f you're a pressure washer, soft washer, landscaper, HVAC tech, or any kind of service business owner who depends on customers finding you online, this article is mission-critical. I'm Aaron Parker with Lean and Mean Academy, and I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Chris Lergen from Footbridge Media to discuss five proven ways to completely ruin your Google SEO.
In other words—five things you should NEVER do if you want to get found online.
Whether you’re rocking a Wix site or paid someone to piece together your first online presence, these five mistakes can tank your search rankings and crush your online lead flow. The good news? They’re all preventable—and with the right help, you won’t have to worry about them ever again.
Let’s dive in.
1. Buying Reviews and Backlinks
We’ve all seen the Facebook messages: “$5 per Google review!” Or, “Buy 10,000 backlinks for just $50!”
Stop right there.
These black-hat tactics are not only outdated—they're dangerous. In the early days of SEO, this kind of stuff worked. But in 2025, Google’s AI-powered algorithm is smarter than ever. It knows when reviews are fake and backlinks are spammy.
📉 Buy reviews → risk losing your Google Business Profile.
📉 Buy backlinks → attract penalties that bury your site.
Chris explains that not only do these tricks not work long-term—they actively harm your online presence.
“You think you’re going forward, but really you’re just digging a hole,” he says.
If you’re serious about growing online, leave the shortcuts behind. Focus on organic reviews and legitimate link-building strategies through valuable content.
2. Keyword Stuffing & Low-Quality AI Content
Remember the old days of jamming your service keywords 40 times into a paragraph? Google remembers too—and it hates it.
Even worse, there's a new breed of keyword stuffing: using AI tools to pump out hundreds of nearly identical service pages or zip code combinations in an attempt to dominate search.
Spoiler alert: it doesn’t work.
Chris warns that AI content is only helpful when it’s human-edited, relevant, and well-structured. If your site drops 1,000 pages in a week, you better believe Google is side-eyeing you.
✅ Pro tip: Use AI to assist, not replace. Make sure your content genuinely answers the questions your customers are searching for.
3. Ignoring Proper Site Structure
Imagine walking into a house with no rooms, no hallways, and no light switches. That’s what it’s like when your site has poor structure.
Google’s bots crawl your site like a spiderweb—analyzing menus, call-to-action buttons, and internal links to figure out what’s important and how everything connects.
If your pages don’t link to each other logically or lack navigational breadcrumbs, you’re confusing both users and Google.
Chris calls it “the colonoscopy of your site”—because Google probes everything.
✅ Make sure you’ve got:
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Logical menu organization
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Click-to-call or quote buttons at the top and bottom
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Internal links that connect service pages, homepages, and blog content
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A clear hierarchy and relevance in your page relationships
4. Forgetting Redirects After a Website Redesign
Here’s a silent killer that even experienced business owners forget: redirects.
Let’s say you overhaul your website. Maybe you change your domain from yourcitypressurewashing.com to bestcleanpros.com. Or you move a popular service page.
If you don’t create 301 redirects from the old URLs to the new ones, Google sees that as a dead end.
All the authority and ranking power those old pages had? Poof. Gone.
Chris compares it to mail forwarding—if you don’t tell the post office you’ve moved, your letters never arrive.
✅ Let professionals like Footbridge Media handle this behind the scenes. Their team knows how to preserve your SEO juice during redesigns or migrations.
5. Letting Your Site Go Offline
This one seems obvious, but it happens way more than it should—especially with DIYers.
You forget to renew your domain, your hosting expires, or your site crashes and stays down for weeks. In Google’s eyes, you’re dead.
Even if you come back online later with the exact same content, you’re starting over.
Chris says, “If Google thinks you’re dead, you’re dead.”
✅ Set calendar reminders to renew your domain and hosting.
✅ Work with a provider that monitors uptime and alerts you if something goes wrong.
✅ Don’t rely on hope—build a system that keeps your online presence alive and thriving.
Offload Your SEO Stress: Work With Footbridge Media
Look, if you're busy cleaning roofs, sealing driveways, or installing HVAC systems, you probably don’t have time to micromanage redirects, interlinking, or keyword density.
That’s where Footbridge Media comes in.
They only work with contractors, and they’ve been doing it since 2004. No contracts, you own your website, and they write all the content for you. They even maintain your Google Business Profile.
🧠 Mention Lean and Mean to save $600 a year on your website build.
📞 Call 888-818-7215 and speak to Aaron O’Hanland or his team.
Bonus: Want to Get Your Softwash Business Set Up the Right Way?
If you’re just getting started in soft washing or pressure washing, make sure to check out our SESW Softwash 101 course. It’ll walk you through the exact tools, chemicals, and systems needed to build a solid foundation for your business.
👉 Don’t just start spraying water—start smart. Learn the chemistry, safety, and systems that actually make money.
Final Thoughts
SEO isn’t magic—but if you mess it up, you can destroy your visibility overnight.
Follow these lessons, get professional help when needed, and build a site that works for you 24/7.
If you found this article helpful, drop a comment below or share it with another contractor who needs to hear this. And don’t forget to subscribe to the Lean and Mean Academy on YouTube for more killer business insights.
