SEO for Contractors: How To Increase Traffic to Your Site

As a contractor, your business depends on leads, referrals and new clients to stay active year-round. These days, most people find out about local businesses online, so a search-optimized website is one of the best investments you can make. How important is SEO for contractors? Search engine optimization (SEO) is nearly 90% more effective at boosting website traffic than paid ads, leading to more customers, work and sales.

What Is SEO for Contractors?

SEO aims to help your business appear in the top search results for your target audience. If you rank high on page one when potential customers search for keywords such as “best general contractor in Dallas, TX,” you can count on a significant boost to website traffic. High-quality search optimization techniques maximize your chances.

How Does SEO Help Contractors?

Different contractor SEO options offer important advantages.

Improving Your Website’s Search Rankings

One of the main reasons you need SEO is to make your business more visible online. That way, you can attract customers from Cedar Rapids to Cheboygan and Chicago to Columbus.

SEO for contractors involves three pillars:

• Keyword research: Keywords are the search terms your customers will likely use, from “emergency roof repairs” to “How much does a new kitchen cost?”
• Content: You need high-quality blog articles, guides, and web pages (with keywords) to build an excellent reputation online.
• Backlinks: As your SEO content gets more visits, you gradually earn backlinks from other reputable businesses, which send even more traffic your way.

Investing in wide-ranging search optimization is vital for franchises, real estate developers, and national-level construction companies. Every individual location benefits when the more prominent brand enjoys a trustworthy reputation.

Building a Great Relationship With Local Clients

For location-based searches on Google Search and Google Maps, the search engine swaps traditional ranking factors in favor of distance, relevance and prominence. To rank high in Map Pack results, your website needs a different flavor of search optimization called local SEO.

Here’s how local SEO for contractors is different:

• Location-based keywords: These search terms include regional references, such as “24/7 plumber in Phoenix, AZ” or “pool builders in the Bay Area.”
• Location pages: Your website should have individual landing pages for every city, county or region you serve, such as Minneapolis, St. Paul, Bloomington, Eden Prairie, Maple Grove and Eagan in Minnesota’s Twin Cities.
• Geo-targeted content: Blog articles, guides and other content should focus on the needs and challenges of local customers, like hurricane concerns in Miami or heating systems in colder states.
• Google reviews: Google gives significant weight to local reviews when deciding which businesses to promote.

These elements tell search engines that your business is local, well-established, and trustworthy — a perfect fit for nearby customers.

Finding High-Value Business Leads

Search optimization also supports business-to-business contractors. That said, SEO objectives and techniques change significantly for commercial construction, industrial contracting and consulting firms.

Business-to-business (B2B) SEO aims to capture and cultivate leads instead of pushing a quick sale. You need to reach minds and bottom lines, not hearts. Keywords need the support of detail-oriented, informative and authoritative content to accomplish this.

Commercial contractors use highly targeted search terms (e.g., “TIG welding for petrochemical pressure vessels” or “TPO flat roof vs EPDM installation costs”) that have low search volumes but significant value for conversions.

Which Contractors Need SEO?

SEO for contractors doesn’t just refer to construction businesses. An effective website is vital for all contractors:

• Plumbers
• Electricians
• Painters
• Landscaping businesses
• HVAC professionals
• Welders

An effective SEO strategy should address your business’s unique circumstances:

• Customers: Homes, multi-family housing, commercial stores or industrial locations
• Business: Small business or multiple locations
• Service area: Your city, region, state or national
• Services: General industry services or niche market

At BKA Content, our SEO solutions for contractors deliver a great return on investment.

What Are the Secrets to Success With SEO?

Search optimization isn’t some mystical trick. Getting good results is straightforward once you know what search engines care about.

Prioritize People

The primary role of search engines is to match users with the online information they want. Google wants people to have a satisfying search experience.

SEO success means creating content that helps your target audience. If your website is helpful to customers, search rankings and traffic should follow automatically.

