SEO for Residential Contractors

One acronym reigns supreme on the web: SEO - Search Engine Optimization. Local SEO focuses your efforts around your geographical or service area. SEO can be incredibly complex, but in essence it’s the practice of fine tuning your website and content so that it ranks higher on search engines. Of course you want to rank high in the results for “artificial turf Milwaukee,” but so does every one of your competitors.

Contractor SEO Basics

You can still use the very basic principles of SEO to boost your rankings without a deep dive into the art and science behind it. The fundamentals are quite simple:

• You probably already know most of the keywords (the words people type into the search bar) that apply to your contracting business. To continue the example, our turf installer should use those keywords in the body of the webpage.
• Don’t stuff your keywords into your page text excessively or in an out-of-context manner. That will definitely get you dinged by Google as having fraudulent or incorrect content.
• Think outside the box a bit when it comes to your keywords. What else could people possibly be searching for when looking for your services? Instead of “artificial turf installation,” maybe they type in a question: “how is artificial turf better than real grass?” Write a blog post on that topic, link to it on your social media, and watch your ranking slowly climb. This is the “long tail.”

Your First Paid Search Campaign

With time, you may consider running an SEO paid search campaign through Google Ad Manager. Setup is easy to follow, just make sure you cap your spending carefully. A paid search campaign like this will bid on your keywords versus any competitors who have similar campaigns. The “winner” gets their ad at the top of the results page.

Setting up a paid search campaign is quite simple with Google’s step-by-step walkthrough. If you’re lucky, Google will be running a promotion where you can get a substantial credit when you spend a certain amount of money on your campaign. This can be a great way to get started.