Categories
Search Engine Optimization Website Design

How To Get Your Contracting Business On The First Page Of Google

Search Engine Optimization

How Google and other search engines work.
First things first. Google is not the whole internet. Google is a directory of discovered website links that it algorithmically ranks in order of perceived relevance and trustworthiness.
Just because your site doesn’t show up on Google doesn’t mean it’s not accessible. Your website may be live and have great content, but unless it is structured in the right way it may never rank for the terms your customer is searching for.

Google works like this: They have automated searchers running 24/7 that discover and follow links on websites to discover other websites, then they store that information in their database and assign a ranking value to each link depending on its authority score. Google then uses this data to determine which websites are most relevant to a searcher’s keywords, which is then displayed in order of importance and relevance. The resulting list of sites is known as a Search Engine Results Page (SERP).

So, now that we have a broad understanding of how their algorithm works, how do we improve our site pages so that Google ranks them higher than our competitors?

Establish Your Baseline

lighthouse seo performance We create high-performing websites for the construction industry.
1. Check your site speed

Your website should load quickly on all devices. Time to Load is a critical ranking factor in Google’s algorithm.
Website speed has a considerable effect on conversion rates. Studies have shown that fast page speed results in better conversion rates.
Pages that loaded in less than 2.5 seconds had a 1.9% conversion rate, but at 3.3 seconds, the conversion rate was only 1.5%.
Now that may seem like a small delta, but if you consider that it means that you will get a 27% higher client conversion rate (1.5% vs 1.9%), which ends up as a big difference on your bottom line.
Nobody likes to wait several seconds for any website to load, so most people exit out of a page if it’s taking too long.
You can conduct a free page speed test on Google’s Page Speed Insights or use the free tool GTmetrix to test your website page speed, page health, and find optimization opportunities.

2. Check your site health

After you have analyzed your page’s speed, assess the overall health of your site to see which factors are most important.

There are lots of great and free tools to identify opportunities for health and speed improvements.

  • MxToolBox Domain Health Report: Free tool to check for multiple major site issues.
  • Pingdom.com: Enter your URL to test the page load time, analyze it, and find bottlenecks and improvements.
  • KeyCDN Tools: The KeyCDN Speed Test tool can be used to evaluate the health and speed of your website to see where improvements can be made.
3. Assess your current Google ranking

To measure the effects of your modifications and improvements, establish a baseline of your ranking and save the information for future comparison.

Use tools like TheHoth SEO Ranking Checker to see how you are ranking for search terms and which are currently leading to the most traffic.

Long-Tail Keywords

Long tail keywords are 3-5 keyword phrases which are very specific to the service or product you are offering. Specific and long-tail keywords are easier to rank for and tend to match better with your intended customers.

1. Pick 3-4 long-tail keywords to own

The most valuable keyword strategy for producing more leads is to focus on long-tail transactional keywords. Transactional keywords are the search terms a person uses when they are looking to purchase something.
Informational keywords are usually searched by people that want information, and are not ready or looking to purchase anything.

Example: A person that is looking for information on how to install light fixtures may search “how to install kitchen spotlights”, while a person looking for a contractor to do the work may search “kitchen spotlight installer” or “light fixture electrician”.

Creating and ranking for informational posts are great for building authority and driving traffic, but they are not high-converting resources.
On the other hand, ranking for transactional keywords is valuable because the searcher has already decided that they are ready to purchase. They just need to find the right contractor (you!).

Keywords that have the words below as a prefix or suffix to the rest of the keyword phrase indicate a searchers buying readiness:

  • Buy
  • Review
  • Order
  • Purchase
  • Shipping
2. Review competitor analysis

If your competitors are ranking higher than you in search results, you can find out why and by how much they are outranking you.
Seeing what your competitors are ranking for is a great opportunity to find keywords missing on your site, and which keywords they are ranking for that you can target.

