I've run Local SEO for 700+ home service companies across 40 states. Exposed every strategy that actually moves the needle. Exposed every one that's a complete waste of money.

Here is the full 2026 playbook I'd use to dominate any suburban market in America from day one. Google Maps. Website. Reviews. GBP. Citations. Content. All of it. Step by step.

I'm posting the entire system for free. 🧵🧵 First thing I'm doing is getting a physical office. Not a PO box. Not a virtual office. A real address with a pin on Google Maps.

If you're running a service area business profile competing against guys with real storefronts, you're fighting with one hand tied behind your back. Google trusts physical locations more.

And I'm not renting just anywhere. I'm picking a spot near the wealthiest zip codes I want to serve. Proximity to your target customers matters more than most people realize.

The guy whose office is five minutes away will outrank you no matter what strategy you are running.

Every electrical company in America is fighting over "electrician near me."

Meanwhile nobody is talking about the keyword that could literally build you a separate business.

"EV charger installation near me."

Let me explain why this matters more than you think🧵 When someone searches "electrician near me" they could need anything. A ceiling fan. A broken outlet. A panel upgrade. You have no idea what the job is worth until you pick up the phone.

When someone searches "EV charger installation near me" you already know the job. You already know the ticket. $1,500 to $3,000 for residential.

More for commercial.

Every single lead that comes through is a qualified buyer with money to spend.

I'm about to show you how to get leads from REDDIT without spending a dollar. 🚨🚨

This strategy uses a platform your competitors don't even know exists as a marketing channel.

It takes 30 minutes a week and the results compound for years. Full breakdown below🧵🧵 Go to Google right now and search "best plumber in Boca Raton" or "best roofer in [your city]."

You'll see a Reddit thread sitting on page one, sometimes above actual business websites. Those threads get thousands of views per month.

People read the top comments and call whoever gets mentioned.

ChatGPT does the same thing. It browses Reddit in real time when someone asks for a local recommendation.

Real people having real conversations is the signal AI trusts most when deciding who to recommend.

Google AI Overviews are going to kill half of home service leads within the next 12 months.

I'm watching it in real time across 500+ home service businesses we manage SEO for. Clicks from organic search are dropping on certain queries and

Google is answering them directly at the top of the page with AI.

The businesses that adjust now are going to eat. The ones that ignore it are going to wonder why the phone stopped ringing.

Here's what's actually changing and exactly how to stay on the right side of it. If you haven't seen it yet you will soon. Search "how much does a fence cost in Boca Raton" and instead of 10 blue links, Google now puts a full AI-generated answer at the top of the page.

It pulls from multiple websites. It gives the searcher pricing ranges, timelines, material comparisons.

Everything they used to click your site to find out.

They get the answer. They never visit your website. They never see your phone number.

Google calls these AI Overviews.

They started rolling them out last year and they are expanding to more query types every single month. Informational searches got hit first.

Now it's creeping into service queries.

If I wanted to build a $1,000,000/year home service business with one van and zero trade experience, I'm not touching plumbing. I'm not touching electrical. I'm not going anywhere near HVAC.

I'm starting a shower door glass company.

And the only thing we install is frameless shower doors. No windows. No mirrors. No storefronts. No auto glass. Shower doors only.

Here's every single number, every step, and the exact playbook to 100K/month. First you need to understand why this niche is so stupid profitable.

The average frameless shower door install costs the homeowner $1,800 to $3,200.

Your material cost on that job is $400 to $800. Tempered glass panels and hardware from your supplier.

That is a 60% margin on every single install before you pay your guy.

One install takes 2 to 3 hours.

You can run 2 installs a day with one two man crew. That is $3,600 to $6,400 in revenue per day off one van.

Todd I just broke down exactly what @jamesonhaslam did to build west.coast.deck to 31K followers on a deck building Instagram.👀👀

Here's how to run the same playbook for Llewellyn Plumbing and get from 1,500 to 10K followers by December.

https://twitter.com/ToddLlewellyn/status/2050981514691903583

Step 1. Build a brand identity that sticks.

Jameson didn't call himself "Haslam Decks." He built "West Coast Deck" with the tagline "big deck energy" and "on a mission to build the greatest."

