In today's digital age, having some kind of digital marketing strategy is crucial for businesses of all industries. The construction industry is no exception. By using effective SEO strategies, businesses can increase visibility, attract more leads, and expand their client base.
This guide will discuss contractor SEO. It will also cover essential tools to improve their search presence. Additionally, it will highlight the importance of local SEO for overall success.
Understanding SEO for Construction Companies and Contractors
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of optimizing a website to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs) for specific keywords or phrases. For contractors, this means ensuring that their websites are easily findable when potential clients search for relevant services. But it's more than just getting found. SEO involves everything from findability to how fast your website loads, and more.
Local SEO Ranking Factors for Contractors
Construction companies and contractors can significantly benefit from local SEO or regional SEO.
Local SEO focuses on optimizing your online presence for local searches while regional SEO broadens your reach beyond your city.
Both strategies ensure that your business appears in search results when users search for services in their area.
But don't get too ahead of yourself. If you've got your eyes set on regional dominance, that takes time- and money. Start ranking highly in your locality and then expand beyond, especially if your website is brand new or you have a poor search presence.
But before you start optimizing, you have to know where to start. That's why it's important to figure out what the biggest local SEO ranking factors are for your business.
Google Business Profile
Many business owners don't realize this, but claiming and optimizing your Google Business Profile listing is a critical ranking factor of local SEO. Yet a ton of local businesses have not claimed their Google Business Profile!
If you do have ownership of yours, make sure it is complete with accurate business information, photos, reviews, and regular updates.
Business (NAP) Citations
You can get your business listed on several basic online directories through software since doing each individually is extremely time-consuming. These listings are referred to as NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) citations as they contain the key information of your business. You will have a good foundation if your website has NAP citations!
If your information matches across several online sources, this is a trust signal for Google.
Google Reviews
Positive online reviews not only influence potential clients but also impact your local search rankings. Encourage satisfied clients to leave reviews on platforms like Google, Yelp, and industry-specific directories.
Positive reviews should come consistently which sends trust signals to search engines, deeming your business worthy of ranking higher in local search results.
It can happen, but in the rare case that you receive a negative review respond to it as soon as possible. This sends trust signals to Google and shows that you took the time to address a review despite the rating. But you should be responding to all reviews regardless.
Location-Specific Content
Create content that is relevant to your local audience, such as
projects completed in the area
local industry insights
community involvement
Beyond Local
Once you've established a strong foundation and scaling is one of your goals, you can evaluate your current strategy and discover potential opportunities.
This might involve creating content that addresses regional trends, gaining relevant backlinks from local websites, and implementing more advanced SEO tactics. There are several ways to approach it depending on what your bottom line is.
On-Page Optimization for Construction Websites
On-page optimization involves optimizing elements directly on your website to improve its visibility in search results. This includes:
Keyword Research
Identifying and targeting relevant keywords that potential clients are likely to search for. Keywords like "construction services," "contractor near me," and "construction companies in [city]" are all examples of keywords that can attract targeted traffic.
In recent years, however, more people have been conducting more local searches. What does this mean?
People are including locations or the term "near me" in their searches more frequently than ever; almost half the time, in fact (About 46%)!
High-Quality Content
Develop informative and engaging content that addresses the needs and questions of your target audience. Depending on your location, you may have to invest more time in content creation and optimization.
A few specific examples would be:
FAQs section
How-to guides
Blogging
Project galleries and descriptions
Dedicated service pages for the services you offer
URL Structure
Use easily readable URLs that include relevant keywords and are easy for users and search engines to understand. For example, if you are a local contractor in San Diego that can build ADUs on properties, one of your page URLs might be "adu-builder-san-diego" or "additional-dwelling-units" depending on how specific you want to be.
Off-Page SEO
Off-page optimization involves strategies to enhance your website's authority and credibility from external sources.
This includes:
Link Building
You should mainly look at acquiring quality backlinks from local websites within the construction and home improvement niche. These backlinks signal to search engines that your website is trusted by other websites, thus boosting your website's ranking in search engines.
Anchor text
Anchor text is the text that is used for a given link to another page. Anchor text is more important than ever when it comes to both backlinks and internal links. Choosing between good and bad anchor text makes a considerable difference in the quality of your link.
