Searching online for businesses, services, and products has become the norm. This is no different when it comes to finding a reliable builder or tradesperson, whether that be for residential or commercial. Implementing SEO helps you appear for search terms related to your business, such as ‘How much does a house extension cost?’, increase the number of visitors to your website, and (most importantly) improve your ROI by gaining more relevant enquiries and high-revenue bookings.
If more high-quality jobs, more clicks to your website, and better visibility in your local area are what you’re looking for, keep reading to find out how to implement SEO for builders and other tradespeople in the construction industry.
Why SEO is Important in the Construction Industry
Relying on word-of-mouth marketing and customer referrals can only get your business so far. If you want to land big contracts, reach high-profile clients, and appear in local searches for your area, SEO is the solution.
With SEO, you can position your business in front of the people who are searching for builders, contractors, or tradespeople for their projects – both residential and commercial. By targeting keywords around your speciality, such as groundworks, roofing, or civil engineering, search engines will understand your business more clearly, allowing your website to rank for relevant search terms and reach the right audience.
How To Implement SEO
SEO is not just one singular strategy; it is a combination of different methods that all work together to reach your business goals. The strategies chosen will also depend on the outcome you want to achieve. For example, if your primary goal is to appear in front of local customers, then local SEO would perform the best. Or, if you want to drive enquiries to a specific service page, such as homebuilders, then a targeted keyword approach and a thorough optimisation of the service page would be the route to go down.
These strategies may require someone with a deeper understanding of SEO, like a dedicated SEO agency. However, below, we have listed a few SEO starting points you can begin with.
Optimise Your Google Business Profile (GBP)
One of the best starting points is focusing on improving your local SEO efforts. This strategy ensures that you are reaching people in your area (or the areas that you serve) rather than reaching locations you do not. One way to help do this is through your GBP.
If you don’t already have a GBP, you should create one. This is a vital step for people finding your business on Google Maps, seeing and receiving customer reviews, and signalling to Google the location(s) where you provide services. Once you’ve set this up, you need to ensure you fill out all the information, such as location, opening times, and the name of your business, as well as filling out the “services” section so people can gain a snapshot of the construction services you offer.
Filling out all the information helps Google not only understand where you are based but also to build a virtual profile of your business, which will help when it comes to trying to rank in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). Ensure that your business information is consistent across your website, GBP, and anywhere else you are listed, and don’t forget to keep posting! Keeping your GBP regularly updated with images from recent construction projects, or even new services or industry news, shows that you are an active user, which Google favours.
Create Dedicated Service Pages
You want people (and SERPs) to understand exactly what your business offers. For example, if you are a home builder, you want to make it obvious that you do residential builds only. Attracting people looking for commercial or industrial builders will not help you to secure jobs or lead to enquiries, as they aren’t looking for what you offer. By choosing target services (the top priority service(s) you want to push/already delivers the best ROI) and creating a page dedicated to the service, you are doing numerous things at once:
- Targeting keywords associated with what you offer: This will signal to SERPs the types of services you offer, such as renovation services or commercial bricklayers, giving your site a higher chance to show in the results pages when customers are searching for answers/looking to enquire.
- Creating trust and relevance signals: Being able to accurately answer questions that potential customers are searching for creates trust signals in your brand and allows Google to see you as an authoritative voice in your industry. When you create a service page, you place information about the service you provide on your website, which in turn provides customers with some of the answers they seek, and allows SERPs to rank you accordingly.
- Boosting your local SEO efforts: This only works if you state where you provide your services within the content of your page. For example, if you only work in the Sheffield area, having a service page for ‘Sheffield Door Installations’ will not only signal to the SERPs that you install doors, but that the area you service is Sheffield. This will also link up accurately with the location on your GBP, further improving your local SEO.
Once you attract the right people to your website, and you have the type of information they are looking for, customers will be more likely to stick around, and ultimately, lead to a conversion such as job bookings and enquiries.
Gain Reviews & Display Accreditations
As someone in the construction industry, you more than likely have a few accreditations under your belt. If you’re a CHAS accredited contractor, a member of Constructionline, or have other certifications, such as holding a CSCS card, ideally, you should display this on your website. This is a quick and easy way to show that you comply with regulations and are a trustworthy company when it comes to your services. Place a banner or a small section on your homepage and services pages as a gentle reminder to visitors that you are a trustworthy and certified business.
Reviews are another quality way to prove the skills of your business and increase customer trust. Try to aim for at least one new review per week, and keep this consistent. This shows Google and potential customers that not only are you an active business, but that others have had a pleasant experience using your services. To make this goal easier to achieve, follow up when a job has been completed and send them an easy-to-access link that takes them to the location you wish them to leave a review, e.g Google, Trustpilot, etc.
Ensure you answer all reviews too. Not just the good ones! Take the time to thank people for leaving reviews, and try to make your responses as personalised as possible. We suggest putting aside an hour or two every week to sit down and craft your replies. You should especially respond to negative reviews as this shows you are proactive and care enough to make things right – remember, when customers do their research, they look at negative reviews too.