2021 05 12 05 59 10 SpyFu SEO and PPC Competitor Keyword Research Tools ericsson.com We create high-performing websites for the construction industry.

Use a tool like SpyFu’s Competitor Analysis or UberSuggest to learn more about your competitor’s ranking.

3. Analyze and decide on your keyword strategy

Once you have identified your highest value keywords, start planning your content around them and strategizing on how that content can convert into a paying customer.

Identify your main keywords by doing keyword research in a tool like UberSuggest.
Prioritize keywords by their potential, because you will generate thousands of keywords. You have to be selective about what you want to rank for and decide which are most important to you and your business.

It’s critical that visitors to your site can do two things as soon as they land: know what the page is about, and easily find the information they are looking for.
These are indicators to search engines that your page is meeting the searchers intent, which boosts your rank higher and drives more traffic.

4. Plan your content based on the highest-value keywords and tailor your content to those keywords

The best content is useful content that is shareable and easily digested. Optimize for informational as well as transactional keywords and improve your search ranking by writing resourceful and detailed content that helps the searcher in their search intent.

After you have optimized your content for your chosen keywords, you can return to tools like SpyFu’s Competitor Analysis and UberSuggest to see how your new content is affecting your page ranking. Please bear in mind that search engine optimization and ranking take time, and older content is valued more than newer content. You can expect to see improvements in your ranking typically 3-6 months from your publishing date. These timeframes are accelerated by social sharing, traffic, and backlinks.

5. Generate content that is useful and captivating

The main content marketing strategy today is writing useful blog posts for your potential customer, but there are multiple types of content you can have on your website.

Some of these are:

  • Blog posts, informational (how-to) or transactional (leading to a sale).
  • Product page (a page about your products)
  • Category page (a page showing multiple products or services)
  • Landing page (a page pitching a product or service)
6. Optimize your pages

If you have multiple products, services, or client types (also known as buyer personas), you should have separate landing pages and service pages for them. What may appeal to one client may not be relevant to another.
These pages should have different keywords that are tailored to their needs.
Having content that aligns with search intent is the first step, but your pages also need to be deserving of a place on the first page, where Google shows the most relevant and useful results.
After analyzing your client’s search intent, you should know what information they are looking for and how to provide useful answers.

Backlinks

Backlinks are considered the most important factor in having a high-ranking website. Backlinks are essentially “votes” from reputable sites. If you have more votes than your competitors, you will usually rank higher than them in search results when the search intent and keyword matching are the same.

1. Complete competitor analysis and find backlink opportunities

2021 05 12 06 26 57 Backlink Checker A Free tool to check backlink We create high-performing websites for the construction industry.

You can use a free tool like SmallSEOTools Backlink Checker to find which sites link to the one you’re interested in.
The backlink checker should list the domain rating of the linking site, which is an estimate of the score that Google would assign to the link. The higher the score, the more valuable the link.

2. Find the most valuable backlinks and strategize how to get linked

The more high-quality backlinks you have, the higher your odds of ranking among the first few search results.
So how many backlinks do you need?
There’s no exact number to reach, as not all backlinks are equal. Having links from industry-specific and high-authority sites like associations, chambers, and suppliers is the best strategy.
Some backlinks can be considered “toxic” if the linking domain has been flagged for spam or “black-hat” practices.

3. Add internal site links

Internal site links are a great way of leading your customer around your site, and it provides a useful map to search engines on how your pages are related.

Google’s crawler follows links throughout the internet to find and index websites. If your website has proper internal linking, the crawler has an easier time finding the new content that you create and link to. As a result, indexation happens faster, and your content is rewarded by improved search engine rankings.

4. Review potentially toxic backlinks and remove them

There are backlinks that are considered being bad for search ranking, or ‘toxic’.
These links come from spammy sites or are gained by trying to game the search engine algorithm.

