10 Tips - Local SEO for Contractors [Step-by-Step Guide]

Basic changes to your website will make you a local SEO for contractors superstar. Combine on-site with off-site work and your sales boom.

Digital advertising reveals a dynamic shift in consumer behaviour throughout the buying cycle. This is because the people who may become your customers have a natural antipathy to traditional marketing pitches and a high level of digital literacy.

Hoardings, posters, and the yellow pages, formerly effective in attracting new customers, are now considered antiquated.

Here, we’ll walk you through the steps of local SEO for contractors, so that your building business may rise to the top of Google’s SERP.

Is Local SEO for Contractors worth the hassle?

Due to a rise in the use of internet resources by potential clients, local search engine optimisation (SEO) has become more important to well-established construction firms. Since the rise of Web 2.0, this pattern has spread rapidly.

Finding a reliable contractor often begins with some serious web investigation.
Local search optimisation on their websites has brought several contractors new business.
Almost eighty percent of all searches in the construction industry take place on Google.

Here are 10 reasons why a building firm has to invest in local SEO now and in the future.

Use Google’s free “My Business” tool instead.

If you want to rank higher in local search results, Google My Business is your best bet. This Google asset has seen several revisions over the years, with the latest one being the most comprehensive and feature-rich.

Many new options for audience claim, customization, and interaction have been added to GMB.

You need a high Google rank for the website in your location.

Customers use phrases like “best contractors near me” and “list of construction companies in Yorkshire” to find regional building firms online.

Because these users are actively seeking the precise service you provide, it is crucial that your company appears in the Google search results for these queries.

For local companies, this often means ranking well not just in the local map pack, but also on Google’s organic search engine results pages (SERP).

You need to provide an excellent UX for mobile users.

Approximately 50% of all local searches are conducted on a smartphone. Customers who use their mobile devices to do a local search are more likely to be serious prospects. Virtually everyone who owns a smartphone uses the search engine while out and about.

After the search engine giant introduced Google Assistant and Google Home, this trend skyrocketed. In particular, “mobile-first indexing” was introduced in the most recent version of the algorithm.

What this implies for businesses is that Google will now evaluate how mobile-friendly their sites are before include them in mobile and desktop search results. To rank well in local results, you need a site that is accessible on mobile devices.

Take charge of your online image.

Reviews are like a double-edged sword for company owners. Depending on how the public perceives your company, it might either help or hurt your sales.

Additionally, high rankings across all search engines can be attained with the aid of positive reviews. But without positive reviews to back up the ranking, you can expect fewer visitors.

If you own a construction business with an internet presence, you may reach your target audience by doing the following.

An SEO guide for the building industry in the year 2023:

My Company’s Messages

Securing the top spot on Google Maps search results is the main objective in the competition to rank well for local searches for contractors.

Verify if your company has an established presence on GMB. Some tips for improving your Google My Business listing for your construction company are provided below.

Verify that your page is listed in the appropriate service category.
Only those who have a permanent place of business in the city in question may participate.
It’s against Google’s guidelines to overuse keywords in the title.

Signals through Links

If you want people to visit your website, you shouldn’t overlook inbound links. Hiring a local SEO specialist means putting trust in them to get you good organic results using only ethical methods of link development.

However, Google’s algorithm places a high value on the quality of the links pointing to a page. The latest Google algorithm improvements will make your website’s authority matter more in local search results than it ever has before.

To rank well in search results, a website requires the following kinds of links:

An inbound link is a hyperlink from another website that points to yours.

Internal links
Hyperlinks inside a piece of content that lead to another piece of information on the same domain are referred to as internal links.

If Google can index your page quickly, your user engagement metrics (such as sessions and page views) will improve, and your site’s bounce rate will decrease.

External Connections
When performing local SEO for contractors, outbound links are another type of linking you can use.

They function similarly to other types of links, except that the hyperlink in your site’s content directs readers to an external resource.

In-Text Local References
Local search engine optimisation (SEO) for contractors might benefit from obtaining connections to their Google My Business page and other citation properties.

Your branded Internet Yellow Pages will benefit from inbound connections from relevant local directories, websites, applications, and social media channels. Therefore, using these profiles to establish credibility in the community is a smart move.

Textual Indicators

Make sure the local SEO company you choose pays attention to on-page signals. If you own a construction website, optimising it for search engine results is essential.

To do this, you’ll need to create original content for each of your service categories.

Make sure that the site’s title, meta description, body, and alt text all provide relevant information. Make sure the framework of your site is solid as well.

A local SEO specialist may utilise platforms like MOZ and Ahref to analyse content and do keyword research.

When optimising your site for local search, it is important to keep in mind the following.

Name, address, and contact number (NAP) information is included.
Keywords appear in the page’s title, header, and body (SEO).
Markup with the Schema
The Framework of the Website

Citation Signals

The citations are mentions of your company found in reliable online and print directories.

When Google finds out about your company via these channels, it will provide legitimacy to your operations. Your site may be mentioned on a wide variety of social media platforms. You may use things like GPS navigation, applications, and online directories as examples.

When working on construction SEO, it is essential to build citations. The chances of your business showing up in local search results might be hurt by even minor inaccuracies, such as misspellings in the company name, location, or phone number.

So, be cautious when handling references, especially when using Google Maps. Google also takes into account the amount and growth rate of your citations when determining your rankings in the SERPs.

Analyse your Online Reviews

Reviews are a great way to gain credibility and encourage people to choose your service over the competition.

Having good evaluations on your company listings is one of the finest techniques to develop an outstanding online reputation for your firm.

The factors to increase your internet reputation:

Users will choose the services that have received the greatest number of good ratings.
Customers are more likely to choose businesses with plenty of favourable reviews and a solid internet reputation if they are high quality.
If your reports are out of current, people will have less faith in your services and will be less likely to utilise them.
While Google is the go-to for most people, others may turn to social media or online yellow pages in order to locate a nearby establishment. You should, then, work to improve your standing on any and all sites that rely on user reviews.
If you have a proven track record, don’t let the occasional negative review dampen your spirits. But if the number of complaints about your site starts to rise, it’s time to investigate the cause of the feedback and either address it or do away with it altogether.

The evaluations your company receives online may greatly affect its position on search engines and on directories. Research shows that companies with the most favourable reviews tend to rank higher on Google.

Google’s algorithm may interpret what people are saying about you or your company. Google’s ranking system uses the terms mentioned in user reviews as a proxy for audience relevancy and input.

The following are some methods in which you might enhance your existing internet reputation:

Plan a method of examination
Keep an eye on your evaluation
Boost the encouraging comments.
Disseminate the most positive evaluations on your preferred social network.

Signals of Behaviour

Algorithms from Google, like GMB and Google Reviews, can effectively monitor how users are interacting with your website and other Google services.

Google evaluates user behaviour based on how often a website is viewed. One of the criteria for ranking is the number of people that click on to your site through Google Maps.

The search engine may also track the amount of people who see your company listing on their mobile devices and then click the “Call” or “Directions” button.

Make sure your website is up-to-date, mobile-friendly, and interesting before you start doing SEO for contractors.

Following the above local SEO for contractors tips should help get your business listed on Google Maps and attract more local customers.

Leave a comment below if you have any questions or would want to share your own experiences with local SEO services.