SEO for Construction Companies: Win More Bids Online

What is SEO?

SEO helps construction companies appear when people search for contractors, builders and trades near them. This guide explains what SEO is, how it benefits a construction business, what the services involve and how to choose a provider. For help, see our local SEO, keyword research and link building services.

Quick answer: SEO for construction companies means showing up when homeowners, property owners and project managers search for builders and trades. The essentials are a Google Business Profile, a page for each service and city, real project photos, reviews, and links from local and industry sites. Most contractors see early movement in 2 to 3 months and steady lead growth in 6 to 12 months.

SEO is the process of increasing organic website traffic through multiple strategies to improve visibility on search engine results pages through higher rankings. You can improve your visibility through various methods that many SEO companies can assist with. SEO focuses solely on natural or organic results. Every SEO campaign is fulfilled differently depending on website, audience, competition, and niche.

For small business SEO services, on-site and off-site optimizations are important to recognize. This means that you need to take into account both your website and external influences not on your website. While it's not the only component in a marketing campaign, SEO is a fundamental player to be successful in digital marketing efforts.

Is SEO for Construction Companies Necessary?

How do bricks and hammers relate to SEO? When you analyze them, you'll find that they relate more to each other than meets the eye. Construction companies need specific tools to help build buildings and strong structures. When it comes to building your website, you should think of SEO as one of your specific tools you need to succeed online.

Word of mouth still matters, but more customers now search online before they hire a contractor. SEO helps your company become more visible and reputable against competitors.

How Can Construction Companies Benefit from SEO?

When you have the right tools, your construction company can learn to succeed through utilizing and implementing SEO. Here are a few ways in which your construction company can benefit from SEO:

• Increase Local Presence

  Adding your construction company to a variety of SEO resources and services can help boost your local presence. Different ways to help improve your construction SEO could be:

  • Claiming your construction company to different local business directories (such as the GreatInflux small business directory)
  • Having on-going SEO consultation services
  • Utilizing keyword research
  • Writing custom content with effective keyword research

  These local SEO services, including many more, can be crucial to your rankings and understanding the importance of local SEO for your construction company.

• Expand Your Reach

  Word of mouth can only take you so far. SEO helps your company reach customers you would not otherwise meet, by attracting people who search for the services you offer while you keep building on your existing clients.

• Attract the Right Intent

  While expanding your reach in finding new customers, attracting qualified business leads is also a great benefit from construction SEO. One beneficial way of doing this is by adding the right construction SEO keywords. By adding optimized and user focused keywords, your company can attract qualified leads that are more aligned with your company standards.

• Sustainable Growth

  SEO does not happen overnight, but it can provide sustainable growth. You do not pay per click, and good SEO work can keep bringing in leads over time. Results take time and effort, and the more you build, the more cost-effective it tends to be in the long run.

SEO for Residential, Commercial and Specialty Contractors

The right SEO plan depends on who hires you.

• Residential contractors: target service plus city searches such as “kitchen remodel in Dallas”, build service-area pages, show before and after photos and collect reviews, because homeowners compare several contractors.
• Commercial contractors: target project types and sectors, publish case studies with project size and timeline, and show licences, safety record and insurance, since project managers look for proof.
• Specialty trades: target the exact trade, such as roofing, concrete or electrical, and include emergency or same-day terms where they apply.

What Do Construction SEO Services Look Like?

1. 1. Understanding Your Business and Industry

   Construction can come in many different forms. From building offices or homes, to your general handyman and contractor, construction covers a lot of different fields. With this in mind, it's important for your construction company to identify what you really need to rank for online. Do people search for “home contractor” or “cabinetry in my city”, or “store building construction company”. You first need to identify who you will be servicing and what you can provide for them. From there, it's easier for your construction company to start optimizing your website.

2. 2. Researching Keywords for Construction Companies

   Providing research, understanding into your business, industry, locations, and audience proves crucial for this next step. This is where you research keywords for your construction website. Keyword research is based around the foundation for SEO.