THAT IS SOME FIRE BRANDING

You need your version. Something like "Provo's most reliable plumber" or "the plumber your neighbors already called."

Pick a phrase. Put it in your bio. Use it in every video. Say it out loud on camera.

Repetition builds brand.

When people in Provo hear that phrase they should think of your face.

The most underrated B2B play in the entire home service industry is a gutter supply house.

No one is talking about this.

You don't need a single homeowner lead. You don't need to run Google Ads. You don't need a sales team knocking on doors.

Your customers are every roofing company and every gutter installer in your city. They come to YOU. They NEED you. And they reorder every single week.

You're manufacturing the gutters in house. You're buying the aluminum sheet metal in bulk. You're selling the product B2B. And on top of all of that, you're white labeling the installation for roofing companies who don't want to touch gutters.

You show up in a plain white truck after they finish the roof. The homeowner has no clue. The roofer keeps their margin. And you just got paid three different ways on the same job.

You own the entire gutter supply chain. Raw material to final install.

The US gutter industry does over $7 BILLION a year. And almost nobody is running this model.

Here's every single number, every step, and the exact math to $100K/month. The backbone of this entire operation is one piece of equipment. A seamless gutter machine.

The industry standard is the New Tech Machinery MACH II. A 5 inch machine starts at $10,600. A 6 inch machine starts at $12,300. The 5 inch and 6 inch combo machine starts at $15,500. You can find used ones for $6K to $9K all day long.

This machine takes flat aluminum coil and rolls it into finished seamless gutters in any length you need. You load the coil on one end. A continuous formed gutter comes out the other end. Custom cut to the exact length of the job. No seams. No joints. That's what makes it seamless.

Now the raw material. You're buying .027 gauge aluminum gutter coil direct from distributors like Yost Manufacturing or Service Partners. Yost sells .027 x 11.75 inch coil at roughly $3.55 per pound for white and $3.65 per pound for colored. Standard coils run 200 to 450 lbs each.

Here's the math that matters. At .027 gauge, you get approximately 2.6 linear feet of gutter per pound of aluminum. That means your raw material cost is about $1.37 per linear foot.

The average home in America needs 150 to 200 linear feet of gutters. Call it 160 feet for a standard 2,000 square foot home. That's roughly 62 lbs of coil per house.

62 lbs at $3.55 per pound. That's $220 in raw aluminum to gutter an entire house.

Remember that number. $220.

Everything you need to rank a Google Business Profile in 2026:

I've optimized hundreds of them. Most businesses set theirs up once and never touch it again.

That's why they don't rank.

Here's what actually moves the needle 🧵🧵 Your business name is the single most impactful ranking factor on Google Maps. And most businesses don't even know it.

"Boca Raton Plumbing Pros" will outrank "Smith & Sons" for "plumber in Boca Raton" every single time. All else being equal.

Google gives you relevance credit when your business name matches the search. It's called semi-exact match and it's absurdly effective.

File a DBA. Costs about $50 in most states. Takes about a week. That DBA lets you update your Google Business Profile name to match without violating Google's naming policy.

This is the move that separates businesses that dominate the map pack from businesses that wonder why they're invisible.

A $125 LLC. A $400/month office 20 minutes away. A new phone number.

That's the entire cost to add a second pin on Google Maps in the city next to you.

Your calls double. Your competitor doesn't even know what happened.

I've set this up for over 100 home service businesses. This is the full process, start to finish. Here is how to do it: 🧵🧵 Most people don't understand how Google Maps actually works.

Your listing only shows up about 5-10 miles from your address. That's it. You're based in Boca Raton.

Someone in West Palm Beach searches "plumber near me" and you don't exist to them. Even though your trucks are out there every week doing jobs.

You're invisible in every city you aren't physically located in.

A second profile with a West Palm address fixes that overnight. Two pins. Two map packs. Two cities feeding you calls.

If I lost everything and had to restart a home service business tomorrow

Here is the EXACT 2026 playbook I'd use to own any suburban market from scratch.

Steal the whole thing. 🧵 Before I break down the 7 steps you need to understand why suburban is the move.

Most home service owners try to rank for "plumber Dallas" or "HVAC Tampa" or "roofer Atlanta."

