot water or, at most, the water heater won't heat. Your page speaks the language of the trade. She searches in the language of the problem. Google is pretty good at understanding that two different phrases can mean the same thing, but you make it a lot easier, for Google and for the reader, if you write with the words the searcher actually uses.
At the counter, you both already know what you're talking about
When someone calls you or walks through the door, they've already done half the work. They describe the symptom, and you're the one who translates it: that's the faucet washer, that's the water heater thermostat. You supply that vocabulary, not the customer.
On the internet, nobody's translating for you. The person types into Google exactly what they'd say out loud if they called you on the phone: the symptom, not the diagnosis. If your page only has the diagnosis, you're counting on Google to do the translating for you. Google says its systems understand how a page relates to many searches even without the exact words, but it also recommends thinking about the words each type of reader would use to find you, and writing with those.
That's the problem, and it's a specific one: the page speaks the language of a fellow tradesperson, while the person reading it is here to pay you and doesn't know that language.
- Installing and servicing water heaters and electric heaters
- This is the phrase you'd use with a supplier or a fellow tradesperson
- I don't have hot water at home
- This is the exact phrase a worried person would use, with no technical vocabulary
- They don't need to know that what's broken is called a water heater and not a boiler
Which one do I pick: The title and the first sentence of the page are written with the searcher's own words. The technical term goes in once, further down in the text, for the person who already knows what they want and is searching for something more specific, like replace water heater thermostat.
How to find the exact word
Picking the customer's word isn't guessing by ear. You search for it the same way you'd look up any other fact about your business: by asking and by looking.
- 1Recall your last call
Before translating anything, write down, word for word, what your last customer said to you on the phone. That sentence, uncorrected, is better material than any list of words you'd come up with yourself. - 2Let Google finish the sentence
Type the problem into the search bar without finishing the sentence, and see what the search engine itself suggests. Those suggestions are real searches from real people, not your own guesses. - 3Check the questions below
In a lot of searches, related questions show up among the first results. They're the exact way people phrase the question, and they're useful for the text further down the page. - 4Drop anything only tradespeople say
If a word is only used by you and your suppliers, don't put it in the title. Save it for the body text, where it doesn't get in the way and adds value for someone who already knows it.
The symptom word isn't enough on its own
The symptom word solves half the title. The other half is the location. Someone who's out of hot water doesn't always search just "no hot water": sometimes they type their city along with it, and even if they don't, Google still factors in where they are to show them nearby businesses.
You don't need to force the phrase "near me" anywhere in the text: Google calculates distance using the searcher's location and your business address. What does help is having your city or neighborhood show up naturally in the title or the first line, right next to the symptom word. Those two things together, the problem and the place, are what really describes what someone's going to type on a Monday morning with no hot water.
Once you've found the symptom word and the place, the page practically writes itself. That said, all of this assumes Google can actually index your inner pages: if your website lives at an address borrowed from the platform you built it on, check that first, because if Google can only index the homepage, your service page won't show up on its own no matter how well titled it is.
The next lesson covers what happens when two of your services look too much alike: whether to split them into two pages or keep them together on one.
- You have the exact word your customer uses for your first service, not the one from your trade.
- You've written the title and first line of that page with that word, with your city worked in naturally.
- You know where the technical term goes: once, in the body, never in the title.
- You've got the method to repeat on every service page you still have left to write.
Test yourself
Answer before opening each one. If one gives you trouble, go back to the section that explains it.
1. You're a locksmith, and on your price list the service is called "lockout service for jammed cylinder lock." An average customer, standing in the hallway, says "I left my key stuck inside" or "I'm locked out of my house." What title do you put on the page, and what happens to the word "cylinder"?
The title is written with the customer's phrase, for example "Locked out of your house? We open the door without breaking the lock, same day." "Cylinder lock" goes in once, further down in the body, for the person who already knows that's the part that needs replacing.
2. You're torn between titling your page "air conditioning installation" or "installing AC in your home," because you don't know which one more people use. How do you decide without guessing?
You don't decide by ear: you type "installing AC in" into the search bar and see what Google autocompletes, and you check the related questions for a search done from your area. The phrase that shows up suggested and repeated wins the title; the other one, if it's the technical term, moves down into the body.
3. To avoid leaving any term out, someone titles their page "water heater repair hot water tanks 24 hour emergency service [your city]." What does that title decide?
The decision is to undo it and leave one natural sentence, the kind a customer would say out loud, with the city worked in so it reads normally. The other terms don't disappear: they move down into the body text, where they add something instead of sounding like spam before the first sentence.
Yodai builds the site from what you tell it, with a store, bookings or quote requests depending on what you do. See what the website for your business looks like.
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