From Google’s Quality Guidelines:

Any links intended to manipulate PageRank or a site’s ranking in Google search results may be considered part of a link scheme and a violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. This includes any behavior that manipulates links to your site or outgoing links from your site.

Use Google’s Disavow Links guide to remove toxic backlinks from your search ranking.

Content

Content ages like fine wine. The longer your content has been active and shared, the more valuable it will be when it comes to your search ranking. Research from Oracle reveals that on a per dollar spent bases, content marketing generates more ROI than paid search ads, so for the startup company it makes sense for the owners to generate their own content, and for larger teams it makes sense to have someone in-house.

1. Define the purpose of your content

Smart marketing isn’t just about being a good writer, speaker, or media generator. It’s about being strategic about your production and understanding your buyer personas. Knowing exactly what your desired outcome is from an article is the first step to producing content.

Is it to generate brand recognition and industry authority? Or specifically to generate leads for a service or product in your business?

Your ability to take a piece of published content and get it to thousands of readers, within a specified time frame, will determine your success. Your readers will find you with an effective long-tail search, ideally in an organic way.

2. Focus your articles on data

If you back up your content with accurate data, people will see your content as more authoritative and will possibly share it on social media, thereby expanding your organic reach.

Essential to a successful content marketing strategy, which will produce accurate, high-conversion traffic is the creation of relevant, true, and quality content.

3. Tell a story

Your content should ideally connect with your audience’s pain points. perhaps you begin the introduction by describing the pain or questions that your customer is experiencing or asking.

It’s generally accepted that short content has a harder time ranking over a page with more substantial content, so you’ll want to have a content length of at least 400-500 words.

Use story telling to guide your audience from point to point.

4. Write a captivating headline

Google has made a lot of changes to their search algorithm, but one element has stuck around: the headline.
Writing a killer headline for your content is one of the most important factors in getting your customers attention, and getting them to share it with their network.
Even if you are ranking first for your desired keywords, it’s the headline that converts a view to a click. Clicks lead to sales.
The key to writing a captivating headline is to invoke curiosity. Curiosity is what makes your customers click on your headline before moving further down the search result list.
Some tips for creating a captivating headline include:

  • Know your audience. 
  • Add numbers to your headlines. “5 Ideas To Remodel Your Kitchen” is better than “Ideas to Remodel Your Kitchen”.
  • Ask questions. Use what, why, how, or when.
  • Create a knowledge vacuum (combined with numbers). “These Are The 5 Best Ways To Remodel Your Kitchen”
5. Use numbers, images, and multimedia to illustrate your point

Written content is important, but it’s not for everyone. If you find a medium that works well for you, try to specialize and excel in it.
Some people can’t or won’t write, but they do well in speaking engagements and interviews. Perhaps podcasting or videos are the way forward for them.

Here’s a list of possible mediums for content creation:

  • Helpful Informational Videos
  • Guides, How-to’s
  • Infographics (great for social media)
  • Checklists
  • Webinars and Demos
  • Podcasts

Ads

Google Ads are the linked text ads that show up at the top and bottom of Google’s search results pages.
Google’s search results are like real estate, you can either own (by having great SEO optimized pages) or rent (by buying ads).

1. Understand what Ads are and when they are appropriate.

Google Ads are great for lead generation and for converting transactional searchers, but not, in my opinion, very valuable for informational content or building brand recognition.

Contractors typically use Google Ads to get new customers, but there’s another audience that could see your ads and help grow your business. Industry partners.

Construction companies rarely provide every solution that their customer requires. For example, you are a mid-size general contractor doing work for a local development firm. That development firm also needs services for engineering, permitting, legal services, and surveying. Companies offer those complementary services are potential partners.

2. Understand how Pay-Per-Click (PPC) works and how to structure your ad.

Also known as cost per click (CPC), PPC is a method that Google charges based on the number of times a searcher clicks on an ad.
Another metric is cost per thousand (CPM), which is the number of views in thousands, regardless of whether the view results in a click.
If you’re just getting started with your business, ads are a great way to generate traffic and sales quickly. You can give your site an immediate boost as you wait for your organic ranking to increase. This makes Google Ads an appealing strategy for new businesses to acquire leads and grow sales while building their content strategy.

