One cannot talk about contractor SEO without considering the following statistics:

• A report tabled at a recent United Nations Conference on Trade and Development states that over 50% of consumers shop online for products and services.
• Another research by HubSpot Academy found that 60% of mobile phone users have contacted a business through online searches.
• A study by HubSpot Academy found that 59% of shoppers say that the internet makes their buying decision faster.
• According to a report by SEMrush, 86% of marketers rely on organic traffic as their preferred primary lead generation tool.

The above statistics point contractors to one conclusion. Many people are searching for their next contractor online. Aside from the people who are aware of your company's existence, there are those who might not know about its services. Contractor SEO helps bring your website to the top of the results page.

But what is contractor SEO, and why is it essential for contractors?

What is Contractor SEO?

Contractor SEO is a strategic approach that uses both on and off-page strategies to promote contractors' services. The benefits include higher ROI, increased brand awareness, and higher rankings in search engines.

Contractor SEO suits contractors seeking new leads online. This type of SEO can help contractors like plumbers, electricians, landscapers, and others. It's a great way to reach potential customers on a budget.

The SEO model relies on the fact that clients are more likely to click on websites that appear on the first page of search engine results pages(SERP). They are likely to visit websites in a higher ranking if they arrive while they are searching. As such, businesses lay down strategies that make their businesses rank highly on search engine results.

Organic Contractor SEO Vs PPC Contractor SEO

There are two ways for contractors to rank highly on Google. They can choose to use organicSEO or invest in Pay-per-Click [PPC] techniques with search engines. Organic SEO increases your web traffic and leads, while PPC helps you reach a specific audience immediately.

• ‍Organic Contractor SEO: Organic visits are free website traffic. It's important for contractors to leave every avenue possible to obtain free advertising. Organic contractor SEO is a prime example of how a business can obtain free advertising while ranking better on search results. However, this technique takes a lot of time to refine and achieve. The search engines do not guarantee that a website will stay at the top of the rankings, because it may fall in ranking.Sometimes, an outside factor affects your website's ranking and brings you down in the search engine results. For example, constantly missing out on relevant searches for an industry-standard term. One way to ensure that you stay at the top of searches is to have an optimized website, free from errors, and easy for search engines to crawl.‍
• Pay Per Click (PPC) Contractor SEO: Pay per click allows businesses to place ads onGoogle, Bing, and other search engines. This helps you find potential customers using relevant keywords. These search engines charge afee each time someone clicks on your ad, based on the number of keywords the contractor bid on. It's a low-cost, efficient, and highly accessible method to reach potential clients. Many contractors start with PPC since it is easy to set up and requires no technical know-how. However, as an advertiser, your primary concern should be converting visitors into leads.Landing page optimization can have a significant impact on the percentage of visitors that turn into leads. A contractor doesn't have to decide between these two choices and can choose to combine the two concepts for maximum returns.

Benefits of Contractor SEO

Contractor SEO Creates Industry Authority

One of the finest ways for a contractor to get in touch with the people who need their services is to use SEO content research tools which help to create helpful, long-lasting content for prospective clients. Contractors will usually use blog posts or Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) to explain solutions.

Incorporating industry terms in content can help contractor webpages garner search engine authority. Google crawls and promotes sites that provide helpful information because it identifies them as a reliable source of information. While recognition by search engines is important, such a strategy builds trust with clients and prompts them to respond to the call to action.

Contractor SEO Provides Solutions,Convert

Most people who use search engines to find a solution are in the information-seeking stage of their journey. Contractors that have the most success recognize this opportunity and convert visitors to leads by immediately addressing the challenges presented by these clients, providing solutions, and following up with one form of media (such as email) to earn a meeting or phone call with their potential client.

Contractors Can Use SEO to Leverage Competitiveness

For years, traditional advertisement models such as radio, T.V, newspapers, billboards, and other advertising mediums favored companies with substantial, sustainable marketing budgets. Smaller companies and individual contractors had no chance against such companies, given their limited financial abilities.

Today, with more internet use than ever, contractor SEO helps businesses compete on a level playing field, at least online. Search engine algorithms evaluate a website's value to a query regardless of its size or financial muscle. Meaning contractors with the right SEO strategy can finally claim a top spot above the stronger competition!

Who Needs Contractor SEO?

Contractor SEO is essential for any contractor offering services in the skilled trade industry. Some of the businesses that can benefit from contractor SEO include, among others:

• Plumbers
• HVAC Technicians
• Plumbers
• Painters
• Building Construction Specialists
• Electricians
• Window and Door Specialists
• Landscapers
• Roofers

Tips to Increase SEO on Contractor Website 

As a marketing strategy, contractor SEO helps contractors bring in more leads. To leverage this model, contractors should follow these steps:

1. Ensure that Contractor Website is User Friendly

Contractors should audit and review their site for technical SEO compliance, using industry-standard guidelines provided by Google and other search engines. Google, for example, requires websites to have the following characteristics.

