If you own a home contracting business, it’s essential to have a strong online presence. After all, potential customers are going to be searching for services like yours online—and if you’re not ranking high in the search results, they may never even find your business. That’s where search engine optimization (SEO) comes in. By optimizing your website for the search engines, you can improve your visibility and attract more leads. But what exactly is SEO, and how can you use it to grow your home contracting business? Keep reading to find out.
What is SEO?
In short, SEO is the process of improving your website so that it ranks higher in the search engine results pages (SERPs). The higher your site ranks, the more likely people are to find it when they’re searching for contractors in their area. And when people can easily find your site, that means more leads—and ultimately, more business—for you.
There are two main types of SEO: on-page SEO and off-page SEO. On-page SEO refers to all of the optimizations you can make to your website itself—like using the right keywords throughout your site content and making sure your site is mobile-friendly. Off-page SEO, on the other hand, is all about promoting your website through external channels—like building backlinks from other high-quality websites or creating local citations.
Why is SEO Important for Contractors?
If you want people to find your contracting business online, then you need to make sure your website is optimized for the search engines. And that’s where SEO comes in. By taking the time to improve your site’s on-page and off-page SEO, you can attract more leads from organic search—which means more customers and more revenue for your business.
How Can You Improve Your Contracting Business’s SEO?
Now that you know why SEO is important for contractors, let’s take a look at some specific ways you can improve your website’s ranking in the SERPs. Here are a few tips:
1) Do keyword research: In order to rank for relevant keywords, you first need to know what those keywords are. Use a tool like Google Keyword Planner or SEMrush Keyword Magic Tool to find relevant keywords that people are actually searching for. Once you’ve identified some high-traffic keywords, work them into your website copy and blog posts so that Google knows what topics your site is relevant for.
2) Optimize your title tags and meta descriptions: Title tags and meta descriptions are two of the most important on-page SEO elements—so it’s important to make sure they’re optimized for both users and search engines. Write compelling title tags and meta descriptions that accurately describe what users will find on each page of your site—and be sure to include relevant keywords so that Google knows what topics each page is about.
3) Improve your site’s loading speed: In today’s fast-paced world, internet users expect websites to load quickly—and if yours doesn’t, they’re likely to click away before they even have a chance to see what you have to offer. Use Google PageSpeed Insights or Pingdom Website Speed Test to test your site’s loading speed and identify areas where you can make improvements. Then, work on reducing image sizes, minifying CSS and JavaScript files, and eliminating any unnecessary plugins or widgets that could be slowing down your site.
4) Create local citations: A local citation is any mention of your contractor business online—including things like your name, address, phone number (NAP), and website URL. The more local citations you have pointing back to your site (especially from high-authority websites), the better chance you have of ranking higher in Google’s local search results—which means more leads for YOUR contracting business! Not sure where to start? Check out this list of top 50 local directories from Moz.
Conclusion
By following these basic tips, you can start putting SEO to work for your home contracting business and enjoy all the benefits that come with it—including more traffic, more leads, and ultimately more sales. Keep in mind that SEO takes time and effort; there’s no magic bullet that will instantly propel you to the top of SERPs overnight. But if you’re patient and consistent with your efforts, you should start seeing results before too long. And isn’t that what we all want? Results!
