You’ve likely heard the term SEO thrown around by every marketing guru out there. It’s very frustrating to contractors that want to optimize their websites for search engines, but have no idea how to do that. The team here at Contractor Charlie provides professional SEO services for contractors just like you. Here are 10 tips for how to optimize your website and get the most out of your SEO campaign:

1. Get High-Quality Backlinks

One of the best ways to establish website authority is by getting backlinks to your construction or contractor website. A backlink is when another website creates a do-follow link to your website. It is important that you gain do-follow links because that tells Google to track the link back to your website. A no-follow link isn’t tracked.

Local Business Directories

You can get high-quality backlinks in a number of ways. One of our favorite ways to get them for clients is through local business directories. There are many directories that you can submit your information to. To find local directories, you can search for “business directory” + your city and/or state.

Guest Posting

Another great way to get backlinks from reputable sources is to guest post for other websites. You will need to write a unique blog post that hasn’t been published anywhere before. You can add 1 or 2 relevant links back to your site within the content. Just make sure that you aren’t promoting what you do, but naturally leaving the link to learn more information about the subject you are talking about.

2. Invest in Website Speed and Mobile Responsiveness

Google went to mobile-first indexing in 2018. That means that they are rewarding websites that have highly functional mobile websites. Your mobile site should be able to do everything the desktop site does.

Also, site speed is a big consideration from Google when deciding on website ranking. Ideally, your website should load in 3 seconds or less. If your site isn’t loading that fast, then you need to do things to speed it up. Here are a few things you can do to help:

• Remove any unnecessary plugins
• Compress your images
• Install a caching plugin
• Compress your website
• Turn off the pingbacks and trackbacks

These are just a few of the things that you can do to increase your site speed. However, there are many more things that a web developer can do to speed up your load times.

3. Verify With Google Analytics and Google Search Console

Another “best way to market” is if you don’t have Google Analytics installed already, you should set that up right away. This will give you a good indication of how you are progressing.

How to connect your website to Google Analytics:

1. Make sure are signed into the Google account associated with your website.
2. Go to the Google Analytics website and click the “Access Google Analytics” button.
3. Once you are inside, select the “Admin” button.
4. Then you will use the Account dropdown and select the website you want to add.
5. Go to the middle column and select “Create New Property”.
6. Grab the Tracking ID.
7. Once you have the code, you’ll need to put it at the top of each page you want to track or in the header code of your website. You may need to have your web developer do this for you.

Another thing you should do is hook your website into the Google Search Console. To do that, you will:

1. Go to the Google Search Console and click “start now”.
2. Select the “Add a Property” button.
3. You will need to add your website URL to the box and hit the continue button.
4. Find the “HTML tag” button and select it.
5. Copy the tag in the box.
6. Login to your website and install the Yoast SEO plugin if you haven’t already.
7. Click “SEO” on the left-hand sidebar of your dashboard.
8. Select the General tab and find the Webmaster Tools.
9. Put the code into the field and save it.
10. Once you’ve added the code you need to return to the Google Search Console to verify it.  

The Google Search Console will give you a lot of insight into the keywords you are ranking for. Also, if there are errors on the site or page speed issues, it will alert you to them. The search console has added a lot of new features in the last year. 

4. Update Your Google My Business Page

Google My Business is a free tool that allows you to verify your business on Google. You’ll need to claim your listing and then verify your website so that you are able to edit your business information. Make sure you completely fill out all the fields:

• Company name, postal address and phone number (NAP)
• Categories
• Website address
• Keyword-rich description
• Photos
• Office hours
• Services and/or products

This is great marketing to help your potential customers find your contractor’s website. Also, make sure that you use the keywords you want to target in your description. List the main locations that you are trying to reach as well. 

5. Optimize The Content on Your Website

One of the best SEO strategies for contractors is to optimize the existing content on your site. There are things you’ll want to avoid in your content such as:

• Copying and pasting from other sites- you are never allowed to copy content from other websites. This is called duplicate content and Google will penalize your site for having it; meaning, you’ll lose traffic. The same goes for internally- don’t use the same text from page to page on your website. 
• Broken links- make sure that all of the links on your site are working. If they aren’t working, you need to remove the links or replace them with new ones.
• Easy to read- everything you write should be easy to read and relatable to your audience. Use a conversational tone.
• Correct grammar- poor grammar can hurt your site rankings. Google wants to give users the best experience possible. Sites with bad grammar and hard to read sentences will not rank as high as those that are well written.

A great way to improve your writing is to install the Yoast SEO plugin. It will highlight the areas where your content is weak so you can make the necessary changes.

Other resources that can help you write better content include:

• Grammarly
• Grammar Check
• Hemingway

Each of these sites has a free version as well as a premium version. You should be able to vastly improve your writing with the free versions of these sites.

