Are you concerned about the best SEO for contractors and small business owners? These days, many, if not most potential clients search for contracting businesses online. It’s vital that you understand how to get your contractor website found!
The best SEO for contractors includes:
If you’re not familiar with these concepts and how they affect your website, keep reading! Knowing more about contractor SEO practices allows you to make the best decisions when it comes to your business.
Also, remember that you can hire an expert for various SEO services. Content writers, website designers, and other pros help get your website found, increasing your bottom line in the process.
Before you can understand the best SEO for contractors, it’s good to understand SEO in the first place. Search engine optimization or SEO refers to optimizing a website so search engines like Google find it more readily. Optimizing or tailoring your website for search engines is essential.
One reason for this is that just publishing a site doesn’t mean search engines will find it. Two, someone searching online for your specific industry is not going to spend much time sifting through websites.
In fact, many people won’t even click on the second or third page of their search results! It’s important that contractors understand how to make their site user-friendly and more visible to search engines and, thereby, potential customers.
You don’t need to be an internet expert to understand how to apply the best SEO for contractors! With that in mind, check out this comprehensive guide to SEO for contracting industries.
If you’re a contractor, you might already have an idea about which services mentioned above require a professional. For instance, many contractors know their industry “inside and out” but might struggle to write informative blogs. Also, managing a project while working with a video camera is cumbersome and difficult for most contractors!
In addition to these services, there are technical aspects of maintaining a healthy website often unfamiliar to contractors. Hiring a professional for these tasks also ensures that your website is user-friendly and optimized for search engines. Check out a few examples of when you might reach out to a professional for your website.
On-page SEO optimization refers to ensuring a website is friendly to search engines. This includes reviewing a site’s structure, which should be easy for readers to follow. As an example, readers might struggle to keep up with overly long text blocks. Someone managing on-page optimization might add subheadings, photos, and other details to break up that text.
Also, readers should be able to navigate a site easily. For contractors, this might mean organizing a menu according to the services offered. For instance, it’s often helpful to separate commercial from residential contractor services. Those pages should also load quickly so readers don’t get frustrated and click away.
Additionally, a professional web builder can manage media tags. These are descriptions for photos and videos. Engines read those descriptions when scanning your website content. In turn, the right tags during the implementation of on page SEO strategies help bolster your site’s authenticity.
Moreover, your site’s meta descriptions are vitally important! What is a meta description? When you search for something online, a meta description is a small paragraph that appears under a site’s name. Internet crawlers use that information when ranking sites in someone’s search results.
Off-page optimization, as the name implies, refers to information about your website elsewhere on the web. Professional site builders with knowledge of the best SEO for contractors can check for inbound links or citations, which help build a site’s trustworthiness. Additionally, they can manage guest posting and other avenues for increasing those links to your page.
Also, a professional website developer can manage your site’s reputation overall. This might include ensuring information on GMB is correct and finding new contractor directory sites. They can also post on social media and hire freelance writers for blog creation.
Keywords are words and phrases someone uses when searching for something online. For example, a homeowner might search for “pressure washing services near me” or “power washing contractors.” These phrases are their keywords or keyword phrases.
Understanding keywords used for your industry is essential, as search engines match those phrases to what they see on your website. Remember, web crawlers don’t discern or understand website content fully unless the proper keywords or “search terms” are on the website.
Instead, those search engines look for websites containing keywords used by someone searching online. Industry-specific keywords are those most used by someone searching for your service in particular.
Location-specific keywords, as the name implies, include the name of the location. Using location-specific keywords is vital for the best SEO for contractors! Most people searching for contractor services will try to narrow down their search to their local area. They might include the name of the largest nearby city, their county, and the like
With this in mind, contractors should use both industry-specific and location-specific keywords on their websites. As an example, a pressure washer would avoid just using the phrase “power washing.” This isn’t specific enough to their business location as “power washing” could mean some are just searching for “how to DIY power washing,” or maybe they want to rent a power washer.
However, when you include your primary service and service location, this makes your website content appear more readily in the web directory.
For example, if I’m a business owner who provides power washing services in Tampa. Some of my primary keywords may include power washing Tampa, pressure washing Tampa, roof cleaning Tampa, and driveway cleaning Tampa. Each of the services a company provides likely has a search term for their local area.
Local SEO refers to building your site’s reputation with local directories. For instance, Google My Business (GMB) is an account provided by Google where business owners can manage their Google listings. This includes ensuring their contact information is correct, responding to reviews, and the like.
A GMB account is a necessity for contracting services and gaining website traffic. When someone searches for your services, a GMB listing often pops up next to their results. That information includes your hours of operation, contact information, website, and other details.
Additionally, a GMB account makes your company seem more legitimate to Google and other search engines. The more legitimate a company, the higher the rankings you’ll land! For all these reasons and more, every contractor should have a Google Business profile for their company.
While Google My Business is vital for getting found by potential clients and part of the best SEO for contractors practices, it’s not the only online directory or local SEO available. For maximum results, contractors should have listings on Angi, Houzz, HomeAdvisor, and similar sites.