For instance, if I want to rank for a keyword like "construction company", I'd want to search for anchor text from other pages that include this term. The more exact, the better. Anchor text should be as precise and short as possible, giving readers an idea of what they're clicking on before they actually do.
Social Signals
Using social media to share blog content, interact with audiences, and attract social signals that (indirectly) help with SEO. Although a good social presence does not directly influence search engine rankings, there is evidence showing a positive correlation between social media presence and search engine rankings.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO focuses on the backend aspects of your website that impact its performance and accessibility:
Site Speed
Website speed is a ranking factor, believe it or not. Google wants to give the best websites to users, and one thing that makes websites easier to use is loading time. Research shows that slower-loading websites do have a higher bounce rate, which can hurt your SEO.
Ensuring fast loading times for your website can send positive signals to search engines and give users a positive experience on your website.
Mobile Responsiveness
Optimizing your website to provide a seamless experience for users on mobile devices is more important than ever since more users are searching on mobile devices.
Schema Markup
Implementing schema markup to provide search engines with additional context about your content is also something that can be overlooked. Although this doesn't directly benefit your SEO efforts, it can make it easier for search engines to crawl and understand your website.
Tools to Enhance SEO Success
In the competitive online landscape, utilizing the right tools can give contractors an edge in their SEO efforts. Here are some essential tools to consider:
Keyword Research Tools
Google Keyword Planner
This free tool included in Google Ads provides insights into search volume, competition, and keyword ideas that can guide your SEO strategy. Not only that, but you can see what keywords are being searched for in specific regions and how they're trending.
Semrush
Semrush has a massive database of keywords being searched throughout the world, which makes it a much-needed asset for SEO professionals. But it is not the only tool out there.
We're only mentioning it because it's a great all-around SEO tool that includes practically everything you need for your SEO campaigns.
Ahrefs, Moz, and Ubersuggest are also viable options for those doing research.
Content Optimization Tools
Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO is a popular WordPress plugin that helps website managers optimize on-page content by providing suggestions for improving certain SEO elements. The best part is that it's easy to use so most wouldn't have trouble figuring it out.
Grammarly
While not an SEO tool, Grammarly can help ensure your written content is error-free and flows well, which is a must for good content.
ChatGPT or Bard
I personally don't prefer one over the other, but ChatGPT and Bard both have their strengths and weaknesses. You can benefit from using both and seeing which one gives you better outputs.
It depends on what you need at the moment. I've found that ChatGPT is better for creativity while Bard is more data-driven and is better for gathering up-to-date information.
Link Building Tools
Moz Link Explorer: This tool helps you analyze your backlink profile and track your link-building efforts.
BuzzStream: An outreach and link-building tool that streamlines the process of building relationships with potential link partners.
What Are the Benefits of SEO for Contractors?
Contractors must adjust the online presence to be a better value to customers. This is one advantage SEO provides for contractors.
Long-term Marketing Costs Go Down
SEO isn't free- the investment can be hefty depending on where you go but it has the potential to produce long-term results that can carry longer than other methods. Essentially, you could receive free website traffic if your local SEO strategy is executed well enough.
Create Industry Authority and Brand Awareness
Building a search engine presence not only helps your rankings, but you can start to build brand awareness and authority.
Google crawls millions of websites to give searchers the best results possible. That fact remains true for your business and surrounding competitors, although that number is smaller.
Regardless, the websites that match someone's search intent while following best practices will show up in the top search results.
Increased ROI Long-Term
Every time we invest, we want to see returns for our investments. It can be tricky to find a quality SEO company. Some will guarantee you results in 30 days (don't ever fall for this tagline) or not get you any kind of results after months. To add to that, there are the ones that actually tried but just weren't a good fit.
So we get it, you may have trust issues if you have had negative experiences in the past. But we're here to walk you through every step of the way so you can feel comfortable investing in SEO.
Consider Looking into Contractor SEO Services
In our age of local search, local SEO is a fundamental tool for most businesses to establish a strong online presence.
Remember, SEO is an ongoing process that requires dedication and adaptation to the evolving landscape of search algorithms. That's why consulting with an SEO agency for general contractors can bring you valuable insights into what goes into building an online presence, even if you aren't fully ready to commit to a plan.