As the owner of a construction company, you have a lot on your plate. You are managing employees, subcontractors, materials, customer relations, and so much more. There literally is not enough time in the day to keep up with all of that while also keeping up with the everchanging world of digital marketing.
Let’s be honest. How often do you venture onto the second page of Google when searching for something? I would typically dare to say not at all. Studies show that 97% of searches end on the first page because people have found what they are looking for.
Que Local Contractors Marketing! This is what we do for contractors!
We specialize in Search Engine Optimization for contractors, known as SEO for short. SEO is an investment with huge ROI (return on investment) potential when it is done correctly.
Most experts agree that SEO has the highest ROI of any digital marketing. In this article, we break down two different ways that potential customers find your business and how to leverage them in your favor.
Google My Business
You want your business to show up locally; it is a no brainer. The results Google shows at the top of the first page are what is known as the “Local Pack.” The results are proximity-based and show up in local searches to your potential clients.
The best way to do this is by creating a Google My Business profile. When pre-existing or potential customers search for your business online, it is the first thing they will see. Think of this as your first impression, and you want to make a good one, right?
Try this: Search Google for your business. Do you see yourself as the first result? If your GMB is set up, you will see a box with your company information on the right of the screen.
This box is known as a knowledge panel. Inside the knowledge panel, customers can discover all sorts of information that is pertinent to your business. This is where having all the correct and relevant information is a vital part of connecting with your customers and providing immediate results.
First things first, make sure you are the rightful owner of your GMB profile. Google will make a GMB for your company, whether you do or not. If it is already made, then it is your responsibility to claim it before someone else takes ownership.
Analogy time: Imagine Facebook having pre-made profiles. You login to claim yours. Unfortunately, someone has claimed your profile, and they are spamming your profile with memes, diet pill ads, graphic images, and other false information.
It would be embarrassing when your friends and family check out your profile only to see this. Now imagine if it were someone looking for your business! I would not want to do business with a company with an unprofessional profile or website, and I am confident you would agree!
Having the correct information is vital to having a great GMB. NAP (name, address, and phone number) is an ideal place to start. Not only do you want this to be accurate in your GMB, but it also needs to be accurate in your other local citations.
Citations are mentions of your business on the web. They can include any part of the NAP and might consist of your website or additional company information.
You can feature products and services in your GMB, allowing your customers to see what you offer. Do you have any sort of online scheduling system? You can link to your scheduling system so customers can schedule an appointment with you from your GMB.
Your GMB allows you to post pictures and updates of your business. We say the more photos and or updates, the better! It will enable customers to see who you are as a company and what you offer. You can use these to build-up customer rapport and local relevancy.
Customers can also post pictures to your GMB, and this is sort of a double-edged sword. It is fantastic when a customer posts a decent photo. We have seen competitors post bad reviews or negative images on GMB’s in the past.
Any individual can also suggest edits to your GMB. This is another reason why you always need to stay on top of your GMB.
Your GMB is a handy tool, and you should certainly be utilizing it. That brings up a few questions; how do you properly use it, and where are you at in the Map Pack? You may be a business stuck at number ten on a list, or you may have a company that is lucky enough to rank in the top three.
It all looks seems so simple, doesn’t it? In reality, your Google My Business profile is a sophisticated tool. The more you delve into it, the more you will find. What I have mentioned so far is just scratching the surface.
We can genuinely optimize your GMB to its highest potential. It is what we do. Take some stress off and let us manage your GMB while you focus on your business. Whether it is raising rankings or maintaining your current spot, we have the skills to take care of you and your contracting business!
Organic Search Engine Optimization
So, what about all of those results below the map pack?
These are what we call organic results. Often in our industry, these are spots filled with brokers or high-end companies with massive budgets for SEO. You may ask, “I am already in the map pack with my GMB, why do I need to rank here?”
There are several different reasons. Some people skip over the map pack entirely when searching and go straight to the results. It will help build trust with others when they see you in the map pack and then also directly below that in the organic results.
We have multiple clients that have two to four rankings for their website on the first page. Imagine having all that real estate to yourself. Sounds pretty good, right?
Organic traffic is the best traffic.
You may wonder why? Organic traffic is precise as the name implies. It happens naturally. You can use PPC (pay per click), but depending on your industry, your CPC (cost per click) can be extremely high.
