SEO For Contractors

You have likely heard the acronym SEO, and maybe you have even read about search engine optimization, but still, its meaning and relevance elude you. Don’t feel bad; by definition, it seems rather simple but understanding the intricacies and implementation are much more complex and ever-changing which is likely what you have found out.

In today’s dominant online landscape, SEO for contractors is as important as a contractor’s ability to do their trade well; so, fortunately, there are a lot of resources and SEO tips at CraftJack to help you wade in the SEO waters.

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What is SEO?

In a nutshell, SEO is boosting the amount of quality traffic, the kind that generates solid leads, to your company’s website. It is about steering visitors to your website when there are millions of other contractors with websites out there. Here is a simplistic but clear way to think of SEO’s importance to contractors: when your potential customers are searching for a local contractor who has the same trade as you, are they finding you or are they finding your competitors?

How Do Search Engines Work?

Search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, do all the work librarians used to do when asked for help finding specific information. They scour the electronic card catalog (all the websites, pictures, videos) to index all the content on the web to find matches for your customer’s queries. When you search the web, a search engine looks through everything posted on the web and determines which sites have optimized relevant content the best and those make the front page of your Google search.

Great Seo Means Understanding Your Target Market

So how do you make the search engines choose you? For contractors and really all businesses, SEO is about knowing your target market, what they are looking for that is pertinent to your trade. In order to be great at SEO, you first have to really know and understand what it is that potential leads are looking for online and what words and phrases they are using to find it. As the expert in your trade, you probably have a great pulse on what it is that homeowners and business owners are looking for in a contractor. If you don’t, then spend the time to get inside the head of your potential clients.

Think about your conversations with potential clients. What are they asking for? What do they want to know? What are they searching for online?

SEO Keywords & Phrases For Contractors

Once you have considered what it is that your target market is looking for when they search the web and what page your business appears on in a search, you can get a better idea of what changes you need to make. First and foremost, it’s about creating authentic and interesting content that includes the keywords and phrases that they are looking for. Search engines use algorithms to find you and pull up your content during relevant searches, ideally on the first page. Google and other search engines won’t find your site, unless you have optimized your website and its content.

Using Google Keyword Planner will help you a great deal and take out some of the guesswork by determining what keywords and phrases actually rank highest in searches. Then it is up to you to utilize those terms in your content, your titles and your descriptions so that your content and website rank up high on the list of your future customer’s searches for your services and your location.

To utilize your keywords and phrases, you need to use them in a variety of places, including:

  • Titles and tags for blogs and web pages
  • Inside the body of your blogs and web pages
  • Any articles that are published on other sites
  • Tags and captions for your photos and media
  • In your description of your business for all online listings

Long -Tail Keywords & Phrases

Long-tail keywords are also important to consider. These are longer, less searched phrases that yield a lot few searches per month (maybe one or two verses 1,000,000 a week). Isn’t that the opposite of what we have been trying to do? In a way, yes, but in a way, it is about the quality of the customer as opposed to quantity. It’s the client who is remodeling their 150-year-old mansion and needs a consummate professional to paint the crown molding that borders the ceilings and walls of every room.

What makes long-tail keywords valuable for contractors is that while they are hyper-succinct phrases, it can have a huge return on investment with long-term, high yielding clients. If you have a special niche, skill, trade that you do, adding long-tail keywords and phrases to your website’s landing page, titles, content, etc… which can lead to important clients and large contracts, then it is worth the time and research to develop those long-tail keywords.

Another key component is localized SEO. Yes, it’s all good that a homeowner in Virginia needs her house remodeled, but not so good for the contractor in California. You need to be connected with leads that are legitimate and feasible. The first step sounds like a no brainer, but making sure your address is accurate and prevalent on your website is step one. Step two is creating a business page on one or more of the most popular search engines like Google Business Page.

And better yet, align yourself with the experts who can generate traffic, and generate local and legitimate leads.

Audit Your Content For SEO

Now that you have pondered what it is that your clients are searching for, complete an informal SEO audit. Try plugging in some keywords, like for “furnace repair of old furnaces + Dallas, Texas.” See what appears. Try researching various SEO keywords and phrases for your trade, in your area. What pages are the search engines coming up with? Are you ranking on the first page of the Google search? Are you on the 10th?

The truth is, if you aren’t showing up on the first two pages (maybe even the first page) of a search, then people will not find you. This type of informal audit is good for your business and should be done on a regular basis. A more formal and professional audit by an SEO expert is advised if you are finding that your website isn’t working for you and generating new clients and brand awareness.

SEO for contractors is obtainable. As your brand’s greatest ambassador, it’s important to be educated on how important your online content is and how to ensure its accessibility to potential and loyal customers alike through SEO. Use a few of these tips to optimize your content.