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Pilot Plumbing and Drain is owned by Andy Davis, and it offers plumbing services in Vancouver and Portland.
I conducted an SEO audit for Andy and will share my findings to help other local businesses improve their Google visibility.
To start, looks like someone is making minor updates, like adding negative keywords, every few days on their ad account.
The reality in many agencies is that account managers are juggling 30 clients at once. Often, the person handling their account may have little experience and could be based overseas.
Despite the complexity, some might claim, digital marketing is straightforward. They should always manage their own marketing.
Pilot Plumbing & Drainage has one campaign driving most of its traffic, primarily through the “plumber near me” keyword.
While there are various ad groups, the majority of conversions come from this single source. The ads use dynamic keyword insertion, targeting “plumber near me.” However, their visibility drops significantly a few miles from their office, indicating ineffective SEO.
The SEO work appears limited to basic directory submissions, possibly through a service like Yext. There’s no substantial evidence of effective SEO, and they shouldn’t be paying for SEO services that don’t deliver results.
Most SEO power comes from relevant links tied to their location and industry, like plumbing in Vancouver or Portland. Currently, their links are from general directories like Yellow Pages. Even the few specific links, such as “plumbing tips,” are minimal.
Auditing Blogs That Link to Pilot Plumbing and Drain
Upon auditing, we find irrelevant links from unrelated blogs, which are likely not boosting their SEO. For instance, a blog featuring unrelated topics like electrocardiograms or Italian dining isn’t relevant to plumbing in their area.
Moreover, some content appears to come from fake profiles and stock images, thus not following Google’s EEAT guidelines.
Let’s look at another example: MilaSpark or MyGigatechNews. This site has an article with a “Plumbers Near Me” link. We can see that this link appeared a couple of months ago. These are likely rented or purchased links from spam networks.
In low-competition markets, such tactics might work, but not effectively. Their rankings will show this.
These links are from irrelevant sources like blogs not related to Vancouver or plumbing. They come from sites like Baby Center and various unrelated blogs, which are spam.
These spam blogs auto-generate content, sometimes using tools like ChatGPT. For example, a blog linking to them also links to sportsrant.com and buzzfeed.com. The content is garbage, not written by a human.
This is what they’re paying for irrelevant, spammy links that don’t help their SEO.
Let’s look at this one: “Four types of plumbers.”
This spam site also features unrelated posts about casinos, building a TikTok following, and Italian pasta dishes. Who do they think is paying for posts on such a spam site? The site likely spun itself up, using spammy tactics to boost its Domain Rating (DR) to 31. Despite this, it ranks for no keywords. Google has flagged it as a spam site.
What happens when people build links on spam sites? It doesn’t help. The same agency is buying or posting fake links here for all their clients, covering unrelated topics like casinos and TikTok growth. They call it a Private Blog Network (PBN) and claim Google can’t catch them, but that’s not true.
Look at another example: Teacher Mark Trevis.
This site also features EKG info, TikTok growth, and Italian food—clearly the same spam network. The agency uses these auto-generated blog posts across multiple sites for all its clients.
It’s lazy and ineffective. Google sees through this. Despite having a DR 46, the site ranks for nothing, indicating it’s garbage. The cheapest Fiverr services could achieve this.
These spam links won’t help Andy’s SEO, and it’s evident that this approach is a waste of resources.
Let’s take a look at one of these examples, like “What exactly is plumbing?”
The site seems unreliable, featuring irrelevant content about plumbing on airplanes and other unrelated topics.
The article is poorly written, with improper link insertions and nonsensical sentences. It suggests hiring professional plumbers but lacks credibility or relevance to their business.
This spammy site, with a DR of 31 and zero keywords ranked, is flagged by Google as spam. Despite attempts to boost its ranking with purchased links, it fails to provide any SEO value. The links originate from sites like Corn Farm, Arkansas, offering unrelated content about plumbing and various other topics.
Similar spam tactics appear across multiple sites, linking to completely unrelated subjects like EKG, gambling, CNC machines, and social media authenticity. These links are likely auto-generated and purchased cheaply, further indicating their lack of authenticity and value.
These spam links won’t improve Andy’s SEO and may harm their online reputation. Google recognizes such tactics and penalizes sites that engage in them, making them ineffective and potentially damaging to their digital presence.
Let’s examine where these links are coming from that are supposed to boost the site’s authority, which then indirectly affects Andy’s site.
These sites are like low-quality garbage, feeding into slightly better garbage that might appear somewhat credible at first glance but falls apart upon closer inspection.
For example, links are coming from sites like Oster, Fjord, Hans, and others, linking back to the spammy site in Corn Farm, Arkansas. It’s unlikely that these are genuine blogs or sites from the locations they claim to be. One site even mixes languages, showing Thai content on a supposed Polish site, which is highly suspicious.
Google can easily detect these manipulative tactics. These links are from unreliable sources that don’t contribute positively to SEO. Instead, they may lead to penalties or devaluation of Andy’s site’s credibility in search rankings.
What’s driving their business? It’s their good reviews.
This other stuff is garbage.
Next Steps for Pilot Plumbing and Drain
There’s all kinds of stuff to fix, and they should take it in-house and fix it. And they’re good. Filipino people should go through our training, which we’ll give them for free, and implement these things. We have checklists. They’re easy to do. They’re tedious, but it’s like assembling Ikea furniture. It’s not hard. It’s tedious. A lot of it just needs to be fixed. Once they fix it, if everything’s built properly, then maintenance is just an hour a month.
Looking to unlock your website’s potential? Head over to AreYouGoogleable.com now for a comprehensive SEO audit. Quick, effective, and absolutely essential—let’s go!
Dennis Yu
Dennis Yu is co-author of the #1 best-selling book on Amazon in social media, The Definitive Guide to TikTok Ads. He has spent a billion dollars on Facebook ads across his agencies and agencies he advises. Mr. Yu is the "million jobs" guy-- on a mission to create one million jobs via hands-on social media training, partnering with universities and professional organizations.You can find him quoted in major publications and on television such as CNN, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, NPR, and LA Times. Clients have included Nike, Red Bull, the Golden State Warriors, Ashley Furniture, Quiznos-- down to local service businesses like real estate agents and dentists. He's spoken at over 750 conferences in 20 countries, having flown over 6 million miles in the last 30 years to train up young adults and business owners. He speaks for free as long as the organization believes in the job-creation mission and covers business class travel.You can find him hiking tall mountains, eating chicken wings, and taking Kaqun oxygen baths-- likely in a city near you.