SEO for Contractors: A Guide for Contractor SEO Success
.If you're searching for "SEO for contractors" or "contractor SEO," then you must already know that search engine optimization can help your business:
- Get more website traffic
- Get more leads and clients
- Rank higher and show up in the search engine results pages
- Increase your revenue
- Accelerate growth
Search engine optimization is one of the best digital marketing channels that will work for any contracting business.
SEO will work for any general contractor business, including:
- Home builders and remodeling contractors
- Landscaping contractors
- Roofing contractors
- Plumbing contractors
- Electrical contractors
- Plus more
But how do you do search engine optimization for your contracting company?
I will show you this guide.
SEO for Contractors: An Actionable Guide for Contractor SEO
The contractor SEO process involves:
- Performing an SEO Audit
- Technical SEO
- Keyword research
- Analyzing Google's first page results for your keyword
- On-Page SEO
- Link building
- Optimizing your Google Business Profile
But I'm not going to get all technical like other SEO companies do when they try to explain SEO.
I'm here to help you, and I will explain search engine optimization so you can understand.
I will give you a high-level overview of SEO so that you will know how to do it yourself if you choose.
Let's dive in.
We'll start your contractor SEO by doing some keyword research.
First, I want you to think about this.
How do people find your business on Google and other search engines?
They use keywords.
Keywords are the words people enter into the search engines to get information.
When search engine crawlers crawl your website, they look for the best websites to satisfy what the users are searching for.
In other words, Google tries to show the websites with the best answers.
When you (your business) choose the right keywords, your website stands a better chance of showing up in the search results.
If you don't choose the right keywords, your website will not appear in the search results when people search for your contracting services.
But how do you find the right keywords and increase your keyword rankings?
You do keyword research.
But how do you do keyword research?
Need contractor SEO services?
We can help.
Keyword Research: Find Keywords for Your Business
There are many ways to find relevant keywords for your business.
To find keywords, you can:
- Use free tools like Google Suggest or Google Keyword Planner.
- Use paid keyword research tools like SEMRush or Ahrefs.
- Reverse engineer your competitors' websites.
In this part of the guide, I will show you how to reverse engineer your competitors' websites.
Let's look at an example.
Imagine that you're in the asphalt paving business.
You want to target people living in Annapolis who want an asphalt driveway or find a company that does asphalt driveways.
I searched "asphalt driveway paving Annapolis" and chose the first three websites on the first page.
The first three companies that came up were blah, blah, blah.
Let's look at blah.
I used the site explorer tool in Ahrefs to get an in-depth look at the website.
When you decide to start an SEO strategy, you want to target keywords with a low keyword difficulty score and a high search volume.
To figure out keywords with a low keyword difficulty score, you can use Ahrefs or SEMRush.
I discovered a keyword, "asphalt paving Annapolis MD."
We see from Ahrefs that this keyword is not that easy to rank for and has a keyword difficulty (KD) score of 13 and a monthly search volume of approximately 60 people per month.
It also states that you will need approximately 15 websites, or backlinks, to rank on the first page.
Backlinks are other websites linking to your website, but we'll get to backlinks later in the guide.
Back to the keyword, "asphalt paving Annapolis MD."
There are potentially 60 people per month searching for a contractor to install an asphalt driveway potentially.
60 people per month is not a high search volume, but remember, this is a small city in Maryland, and the cost average cost of paving a driveway is about $4,737.
Plus, your website traffic will increase when you target and rank for more keywords.
It all adds up.
Another potential keyword I found was "how to fix a muddy driveway" from another competitor.
This keyword is easy to rank, with a keyword difficulty (KD) score of 5 and a monthly search volume of 150 people.
This will be a more informational keyword when someone wants information on how to fix a muddy driveway.
Ahrefs will show you information about the websites that rank on the first page of the search results for our keyword.
It shows us the primary keyword, the number of backlinks each page has, the strength of each website, and the amount of traffic each page gets.
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When you find keywords, that is just the beginning.
You now have to qualify your keywords.
Qualify Your Keywords
Before using keywords, you need to qualify them.
This means you have to see if you will be able to rank for your keywords.
To see if you can rank for the keyword, you must look at:
- The strength of your website
- The strength of all the websites on the first page
- Your backlinks
- The backlinks for all the websites on the first page
- The quality of backlinks on your website and the quality of the backlinks for all the websites on the first page
Yes, it's a lot.
If your website's strength is higher than the average of the websites, then you will be able to rank for the keyword.
If the strength of your website is lower than the lowest DR rating, then it will be challenging to rank for that keyword.
Competitor Analysis: Look at What Your Competitors are Doing and Do it Better
A crucial step when doing SEO for contractors is doing a competitor analysis.
Competitor analysis is part of the SEO process where you compare your website with at least three competing sites.
When you do a competitor analysis, you pick the top three websites of the biggest competitors in your area.
These competitors will be at the top of the Google search results on the first page for your particular industry.
Again, let's use an asphalt paving company.
You can use the keyword research tool in Ahrefs to get the metrics.
Get the metrics on your website and your competitors' websites.
If you're starting an SEO campaign for the first time, your metrics might look like those above.
You may rank for 0 keywords, have 0 website visitors per month, and very few backlinks.
