If you’re a contractor, your local audience is your lifeline.
People in your city probably make up the majority of your target audience. As a result, you need to focus your marketing efforts on engaging these individuals.
Local search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of increasing your search engine rankings for local customers. Here are our essential tips to improve local SEO for contractors.
Optimize Your Website Homepage
Your website plays a critical role in your local SEO. And your homepage is the center of this essential tool.
Your business’s homepage should include all of the information that potential customers need to determine to hire your company. However, you should also optimize this page for the search engines.
Search engines crawl all of the web pages that include keywords that could meet a searcher’s request, then determine how to rank them based on relevance and a range of other factors. Including specific elements on your homepage can help increase your rankings for your local area and bring more potential customers to your site.
For example, your home page should include a relevant:
- Title tag
- Meta description
- Headline
These elements can help search engine crawlers determine to display your website when users search for relevant keywords.
Your website’s written content also contributes to your search engine rankings. As a result, your homepage should also include information about your services and encourage readers to schedule with your company.
Update Your Google Business Profile
When you search for your company name on Google, you will see a search result element that lists your business’s name and any information Google has access to about your business. This is your Google Business profile.
You can create and update your Google Business profile by logging into your Google account. Then, you can edit your:
- Business name
- Website URL
- Phone number
- Address
- Hours
However, this information may not update on Google until 60 days after changing it. Additionally, if Google obtains information about your business from other sources, you may be unable to change these details.
Still, updating as much information about your business as possible can give potential customers the details they need to make informed decisions about hiring you.
Keep Your NAP Data Up To Date
Your company’s NAP data includes your name, address, and phone number. Your existing and potential customers should have easy access to this information to contact your business. As a result, you should ensure that this information is accurate and up-to-date in all local directories and online resources.
If you have not changed your NAP data since you launched your business, you can assume that it is accurate in most directories. However, suppose you have changed any part of your contact information in the last few years. In that case, you’ll want to update this information in local guides as soon as possible.
Create City/Location Pages
City pages are website pages targeted toward a specific city.
For example, if your contracting business targets your services to four or five surrounding towns, you can create a city page for each one. These pages can include general information about your services and offer tailored to the residents in each city.
Making tailored city pages can boost your local SEO dramatically.
These pages can include relevant keywords that residents of each city may search for, allowing them to see your page above more general contractors in the area. For instance, if you own an HVAC business in Seattle, you can create a city page that ranks for “Seattle HVAC.”
Implement Link-Building Techniques
Internal links are links within your web content that lead back to other pages on your website.
External links are links on other websites that lead back to your site. While they each play different roles, both of these elements can assist your search engine rankings and bring in more customers.
You can begin optimizing your links by including a few relevant links to your service pages, blog posts, and about pages throughout the written content on your website. You can also reach out to local directories, newspapers, and other trusted businesses to link to your business on their websites.
If you’re having trouble getting external links, you can also consider writing guest blog posts for local sites and blogs. A professional digital marketing team can help you develop an effective link-building strategy to enhance local SEO.
Encourage Existing Customers to Write Reviews
Customer reviews can act as effective marketing tools. Potential customers who read positive reviews about your business may be more likely to hire you over another local contractor.
However, your Google Reviews can also improve your search engine rankings. When Google sees that your business has a few dozen reviews, it may view your business as more trustworthy and authoritative, ranking your site higher in search results.
The potential marketing impact of customer reviews is clear. However, obtaining enough reviews to improve your rankings is another story. Most of your customers probably won’t write a review voluntarily unless you provide an outstanding service.
Instead, you’ll need to incentivize your customers to review your company on platforms like Google Reviews and Facebook Reviews. We recommend implementing an incentive program where users can receive a discount or special deal when they review your company.
Of course, positive reviews will help your business more than negative ones. If you receive a few negative reviews through your incentive program, be sure to reach out to those customers directly to attempt to rectify the problem. You may convince them to change their reviews from negative to positive.
Hire a Professional For Assistance
While you can probably implement a few of these tips in your business successfully, you probably won’t be able to maximize your local SEO results independently. Instead, we recommend turning to a professional to ensure that your local SEO efforts have the best chances of growing your business.
At Contractor Growth Network, we’ve helped numerous residential contractors enhance their local SEO and make more money. Contact us today or call us at 980-449-4384 to learn more.