Conclusion

From my personal experience, it’s easiest to integrate construction-related long-tail keywords in case studies and project profiles.

This serves two purposes. It creates useful content for both searchers and search engines, and it provides potential buyers with your track record of successful projects.

Search engine optimization is no longer about keyword stuffing or creating useless content. It’s about continually developing your understanding of your customers pain points and needs, then creating high-quality content that will help them.

Following the guidelines in this article will set you on the path to long-term success and organic traffic for your business. Write and speak naturally, as if you’re communicating with your customers one-on-one, and focus on answering the questions they are asking.

Want To Boost Your Business Today?

We help Canada's commercial and industrial construction companies succeed with expert web design, estimating automation, and sales optimization.

Categories
Search Engine Optimization Website Design

3 Market Forces Driving Construction Online

Search Engine Optimization

1. Online payments are becoming the norm

Online payments address one of the worst problems we are facing in the construction industry: Late payments.
In every business, especially construction, where we have fluctuating revenue and upfront project costs, cash flow is king.
If your cash flow is disrupted by multiple non-/late-payments, it could be disastrous for your business. Being unable to fulfill financial obligations, make payroll on time, and fund vital parts of your growth, can be the start of a downward spiral that is difficult or impossible to recover from.

In a report by PWC (2019/2020 Working Capital Report), PWC outlines that it took an average of 83 days for a contractor to get paid.
According to Glen Anderson, vice-president of Finance and Administration for Buildings at Edmonton-based PCL Construction, not all late-payments are for the same reasons, and it hits the subcontractors the hardest.

“GCs have historically had a very heavy hand to get their way with subcontractors.
To give you an example, a contractor may withhold a million dollar payment on a subcontractor for a $50,000 issue just to get their attention. But that creates immense cash flow issues, and can force smaller businesses into bankruptcy for unfair reasons. So prompt payment is really to add a degree of fairness to the treatment of subcontractors by generals, and also by owners.”

While we won’t be paying off $50,000 invoices with our credit cards any time soon, homeowners are incentivized by rewards, ease-of-use, and deferred payment to pay off their $5,000 painting job or roof repair using their credit card, which allows us to have the funds settled in 1-2 days at a small fee.

A time-value exercise is appropriate here.
What would you prefer?
A. $4,900 tomorrow
B. $5,000 1-3 months from now. (Or the risk of not getting paid at all.)

It makes sense that we are one of the slowest industries to adapt to digitization and technological changes. Everything we build is tangible, in the real world.
This is not a reason for us to stay on this path.

How many hours are lost in your business due to the lacking technological infrastructure to automate the hundreds of repetitive tasks your team is tasked with?
Without automation, invoicing and payment approval wastes dozens of hours in your accountant’s day. Time that could be better spent growing your business. Adopting digital invoicing technology and online payment solutions help streamline your entire process and ensures your cash flow stays strong.

How can I get started with online payments?

There are several ways to start accepting online payments for your services.

Here are three options:
1. Digital Invoices: Most modern ERP and accounting suites have an option for digital payment. All you need to do is enable payments by credit card and connect it to your bank.

2. Stand-alone Payment Gateways: Stripe is our gateway of choice. They have state-of-the-art payment integrations and allow you to create recurring payments (for rentals, subscriptions) and have a host of analytics that will help you optimize your revenue strategy.

3. Online Order Forms: By far the most effective way of gathering leads and converting them to paying customers. Your customer often knows exactly what they are looking for, and a simple calculator on your website will allow them to order your services and pay a deposit or in full.

Stairtower Calculator – True North Scaffold We create high-performing websites for the construction industry.
Scaffold Stairtower Calculator for True North Scaffold + Insulation.

