SEO Strategy for Contractors

Discover how to get your home services business ranked on Page One for your most important keywords. Take a look at the video below:

Getting your home services company listed in the organic (non-paid-listings) section of the search engines comes down to two core factors:

• It is important to have the proper on-page optimization so that Google knows what you do and the area you serve, so that it can put it in the index for the right keywords. You do this by having pages for each of your services and then optimizing them for specific keyword combinations (Ex. your city + main service, your city + service 2, your city + service 3, etc.).
• You must create enough authority and transparency so that Google ranks you on page one (rather than page ten) for those specific keywords. Ultimately, it comes down to having credible inbound links and citations from other websites to your website. He who has the most credible inbound links, citations and reviews, wins.

On my post about how to setup your website, I provided you with specific how-to information on exactly what pages to add to your home services website (and why), and what you can do to improve your authority/transparency in Google’s eyes. This is so that your website ranks on page one for the keywords that are most important to your business.

Before you start creating pages and trying to do the "on-page optimization" work, you need to be clear on the most commonly searched keywords relative to your service. By understanding the keywords, you can be sure you optimized for the words that will actually drive qualified traffic to your site. Our team has its due diligence and developed the following list of the most commonly searched keywords for plumbing, roofing, HVAC, landscaping, pest control, kitchen remodeling, and pool construction. They are listed in the "most commonly searched keywords" section on our website.

If you happen to be outside of these industries or want to learn the methodology behind selecting these keywords for yourself, click here to read our post on how to conduct keyword research to determine the most commonly searched keywords relevant to your services.

How to map out the pages that should be included on your website for maximum result.

Now that you have done your homework and determined the most commonly searched keywords in your area, you can start to map out the pages that you should add to your website.

Keep in mind that each page on your website can only be optimized for 1-2 keyword combinations. If you came up with 25 keywords then you are going to need at least 12 – 15 pages.

You need to be sure you have each keyword mapped to a specific page on your site.

So, for a roofing company you might come up with the following keywords:

Roofer, Roofing, Roofing Contractor, Roof Repair Commercial Roofing Contractor

Now that you have mapped out the pages that need to be added to your website, you can start to think about how to optimize each of those pages for the search engine (Google, Yahoo and Bing).

How to optimize your website and pages for ranking in the organic listings on major search engines.

Step 1 – Build out the website and obtain more placeholders on the major search engines.

A typical home services website is has only 5-6 pages (Home – About Us – Our Services – Coupons – Contact Us). That does not create a lot of indexation or placeholders on the major search engines. Most contractors provide a wide variety of services. By building out the website and creating separate pages for each of these services (combined with city modifiers), the contractor can get listed on the search engines for each of those different keyword combinations.

Here is an example:

• Home – About – Coupons – Contact Us
• Sub-pages for each service – Miami Emergency Plumber, Miami Leak Detection, Miami Toilet Repair, Miami Water Heater Installation, Miami Tankless Water Heater, etc.

They often provide services to a large number of cities outside of the city in which the business resides. In order to be found on the major search engines for EACH of those sub cities, additional pages need to be created:

• Sub-pages for each sub city serviced – Kendall Plumber, Doral Plumber, Homestead Plumber, etc.

Step 2 – Optimize Pages for search engines:

Once the pages are built for each of your core services and sub-pages, each of the pages need to be optimized from an SEO perspective so that the search engines understand what the page is about and list you for those words. Here are some of the most important items that need to be taken care of for on-page search engine optimization:

• Unique title tag on each page
• H1 tag re-stating that title tag on each page
• Images named with primary keywords
• URL should contain page keyword
• Anchor text on each page and built into the footer  – Miami Plumber
• XML sitemap should be created and submitted to Google Webmaster Tools and Bing Webmaster Tools

How to build up the authority of your website so that you can rank on page one for your most important keywords.

Once the pages are built out and the “on-page” SEO is complete, the next step is getting inbound links. Everything we have done to this point is sort of like laying the ground work; you have to have the pages in order to  be in the running. But, but it is the number of QUALITY inbound links and web reference to those pages that is going to determine placement.

30% of SEO is On-Page type work.
The other 70% is Link Building

Building out the pages is just the beginning. The only way to get your site to rank above your competition is by having MORE quality inbound links and citations to your site.

He Who Has The MOST Quality Inbound Links, WINS!

Again, if there's any secret sauce to ranking well in the search engines, it  is links and authority. The major caveat however, is that you can't just create garbage links. You don't want to just have a thousand links. When I say links, I'm talking about other websites hyperlinking to your website.