The first competitor ranks for 970 keywords, has approximately 531 visitors per month and has 455 backlinks.
The second competitor ranks for 1300 keywords, has approximately 438 visitors per month and has 185 backlinks.
The third competitor ranks for 4200 keywords, has approximately 4000 website visitors per month and has 463 backlinks.
Need help getting more customers? Get a Free mini SEO audit.
Click here to learn more.
Find Opportunities to Make Your Web Pages Better
Optimizing your web pages is known as on-page SEO.
But how do you make each web page better?
What opportunities am I talking about?
I will tell you.
#1. Improve Your Page Speed
#2 Get a Mobile-Friendly Website
Your contractor's website must be mobile.
It must look good on smartphones, tablets, desktops, and any monitor or display.
This ensures that your website can be read anywhere people search for your services.
#3. Have a Secure Website
Make sure your website is secure.
A secure website ensures the user that any information they enter into your forms is encrypted.
A website that is not secure will seem less trustworthy and deter potential customers from filling out your forms and leaving their contact information.
#4. Fix Title Tags and Meta Descriptions
Fill out and write unique title tags and meta descriptions for each page on your website.
Optimizing your title tags and meta descriptions helps increase your conversions and clicks to your website.
#5. Do a Content Audit
Look at your website content.
Would you want to do business with your business if you were a customer?
Are you creating content that solves your customers' problems or gives them new fresh insight or your expert opinion?
Would visitors that come to your website see you as an expert contractor in your industry?
Do you go into detail about your company and your company's services?
Do you have a separate web page for each service you offer?
Or do you have all your services on one page with a short dry description for each service?
Is your website copy challenging to read?
Do you have a blog?
How are your internal links?
Does your blog have information and tips that are valuable to your customers?
#6. Get Help to Boost Your SEO Performance
Let's face it.
You are a contractor, and I hope you're the best at what you do.
But you're not an SEO expert.
Even though I am showing you how to do search engine optimization for your business, it is a high-level overview so you'll understand the SEO process.
SEO for contractors is a lot of work.
It involves constant analysis and monitoring because the competition is non-stop, and search engine algorithms constantly change.
To get results without wasting time and money, you should get help from our Maryland SEO company or a Maryland SEO expert that can increase your web traffic and bring you more leads and customers to your business.
Need help finding opportunities? Get a Free mini SEO audit.
Click here to learn more?
Link Building - Build Links to Your Website
Link building is another crucial process for contractor SEO.
Link building is the process of getting backlinks.
Backlinks are one of the most critical ranking factors.
The quantity and quality of backlinks to your website play a significant role in determining how well that website will rank in search results for your keywords.
When you have authoritative websites linking to your website, your website will get a boost in authority.
Be Part of Your Community
Become active in your community.
Local businesses involved in their local community create opportunities for links and mentions from local news outlets and bloggers.
Getting involved in your community can help to improve your local visibility and increase your search rankings.
Getting involved in your community is also suitable for local SEO strategy.
Businesses active in their local community often see increased website traffic, conversions, and customer loyalty.
This is because people want to do business with a local business they know and trust.
Finally, being active in the community can help businesses generate leads.
There is a higher chance of local customers stumbling upon the company's website or blog.
When they find your website, they may contact your business and become a customer.
Use Your Google Business Profile
You must claim your Google My Business Page if you are a local business owner.
It is one of the essential elements of your local SEO strategy for local businesses.
Local SEO is just like SEO, but its focus is on targeting your local audience for your location.
Your GMB is like getting a free extra website from Google.
Your business can appear in the local search results when people search for your services.
It allows local customers to learn more about your business and your services, plus customers will be able to see your business on Google Maps.
A report from Google found that 60% of smartphone users contacted businesses directly from the search.
Without a GMB page, you will lose local customers searching for your services.
Here are some other reasons why you should create a Google Business profile for your business:
- A profile can help increase your online visibility you get found online.
- A profile can help you connect with new customers.
- A profile is a valuable starting point for customer service efforts.
- A profile is a way to share company news and updates with customers.
- A profile helps build trust with new and existing customers.
When potential customers want to learn more about your business, they can check out your Google Business profile page.
This makes it easy for them to see information that might help them decide if you're the right business to hire or do business with.
Your Google Business listing is one of your most powerful tools for connecting with customers online.
Your profile includes plenty of ways to connect with customers and build trust. Take advantage of all that a Google Business profile offers and help promote your business.
If you don't have a Google My Business page, you miss consumers searching for your services.
SEO for Contractors: What Do You Do Now?
What are you going to do?
So now you have three choices:
- You can do digital marketing on your own and try to figure out your marketing strategy
- Work with an SEO company that will build a custom contractor SEO strategy for you (and not worry about SEO at all)
- Keep doing the same thing and hope it works, eventually
I would recommend the second option and focus on what matters in your contracting business:
Delivering excellent work and keeping your customers happy.
So if you want help getting more leads and clients for your contractor business, book a call with us.
No pressure.
Or click here to get a Free mini SEO audit on your website.
Thanks for reading!
About the author
Kester is the Director of SEO at Bowie SEO. He has been doing SEO and digital marketing for more than 4 years. When not engulfed in SEO or building websites, you can find him with his family, riding his bike, or relaxing in front of his aquarium.