SEO for Contractors: How to Grow Your Business Organically

Quick Summary:

Do you know almost 80% of construction-based queries are now happening online? If you are a contractor and haven’t invested in local SEO, you are missing out on something big.

• Create your GMB profile to establish your online presence.
• Show up for local searches and be easily discoverable for your potential clients.
• Ensure that your website is mobile-friendly so that users can access your site on devices such as smartphones and tablets.
• Earn positive reviews to build your online reputation.
• Focus on on-page elements for local SEO, including keyword optimization, meta tags and more.
• Make sure there are no issues with citations, including, Name, Address and Phone Number (NAP).
• Google measures user interaction, such as clicks and impressions, within your site and outside of it. Ensure your site gets the maximum out of local SEO.

Introduction

If you look at digital marketing, you can spot a dynamic change in the purchasing process. This is because your potential target audience/clients are digital savvy and have a natural aversion to conventional marketing pitches.

The traditional method of attracting new clients, via, hoardings, posters and yellow pages have been deemed outdated.

In this article, we will take you through the different aspects of doing local SEO for contractors so that your construction company ranks well on Google Search Engine Results Page (SERP).

Why Contractors should Invest in Local SEO?

The main reason why established contractors invest in local SEO is because of the increase in the number of prospects using online resources before zeroing down on a construction company. This trend has been proliferating ever since Web 2.0 became popular. 

1. 1. Most people begin their search for a good contractor by conducting thorough research online
   2. Many contractors have received new clients through websites that are optimized for local search
   3. Almost 80% of all the construction related searches are done on Google

Here are four reasons why a construction company must take local SEO seriously in the years to come.

1. Google My Business is the way to go

GMB is the best way to enhance your online presence on local search. This property of Google has passed through many variations over the years, and the current iteration is the most robust and feature-rich version one.

The new features in GMB allow you to claim, customize, and interact with your audience in various ways.

2. The website has to rank in your local area

Clients search for local construction companies using keywords such as the “best contractors near me” or “list of construction companies in California”. 

It’s vital that your firm shows up in the search results for these queries as users are looking for the particular service that you offer.

For local businesses, this usually means achieving top ranks, not only in the local map pack but also on Google SERP. 

3. You have to offer a great mobile user Experience

50% of the local searches are done via smartphones. A typical mobile search for a local business leads to qualified customers who have genuine needs. Almost all smartphone users engage with Google while on the move.

This trend has rapidly increased after the search engine giant introduced Google Assistant and Google Home. Above all, the latest algorithm update has come up with mobile-first indexing.

This essentially means that Google now considers mobile-friendliness of a website before featuring on mobile and desktop results. So, it is crucial to ensure that you have a mobile-friendly site to appear top on local searches.

4. Actively manage your Online Reputation

When you have a business, reviews are more like a double-ended sword. It can either become a boon or a bane considering how the users feel about your business.

Moreover, positive reviews can help in achieving the top rank on all search engines. However, if you don’t get favorable reviews that support the ranking, then this will result in fewer visitors.

If you own a construction company that has an online presence, follow these steps to connect with your target audience:

It’s a kind of blueprint for construction SEO in 2022:

1. My business signals

The central element in the race to rank for local searches for contractors is to secure the top position on Google Maps search results. 

Ensure that your business has claimed a spot in GMB. Listed below are a few suggestions that contractors can use when optimizing Google My Business for their construction websites.

1. Confirm your page listing and ensure that it is listed under the right service category
2. You can only show up if you have a physical location in the city that you want to feature
3. Don’t go for keyword stuffing in the title, as it is against the Google Guidelines

2. Link Signals

Inbound links are worth much traffic to your website, so it’s best not to ignore them. If you hire a local SEO expert, it becomes their responsibility to ensure that you receive organic rankings through white hat link building techniques.

Nonetheless, Google’s algorithm value the quality of inbound links a website receive. Authority of your website will have more impact on local search results than before due to the new Google algorithm updates.