Additionally, remember that potential clients might also search social media for contractors. In turn, contractors should consider maintaining accounts on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and other such sites. Not only might clients find you through these accounts, but they also bolster a company’s credibility and search engine rankings, and visibility.
Content marketing refers to using helpful articles, videos, podcasts, newsletters, and email campaigns to market your business. This custom contractor SEO strategy improves your SEO in two ways. One, it can reach potential clients and impel them to contact your business. Two, it helps your website look more legitimate.
If you’re concerned about content marketing SEO strategies for your business, consider hiring a professional. Writers and videographers can produce stellar articles, newsletters, videos, and other content for you. Also, a contractor doesn’t need to produce podcasts and videos. Instead, he or she might sit in on someone else’s podcast or appear in another company’s videos.
Blogging is a vital part of the best SEO for contractors. One reason is that blogs help increase your website content, which makes the site seem more legitimate. Two, blogs help “sell” your services to clients. For instance, a blog about the benefits of pressure washing can convince potential clients to call.
Additionally, other sites looking for content might quote or share those blogs. This also enhances your company’s reputation online, making it a key SEO strategy component. Moreover, that content encourages readers to contact you for needed services.
Case studies, testimonials, and positive reviews are important for contractor SEO. These encourage internet web crawlers to see your company as authoritative and reliable. They also build trust with potential clients.
In turn, contractors should encourage clients to leave positive reviews when possible. Before-and-after photos and videos also work as testimonials to a contractor’s work.
However, be careful of creating fake reviews for your business! Search engines have ways of spotting these and might decrease your site’s visibility in search results.
Mobile users account for over half of all online searches on average. It’s vital that contractors create a website that’s responsive to mobile pages.
This responsiveness includes breaking up information into small paragraphs and sections. Also, special formatting, such as bullet points or numbers, creates text that’s easier to read on mobile phones.
Additionally, contractors might consider using accelerated mobile pages or AMP when building a site. This stripped-down programming creates sites easier to manage on phones and tables.
While AMP doesn’t support features like forms or some photos, it offers a more welcoming experience for mobile users. Faster loading means clients are less likely to click away or have the site freeze for a more user-friendly experience.
Link building refers to having other websites link back to yours and is a requirement when considering the best SEO for contractors. When crawlers see these links, it builds trust that your site is valid and trustworthy. One good way to get backlinks is by guest posting or allowing another site to post something you’ve written.
Website owners allow guest posting when they need fresh content on their site. They might also include ads on those guest posts to earn additional revenue. In turn, those site owners allow the author to link back to their website. Sites that allow guest posting include HubSpot, Mashable, and The Huffington Post.
It’s important that contractors maintain social media profiles for their company! This gives search engines an opportunity to see your name and address as legitimate and trustworthy. Also, potential clients might search for service providers through social media, as said.
Additionally, social media is a great SEO strategy and outlet for content marketing. You can post blogs or videos through your Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and other sites. Visitors might then share those posts, which increases your site’s visibility and rankings.
Lastly, remember that consistent posting and engagement help build search engine rankings and trust for your business. This doesn’t mean daily posting, but contractors might consider adding a blog or video at least every few weeks.
Adding fresh content consistently engages new readers and encourages past visitors to subscribe or keep returning to your page. Consequently, search engines will see your site as trustworthy, which increases authority, trustworthiness, and online presence.
Contractors understand more than most people the value of hiring qualified professionals to manage jobs they can’t. In turn, a contractor should consider paying someone to oversee their website and needed best SEO for contractors services. One reason for this is that it frees up your time to run your business! Two, a professional site manager understands many technical aspects of running a website that a contractor might miss.
Also, consider that browsers update how they evaluate sites often. Consequently, a contractor might need to edit their site’s content over the years. A professional search engine optimization manager stays on top of these trends and needed fixes. As a result, your site always ranks as high as possible when potential clients search for your business.
Analytics are important for any business. Reviewing business numbers regularly ensures you’re keeping up with market trends, enjoying a healthy profit, and so on. Since websites are so critical for contractors, reviewing a site’s analytics is also imperative.
Site managers can review websites for contractors regularly. These analytics might include visitors to your site, how your keywords rank, and if a site loads easily. A site manager might also note dead links, either internal or external, and other issues that cause visitors to click away.
There are tools that can help with website reporting and analytics, from Google Analytics to tracking application performance. Hiring experts in the field will save time and provide more accurate results than if you attempt to do it yourself. It’s a good idea to hire professionals for this task, as they typically have a better understanding of how best to collect data for analysis.
The team at LeadsForward is happy to help explain more about the best SEO for contractors. From keyword research and off page SEO to dominating in your local area with local SEO services, rest assured our team knows how to get organic traffic to your website.
Hopefully, this guide has helped you understand this process more clearly. If you’re ready to skyrocket your website’s potential and enjoy a healthier ROI, contact our team today. We offer SEO services tailored to each client individually, allowing you to dominate your market and generate leads even while you sleep. To find out more or to get your FREE demonstration and price quote, contact us today.