2. Automation is accelerating business and information transfer

The impact of a strong economy on a construction business is two-fold: as business volume increases, so does the need to keep up with the growing demand by hiring more employees, expanding retail and office space, and implementing innovative ways to reduce overhead costs.

Over the past decade, practically every industry has been experiencing fast, unprecedented, and industry-defining change in reaction to mobile devices and the internet, and they all benefited consumers with a reduction in price, increasing ease-of-use, and a better service experience.

For example, look at what Airbnb has done to the hotel and accommodations industry.
Beyond the brilliance of taking a privately-owned, underutilized asset and turning it into a revenue generating asset for the owner, the costs for lodging and accommodation have plummeted for consumers.

Another clear example is what Uber has done in the transportation industry.
They provided automated payments, frictionless and informative ordering, and a cheaper price.
When was the last time you took a Yellow Cab?
As technology evolves, so do the industries that surround us.

The only way to stay ahead of the competition today is to leverage technology to your advantage. Smaller construction companies have an advantage over larger competitors when it comes to adapting to new technology and economic changes. They are more agile and able to adapt to changing market conditions and new technology.

Automate repetitive tasks within your operations using API (Application Programming Interface, how different software communicates) connectors, reduce friction for your customer when it comes to ordering services and payments, and increase your service quality by providing lightning-fast response times and dispute resolution.

What the assembly line did for manufacturing, API’s and automation will do for modern businesses.

How can I automate my operations and prepare for growth?
Here are a few examples that we use in our business:
 

1. Software & Communications Automation: Zapier lets you connect your independent software so that an action in one application triggers and action in another. Zapier has a staggering amount of connections and the possibilities are nearly endless.

2. Website Automation & Digital Forms: Typeform turns clunky PDF forms & surveys into a powerful communication tool for your business. Create forms, surveys, quizzes to communicate with your customers and audience, customize anything, and validate your best ideas with your team and customers.

3. Automate Customer Support Workflow: With Zendesk, you can easily integrate key information from customers, business applications, and backend systems. And that makes it easier to collaborate and resolve customer inquiries quickly.

Construction websites sales automation We create high-performing websites for the construction industry.
This Zapier integration sends me a message whenever a payment is processed in my Stripe account.

 

3. People are going online first to find answers

People are increasingly expecting to control their interaction with businesses through on-demand orders, payments, and scheduling. People are spending more time and money online than ever before, and this trend is increasing.

Why? People love frictionless interactions.

Just about anything can be ordered through an app today. From food, to lawn care, to cleaning services, to mobile auto repair and cars. Why should construction be any different? You may say because of project complexity, or intangibles that are difficult to automate.

We are not going to build a skyscraper through an app anytime soon, but what about having your roof redone? Your house framed, drywalled, and painted? Your condominiums snow removed?
These types of projects are easily estimated and automated, and will be the first to benefit from these new technological tools.

 

How can I best provide the answers my customer is looking for?

1. Map out your customer journey and figure out how to answer their questions to the point that they are ready to order. Every customer takes a similar journey before engaging with your business. Defining what that journey looks like and how you can guide the customer from the time they identify their need, to the time that they agree to your services is essential to eliminating as much friction as possible.

customer experience map

You can use this free template from Bright Vessel.

2. Automate the provision of answers as much as possible, without sacrificing the customers ability to personalize their request. Now that you have your customers journey mapped out, you need to think about which questions they are asking as they are browsing your site. The big three questions are:

Can you solve my problem?

How much will it cost me?

Do I trust you?

3. Provide a service guarantee and make sure your presentation is polished. If you are engaging with potential customers, you will need to answer the trust question before closing the sale. One of the best ways of doing this is by providing a service guarantee, and having your deliverables defined with precision.

Consumer confidence and trust is heavily based on a company’s online presence and how they are presenting themselves.