We recommend using PPC as well to cover all your bases, but the more traffic you can bring in organically, the better.
How do I get this organic traffic?
So, you have made a website or had one made. It looks great, but you do not see it on the search results, or maybe it is somewhere lost on the ninth page of Google (which no one will ever take time to see by the way).
There are many reasons why here are a few:
Your site may not be indexed just yet. Maybe you have been running off of local advertisements or social media, have just recently built your webpage, or have recently changed your URL. Maybe Google has not seen your new page yet.
You need to ensure your new page is indexed and that googles robots are crawling your page. Google sends crawlers (known as robots or spiders) to scan your page. They take pertinent information, keywords, services, and then use that info to index your page into their giant library.
There are two basic types of search engine optimization: on-page and off-page. We will get into off-page SEO a little later, but first, let us talk about on-page optimization.
On-page optimization references all the factors on your page that you can control.
Here are a few of those factors:
- Content, content, content! Having engaging content that others will want to read and or link to is a must.
- Title Tags are meant to be an accurate description of the page they represent. They show up on Google and on social media when someone links to your content.
- Image Alt-Text.
- URL. Your URL should be appropriately structured to represent the content that a particular page has.
- Proper inter-linking. Your webpages should link to other webpages on your site in a natural way that will help site visitors.
These are just the basics. There are several other factors, such as page speed, proper coding, schema markup, and so forth. The list is never-ending. Google has over 200 on-page ranking factors they use.
Off-page optimization refers to signals from other sources that give your site credibility with Google. Let us say you create great content, and someone likes it so much that they put a link on their page to your page. This is called a backlink.
Backlinks are fantastic, but quality ones are hard to come by. The most relevant backlinks come from other sites that are in your niche (ours is contracting). You will gather backlinks naturally if you produce appealing content.
Another way to do this is through manual outreach. You are reaching out to other relevant websites looking for guest post opportunities.
Avoid services that build links that are not natural. This is not 2008, and you want to avoid penalties on your website at all costs. Many services will make you spammy links to your site for minimal costs. I can promise you these will not benefit your rankings.
You need someone who knows what they are doing. Here at Local Contractors Marketing, we have industry-specific outreach programs to get the proper signals pointed at your website.
Ensuring your website has proper on and off-page SEO is vital to your business’s success. Let us help you get that organic traffic.
Other Factors
Maybe you have an established website, and you noticed a gradual decline in traffic.
You can ask yourself these questions:
- Have I updated my site recently?
A website can become stagnant, and you should strive to add relevant content as often as possible. By doing so, you keep the site interesting for customers, and Google sees that you are working to maintain it.
Perhaps a recent update, such as changing a Meta Description or updating something incorrectly on the site, has hurt your rankings. - Has there been a recent Google update?
This is a question for us to answer. Google updates its search algorithm numerous times annually. It is our job to help you ensure that your website is compliant with the latest Google updates. - Do I have a manual penalty?
This is another question you may want to ask us. If your website has had a significant drop in rankings, it could be due to a manual penalty. Manual penalties can happen for all sorts of reasons.
One of those reasons would be those “spammy” backlinks. Here at Local Contractors Marketing, we would do a full site audit to figure out what was causing the problem. We could disavow the negative links or correct any other issues that may be causing your penalty. - Is my site secure?
Look at the address bar in your browser. Do you see a padlock next to your web address? You can right-click on the padlock, and this will tell you if your site is secure or not.
Often when a website is not secure, the browser will notify the user that the site is insecure or that their information is not safe. If this happens to a potential customer, you are probably going to lose their business.
Not only does this hurt when a customer sees it, but not having a valid SSL can also cause your website rankings to drop.
Closing Up
I hope you found this article informative. I know I have thrown a lot of information at you. It can be scary and have you hesitating. No worries. I want to comfort and advise you on how great organic web traffic is for your business.
By utilizing a Google My Business profile and ensuring your on-page and off-page SEO is up to par, you can soar in the rankings. I also want you to see how much work and knowledge it takes to do this properly.
By working with our talented team, someone who knows the contractor’s industry inside and out, you can rest easy knowing we have your back. Your success is our success, and we want to see your leads and profits increase year-on-year.
Feel free to contact us with any questions. We are more than happy to get you moving in the right direction. It just takes one call or email to get these new leads rolling in.