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Originally Posted On: https://www.trevortynes.ca/local-seo/contractor-seo/

 

Let’s talk about organic and local SEO for contractors today so we can get you in front of my homeowners, get you more jobs and help you bring in more income.

Contractors have to deal with many of the problems that face other businesses. As a contractor, most of your business is local, which means you have to compete for a small pool of customers which makes local contractor SEO and organic absolutely critical.

Given such strong competition, it is important to make your business highly visible to the people that require your services. Unlike many businesses, contractors do not have the luxury of repeat customers, at least not as frequently as some other businesses. Clients of a local contractor either require maintenance repairs or installation or they do not.

It helps when you do a great job when contracted as clients will contact you when they next need your services, but this could mean waiting for months or even years. As such, you need to be proactive by adopting an SEO strategy that gives you a competitive edge in a crowded market.

Why Contractors Need to Invest in Local SEO

As a contractor trying to attract new business, it can be hard as most people that need a contractor will just run Google Search and call the first few names listed on the search results. To get a piece of the pie it is important to get your business at the top of the list or at least in the top three. The following are some of the reasons SEO for contractors is so critical.

Google is King of Search

76% of people that use a mobile device to perform a Google Search for something will typically visit that business on the same day. This means that customers that are searching Google for a roofer, plumber, HVAC Company or other types of contract work are serious buyers. These are people ready to hire you and your company that you can only get access to if you have done your contractor SEO right.

Fast Results

International and national companies usually have to wait between six months to a year to see any changes in their search engine rankings. As a local contractor, you have a significant edge as your competition is not huge national companies but other local contractors. Since your competitors are advertising on Yellow Pages, Homestars, Trusted Pros and Angie’s List and not doing SEO optimization for their website, getting to the top of Google Search results can happen in as little as a month.

Greater Brand Awareness

In some instances, clients will need to perform more than one search before making the decision on which contractor to go with. When your company’s name keeps appearing on Google Search, people will start associating it with the service they are searching for. It will not take long before they start typing the company name in the browser and going direct to the website when they want to hire.

Lower Marketing Costs

While SEO is not cheap, the investment pays off for longer and has a broader reach as compared to traditional marketing methods. With Search engine optimization, your efforts compound over time and as your site authority improves you will rank higher and get more SEO leads. Greater authority means you will rank for more search terms, which means you will no longer have to pay for expensive PPC campaigns.

Greater Competitive Advantage

You have no hope of going toe to toe with a national or international contracting company in traditional marketing techniques given their enormous budgets. However, with contractor marketing on the local scene, you can rank for almost anything the big boys are not targeting. Obnce you optimize for SEO and get more search terms ranking, you can get more clicks and leads which will result in more revenue.

How to Do SEO for Contractors

As a contractor you will for the most part have to depend on local business. However most business owners do not realize how important it is to adopt specific contractor SEO strategies to dominate the local market. Here is how to dominate the search engine results and get a steady stream of clients to your website and business.

Step 1: Select Your Keywords

The first step in an SEO for contractors strategy is to come up with keywords that you need your company to rank for in the search results. These could be words such as “commercial construction contractors,” Plumbers in Miami FL, or general contractor LA. Once you have your final keyword list you can categorize them into:

Buying Intent Keywords – These are terms such as basement renovation LA, which may indicate the searcher wants to have their basement done and needs a contractor who can do the job right now or in a few days. these are some of the most lucrative keywords as they convert highly.

Research Intent Keywords – These are keywords such as backyard lawn ideas or home remodeling ideas may indicate that the prospect is just browsing and is at the top end of the funnel. Given that the prospect may not be ready to buy from contractors in the near future, these are low priority keywords and will not convert as highly.

Step 2: Optimize Your Keywords

Keyword optimization is one of the most important aspects of SEO for your site. Keyword optimization usually includes optimizing your website and your Google My Business for your given keywords.

Google My Business

Google My Business refers to a mini website that appears on the Google Search results that ranks on the Map Pack. The current iteration of GMB is a feature rich and robust version that makes it easy to add in important data and information about your website that appears on the search results.

To become featured on the Map Pack you will need to do the following to register for Google My Business:

• Verification – The first thing to do is to claim your site on Google My Business page. You will know you are done when you see the word “Verified” beside the name of your business.
• Name Address and Phone Number – Fill in your name, address and phone number into your GMB and ensure you use the same details all over the internet.
• Categories – List the primary services or product offerings your business provides but also any secondary ones. For instance, a category might be basement contractor, bathroom remodeler, or general contractor.
• Description – This is usually a short summary of what your company is or does that typically also includes a call to action.
• Hours – You need to have up to date hours of operation that should match every other time you posted online. Note that you will need to provide information separately if your office hours are different from service hours.
• Images – Every website (and the GMB page is not different) requires images as these have been proven to significantly drive engagement. You can fulfill this requirement by uploading sharp images no bigger than 5MB and no less that 10kb

Optimizing Your Website for SEO

Website optimization usually begins with website content starting with the homepage and then the service pages. These will be keyword optimized first before you move to less important pages such as the FAQ and blog posts content. Here is how to do it:

