Local SEO for Contractors is great way to get your name in front of potential clients. If you own a contracting business hoping to grow your online presence, you need to invest in local SEO to grab qualified leads.
Why Contractors need to concern themselves with Local SEO
Chances are, if you’ve made it to this post you have some kind of understanding that you need to be utilizing search engine optimization in order to grow.
But why is local SEO so important for modern day businesses?
There are three main reasons why it’s so vital.
1. Traditional promotion tactics are history.
Remember the days when you could post a flyer with rip off tabs in local library or grocery store? Or when a sign in a neighbor’s lawn created a lead?
Unfortunately, sources like this are just not as trusted anymore. Customers need to see reviews and testimonials to make a commitment these days.
Local SEO allows you to show relevance and trustworthiness quickly with a simple search.
2. Recommendations are sparse.
Obviously, 2020 meant less face to face time, less neighborly chit chat, and less personal recommendations.
Instead, potential customers are heading to search engines like Google to give them curated, local suggestions about where to spend their money.
3. Organic reach. For free.
While it takes time, effort, and knowledge to create consistent and reliable traffic to your site, local SEO is a free, organic way to promote your contracting business.
Online ads can be great, but they’re expensive. Same goes for more traditional ads, like billboards – not to mention, they’re difficult to track just what your ROI is.
But utilizing local search engine optimization requires no pay to play in order to get your business in front of customers.
4. Targeted leads who are looking for a contractor.
If done right, local SEO perfectly targets the exact people who are at that very moment searching for the exact service you offer.
We help you rank on page one for the correct, converting keywords that serious buyers are searching.
Learn more about why is Local SEO important here.
How Local SEO for Contractors Works
Oka, so you’ve decided to bite the bullet and dive into it. Let’s talk about how to use your website to find qualified clients you want to work with.
Find the right keywords for you.
Firs, it’s so important to choose terms buyers are searching. When S2S helps find those initial terms, we look at the services you offer, what you competition is doing, and what people are looking for.
Here are some terms that could be a great start.
- Contractor near me
- General contractors in NJ
- Ocean country contractor
- Contractor for kitchen renovation
- What does a contractor do
- Should I hire a contractor?
We’re looking for terms that frame your service area, who you serve, what you do, and who you are.
Of course, you’ll want to sub in your state, towns, counties, etc. We love working on local SEO for NJ businesses because it’s where we’re located. But we work with contractors across the US to help them build their businesses.
Pick terms serious clients are searching.
Okay, you’ve got a long list of perfectly tailored keywords.
Next we need to narrow down the terms to focus on first by which have buying intent. This is the probability that the consumer is willing to make a purchase
These terms are usually easy to identify as they show some form of urgency. “Contractors near me” tells us the searcher is looking for a service nearby. This probably means they have a need for the near future.
Alternately, “Should I hire a contractor?” could someone in the very early stages.
While we want to focus on all of these terms over time, we want to put all of our energy into those terms with buying intent.
Build your site around those keywords.
Next, we’re going to focus on content. From your about page to your services pages to your locations pages. we want to make sure the content is reflecting what you offer and what potential clients are searching.
This builds content on your site, increases crawlability, and makes your site seem more professional.
Check in on your backend and site structure.
Few things will harm your ranking more than a slow site, poor structure, and a lack of mobile friendliness.
Once we have the right keywords and well structured content, we must go through the meticulous process of speeding your site, fixing your structure, and making sure it’s mobile friendly.
These are not just important to Google – studies show a slow site can cause 76% of users to head to a competitor.
Here at Systems to Skyrocket, we help businesses like yours pinpoint structural and SEO issues with our free basic site audit. Reach out here and ask for yours!
Set up Google My Business.
Google My Business is how you get into that “3 Pack” on the first page of google displaying your address and ratings on the map. It’s a free platform provided by Google to get your business ranking and display the information customers need to know.
Claim and set up your GMB account, Make sure to input the correct information regarding your business.
With Google my Business you can collect reviews and star ratings, which go a long way to gaining credibility and leads.
Ask for reviews from clients.
Most know that it’s against terms of service to ask your clients for positive only reviews or to give them something in exchange for a positive review.
On the other hand, a quick reminder asking clients to leave you a quick Google review is totally within the bounds. You just need to be sure not to ask for a specific review (positive).
Try asking for a review while being casual. We like saying something like this on receipt emails:
“We loved working with you on this project and hope you love the results. If you have a moment, please leave a Google Review to share your experience – it really helps others find me.” It doesn’t have to be complicated.
Finalize Citations and Backlinks
Citations are important aspect of local SEO. They are the many collective places a user can find your business information. Think Yellow Pages and Angie’s List. It’s important for your business information to be consistent and accurate across all of these sources and to be monitored for accuracy.
Another simple way to build your business is to get quality backlinks from authoritative sources. Reach out to local websites and news outlets for links. Get listed in your towns’ business website or the Chamber of Commerce.
We constantly help and monitor our clients backlink opportunities. We’d love to chat about how S2S can help organically build your business. Reach out to us here!
Be consistent with checking in and tweaking.
Local SEO for contractors is not a set it and forget it process. While much of the bulk of the work relies on the initial set up, leaving it does nothing to help.
Use free, Google-provided tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console to track your traffic and rankings. Continue to learn about new SEO rules and tactics to help your business grow.
We want to make sure your initial work isn’t for nothing and maintain your site!
You’re passionate about your business – not learning SEO. Here at S2S we help small businesses and beyond rank and succeed. We’d love to offer a free site audit to help you figure out where to start and how to improve.
Content for Contracting Websites
While it’s important to focus on lead generating search terms, service pages, and location pages, you want to have other content as well.
Content, often in the form of blog posts is what helps a site rank, build authority, and grow. For example, this document you’re reading is a blog post!
While you might be able to rank and attract customers with the site you have now, you can see exponential results with well crafted content.
This is especially important if you’re working in a competitive market or service area.
So, what kind of content works best for Contractor SEO?
Content ideas to build Contractor SEO
- What does a contractor do?
- Should I hire a contractor?
- Ways to increase value in your home
- How do I hire a general contractor?
- What improvements add value to my home?
- How to prepare your house for a renovation
- Questions to ask your contractor before a reno
- How can I finance a. home remodel
This is just a small taste of the endless topics that a contractor could write on to attract customers and build authority. Or, check get more info on how Systems to Skyrocket could help create target, SEO’d content for your small business.
Some more ways to think of content ideas for contracting companies include:
If you want to brainstorm some of your own ideas, here are some questions to ask yourself.
- What are the services your offer?
- What are questions customers ask often regarding renovations or new builds?
- Next, think about objections – What hurdles do you have to go over when trying to sell to a potential new client?
- What are some updates that are essential to a specific room?
- What some ways renovating can improve your client’s life?
Of course, all content you add to your site should be keyworded effectively and structured to rank on Google and other search engines.
Thankfully, here at S2S we help small businesses craft content that is positioned to rank. We’re passionate about helping service businesses create content that will drive buying customers to them. Learn more about how we manage content creation for Local SEO here.
Need some help?
Overwhelmed just thinking about creating a website for your business that’s optimized for local SEO for contractors? We’re here to help.
Reach out to use at info[@]systemstoskyrocket.com or simply fill in the form below. We’d love to chat about how we can make your small business skyrocket.
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