   Keywords for construction companies can include things like: cement laying, dry wall, general contractor in Salt Lake City, or handyman in Atlanta. These are very specific keywords that describe your business, what you can do, and where your business is located. SEO for construction companies then inserts those keywords in strategic places within the content of your website. This would then result in helping your company bring in more site visitors organically and hopefully more leads.

3. 3. Create Valuable & Informative Content

   Once you have your keyword research completed, and SEO strategy in place, it's time to start working on content that can bring value to your website. This is where you insert your keywords to attract more visitors. Keywords and content are the base of your SEO strategy. Your content should inform and tell people about what you do, where you do it, and why you're the best at it.

   Google’s quality guidance looks for experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust (E-E-A-T). Create content that helps people understand what you do, such as tutorials on putting up drywall or checking that concrete is level, and explainers on how to choose the right construction company. Showing real expertise builds trust with customers and helps you stand out.

4. 4. Build Authority with Links

   Once you have effective content, you can continue to build on your SEO strategy by building out quality links that help to build your website's authority. It's crucial for your business to stay active and up-to-date in your industry. You can do this by placing active links back to your website in places like industry sites, guest posting, business directories, and other blogs or websites. As you demonstrate these practices, people are more likely to share your content, or link to it on their own websites. Link building is another crucial step in the SEO process for your construction company. See our white hat link building service.

How to Turn Website Visits Into Bid Requests

Rankings only help if visitors contact you. Put your phone number and a short quote request form on every service page, show licences and insurance near the top, add project photos with short captions, and make sure the form works on a phone. Track calls and form submissions in Google Analytics so you know which pages bring work. Our conversion rate optimization service can help.

What Should You Look for in a Construction SEO Provider?

When looking for the best SEO provider for your construction company, be sure to consider these factors when comparing different options:

• Successful Track Record

  When looking for an SEO provider, it's important to seek out a provider that has a successful track record. Looking into SEO providers reviews and case studies is one way to look into an SEO provider's track record. Finding an SEO provider that aligns with your goals and values will help grow your construction SEO strategy.

  While it's important to read into resources that relate to your construction company, look into other industries and see how an SEO provider works with them as well. Finding an SEO provider that's successful in a variety of industries shows a lot of credibility and value that could ultimately benefit your company. When your SEO provider showcases successful SEO services through multiple small businesses, besides your own, it helps give your company an idea of what construction SEO could look like.

• Understanding Your Goals

  An SEO provider should already be aware and understand a construction company's goals and provide a productive SEO strategy to help further achieve those goals. Without setting goals and standards in the beginning, there's nothing to build up to. Having consistent discussions throughout the campaign will help clarify and make things easier on both sides. This also eliminates insignificant tasks and helps manage time and services better for a construction SEO campaign.

• Setting Clear Expectations

  Your construction company shouldn't go into learning about an SEO campaign feeling out of place or unsure of the direction your marketing strategy is headed. Setting clear expectations should be a priority so nothing gets overlooked or lost in translation. Having an SEO provider that sets clear expectations helps eliminate overpromising and stop under delivering expectations. Going into an SEO campaign can have a variety of layers. Having clear expectations helps make understanding the process of SEO much easier for both parties involved.

• Communication is Key

  Constantly communicating is pivotal in any SEO campaign. One of the best ways to strengthen your communication is by having frequent chats. Keeping conversations and discussions open and frequent helps create more of an ease to convey thoughts, questions, and ideas more openly. Consistently communicating helps create trust and keep clients in the loop.

• Transparency

  When working with an SEO provider trust is an important factor. One way of building on trust is through transparency. Doing something that wasn't promised in a campaign is one way of losing trust real fast. When an SEO provider opens the opportunity to be transparent and open with clients, that's where real trust is built. SEO providers can be transparent with construction companies through reporting and having access to a dashboard. Giving your company access to view how their construction SEO is functioning helps improve transparency and trust with one another.