Posts By: Connor Prewit
Lokal Media House Wins Award for Plumbing Website Redesign
Addison, TX – Lokal Media House (LMH), a digital marketing agency serving the home services industry, has been named a winner at the Web Excellence Awards for its redesign of blackplumbing.com.
“This win reflects what we do every day for our clients” said Danny Braught, Partner at LMH. “Plumbers, HVAC companies, electricians and garage door companies deserve websites that perform like a top-producing tech, not cookie-cutter templates. We build for how homeowners actually search and book.”
The project earned recognition in the Local Services and Services & Utilities categories, placing LMH alongside global agencies competing across multiple industries and digital disciplines.
The Web Excellence Awards honor outstanding work in web design, development and digital strategy worldwide. An independent panel of industry experts evaluates each entry on user experience and usability, visual design and branding, technical execution and overall business impact. The full award profile is available here.
For Black Plumbing, the project went well beyond a visual refresh. LMH delivered a full website redesign built around homeowner search behavior, photography and videography featuring the company’s actual crews and field work, and end-to-end SEO implementation aimed at improving rankings and lead generation.
“Black Plumbing has real history and real people behind the trucks, and the old site didn’t show any of that,” said Chris Harrison, UX/UI Designer at Lokal Media House. “We built the redesign around their actual crews, their actual work and the way their customers talk about them. Authenticity converts. Stock photos and generic copy don’t.”
That philosophy is central to LMH’s work, which combines SEO strategy, UX design and conversion-focused content into a single system.
Unlike generalist agencies, LMH focuses exclusively on home services businesses. The agency’s services include search engine optimization, paid ad campaigns and website development. LMH is also a ServiceTitan Certified Marketer, which allows the team to tie marketing performance directly to booked jobs and revenue, meaningful for contractors looking to measure ROI beyond clicks and impressions. More information on the partnership is available here.
The Web Excellence Award adds to a growing list of recognitions for LMH and reinforces its position as a digital partner for home services companies across the US. As local search grows more competitive, a well-designed and optimized website is no longer optional for any home services business that wants to stay visible, win customers and sustain long-term growth.
To learn more about Lokal Media House’s award-winning work, visit lmh.agency.
About Lokal Media House
Lokal Media House (LMH) is an independently owned digital marketing agency based in Addison, Texas, that works exclusively with home services businesses. The agency partners with plumbing, HVAC, electrical, roofing, and garage door companies across the United States, delivering custom website design, search engine optimization, paid advertising, and more. LMH is a ServiceTitan Certified Marketer and a Yelp Platinum Partner. To learn more, visit lmh.agency.
Google Just Changed Its Review Rules. Here’s What You Need to Know
If you’ve been asking customers to mention your plumber, technician, or roofer by name in their Google reviews, stop doing that today. Google updated its review policy and that practice is now a direct violation.
We work with home service businesses across plumbing, HVAC, electrical, garage doors, and roofing every day. When something like this comes across our desk, we tell our clients immediately. This is one of those times.
What Google Actually Changed
Google updated its Maps User Generated Content Policy with two new rules that hit home service businesses directly:
- You cannot ask staff to hit review targets. No quotas, no “get five reviews this week” instructions to your technicians or front desk team.
- Reviews must not identify a staff member. You cannot ask customers to mention a specific team member by name. That means pulling “ask them to say John did a great job” out of your follow-up messages right now.
Both rules are live and documented on Google’s official Maps policy page.
Why Google Did This
Too many businesses were coaching customers on exactly what to write. Review contests, staff incentives tied to review counts, scripted name-drops — Google closed the loopholes. When a review is the product of coaching rather than a genuine experience, it stops working the way reviews are supposed to work. Google knows that and this update reflects it.
Why It Matters for Your Business
Your Google Business Profile is usually the first thing a potential customer sees before they decide whether to call your company. Reviews that get flagged for policy violations don’t just disappear quietly. They can affect your entire profile’s visibility at exactly the moment it matters most.
This is not a risk worth taking over a small wording change.
What to Do Right Now
Pull up your review request process today. If your follow-up texts, emails, or cards ask customers to mention a technician by name, update them. Make sure anyone on your team who talks to customers knows not to coach reviews or push for numbers.
Keep asking for honest feedback. Google still wants businesses to encourage genuine reviews. A simple “we’d love to hear about your experience” is completely fine. That part has not changed.
One More Thing
If your reviews are real, your process is clean, and your customers are genuinely happy, nothing about this update should worry you. The businesses this hurts are the ones who were gaming the system.
If you are not sure whether your current process is compliant, reach out to us. We audit review workflows for our home service clients and we can make sure your profile is set up to work for your business before this becomes a problem.