6. Do Your Keyword Research

Using the right keywords in the right way is essential to ranking. A keyword is the search term that someone will use when they are looking for the services you offer. Usually, keywords are a phrase or question, not just a single word.

Make sure you do keyword research for your business to identify the keywords potential customers are using. There are a few ways to find the right words for your content. Here are a few of our favorites:

• Neil Patel Uber Suggest– this is a free keyword research tool that gives you suggestions based on what you put in the search bar. It’ll show you how often someone searches for specific phrases as well as how much it would cost to pay ads for that type of lead.
• Google autofill suggestions- go to the search bar and start typing in a phrase or word you think your potential customers would use to find you. Google will give you autofill suggestions. Scroll through what they suggest and use those phrases.
• Related searches- once you do an initial search and let Google autofill the search box, you’ll want to see what related searches come up. Scroll to the bottom of the search result page and there will be a list of related search terms. Those are other great phrases and longtail keywords to target.
• Google search console- go into the search console and see which pages are ranking. Then you will select on queries to get a list of keywords that are bringing traffic to the page. Add more content to those pages to include the relevant keyword. 

These are just a couple of ways you can find good keywords to add to your content.

7. Use Keywords Strategically on Your Site

Once you have completed the research, you’ll need to go back into your content and add in the words naturally. Make sure that wherever you put keywords that it makes sense. Otherwise, Google will look at your keyword placement as stuffing and not adding value to the reader.

There are strategic places that you can add your keywords. Make sure you’re keywords are in the right places such as:

• Title tags
• Meta descriptions
• Headlines
• Images
• Content

You should aim to have a keyword density of 3%-5%. Anything higher than that can negatively affect your website. This means you will need to get creative on your content. Sometimes, it can be hard to reduce the number of times you say any single word. It might mean you need to re-phrase your sentences. 

8. Target Local Service Areas

Create pages on your website that target the service areas that you work in. You’ll want to write about the specific service you offer and the city that you offer that service in. The keywords you want to target in your content will be the name of the service you offer and the name of the city you provide the service in.

If you have a brick and mortar business where your customers come to your location, you can still target the cities around you. Talk about how you are located close to the city and that you have customers that drive to your location.

How to Naturally Write About Local Information

You can add the locations you are targetting to all of your pages. A few ways to do that include: 

• Opening and closing paragraph- pair the main keyword of the page with the location in the first and last paragraphs. 
• Contact page- add directions to your location from major surrounding cities. Give any additional instructions needed to find your building or where to park. 
• Welcome guide- you can add a page on your site that shares a welcome guide to new people in the area. List your local favorite places to go and nearby things to do. 

These are a few of the ways you can share information about your city and surrounding cities in your content.

9. Write Customized Meta Descriptions

A meta description is a short paragraph that is displayed on the search results page under your website URL. This information is what a potential customer will use to decide if they should click on your website. Make sure your meta descriptions are written well to attract clicks in the search engine results.

It is important to add the keywords you are targeting for the page in the meta description. Google will highlight those keywords on the search result page so that the user can easily find what they are looking for.

10. Create a User-Friendly Website

Ultimately, Google highlights websites that are user-friendly. They want people to find the information they are looking for as well as enjoy the experience. That is why it is important your site is created specifically with your audience in mind.

Make sure your website offers the reader the information they need in an entertaining way. Some of the things you’ll want to make sure your website includes are:

• High-quality, attractive images
• Videos if possible
• Internal links that navigate the user to related pages on your site
• Well written content that is full of valuable information and easy to scan
• An easy to navigate menu
• Call to action buttons that tell them exactly what to do
• Fast load times
• Mobile compatible
• Custom 404 pages

Anything you can add that will help someone navigate your site easier is important. The longer someone spends on your site, the better. The amount of time people spend on your site tells Google whether or not your website is useful. If a high volume of people clicks away after a few seconds, it can hurt your page rankings.

Hire an SEO Company for Contractors

Look for a company like Contractor Charlie with your SEO strategy. Our team knows how to increase your first page rankings and help you be seen by more potential clients. 

Contact us Today For SEO Services

If you are ready to get the SEO services your website needs, contact the team here at Contractor Charlie today. We’ll get in touch with you and share a full game plan of how we can optimize your site. Our team specializes in helping contractors increase their traffic and get more calls.

We use all of these SEO tips for contractors to help our clients. Our content team writes local pages as well as services pages that target the keywords that will best serve you. Our SEO team puts in place on-page and off-page SEO strategies that will help you rank higher. Each month, you’ll receive a report that will show you the progress you are making.

The team here at Contractor Charlie wants to partner with your business. Get in touch with us today so we can help you increase your leads and get more phone calls.