Create Project Galleries & Case Studies
Visuals are always a great way to gain people’s attention. By creating a project gallery that showcases past projects you’ve worked on, not only can you provide a visual aid to the content on your site, but you can provide visual evidence of your work, creating an easy trust signal. Think of before-and-after photos of a home renovation, or an image slider that shows the construction plans and the finished piece; whatever project you work on, snap a photo of it. Ensure that the images are of high quality and showcase your work to its best ability, and then upload them to your site for your dedicated project gallery.
Placing case studies on your site, alongside relevant imagery, is another great way to prove the quality of your work and deliver insight into how you approach a project. Plus, if you have worked on commercial projects, linking to the business or institution you completed the project for can lead to a strong backlink (a well-established and authoritative brand, linking back to your site).
Both project galleries and case studies are ways to boost the Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) of your website. The better your E-E-A-T, the more likely Google will favour your business over others when looking to rank you in the SERPs accordingly. If you show further up the page in SERPs, this can lead to more website clicks, and ultimately more leads.
Improve Your Technical SEO
Technical SEO is important for improving the overall health of your website. When done correctly, it can improve your site speed, ensure all pages are indexed correctly, create a website that’s easy to navigate, and more. This is essential for keeping customers on your website, providing them with the right information, and allowing them to make quick bookings, enquiries, or orders. If your website doesn’t work the way it should, people won’t stick around.
Admittedly, there may be some parts of technical SEO that require an SEO expert, such as implementing schema or creating a sitemap, but there are some things you can make a start on.
- Make large image sizes smaller: If you have multiple large images across your site that have a high file size, these are more than likely slowing your site down. Use an image compressor to keep the quality of the image but reduce the file size. This way, your image of the construction project you worked on will still be clear enough to view on all types of screens.
- Ensure all your links work: All your internal and external links to and from your website should lead somewhere. For example, if you have a button that states “click for a quote”, this should lead to a page or form where they can request a quote for your services. Not only does this make life easier for the users of your site, but it will allow Google to crawl and index your site much more easily. If you have broken links that lead to 404 error pages, or even accidental duplicated pages, try to redirect them to the correct or relevant page to stop users from leaving the site and to stop your website from cannibalising itself.
- Create clear call to action buttons: Customers don’t want to scroll through pages upon pages of text to find a way to contact you or get a quote – especially if they are looking to gain a quick answer or price regarding your services. Place easy to spot call to action buttons, such as ‘get a free quote’ or ‘contact us’ throughout the content on your site. We also recommend building a contact us page which sits in both your navigation bar and footer, and crafting a quick and easy form that can be used across multiple pages. Try to keep the requirements on the form to a minimum so a business owner who is looking for an office renovation can fill out your form while on the go, etc.
- Optimise for mobile: Double-check that contact forms work on mobile, that essential buttons such as ‘call now’ are still clickable, and that browsing and placing an order is just as easy on a smaller screen as it is on a large one. This will keep people invested in your site longer, and should ultimately result in more sales and enquiries, especially from busy, on-the-go contractors.
Other SEO Strategies Worth Mentioning
Below are other SEO strategies that are important for all construction sectors, and can boost your online visibility and revenue with the help of an SEO specialist.
On-Page/Content SEO
Let search engines know that you’re an expert in your field through high-quality content SEO. This is where you target specific and relevant keywords that match your niche, services, and how you can help customers, so that your site will show up in the search results and reach the right type of audience. For example, answering questions such as ‘How long does it take to build an extension?’ through detailed blogs and FAQs on your site can help you to rank for the right terms and attract the right customers.
When you reach the right people, you’re more likely to see results in the form of enquiries, bookings, and sales, as they are already searching for what you offer.
Technical SEO
As mentioned above, some technical SEO tasks will require an SEO expert. If you’re not confident with the back end of your site, using Google Tag Manager, or you’re unsure how to read the results displayed through Google Analytics, a dedicated SEO agency might be the better option.
Digital PR
Digital PR is one of the best ways to get in front of the right people and earn high-quality backlinks to your website. A feature on your business or a service you offer that links back to your site can introduce you to people who are already interested in what you do. These people are more likely to convert into a lead. For example, appearing in a publication that is dedicated to news and updates in the construction industry, such as Construction News, can not only improve your E-E-A-T, but will get your business in front of the right type of people; the ones interested in all things construction.
SEO Checklist for Builders
It can be hard to remember everything when trying to implement SEO for your construction business. Some things are more important than others, but we’ve put together an easy checklist for you to follow to help you on your way.
Ready for The Next Step?
If you’ve already implemented SEO to the best of your ability, or maybe you don’t have the time or knowledge to do it yourself, it could be time to bring on board an SEO specialist.
Here at Wildcat Digital, we are an SEO agency with years of experience helping construction companies, builders, and tradespeople reach their online goals, whether that be to gain bookings from local customers, secure high-earning commercial contracts, or improve their online visibility through dedicated service pages. We understand the industry and know that every SEO strategy is different from the last – what might work for a homebuilder might not be the best course of action for an industrial construction company. That’s why we tailor our services to you and the outcome you wish to achieve.
See how we can help you, or reach out today with any questions you may have.
