What is the Best SEO Strategy for a Contractor

What’s a contractor supposed to do when his or her SEO strategy is falling short of expectations?

1. You could modify your expectations - not really what most contractors are interested in doing.
2. You could give up on SEO and strictly use paid ads - this could work but it gets expensive.
3. You could have an SEO expert that specializes in contractors dig in deep and analyze your site to see what’s working and what isn’t, build a proper SEO strategy and and fix the issues.

SEO strategy is about more than just good organic rankings

SEO, if done well, will get you ranked on page one of Google for many terms and phrases related to your area of contracting.

But that’s not enough anymore

Rankings are how you are found online, but turning those rankings into traffic and further into new leads and jobs is what a real online strategy for success is all about. A true SEO expert will dig into your site and find what works well and what needs adjusting without blindly optimizing.

Too many times a less-experienced SEO will start optimizing without analyzing your site and that’s a disaster waiting to happen.

• What if he changes what’s working with your site?
• What if he doesn’t understand why it’s working?
• What if he keeps what isn’t working?
• What if he’s a hack and blows up the rankings completely?
• What if he doesn’t know what to do with traffic when you get it?

The hard, cold truth of the matter is:

• If your website is not ranking, there is a problem.
• If it ranks but gets little traffic, there’s a problem.
• If it gets traffic but few quality leads there’s a different problem.

The new world of optimization requires a full and complete understanding of:

• The algorithms that are used to rank sites to get you ranked well.
• How to market your site in the search engine rankings, or SERPS, so that searchers choose your site over the other contractors on page one.
• On-site marketing that will walk a new visitor through the 3 stages of the new client journey.
• 1. Attracting cold traffic that doesn’t know anything about you or your company and….
  2. Moving them to the evaluation stage, where they get comfortable with you as the contractor to do the best job, then...
  3. To the conversion stage which is where they first become a lead then a new client.

This requires your SEO strategy to include the intricacies of digital marketing and a have highly trained and certified digital marketer at the helm.

Every website, has to have a well-designed plan. Building a website or SEO strategy without a plan is like building a home with no plans or architectural drawings. Imagine how that would go.

This plan should consider customer value optimization or CVO. This is how to maximize the value of every potential client that comes to your site. CVO works because it follows the structure and sequence of normal human relationships.

Part of your SEO strategy and CVO plan should include:

• A lead magnet - an irresistible offer that a potential client is willing to give up his or her information to get. This offer is so spot on that they can’t resist trading an email address for it. A mistake that many contractors make with their websites is they attempt to “sell their core service first.” This is the hardest way to generate new business. Let’s give the visitor something of significant value to start the relationship off right. As an example, you might offer The top 5 things you must know before starting a home remodel as a download. Guess what, people are going to sign up for that information. We will market to them if they leave your site without converting to a lead. We can also use this piece of content to attract cold traffic to your site. As you well know, if they are going to remodel a kitchen or bath or need a new roof, they are researching like mad on the Internet. Lead magnets deliver consultations and ultimately new jobs.
• A tripwire - a small commitment that changes the relationship with the site visitor. In many businesses this is a small transaction involving a few dollars. But in the contracting field we are looking for a commitment of time, as in a first meeting. We all know that if we get in front of them we are likely going to have a new client. We must position the tripwire correctly and at the right time for maximum impact and return on investment.

It’s now time to make our core offer

• You want to be the contractor that gets this new job, no time is better to make your offer than when this person is seated in front of you looking for help.
• Depending on your area of expertise we may offer a profit maximizer. This is an additional service that is very profitable to your business.
• And, finally, we live in a wide return path - we want to bring them back to you again and again. We remarket and retarget people that leave your site throughout the Internet so that we create every opportunity possible for you to secure that new client. This is a great virtual salesperson.

The vast majority of contractors that hire us want to grow their companies

Business growth never works when left to chance, a formula is necessary. Your SEO strategy with us includes the business growth formula of:

Leads X Clients X Margin X Frequency = Growth Potential

By clearly articulating your offer, we increase your leads, and increase the number of jobs. Margin can be increased by both scale and receiving a better ROI on your marketing investment. The return path (and referral generation) can increase the frequency of work you do for that consumer and we thus we see significant growth in your business.

If your current SEO service is not capable of including these critical business growth metrics in your SEO strategy, you need us. Call and let’s get you on the right track.

This is a small bit of what a great SEO strategy for a contractor should address. There is much more to discuss. If you need our help, call and let’s see how we can help you fix the issues with your strategy and grow your workload.