You're going to war against companies with 500+ reviews, $40K/month ad budgets, websites that have been ranking for a decade, and a full time marketing team.

Good luck.

Now search any home service keyword + a suburb. Frisco, TX. Alpharetta, GA. Gilbert, AZ. Coral Springs, FL.

You'll find 3-5 competitors max. Half have under 30 reviews. Their websites have stock photos and no city pages.

You don't need to be the best in the metro. You just need to be the ONLY one who shows up everywhere in one suburb.

I studied every single video, tweet, podcast, and interview @stevehunsaker1 has ever put on the internet.

The guy went from a Ford Fusion and a ladder to $1.17MM in 60 days hanging Christmas lights.

Then he launched a permanent lighting brand doing $5K+ installs year round.

If I were starting a permanent lighting / Christmas light installation business in Boca Raton tomorrow, this is exactly what I'd do.

Steal this entire playbook. 🧵 In 2020, Steve Hunsaker was burned out selling payroll making $150K/year in tech sales.

He found a Reddit thread about hanging Christmas lights for money. No experience. No crew. No truck. Just a hatchback and a ladder.

Year 1: 61 jobs. $1,900 average ticket. ~$100K in revenue. Barely took anything home because he ran the business "like an idiot" — his words. Paid too much for ads. Paid agencies. Had no systems.

Year 2: $250K. About 30% margin. Still expensive growth.

Year 3: Nearly went under. Bad hire. Lost a key employee. Had to pull 18-hour days for weeks redoing jobs and repairing client relationships.

Year 4-5: $1.17MM+ in a TWO MONTH window. $400K months back to back. 30 employees at peak. 4 trucks on the road daily.

Then he did something that changed everything.

He launched Valley Premier Lighting permanent, year-round, app-controlled color-changing lights. $4K-$5K average install. Revenue 12 months a year instead of 2.

Now he runs two 7-figure lighting brands and coaches 550+ home service businesses through Home Service Accelerator.

This is the playbook!!!!!!

Most home service companies running Google LSAs are lighting money on fire and don't even know it. 🚨🚨

I've managed LSA campaigns across HVAC, plumbing, roofing, electrical, pest control, and landscaping.

The difference between a poorly optimized LSA and a dialed-in one is 40-60% lower cost per lead and 3x the call volume.

Here's the full playbook on how to optimize Google Local Service Ads from top to bottom. Every single thing I know. 🧵 First, understand where LSAs sit on the page.

When someone Googles "plumber near me" here's what they see from top to bottom:

1. Google LSAs (position zero, with your star rating and Google Verified badge)
2. Google PPC ads
3. Map pack
4. Organic results

LSAs capture 13-14% of all clicks when they appear. And unlike PPC where you pay every time someone clicks whether they call you or not, LSA only charges you when someone actually contacts you.

Real phone call. Real message. Real booking request.

No contact, no charge.

Average cost per lead on LSA by trade:

HVAC: $52-$80
Plumbing: $55-$69
Electrical: $35-$70
Roofing: $71-$162
Pest Control: $20-$60
Cleaning: $10-$25
Landscaping: $15-$45

Compare that to Google Ads where you're paying $120-$200+ per lead in most home service markets.

And LSA leads convert to booked jobs at roughly 31% vs 12% for PPC.

This is the highest ROI ad channel in home services right now.

The most slept-on home service business in America right now is water filtration.

Almost zero competition. Insane margins. Built-in recurring revenue. And 165 million Americans are drinking water contaminated with "forever chemicals" right now.

If I launched one tomorrow, here's exactly what I'd do 🧵👇 First, let's talk about why this market is wide open.

Go search "water filtration near me" in any city under 500K population.

You'll find maybe 3-5 companies with a Google Business Profile.

Half of them have less than 10 reviews. Their websites look like they were built in 2009.

In plumbing, you're fighting 40+ companies for the same keywords. In HVAC, it's even worse.

In water filtration? You could be the #1 result in your entire city within 90 days.

That's not an exaggeration.

The keyword difficulty for local water filtration terms is some of the lowest I've ever seen in home services.

If I launched a home watch company in Boca Raton Florida tomorrow...

I wouldn't need a truck.
I wouldn't need employees.
I wouldn't even need $5K to start.