• Homepage – The homepage of any website is one of the most important elements for SEO. The most important element to optimize is the title tag which is a short description of what you do and the name of your company. This could be something like “Home Remodeler Chicago – Name of Company.”
• Meta Description – This is a 100 to 150 character overview that has a description of the services offered by the company and a call to action. This usually includes something like: “Company Name – Provides high-quality home remodels in Miami. Call or email us on …… for a free estimate.”
• Headline – Usually known in SEO as the H1, it is a concise descriptive headline that typically contains the primary category of the service your company provides. It could be something like “Home remodeler in Miami, Florida.”
• Website Content – While you will not be needing so much website content while doing SEO for contractors, content is still very critical for contractor websites. Content marketing for contractors usually involves writing content that explain different aspects of the business. For instance you can write blogs about how to remodel a kitchen or the best tiles to use.
• Service Pages – You will need to create different pages and write 500 to 1000 word page copy for each. These need to be tightly focused on buying intent keywords and be fully optimized for that one word.

Step 3: Link Building and Citations

To improve your website’s visibility on search, link building and developing citations is a must.

Link Building – Links are the most important ranking factor on the search engines. A site with more and better quality links will typically rank higher as compared to sites with fewer links. For contractor marketing, link building and creating an online presence is one of the most critical SEO practices to adopt. For both organic and local SEO, it is all about finding out where competitors websites are getting links and then getting all their links and more. You can also build relationships with local businesses you have a relationship with such as realtors if you are a construction company and ask them to provide links to you on their websites.

Citations – This is a listing of you company NAP in online directories. There are several places to get your NAP data listed including local directories such as the Chamber of Commerce websites, industry specific directories for contractors.

Step 4: Ask for Reviews

You need to be always asking your clients to leave reviews. Online reviews are critical as they convince potential customers to use your services and show Google that you are running a legitimate business. While it will not hurt to have reviews in as many places as possible, it is critical to have Google My Business reviews as these provide the biggest boost in search rank.  As such, asking for reviews needs to be part and parcel of all marketing campaigns.

Step 5: Track Your Results

Once you get started on your local SEO marketing campaign you will need to track, monitor and improve. Some of the critical metrics to look out for include:

• Rankings – You need to conduct regular reviews of your rankings to determine if you are achieving your business goals  on the marketing campaign you are conducting. The best way to do this for free is via the Google Search console which provides you with average ranking positions over a given period of time. You can also use paid tools such as Ahrefs to check web rankings in real time.
• Traffic – The best way to track your leads and website visitors is via Google Analytics. Through Analytics you can view which web pages are getting the most traffic, which visitors come from direct traffic, form Google Search and referrals. It can also help you find trends that you can then use to tweak your marketing methods to get more leads.
• Conversions – This is any specific action you need your clients to perform and may include making phone calls, leaving an email address or filling a form. Google analytics will track all of these and provide the data on what web page converts best and which one needs improvement.

Want Help with SEO?

How does contractor SEO from Trevor Tynes work?

If you are interested in partnering with Trevor Tynes for your SEO campaigns, we are here to help. We provide contractor SEO services to contractors that need to get more leads to their websites. Our contractor SEO services have helped dozens of businesses rank high on the search engines.

At Trevor Tynes this is what you can expect when you contract us to do your SEO:

• Website Audit – Our contractor SEO clients get a dedicated account manager who does the website reviews. They will check for adherence to best SEO practices such as the use of title tags, mobile-friendliness and keyword optimization among other things. We will also assess other companies’ websites to determine if there are areas that need improvement on your site.
• Talk Strategy – Once the audit is done, you will meet with the account manager to review the competitor analysis and the website audit. The meet up can be either via video chat, phone or in person and the manager will ask about your business goals, you company, you audience and brand.
• Receive the SEO for Contractors Strategy Blueprint – Once the manager has had the meetup and learned about your business, they will come up with a custom SEO campaign for your company. This will include the goals to be achieved and the suggested content, keywords, link building strategies and timelines.
• Get Your Website Optimized for Local SEO – Once you approve the SEO strategy, the account manager will start optimizing your site to make it conform to best SEO practice. This will usually be organized and implemented according to impact and priority.
• Get Optimized SEO Content – In addition to the optimization on the website, out team will also find the best content fit your clientele and brand. We have an in-house team of specialized writers and editors who will provide the best SEO optimized construction or home services content resources for your website.
• Improve Off Page SEO for the company website – We are experts in SEO for contractors among other specialized SEO implementations. While other SEO companies use black hat SEO techniques that could get your website penalized, we use white hat methods to build citations and links that will boost your site ranks. In our off-page SEO efforts, we create share worthy content that will attract links long after we finish the marketing campaign.
• Track Website Ranking – Our SEO services include tracking rankings for your site. We have a variety of tools at our disposal such as Search Console, Ahrefs, and Moz that we use to track performance and rankings that we share with you in an easy to understand report.

We strive to be considered the best, above all other  SEO companies.  We are experienced providers of SEO for contractors and general contractors SEO and hence we have the resources, skill and expertise to develop SEO strategy for your marketing campaigns that will get you more leads and improve your marketing ROI.

Contact us today for inquiries on pricing, strategy, and any question on contractor SEO you may have.