The latest algorithm changes involve Google Panda and Google Penguin. Google is trying to prevent spam. A lot of internet marketers and SEO specialists realize it's all about the links. That's what the Google algorithm was built upon. They figured out ways just to get a bunch of links with random anchor text pointed back to the pages that they want to have ranked. Those links weren't relevant and from websites that really don't add any value to the internet, and Google has recognized that.

If you have bad or irrelevant links it can actually hurt your ranking more than help it. It's about getting quality relevant links back to your home page and sub-pages, through content creation and really strategic link building that will help you outrank your competition. How do you get the links? Where do you get the links? Take a look at the visual below as a reference point. I call this my circle of linking opportunities:

1. Association Links – Be sure that you have a link to your site from any industry associations that you belong to (Plumbing association, Chamber of Commerce, Networking Groups, etc.).
2. Directory Listings – Get your site listed on as many directory type listings as possible (Angie's List, Yahoo Local Directory, Judy’s Book, Yelp.com, etc.).
3. Create interesting content/articles about your industry. This is probably the #1 source of inbound links because you can write an article and push it out to thousands to article directory sites each containing a link back to a specific page on your site.
4. Competitive Link Acquisition – this is the process of using tools like Raven Tools, SEO Book and others to see what links your top competitors have, and then get those same or similar links pointed back to your website.

Directory Links - There's a number of what I like to call "low-hanging fruit," links. It all starts with your online directory listings. Some  examples include  Google Maps, Yahoo Local, City Search, Yelp.com, Judy's Book, Best of the Web, Yellow Pages, Hot Frog, eLocal Plumber, Service Magic, and the list goes on. All of these online listings  let you list your company name, address, phone number and a link back to your website. Some of them even allow reviews.

For the most part, you can have yourself added to those directories completely free of charge, entering your company's name, address, phone number, description, and of course, a link back to your website. They create some authoritative links back to your company. You want to make sure that you have your company listed on those online directory listings.

They're also valuable from a Google Maps optimization perspective because they give you citations, which are very important for getting ranked on the map. A great way to find additional online directories to add your company to would be to run a search on Google for “your company type – business directory,” or “your city – business directory”. This will give you a great list of potential directory sites to add your company to. There are also tools for this such as BrightLocal or White Spark that will provide you with a list of directory sources based on your industry. That's where you want to start, your online directory listings. From there, you want to look at any associations that you're involved with.

Association Links – In the visual, I reference PHCC and QSC. I'm assuming you are involved in some type of association, whether it is the national industry association, the local chapter or some other group affiliation. Visit the websites of those organizations and get listed in the member section. This will give you citations and the opportunity to link back to your website.

Affiliated industries and local businesses that are non-competitive - You can work with colleagues that have affiliated industry type businesses. If you're in plumbing, go to the HVAC contractors in your area and ask if they will post a link to your website on their own site and vice versa. Utilizing your resources and teaming up with relevant companies will add more authority to your domain.

Supplier Sites - The next thing you could look at is the suppliers that you purchase from. If you are a regular customer at American Standard, Moen or if you've got a co?op agreement with Bryant or some other manufacturer, try to coordinate a deal with them. Oftentimes, the places where you buy your merchandise will have a section on their website that mentions their value add resellers. You can get a link from those.

Social Media Profile Links - The other “low?hanging fruit” links are social media profiles. We have a whole chapter about the power of social media and how you can harness it to get repeat and referral business. Simply from a link?building perspective, you should set up a Facebook page, Twitter account, LinkedIn profile, Google Plus page, Pinterest profile and a You Tube channel and place a link to your website on each. Each one of them will allow you to enter your company's name, address, phone number a description and, of course, a place to put your website address.

Local Association -  Other local associations that you're involved in. If you're a member of the Chamber of Commerce, a networking group like BNI (Business Networking International), or if you're involved with a local charity, find out if they list their members on their websites. Another great place to get links is by typing in your city directory.

Competitive Link Acquisition - You might be surprised that if you really tackle these elements and you don't do any of the other things we have discussed, you will notice that you've probably got enough links to outrank your competition in your area. I want to share some additional thoughts and strategies on how you can accomplish even more from a link building perspective. A very powerful strategy that you can implement is called Competitive Link Acquisition.

