Complete SEO Guide To Attract More Sales for Contractors, Home Services, and Construction
Contractor and construction buddies! We’ve outstanding news for you! Are you ready? Individuals all over your community want your services.
A lot of people. Wondering why they have not called you yet? Well, it may because they called your competition instead (sorry). But also, it is entirely possible, even probable, they simply don’t know you exist.
That is what we, in the digital advertising industry, call A Big Problem. Luckily, it’s also an Entirely Solvable Problem — using the magic of SEO.
➦ What from the world is SEO for Contractors?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.
In brief, SEO is behind-the-scenes magic that increases the chance (optimizes) that Google (search engine) will exhibit your site among your potential customers’ search results by applying the right SEO for Contractors.
Here’s how an Online Search function:
- Your potential customers form a phrase or question into Google’s search bar.
- Google scans dozens of billions of web pages searching for matches.
- Google spits out a list of websites that likely address their question.
SEO is the procedure by which you create it super easy for Google to find your business, so it can tell people searching for you.
Here’s another way to state it:
Websites are full of small homing beacons — words and other components (which we will get to in a moment) that “light up” when they match search signals.
The key to SEO is making certain you have your homing beacons configured properly so that they react at the right time in the right way.
First, though, let’s talk about how SEO is different from paid advertisements.
➦ What is the Difference Between SEO and PPC?
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay-Per-Click (PPC) are distinct advertising means to the same end: getting more prospective customers to your website.
- The major distinction between them? SEO is “free” PPC isn’t. (The official language is “natural” and “paid.”)
Get the scoop on paid advertising options for Contractors, Home Services, and Construction.
Now, here’s why we put “free” in quote marks. Doing SEO efficiently is tough, so to do it correctly, you’ll need to invest either time or money.
In other words, you’ll either spend gobs of time studying and seeking to implement SEO tactics recommended by experts like these, or you’ll spend some money letting someone else do it to you.
This brings us to the second major gap between SEO and PPC. PPC is relatively simple: You write Google Ads (with lots of help from Google itself), you set a budget, and you launch the ads.
If your budget is more attractive to Google than your competitors, you win; your investment will launch you to the top few options on page one of the search engine results page (SERP).
SEO, on the other hand, can be ridiculously complicated and nuanced. It is slow, and best practices change continuously.
If you don’t pay attention, your site will — before you can say keyword stuffing — drop to page two of the SERP. That is bad. That is no-man’s land.
As we marketing nerds like to joke, page two of the SERP is the perfect place to hide a dead body. No one could go searching for it — or to your home construction or services company — over there.
➦ Boost your SEO By Using Keywords Correctly
Keywords are the terms, questions, and phrases people type into the Google search bar.
If you use those very same phrases, and questions on your site, Google’s more likely to find it and include you on the SERP.
Seems simple enough, right? Yes. Except no.
Here are a few tips for playing well with Google when it comes to keywords:
✓ Do Your Research
- Don’t just imagine what words and phrases people may be using to find you. Instead, use Google Keyword Planner. You are going to have to set up a Google Ads account to use the Planner, but it is free to use — even if you don’t intend to buy advertisements.
- Brainstorm some keywords, enter them The Keyword Planner, and Google will inform you how effective they could be and indicate various other thoughts. You’ll want to utilize non-metallic (frequently searched) keywords that are low-competition (are not used on many other sites).
✓ Pick Keywords By Thinking Like A Customer
- Look through the last year of records from service consultations or calls. What kinds of problems did your clients have? What do you suppose that they might type into Google to find assistance for all those issues?
✓ Don’t Overdo Your Keyword
- In the first days of SEO, marketers attempted to deceive Google by stuffing websites with keywords. Some even went so far as to hide keywords randomly through the site — which makes them the same color as the background so Google, but not site traffic, could see them.
- Google was not entertained, and these cheater sites now have a hit on rankings.
- Use keywords naturally, meaningfully, and helpfully.
✓ Use Keywords Often
- OK, we just advised against Keyword Stuffing. But there’s a difference between using keywords too often on a single page of your site and using them appropriately frequently — across multiple pages and over time.
- SEO algorithms need you to always produce new, meaningful content.
- You will have some static content on your website (For Example: your “Contact” or “About” page), however, you can keep Google happy by creating and sharing engaging content through a blog.
✓ Write Well
- Generally speaking, your website copy has to be well-written and upgraded regularly. It ought to answer questions that your potential customers are inquiring about.
✓ Link Wisely
- When providing a link, use keywords as the link.
For example, rather than writing, “We’d love to help serve your furnace. Click here for more details,” write, “Schedule your HVAC care visit now.”
✓ Use Keywords Everywhere
- The best SEO is not limited only to the main copy on your website.
- Google looks at everything: the URL, Page Titles, Alt attributes (the information about photos and videos on your website), and Headings.
- So use keywords wherever you may. Google gets giddy when it finds keywords in H1 and H2 headers.
➦ Improve Your SEO via HTML Analysis
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is how sites are written. It dictates what fonts are used, which items appear on the page, how big the words are, what color they appear in, and more.
To Optimize Your HTML:
✓ Use Meta Description Tags
- The 160-character Meta Description summarizes a website’s content, and Google both searches it and shows it on SERPs.
- Having a Meta Description helps both Google and your prospective customer know if you’re a good match for their query.
✓ Include Relevant Keywords in Your Title, Header, and Sub-Header Tags
- If Google finds keywords that match a search query on your Title, H1, and H2 tags, it knows a good part of your content is related to the user. The outcome? It’s more likely to bump your site closer to the peak of the SERP.
✓ Improve Your SEO through Content Analysis and Website Architecture
- Google likes websites that aren’t just covered in words. It is searching for images and videos, too — properly tagged ones. It assesses the number of words on a webpage, the number of pages on a website, and much more.
At The Moment (remember it changes all the time), Google Appears To Care About:
▹ Bounce Rates
- Google will tell how long website traffic sticks around, and that affects your positioning in search results.
- If someone clicks on your website from a search engine result page, and then immediately backs up and tries the following website (your competitor’s, perhaps?), that tells Google perhaps your website wasn’t as relevant as it thought — which affects your site’s rank the next time.
▹ Site Activity
- Do your customers watch a video? Complete a form? Do they spend time on every page, or are they simply clicking around, perhaps having a challenging time finding what they’re searching for?
▹ Quality Backlinks
When another website links to your site, or whenever you link from one page of your site to another page of your site, that’s referred to as a backlink.
- Having plenty of high-quality backlinks essentially tells Google you understand what you are referring to and it can trust you enough to include you on its SERP.
- Three-quarters of a strong SEO strategy entails off-site work to find backlinks.
Check out ultimate guide on Top Strategies That SEO Consultant Uses For Enhancing Sales & Keyword Rank on Google right here.
▹ Mobile Responsiveness
- Your site needs to, must, and should be mobile-responsive.
- More than half of web traffic occurs on mobile devices, which percentage is just going to climb.
- Way back in March 2018, Google announced it’s now using the mobile variant of sites for ranking and indexing, rather than the desktop version.
- So, if you don’t have a mobile site, you’re invisible to Google and also to all your potential customers.
▹ Offer Safety
- Google avoid websites that appear to come with privacy or safety concerns.
- Make sure your site is licensed as HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS).
You can discover these site metrics and more using Google Analytics.
Get our Free Guide To Online Marketing for House & Construction Services.
A solid SEO strategy is only part of a comprehensive digital marketing plan.
To get the best SEO services for contractor business then you can call XtremeUX Digital. We have more than 13 years of rich experience in designing, developing, and digital marketing.