Today, in order to be successful in your industry as a contractor, it is crucial that you establish an online presence. But the problem is all too often, many contractors think that all they need to do is to have a business website, and that is one of the biggest mistakes you can make. While having a site is also important, you need to understand that your work does not just stop there. You need to optimize your website so that you can generate leads and be able to convert these leads into customers later on. This is where you will be making use of the so-called SEO or search engine optimization.
SEO is what will get your website to land on the top ranks on the search results because it helps the search engines understand the relevance of your site. It means that when people search for your services, they will easily find you because you appear at the top of the results. Here are some of the website optimization techniques you can use if you want your business to reach the right people.
1. Analyze your website.
The very first and one of the most important steps you need to take to optimize your website is to analyze it. You need to take a close look at it to determine if there is anything that needs to be changed. Your analysis should cover everything from the content to the overall cosmetics of the site. You should be clear on the goals and objectives that you want to accomplish with your site to get the results that you want. So for example, as a contractor, you specialize in home remodeling and home improvement services. Therefore, your content should be relevant and should revolve around all the information pertaining to home upgrades and remodeling projects so that you can attract the right audience or the ones who will need your services.
2. Do a keyword research.
Keyword research is another crucial step in SEO. You need to know the words and phrases that people use when they look for your services in Google and in other search engines. As soon as you determine the most common keywords used, your content should be built around these keywords. To make it easier for you to identify the terms, you can use Google Keyword Planner so that you can get more relevant keywords for your construction business.
3. Create compelling content with your keywords in consideration.
Posting content on a regular basis will help you get higher ranks in the Google search results. Your content will even become more effective when you keep your keywords in mind because your ultimate goal for your content creation is to reach the people who need it the most. Your content should be something that will be relevant and useful to your target audience, and your keywords will be the ones that will serve as your guide when you try to come up with your topic ideas. For example, you found out that many people are typing in kitchen remodeling when looking for contractors. Some of your content may discuss topics about kitchen remodeling so as to lead them to your website.
4. Speed up loading of your website.
How fast your website loads up to create a significant impact on your rankings. Currently, Google is already penalizing slow running websites, that’s why you need to make sure that your pages load up quickly. For example, when you upload your videos and images, make sure that they are optimized so that they don’t cause the page to run slow.
5. Include meta and title tags.
Placing a title tag at the top of each of your site’s pages will identify the content of the entire document. You also need to be accurate when you write your meta description tag because search engines use this when they describe a website in the search results. While meta tags are not the best answers to SEO, they can still help index your pages. Just make sure to keep it short and direct to the point. You can also incorporate some of the keywords in your description if you make sure that they are relevant.
6. Regularly provide fresh content.
Updating your website on a regular basis will keep your audience interested, and it will also keep them coming back to your site. Aside from driving more traffic to your site, fresh content can also help you get to higher search engine rankings especially when you post blogs regularly. Google loves blogs so feel free to update your site with new, yet quality and relevant blogs that your audience will be interested to read. Just don’t forget that when you create content, they should address and answer your reader’s issues and questions.
These are some of the techniques you can employ to your SEO strategy. You may try all of them or just try some, but the most important thing is that you evaluate the results of your efforts to determine what works for you as a contractor and what does not. It might take a lot of time and effort to find ultimate success but it can be done, and you can make it happen.
