SEO for Contractors: How to Get Started

READ MORE: How to create a professional website without a website builder

The best ways to boost your local SEO presence include: 

• Claim your Google Business Profile listing (formerly Google My Business): A free business listing provides you with a callout box in Google’s search results, highlighting information like your company name, phone number, hours, photos, reviews, service area, website address, and more. These details make it easy for potential customers to learn about what you offer, increasing the chances they’ll reach out for a quote or to book a job. Watch how to set up your Google Business Profile.
• Create a Yelp listing: Like Google Business Profile listings, adding your business to Yelp is free and includes similar information about your services.
• List your business on major search directories: Most lead generation platforms, like Thumbtack and Angi, have business directories that search engines use to generate results. If you’re already thinking about using one of these tools to bring in new leads, the added bonus of boosting your search presence can be enough to tip the scales. 

Pro Tip: Make sure your business information is consistent across all business listings and directories. That means your business name, address, website, and phone number. Inconsistent information can confuse potential customers and hurt your search engine rankings.

2. Ask for reviews

Customer reviews across business listings and on your website help to build your authority and boost your search potential. 

Ask for reviews from happy customers and try to direct them to a specific place, like Google, to concentrate your efforts on a single platform. 

If you don’t have time to ask for reviews, set up an automatic review collection in Jobber. When you make an invoice in Jobber, you can choose if you want to send the customer a review request.

3. Target the right keywords

Keywords are the words search engines use to determine who your content is relevant to. For contractors, keywords are typically related to the industry they work in and what they offer. 

For example, a landscaper might target keywords like: 

• Lawn care
• Mowing
• Garden design
• Landscaping services
• Sod installation
• Mulching
• Weed control

Most of the time, relevant keywords fit naturally into your SEO content. But using too many at once (called keyword stuffing) or trying to force irrelevant keywords into your website will hurt your SEO efforts. 

Here’s what keyword stuffing with the keyword “lawn care” looks like:

Lawn care is a great choice for clients who need lawn care done. Our lawn care services include lawn care like mowing and trimming. Reach out for a lawn care quote today. 

Remember: Just because you use a keyword multiple times doesn’t mean you’re doing SEO right. Keywords should never feel forced. 

A good practice is to write content without any keywords first. Aim for a version that’s easy to understand, and that gets your point across. Then, when you’re happy with it, go back and highlight any keywords it contains. You may be surprised at how SEO-friendly it already is. 

Then, if you still want to target a few more keywords, consider how you can fit them into what you wrote without making it awkward or confusing. 

If you can’t, maybe the keywords aren’t worth including in this particular piece of content.

4. Create content

Content marketing plays a big role in SEO for contractors. This helps you to target a variety of different keywords, increasing your website traffic and letting you show up in search results for a broad range of topics. 

A strategy that worked for contracting pro Tom Reber was writing articles answering common questions his customers would always ask, like “How much does it cost to paint a bathroom?” He created versions to cover every area in the house and, within a few months, was in eight top organic spots on Google.

For example, let’s say you’re an HVAC contractor. While you’d want to target the keyword “HVAC”, creating content like blogs and articles would allow you to cover additional keywords, such as: 

• Air conditioning repair
• Residential HVAC
• Air duct cleaning
• Furnace installation
• Heating and cooling
• Furnace repairs services

Using these keywords, you could create guides, how-tos, FAQs, and tip sheets for your website. 

Then, search engines would associate those topics with your business, helping you appear in search results when potential clients search for things like “air duct cleaning in my city” or “local furnace installation.”

Not only will this improve your rank in search engines, but it will also position you as an expert on the topics you write about by demonstrating your expertise.

5. Organize your website

The way your service website is organized impacts SEO. For example, if you only have a one-page site with sparse content about the services you offer, you won’t be prioritized in search results. 

On the other hand, you have a better chance of showing up if: 

You optimize your title tags 

A title tag, or title link, is the headline you see in Google search results. It’s what users click on to get to your website. Optimized title tags use keywords and compelling language to encourage potential customers to select them. They should also clarify what the page they link to is about. 

“…in your meta description and your title tag on your website, you want to make sure that you list out landscaping company in Asheville, North Carolina, and then in your meta description, you want to also put in your geographical targets in there…” —Phil Risher, Phlash Consulting

For example, a good title tag for a plumbing website’s home page could be:

[Business Name] | Reliable Plumbing Services & Repairs in [City]

This version includes a location, business name, and keywords and it’s easy for users to understand where the link will take them. 

In contrast, an ineffective title tag would be: 

Welcome to our website

This version is too short and doesn’t tell the visitor who your contracting business is or what types of services you offer. Users won’t know where the link will take them or why they should click on it. 

You optimize meta descriptions 

Meta descriptions, or snippets, are made up of the text that goes below a title link in search results. They should be clear, relevant, and concise to describe the content the user will find if visit the webpage. 

Here’s an example of a good meta description or snippet for a plumbing business: 

Experienced plumbing professionals serving [City] since [year]. We provide emergency repairs, installations, drain cleaning, remodeling, and more. Contact us today for your free quote!

This version has keywords, a location, and communications about service options. It also tells the user what action to take next, guiding them to reach out to you. 

A poor meta description would look like this: 

Plumbing services. Call today.

This version is too short, doesn’t include any descriptive information, and has no keywords. Without a location, users won’t know whether the business is even relevant to them, and with no phone number listed, they won’t know how to get in touch. 

Make different web pages 

Your website should have multiple pages, and each one should target different keywords. For example, while you can list all of the services you offer on your home page, you can also create a page for each category of service (like heating, cooling, installation, etc.) and go into more detail on each one. 

Not only will that help you cover more keywords, but it will also provide potential customers with more details about what you do so they can determine whether you’re right for their project. 

Have a contact page 

Clear contact information helps potential clients who get to your website through search engines understand what to do next. A dedicated contact page with your name, address, phone number, email, and an online booking form or ‘book now’ button helps turn web traffic you generate from SEO into legitimate leads. 

WATCH: Optimize your website

6. Get links to your website

Search engines prefer sites with lots of high-quality backlinks, which are links to your website from third parties. When other websites link to yours, it shows that you’re a legitimate and trusted service provider. 

To get other people to link to your website, you can: 

• Offer to be a subject matter expert for professional articles and blog posts
• Partner with other businesses or organizations
• Sponsor events
• Host a charity drive or initiative
• Participate in community events

Pro Tip: Never pay for backlinks. Paid links can hurt your search rankings and impact your website’s authority. Instead, focus on getting links from real websites with real people behind them. 

7. Understand the different types of SEO

There are many different types of SEO, and they all serve slightly different purposes while working together to boost a website’s search potential. 

The most common types of SEO for service providers are: 

• On-page SEO. These are the tactics you use to optimize individual web pages, like title tags, meta descriptions, and keywords. 
• Off-page SEO: These are the efforts you make outside of your website to build its authority, such as getting backlinks from other websites and building your profile on review sites. 
• Technical SEO: Technical SEO involves more complicated techniques, such as addressing website speed, mobile-friendliness, and security. 
• Local SEO: This type of SEO targets geographically specific efforts, such as local business listings, and location-based keywords, such as your city or town name. 
• Image SEO: This is when you optimize the images on your website to increase their chances of showing in search results. You do this by using proper file naming, alt text, and condensing image sizes. 

Other types of SEO include voice search, video, mobile, and e-commerce. Most contractors won’t need to optimize for these, but it’s important to understand the different categories of SEO so you can develop the right strategy.