I'd build a business that makes $30K+/month checking on empty mansions while rich people are back in Connecticut for the summer.

A buddy of mine just tried to start this business. Called 10 existing home watch companies to scope out the competition.

Not a single one picked up the phone.

That's not a red flag. That's a greenlight. 💸 🧵👇 Here's what most people don't understand about South Florida.

Boca Raton, Palm Beach, Naples, Jupiter, Delray Beach. These towns are FULL of $5M-$40M homes that sit completely empty from April through November.

The owners are in New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Massachusetts. They come down for "the season" (November to March), enjoy 5 months of 75 degree weather, then fly back north when it starts getting hot.

That means 6-7 months every year where these multi-million dollar homes are sitting vacant. No one checking on them. No one making sure the AC is running. No one looking for water damage after a storm.

And in Florida? That's when hurricanes hit. That's when pipes burst from AC failures. That's when mold takes over a house in 72 hours because the humidity hit 90% and nobody was there to notice.

These homeowners NEED someone checking on their property.

And they'll happily pay for it because to them it's pocket change compared to a $150K insurance claim.

Nobody's getting rich starting another pressure washing company. Or another junk removal company. Or another landscaping company.

The market is cooked. You lost before you bought the truck.

But there are B2B service businesses hiding in plain sight where the customer has zero choice but to pay you. Not because your reviews are better. Because a fire marshal or a health inspector or a $20,000 per hour shutdown TOLD them to.

Here are 5 that nobody on this app is talking about. 🧵👇 Commercial refrigeration repair.

A grocery store with a dead walk-in cooler is losing $20,000 in product per day. Not per week. Per day.

They are not comparing quotes. They are not sleeping on it. They are calling whoever picks up the phone and saying I don't care what it costs just get here before I lose another pallet.

Average service call is $500 to $1,500. After hours emergency? $2,500 and they say thank you.

You know how many companies do this in most cities? Three. Maybe four. And half of them are booked out two weeks.

You don't need to be the best. You need to be available. That's the entire competitive advantage.

If I wanted to build another dumpster company, I would be able to do it within 50 cities and not own a single piece of equipment.....

I wouldn't buy a truck.
I wouldn't buy a single dumpster.
I wouldn't lease a yard.
I wouldn't hire a CDL driver.

I'd build a dumpster rental BROKERAGE.

The roll-off dumpster industry does $5 BILLION a year in the US.

99% of operators are stuck in ONE city because they're chained to their trucks and cans.

I'd own ZERO equipment and operate in 50 markets before they figure out how to open a second location.

Here's the full playbook why brokering beats owning, the exact match domain play, startup costs, and the math to scale coast to coast. 🧵👇 FIRST here's why OWNING a dumpster rental company is a capital trap:

To launch a traditional roll-off dumpster company you need:
🔴 Roll-off truck (used): $80,000–$150,000
🔴 20 dumpsters minimum (20-yard): $5,000–$7,000 each = $100,000–$140,000
🔴 Storage yard lease: $2,000–$5,000/month
🔴 CDL driver (if you don't have one): $50,000–$65,000/year
🔴 Commercial auto insurance (roll-off trucks): $15,000–$25,000/year
🔴 General liability insurance: $4,000–$6,000/year
🔴 DOT registration + permits: $2,000–$3,000
🔴 Landfill disposal fees: $40–$80 per ton per load
🔴 Fuel (diesel for a roll-off truck): $800–$1,200/month
🔴 Maintenance + repairs: $500–$1,000/month

TOTAL TO START: $250,000–$400,000+

And you're still limited to a 30–40 mile radius from your yard.

You have ONE truck. Maybe two.
You can service 6–8 deliveries per day MAX.

If that truck breaks down, your revenue goes to $0.

It's easier to lose money than gain money in this type of business, lol.

If I launched a mold testing company in Sarasota, Florida tomorrow…

I wouldn't touch remediation. I wouldn't buy a single piece of removal equipment.

I'd build a mold TESTING company that does $40K+/month on inspections alone.

Sarasota is the mold capital of the Gulf Coast.

74% average humidity. Hurricanes Ian, Helene, and Milton left thousands of homes with hidden water damage. And Florida law says the company that TESTS for mold cannot be the same company that REMOVES it.

That one regulation is the entire business model.