• The contractor website should be fast
• Provide a site map of the website
• Have an appealing user interface relevant to their business
• The website is mobile-friendly
• The contractor website is free of duplicate content
• Contractors should register their websites with popular search engines
• Contractors should ensure that visitors are safe from hackers, malware, and fraudsters when using the website

Evaluating website contractor compliance is a complex process that requires professional tools and knowledge. Contractor websites vary widely, so contractors need to have clear objectives when it comes to SEO.

To build a strong online reputation, contractors can outsource technical SEO implementation to experts such as NITRO PLUG Digital Marketing, who know how to provide a commendable SEO service at reasonable costs.

2. Contractors Should Create A Content Strategy

A content strategy is a plan to create and optimize all the contractor SEO content you will produce over a specific period. Before laying out a content strategy, digital marketers should evaluate the audience's needs. The trick is in-depth keyword research.

Contractors can also evaluate what they want to achieve from theSEO content they create. Their goal could be to invite visitors to subscribe to their newsletters, share their content on social media, or even make a purchase. The contractor's reasons for creating content will guide the type of messages contained in the content and where the material ends up published.

In essence, a good contractor SEO strategy should contain the following. 

• All content that the contractor will produce over the specified period
• How the contractor plans to produce the content
• The deadlines for writing, editing, and submission of the content
• The dates the contractor will publish their content
• Plans and tools for monitoring and collecting insights and the frequency
• Human and financial resources that the contractor will use to produce the SEO content 

3. Contractors Should Provide SEO Content for Their Websites

Following the keyword strategy, the contractor's primary task is to develop content that ranks highly in Google. Such content should have the following characteristics;

Contractor SEO Content Should Focus on The Audience - Many contractors always have the temptation to write keyword-stuffed content, hoping to rank better in search engines. What converts best is quality, informative content that will engage and truly help your reader.

SEO content should also be consistent with your business' brand image. This means that the tone of the content should match your brand's personality and be sensitive, considerate, and appropriate for the intended audience.

Contractors Should Write Content in a Clear, Simple Language - The primary purpose of SEO content is to deliver information. Consequently, contractors should ensure the audience can understand their content through a variety of methods. The contractor SEO content should mirror how the audience speaks and adopt a professional tone using proper grammar and avoiding slang, idioms, and overly casual language.

Contractors Should Employ Honest SEO Practices in theirContent ­- White hat SEO is the honest and transparent way to rank favorably on search engines. Internet search providers such as Google provide information on preparing high-quality content for the internet and favor SEO best practices over shortcuts. Some contractors may create poor quality content and use black hat SEO that may bring short-term advantage, but search engines fail to rank such websites highly in the long run. 

4. Effectively Use Link Building to Rank Highly

Link building is an SEO tactic helpful in increasing visibility and content diversity. It involves attracting links from other websites to your website. The result is a more diverse, natural assortment of backlink profiles. Backlinking should be a part of every SEO strategy and is particularly useful in competitive markets.

Google and other search engines rank websites based on three types of link building practices:

• ‍Internal Links: A contractor links to other content on their websites. Suppose a contractor is writing content around a topic, and they have a concept that they have covered on their websitebefore. They can provide the link to the work so that the reader can find more information on the topic.
• Internal links keep readers longer on a website, show the reader that the contractor is knowledgeable about their industry.‍
• Inbound Links: A contractor links to your website content from their website; search engines interpret the website as an authority in the field. A website that ranks well in search engines can help potential customers find your business. It is not easy to get inbound links, and it requires that contractors write SEO content that is relevant, detailed, and informative. Sometimes contractors can provide information as guest bloggers on authority websites that link back to their websites. Inbound links acknowledge a contractor as an authority in their industry, which improves their ranking on search engines.‍
• Outbound Links: Marketers also refer to these as external links, and it is a link from a contractor's website to another website. In addition to the ranking benefits, external links are a powerful way for contractors to network with other business owners and even get inbound links from the website they link to. 

It's a good idea to have several references that link back to your website. Always link to authoritative websites and always ensure that the site's content is safe for your audience.

5. Use Off-Site SEO to Grow Organic Traffic

Offsite SEO is a sum of all activities that contractors do outside their websites to increase traffic to their site. Such activities include using social media to market your content, use of influencers, link building, and brand mentions by other websites and mediums.

6. Optimize Contractor Websites for Local SEO

Contractors primarily service clients in their locality. As such, they should take advantage of queries like "HVAC Technician NearMe," "Electrician in Green park," or "Welder in MyTown," among other words, searches for local contractors.

To achieve optimum local SEO, contractors should ensure that:

• Encourage past customers to leave a Google review for the services they offer
• Take advantage of keywords related to their locality
• Make content specific to the areas they serve
• Optimize contractor websites for smartphones
• Place a Google map on your website indicating where their offices are
• Register their contractor businesses with search engines like Google's My Business Accounts

Conclusion

The number of people who have internet access is at an all-time high, and as a contractor, you need to be online. Click below to schedule your free marketing analysis and see why contractor SEO works!

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