Choose the Right Keywords

You need to show Google exactly what your contracting business is about: your services, expertise, and competitive advantages. It has to be obvious that your website has the solutions visitors need.

That’s where keywords come in. Search terms are like neon signs with flashing arrows that tell Google, “If someone needs a complete guide to SEO for contractors, they can find it right here!”

How can you choose the right keywords for contractor services? Follow these suggestions:

• Consider the problems your business solves for customers, and describe each solution in a simple phrase.
• Make a list of the most common questions your customers ask you.
• Ask current clients what they like about your business and turn those advantages into keywords.
• See which topics competitors are covering.
• Use a keyword research tool to see which construction industry terms have a high volume of searches.

The more you know about your target customers, the easier it is to choose effective keywords for SEO.

Build Better Content

To boost your page rankings, you can’t afford to be average. Your business needs content that stands out. We recommend the following types of SEO content for contractors:

• How-to articles: Blogs like “How to take care of wood flooring” are excellent for families and homeowners.
• Comparison guides: Educate residential and commercial clients with a “Complete guide to window coatings” or “Kitchen countertop buyer’s guide.”
• Informative blogs: Explain industry topics in detail with blogs like “The pros and cons of heat pumps” or “Home remodeling projects with the highest resale value.”
• Frequently asked questions: Include contractor FAQs such as “How often does my roof need preventative maintenance?” for service pages, standalone pages, blog articles and other content.

High-quality content provides everything you need for amazing SEO: topics your clients care about, keywords Google looks for, and trustworthy information showing off your contractor expertise.

How Can You Improve Local SEO as a Contractor?

Over the years, we’ve used SEO for contractors to turn a handful of page visits into significant website traffic each month.

Improve Your Site’s Layout

Whether you’re creating web pages or blog articles, have a clear objective in mind. Plan each piece of content for a specific audience, purpose, and service.

For example, if you perform both residential and commercial contracting services, don’t try to appeal to both client groups on the same page. Split your website layout so you have one section for businesses and another for homes.

Create one page for each major service. For a home remodeler, the results would look like this:

• Kitchen remodeling
• Bathroom additions
• Open-concept living and dining rooms
• Patios, decks and outdoor kitchens
• Home expansions

This type of layout highlights keywords naturally for better SEO and makes it easier for site visitors to learn about your services.

Optimize for Mobile Devices

Almost 60% of customers search Google on smartphones. Is your website easy to navigate and quick to load on mobile? If not, updating pages should be a priority.

Our team makes SEO content look fantastic with short and sweet paragraphs, subheadings and bullet points. These technical improvements also benefit SEO. When users spend more time on your site (because it’s engaging), Google sees you deliver value to customers.

Choose High-Quality Local SEO for Contractors

AI-generated content may be cheap, but you get what you pay for. Generic and false information won’t win you new customers.

Invest in exceptional blogs with personality. As a contractor, one of your greatest strengths is your expertise. Your content should feel like friendly tips from a local expert area residents like and trust.

How Much Should SEO Cost Per Month?

The cost of local SEO for contractors depends on many factors, such as the number of keywords, the size of your business and your target audience. B2B contractors usually pay more than home remodelers because industry blogs require technical expertise.

The golden number for small businesses in the U.S. is about $500 a month. That said, a higher budget gets you more content, keywords and customization, so SEO results get even better.

SEO is one of the most cost-effective marketing options for contractors. Instead of paying for one-off ads, you can invest in content that will help countless potential clients for years. At BKA, we offer a range of SEO for contractors. A great way to save money is to refresh your website’s existing content so it’s better optimized for search.

What Are the Challenges of SEO for Contractors?

It wouldn’t be a complete guide without pointing out that SEO isn’t easy for contractors to handle alone. Your expertise is in construction, not digital marketing. You also have a business to run, bids to create and employees to manage, so finding the time to monitor keywords can be challenging.

The solution is to hire an SEO “sub-contractor.” At BKA Content, we handle SEO for contractors completely, from keyword research and blog planning to website audits and content maintenance. Learn more about our contractor SEO solutions right away.