Here's my full playbook startup costs, pricing, customer acquisition, and the exact revenue math. 👇 MARKET REALITY:

The US mold remediation and testing industry does $1.3 BILLION a year.

Growing 4.2% annually projected to hit $1.75B by 2032.

Florida is the #2 state in America for mold-affected homes. Only Louisiana is worse.

Sarasota specifically:

→ Average humidity: 74% year-round (mold needs 60%+ to grow)
→ 3 major hurricanes in 2 years left 40,000+ homes with water intrusion
→ Average home age: 30+ years — old AC ductwork, aging roofs, original plumbing
→ 87% of Sarasota homes have HVAC systems running 10+ months a year (condensation = mold)
→ 250,000+ homes in Sarasota County alone
→ Real estate transactions: 18,000+ per year — EVERY sale needs a mold clearance

Competition landscape:
- Fewer than 15 licensed mold assessors in Sarasota County
- Most are 1-2 person operations with zero marketing
- Average Google review count for local mold companies: 28
- Most don't even have a website that loads on mobile

The demand is massive. The competition is laughable.

You walk in with a real brand, a GBP strategy, and a referral network you own this market in 6 months.

If I wanted to build a $1,000,000/year home service business from scratch in 12 months…

I wouldn't start a plumbing company.
I wouldn't start an HVAC company.

I'd buy [YourCity]WaterHeaters(.)com

And I'd ONLY install water heaters.

1 truck. 2 techs. 6 installs per week. One niche-specific domain.

The riches are in the niches.

Here's the full playbook 👇👇 WHY WATER HEATERS ONLY:

Every full-service plumber offers water heaters as ONE of 30+ services.

-They rank for "plumber near me."
-They run ads for "emergency plumber."
-They compete with 200 other companies for the same broad keywords.

Meanwhile, NOBODY is going all-in on water heaters.

Showing some money to be made.....

When someone Googles "water heater replacement Dallas" they don't want a generalist plumber.

They want a WATER HEATER SPECIALIST.

If the customer sees Water Heater in the name Vs Plumber

WHO DO YOU THINK IS GOING TO GET THE CALL?

If I launched an AC repair company tomorrow…

I'd own the residential and commercial HVAC markets in under 12 months.

And I'd do it in the most competitive, weather-dependent, recession-proof trade in America.

Here's my full Marketing, Sales & Operations Playbook 👇 MARKET REALITY: Palm Beach County HVAC breakdown:

- 580,000+ housing units (single-family, condos, townhomes)
- Average home has 2.1 AC units
- That's 1.2 MILLION cooling systems that all break eventually
- 22,000+ commercial properties (offices, restaurants, retail, medical)
- South Florida = AC runs 10–11 months out of the year
- Average system lifespan: 10–15 years
- 40% of installed units are past the 10-year mark RIGHT NOW

Total addressable market: $400M+ annually (residential + commercial)

92 competing HVAC firms in the county
- 70% are 1–5 man operations with zero marketing
- Only 12 have more than 200 Google reviews
- Only 4 are running LSAs aggressively

This market is wide open for a scrappy marketing guy like myself....

🧵 How to build a local backlink network that costs $0 and outperforms agencies charging $500/link.

Here's the exact playbook I'd use to dominate local backlinks in any market.

Step by step. Understand why this works before you do anything.

Google's local algorithm weighs "local relevance" heavily. When multiple trusted businesses in the same city link to each other through real content, Google sees a cluster of local authority.

You're not gaming the algorithm. You're replicating what naturally happens when real businesses refer each other. You're just doing it deliberately and strategically.

The difference between you and everyone else is that you're going to engineer the network instead of hoping it happens organically.

The Death of "Near Me" and the Rise of Conversational Local Search 🧵🧵

A fundamental shift is happening in how consumers discover local businesses.

The 2-3 word keyword era is ending. The conversational query era is beginning.

Here's the complete strategic breakdown of what this means for local search and why businesses need to adapt NOW 🧵🧵 Long-Tail Keywords Are Changing Local Search Forever

The way people find local businesses is changing faster than most realize.
"Roofer near me" is dying.

"I'm looking for a roofer in West Palm Beach" is taking over.

Here's what this means for your business and exactly how to adapt: