Contractor SEO Tips

Have you noticed that some local contractors seem to always be in the organic rankings, no matter what term or phrase you search?

One thing we hear often is that contractor’s experience frustration when their competitors appear ahead of them in the search engine rankings.

Most times, the contractor talking with us knows he is as good, if not better, than the others found online. But because those other guys are using better SEO techniques they are on page one – they got the lion’s share of the business. What seems to rub salt in that wound, many of the local contractors found online were newer in business. They had less experience and less talent that the guys we were talking with.

Sound familiar?

Want to know how to fix this?

Good contractor SEO tips start with knowing the challenges that you face and how to handle them.

Our clients are contractors all over the country. Roofers, remodelers, plumbers, HVAC guys, mold remediation, restoration companies and more. We know contractors and how to help you get more leads, jobs and profit by implementing a strong SEO campaign.

Dealing with over 950 contractors has taught us the challenges you face every day. We’ve learned how to help make them a bit easier to live with. Let’s face it, money handles most issues, and SEO, when done right, brings you money.

We know that you need leads and we also know that you can close a high percentage of them, as long as the leads are pretty good. Our experience has taught us the difference in a good lead and a bad lead, and what type of SEO services generate each. We know how to find the good ones and minimize the bad ones.

Many contractors have told us over the years that a big problem with all Internet advertising is competition. One guy told us recently that every time he got a lead from his online advertising, other contractors were stacked up in the driveway when he got there, all waiting to bid the same job.

A Good SEO Campaign Produces Better Leads

We know that when you get into a bid situation, the homeowner or property manager is the only one that wins. You have to drop your price to get the job and many times there isn’t enough money left over for you.

This typically isn’t the case when someone finds you in the search results. We did a survey of 30,000 people and found that they felt the contractors that ranked well in the search results were more legitimate. Now, I can tell you that this isn’t really the case, there are good contractors found in the paid ads. The interesting part is the consumer mentality. If the consumer believes that organically ranked companies are more legit, let’s use that to your advantage.

When you search online, do you pick websites to visit from the search results or the paid ads more often? If you said paid ads, did you do that before you were paying for ads yourself? Most consumers say that they select companies from the organic search results. Statistics show that over 90% of consumers select organically ranked websites to visit.

This doesn’t mean that the paid ads are not valuable. If you are getting a great deal of traffic organically from your SEO efforts and can afford to tap that last 10% --- why not?

A good contractor SEO strategy should consider several things:

• What problem does the consumer have that he/she is trying to solve?
• How do you solve that problem better than other contractors?
• Who is your ideal customer?
• Where does your ideal customer “hang out” on the Internet and how can you get their attention?
• How can you get people that have been to your site, but have not become a lead yet to come back and reach out to you?
• What offer can you make to site visitors that is compelling enough for them to sign up for it?
• What are your competitors doing that gets them ranked well online?
• Online marketing will help in many ways – a funnel should be built into your site that moves people through the process of just becoming aware of who you are, to evaluating you as the solution to their problem, and then ultimately to a new buyer
• Calls to action that motivate people to reach out to you
• Conversion rate of visitor to lead to new customer

These are things that you shouldn’t have to concern yourself with. You are an excellent contractor and know your business well. You’re not expected to be your own SEO guide or Internet marketing expert any more than you’re expected to be your own lawyer or accountant. Hire the right SEO and he or she will do this for you and put leads on the table so that you can put more jobs on the books.

The best contractor SEO services start like this:

• Project Manager talks with the contractor for about an hour about his business, goals, the type of work he wants, the type of work he doesn’t want, the geographic area he services and more. This is the longest amount of time the contractor will need to dedicate to the SEO process.
• The SEO auditor completes an audit of your website to uncover opportunities for improvement.
• The Project Manager initiates the research project. He will determine how people search for your services in your area and how best to position you in order to beat your competitors.
  Project Manager builds a map of how the site will be laid out including the navigation, page structure, blog, gallery, reviews, etc.

• The content department researches the keywords and phrases discovered by the Project Manager so that they can write the proper content that provides what the search engines need and what the site visitors want.
• The marketing department builds the customer value optimization funnel – the process that walks site visitors through the customer journey from “cold” traffic through the evaluation stage and into the conversion stage.
• The marketing department designs calls to action that will motivate site visitors to become leads.
• A website developer builds the site with very exact SEO techniques (if you like your current site, it can look similar to how it looks now – if you want an entire new look and feel, it’s included).
• The SEO department creates the proper tags. This includes the meta titles and tags – this is what people see when they find you in the organic rankings. They develop the proper header tags and alt tags and schema.
• The SEO department develops the proper internal linking strategy.
• The SEO department develops the external linking strategy.
• The social media department structures your social media accounts so that they are consistent with your brand.

A Great SEO Campaign Requires A Lot Of Work

• The developer connects the internal and external links as well as the social media.
• The content department forwards the newly written content to the developer who places it on the site.
• The SEO team optimizes the new content.
• The marketing department establishes your blog.
• The link building team establishes the proper directory listings and inbound links.
• The tech team sets up Search Console and Google Analytics and installs the code on the site.
• The tech team makes sure your emails are set up correctly.
• The marketing department sets up lead tracking software and a phone call tracking system.
• You are shown the work we’ve done for your approval.
• The tech team takes the site live and implements the 301 redirects.
• Project Manager establishes ranking and traffic reports to be sent to you monthly.
• Project Manager monitors success of SEO campaign, ranking, traffic, conversions, leads and new business generated.
• SEO team monitors success and initiates any changes needed on an ongoing basis.
• Marketing department monitors stats like leads generated and new business generated to determine ROI and make necessary changes on an ongoing basis.

Sometimes a contractor will say to us that he doesn’t need all of this, he just wants his website to be found in the search results. In today’s world, if you want to rank well and generate business from the Internet, you need all of these SEo techniques.

There’s an old saying that goes something like this: If you want things to change, you have to change what you’re doing. And another one says – the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results.

Are You Getting The Leads You Want

If you haven’t been getting the amount of new leads from the Internet that you want, you have to change what you’re doing. If the leads you’re getting are poor quality and don’t turn into business, you have to change what you’re doing. You need a new SEO expert.

We’re not the most expensive SEO company that specializes in contractor SEO services. We’re not the cheapest either. Most contractors tell us that the cheapest didn’t go so well for them, and they’re not willing to spend an arm and a leg to do well on the Internet, either.

We’re that mid-range priced SEO company that does great work and takes care of our clients. We typically get our contracting clients found on page one of Google for between 50 or so, to more than 1,000 first page rankings on Google alone. These rankings generate great exposure & great traffic, and the marketing we do on your site helps convert many of these visitors to leads and, ultimately, new business.

We establish long-term relationships with our clients and work together to grow their businesses. Here’s an email that one of our HVAC clients sent us recently:

"Good to hear from you and thanks for thinking of me. Yes everything is going very well thanks to you and the wonderful people that you work with.

The season has started kind of slow this year but we are still gaining new customers from search results every single day.

We are now at just under 400% growth since your company rescued us. I cannot thank you enough and I appreciate your letting me know you're still there for us.

I consider you and your company my partners and think of you often.

Have a great summer and give my best to everyone!

Sincerely".

Have you ever sent your SEO company an email like this one?

If you’d like to be much more successful at generating leads and landing more jobs, and have a relationship with your SEO company that you can be truly happy about, call us and let’s see what we can do to help you.

We specialize in providing local SEO services for contractors nationwide. We work with all types of contractors to improve their Internet traffic, leads and the number of new jobs they sign. If you may want to hire a new SEO company, talk with a few of our clients before you decide who to hire. Ask them how well they’re doing with our services and how they like working with us. Don’t forget to ask them if they’ve ever used any other SEO service and what experience they had with others.

We look forward to talking with you.