Here are the types of links a site needs to gain high-authority from search engines:

a. Inbound link:

An inbound link is a hyperlink pointing to your website from an external website.

b. Internal links:

The hyperlinks in a content that point out to a different post or content in the same domain are called internal links.

This will help Google to index your page soon and increase the user interactions, sessions, page views, thereby reducing the bounce rate on your site.

c. Outbound links

Outbound links are another form of linking you can use while doing local SEO for contractors.

They are similar to other linking forms, except the hyperlink in your site’s content will point out to another website to provide furthermore information to the audience.

d. Local Citation Links

While doing local SEO for contractors, getting links to GMB page and other citation properties will have a positive impact on local visibility.

These are the links from local business directories, websites, apps or social platforms that will point to your branded Internet Yellow Pages. So, these profiles are an excellent way to build local authority.

5. On-Page Signals

When you go for local SEO services, ensure that they don’t overlook on-page signals. The on-page factors are vital for construction websites as it will optimize your site to rank well on SERP.

For that, you need to have unique content featuring each type of services you offer.

Tag your site with pertinent Title, Meta Description, Body, and Image Alt Text. Also, ensure that your site architecture is stable as well.

If you have a local SEO expert, then he/she can make use of tools like SEMRush or Ahref to conduct keyword research and content analysis.

Here are some of the essential Local SEO factors that you must consider whole doing on-page optimization:

• Presence of Name, Address, and Phone number (NAP)
• Presence of keyword in the title, heading and copy (SEO)
• The Schema mark-up
• The Site Architecture

6. Citation Signals

The citations are references to your business name, address and phone number that are present on trusted business directories.

When Google discovers your business information through these sites, it will help you build credibility. There are many online channels you can cite your website on. They include directories, maps, review sites, apps, and GPS navigation.

Building citations is important while doing construction SEO. Even small mistakes such as variations in the business name, address, and phone number may hamper your chance of appearing in local search results.

Hence, you need to deal with citations carefully, especially when it comes to Google Maps. The number of citation that you build and the velocity at which you grow them is also considered as a rank signals by Google.

7. Review Signals

Reviews help to build trust and motivate the users to choose your firm over other results and choices.

Having positive reviews on your business listings is one of the best methods to build an impeccable online reputation for your business.

The factors to improve your online reputation:

1. Quantity- The users will end up choosing the services with most reviews that are positive.
2. Quality- The public will go for reviews that are the most positive and companies that have a good online reputation.
3. Review updates- This is the main trust factor, if your reports are old then the users are not very confident with your services.
4. Diversity- Even though most people use Google, some tend to use Yelp, Social Media and other Internet Yellow Page sites to find a local business. So, you have to ensure that you build a good reputation on all review-based sites.
5. History- If you possess a good track record, then don’t let a few bad reviews get you down. Nonetheless, if the volume of bad reviews begins to increase, then it is time to take a look at your site and find the source behind the negative comments and fix it or eliminate it.

Online reviews have a significant impact on your business map and website ranking as well. Studies have shown that Google favors businesses with the highest number of positive reviews.

Google’s algorithm understands what others have to say about your business. The keywords used in the review comments help Google algorithm to understand your relevance and feedback from the audience to rank you in search results.

You can improve your online reputation in the following ways:

• • Develop a review strategy

• • Monitor your review

• • Amplify the positive feedback

• Share the best reviews through social media platforms

8. Behavioural Signals

Google algorithms are efficient to measure the user interaction happening both on your website and on other Google properties such as GMB and Google Reviews.

Google looks at the page views and gauges the activities of the users. It also uses the click-through rate from maps to your website as one of the ranking signals.

In addition to this, the search giant can also measure the number of mobile users that click ‘Call’ or ‘Direction’ button on your business listing.

So, when you perform SEO for contractors, ensure that your website is more modern, mobile-friendly and engaging. 

Hopefully, the points listed above for local SEO for contractors will help to list your business on the Google maps and increase your local visibility.

If you want to know more about the local SEO services or feel that I have missed something, do drop in your feedback in the comment box.