The way I like to think of it is that if quantity inbound links are the secret sauce to outranking your competition, and if we could figure out who's linking to your competition or what links your competition have, and we can get those same or similar links pointed back to your website, then you can outrank them, because you'll at that point have more authority. Competitive link acquisition is the process of figuring out who is in the top position for your most important keywords, reverse engineering their link profile to see what links they have, and getting those same or similar links pointed back to your website. A simple way to do this is just to go to Google.com and type in "your city + your service," and find out who is in the top few positions. Let's take a look at the number one placeholder. He's there because his website is optimized well and Google knows that he should be ranked well based on the quality and quantity inbound links compared to the competition.

Once you know who he is, you can use a couple of different tools such as Raven Tools, Majestic SEO, Back Link Watch, etc., and you can take their URL, input it into your tool of choice, run the report, and get a list of links in return.

So, your number one competitor is competitor.com. Google spits out a list showing that they have 392 inbound links.

• He's got a link from the local Chamber of Commerce.
• He's got a link from the PHCC.
• He's got a link from an article that he posted in the local newspaper.
• He's got a link from the local networking chapter.

By analyzing the types of links that he has, you can systematically mimic those links and get them pointed back to your website.

Don’t just do this for your first competitor, but also for your second and third and fourth and fifth competitors. By doing that on a consistent basis, you can start to dominate the search engines for your most important keywords.

If you build out your site for your services and sub-services, optimize the pages using SEO best practices and then systematically obtain inbound links,you will start to DOMINATE the search engines for the plumbing related keywords in your area.

Content marketing strategies for maintaining relevance in your market

Another highly important factor in SEO is relevant ongoing updates to your website. In the internet age, content is king.

Google loves fresh content. In some cases, with the changes in the algorithm, just because you've got a great website with the right title tags and all the best links, you may get discounted if they're not seeing fresh information posted on a consistent basis. It is important to have a methodology where you are creating and posting content to your website on a regular basis. I want to give you a framework for figuring out what kind of content you could write, why you should create content, and how you can do it consistently.

First, you need to understand and accept that you need to become a subject matter expert. You might not consider yourself a writer or a content creator, but you are a subject matter expert.

There are things that you know that the general population does not. You're a plumber, a roofer, a pool builder and you have a team of people that are experts in this area as well. You can create content on the topic that you know most about.

You can write about the differences between tank and tankless water heaters, why you would want to consider trenchless versus a regular project, or the differences between copper and PCB piping. There are a lot of different topics you can come up with that you can create content about.

You should also consider that content doesn't have to be just written words. It's doesn’t have to be just articles. Content can come in a variety of forms. The most popular are going to be articles, photos, videos and audio files. Stop and think about what content creation method works best for you.

Some people are great writers and that's their strength. Other people like to be on camera. I personally  like to create videos. I'm very comfortable creating videos.

Other people can talk, and they can talk your ear off about whatever topic they are passionate about. You can create content in many different ways. Because it is what I enjoy, I'll use video as an example. A contractor can set up a camera and record himself explaining the differences between using a tank and going tankless in the same manner that he would explain it to a customer.

Now you'll actually have multiple pieces of content. You'll have a video, which can be uploaded to You Tube, Vimeo, Meta Café, etc. That one piece of content can create multiple invaluable links to your website.

You can also take that video, save the audio portion of it, and you've got an audio clip. You can upload that audio file to your website and post on other various sites. You can use a transcription service like Castingwords.com, for instance, where you upload the audio or video file and somebody converts it to text. For a couple of bucks, you'll have a complete article comprised of what you said. Now you've got a piece of content you can post to your blog. You can put it on eHow or one of those other article directory sites.

You want to create content on a consistent basis, using the blog on your website as the hub to post it, but then syndicating it to various sources. Syndicating it to article directory sites if it's in text form, and sending it to video sites like Vimeo, Metacafe and YouTube.com if it's in video form. Doing this keeps the content fresh on your website/domain and creates a lot of authority, which is really going to help with the overall ranking of the website on the search engines.

You want to make sure you're appropriating each one of these link-building opportunities to maximize your rank-potential in your area. You might be surprised that contracting and home services are highly competitive from a SEO perspective. There are a lot of contractors that want to rank for the same keywords, and many of them have invested heavily in the internet and in getting themselves higher in the search engines.

Now that you've built out your website, you've optimized it correctly, and you've got an ongoing link-building and content development strategy in place, you want to start looking at Google Maps Optimization and geting ranked on the Google Map.

Would you like to get your hands on a FREE video training that will help you setup your internet marketing plan for your contracting or home services business? Enter your contact information below and I will send you a free video training and copy of our internet marketing guide: