How to Improve SEO for Construction Contractors

Search engine optimization (SEO) is all about doing multiple things correctly and continuously striving to improve the user experience. Long gone are the days of simply existing long enough to rank higher, and keyword stuffing. Nowadays, a successful SEO strategy incorporates onsite and offsite activities that all work towards providing a great experience for the search engine and website user. I like to think of SEO as a road map. First, you need to structure your destination points clearly and concisely so Google knows where they are and has a better chance of finding you. Then, you need to clearly and concisely describe those destinations so Google knows what to do with the information you are presenting. This article details how construction contractors can improve their SEO by creating a better road map. We’ll break this down into two categories: onsite and offsite SEO. 

Onsite SEO 

Onsite SEO is going to refer to every activity that takes place on your website. To begin, I like to look at user experience. That term gets thrown around quite a bit, but in general let’s define user experience as: how easy it is for your site visitor to take a desired action. For construction contractors and home service professionals our desired action is going to be phone calls, and form submissions. When I say “ease” I am not talking about simply placing one giant “Get a Quote” button at the top of the page. Otherwise my job would be obsolete. Ease in this case refers to providing relevant information in styles and places that a site visitor is influenced to take a desired action on your website. Potential customers are shopping around so your content needs to be a mixture of visually appealing, informative and easy to navigate. The first step in creating this ‘ease’ in navigation is by creating well thought out page structures. 

How you structure your page matters. Every word, every image, every section should have a purpose. It also should be concise and communicate the essential details without filler. For example, when structuring a homepage. I like to stick to this format: 

Heading 1: Business Name + services provided + location + Crediblity

Example:  Bob’s Plumbing: Providing Residential and Commercial Plumbing to Grand Junction.  

Let’s break it down: Use this first heading on your homepage to clearly and concisely list your name and what you do. Then add where you provide those services. This helps Google know right away what you do and where you do it. 

Next, you want to add a brief description of your business. This can include when you got started or outline a little bit more about your services.  

Finally, why should they choose you? Answer this by providing credible information: ie years of experience, or boasting about 5 star reviews works great here. 

This should be followed by a call to action (CTA) to get a quote/contact or view services which should link to a contact form or services page. 

Our goal here is to explain what you do, and where you do it, and then show your credibility. 

With this structure in place, you then want to provide more detailed information as you move down the page. Next, breakdown your services. The key here is to take a mixed content approach. Don’t just write paragraphs, but use images, maybe an infographic to breakdown complex services or a short video will do the trick. Then, you want to continue to add your credibility. This doesn’t have to be solely in the form of reviews, but showing high quality images of your work, if you have a customer testimonial video that’s huge, professional trade associations, any awards or recognitions. In this section, we’ll add another element: your unique value proposition: What makes you special and why should your site visitor book you for a job?

Your value proposition can be a number of things: You're licensed and insured, you do free estimates, you have a warranty, you offer discounts, you have tons of experience, you’ve worked on high value or massive projects, etc. This is where you further sell your services in a way that compels your site visitors to take a desired action. 

To summarize, Your onsite SEO is going to be a combination of components that explain your business, your services, your location and your credibility. To do that, information needs to be organized in a clear and concise matter that looks appealing to people across various device types. This is just skimming the top of the surface of onsite SEO. What I did not cover was the technical SEO aspects like page speeds, title tags, alt tags, etc. I plan on giving technical SEO it’s own article as this one is already shaping out to be a long one. 

Offsite SEO 

Local Listings

Offsite SEO operates as another means to achieve the objectives that we laid out earlier: Introduce your business, your services, location and build your credibility. One of the most effective places to do that for contractors and home service professionals is through local listings. I have written a separate article about local listings so this section will provide a brief overview of them. Local listings serve as your search engine directory. Meaning, they show up in the search engine results and list important business information, photos, and reviews on various websites.

One of the most effective listings you can have is a Google My Business profile. This will typically be your first appearance in search and acts as your ‘virtual store front’. This is what people will see when they search for long tail keywords like “painters near me” “painters in Denver” “Front Range Painters” etc. Like a storefront, you want it to look flawless, you want it to attract people. Hell, you want it to look so good that a searcher picks up the phone and calls you without going to your website.

The way to make your Google My Business look flawless is by posting business updates (at least twice per week) having a good mix of owner photos and customer photos, managing and responding to reviews (the good and the bad), having a steady stream of reviews that trickle down rather than flood your profile (i.e. Google thinks it looks like spam when your company goes from 1 review to 50 overnight), and finally answering questions and having a concise business description. 

For listings to be effective, that means you have to spend equal amounts of time on each listing site that you have. For example, Houzz, Thumbtack and Nextdoor are common for contractors so those profiles need to be spruced up as well just like Google.  

Credible Backlinks

A backlink is when another credible website links back to your website content. For example, an online article in the local paper linking to your website, or you were featured on a prominent blog site for your expertise, or maybe a chamber of commerce organization. These help build your credibility as you are connecting with credible sources which in turn builds your authority with Google. A better example for contractors is being featured on a publication by one of your major vendors.

For example, I’ve seen painters backlink to companies like Sherwin-Williams for using certain products or for completing a high profile project. At a more local level, realtors can really aid contractors and home service pros through backlinking as they often need inspectors, carpenters, cleaning crews, painters, etc. for closings. 

Summary

Improving SEO does not have to be a daunting task for contractors. The main focus should be on the ease and value of the information being provided on and off your website. Without getting into the technical aspects of SEO, let’s remember to keep it simple by structuring your website to provide information on who you are, what you do, where you do it, and why you are credible. With answering those questions in mind, you can create different visuals to answer those questions. Offsite, you need to answer those questions on a variety of listings like Google My Business, Thumbtack, Houzz and Nextdoor. Furthermore, working on building valuable backlinks by getting your content featured on other credible websites works to solidify your credibility. Stay tuned for a future article on technical SEO, but for now, work on keeping it simple, because simple is what people find useful and after all that is who we are trying to attract at the end of the day.

This article was written by Shane Doudy | Owner Odyssey Marketing Group