In 2004, a research group in the UK studied what inspired trust among visitors of websites.
They were trying to understand the impact of web design (layout, branding, user experience) vs. the actual content (articles, verbiage) on the website. What they found was surprising.
When respondents rated a site as distrustful, 94% of participants reported that they distrusted the site due to its poor layout, confusing labels, and other design elements of the site.
On the other hand, only 6% of people in the study reported that their distrust of the site was based on the content and verbiage of the site. This shows that web design is by far the most important factor in establishing trust with your potential customers.

 

Want To Boost Your Business Today?

We help Canada's commercial and industrial construction companies succeed with expert web design, estimating automation, and sales optimization.

Categories
Search Engine Optimization

10 Free Ways to Increase Traffic to Your Construction Website in 2021

10 Free Ways to Increase Traffic to Your Website in 2021

Tips and tricks to get your website ranking higher.

You know what the internet needs?
It’s 2,515,918th article on improving SEO and website conversions.

While I say that tongue-in-cheek, what the internet really needs is an SEO-guide written specifically for construction companies and tradespeople.
I’m going to list 10 ways you can increase your SEO for free, with not a nickel spent, other than some time and writing skills.

1. Use specific landing pages with a clear value proposition

A value proposition is a quick summary that promotes the unique value of your products or services.

Too many companies focus on themselves and get too technical on their services or products. People want to know your solution, not how the sausage is made.
This is why a solid value proposition is at the core of all marketing communication. You are speaking to a person with a problem you can solve.

This is a great example from Everlast Vinyl Fencing in Edmonton, AB:

construction website

Everlast goes straight to the point of addressing the customer’s desire.

YES = “… the perfect fencing style to complement your home and landscape design.”

NO = “… thousands of fencing styles in our inventory.”

YES = “featuring materials that protect against the sun and stay durable against impact.”

NO = “featuring materials that are UV 400 rated and coated with durable polyethylene.”

Three quick tips on creating a strong value proposition:
  • It should explain how your product or service best solves a customer’s problems or needs.
  • It should describe what specific benefits your customer will receive.
  • It should explain why you are the right choice to solve that problem.

2. Improve on-page SEO

First off, what is SEO?
Search Engine Optimization refers to the practice and system of optimizing your web pages to improve a page’s search engine rankings and drive more organic traffic to the site.

Search engine results are like real estate.
You can pay an advertiser like Google to list your company at the top for your desired search terms, and rent that top space, or you can put the work into owning that space by implementing good SEO practices.

A strong SEO strategy is focused on useful content creation, as well as best practices when it comes to site loading speed, social media engagement, and development best practices.

Three quick tips on building your on-page SEO:
  • Test your site speed and optimize deficiencies. Use GTMetrix or PageSpeed Insights by Google
  • Get an in-depth SEO analysis done. Use Moz Free SEO Metrics or SEOptimer
  • Don’t forget to engage with your audience and customers. Frequent posting and engagement with your community is a vital part of building your domain’s authority and trustworthiness.

3. Build backlinks

nW9G4quSDd0AAAAASUVORK5CYII= We create high-performing websites for the construction industry.

What are backlinks?
Backlinks are links from one website to another. Google and other search providers use backlinks as a sort of vote on how trustworthy a site is.
Good sites usually have lots of people linking to them, bad sites usually don’t.

The pages that rank highest in search results are usually the ones with the most backlinks and engagement, especially for high-volume searches.

One best practice is to build links to useful assets. If you want people to link to your page, you need to create or share something useful.
A great asset can be a blog post, guide, useful video, calculator, quiz, etc.

Three quick tips on building more backlinks:
  • Focus on high-quality links (local associations are great) over low-quality but high-quantity links.
    Spammers link to other spammers and will reduce your domain authority.
  • Build more linkable assets such as blogs, tools, and useful content.
  • Search Google for posts in your industry that are already ranking well, and build upon it. Many articles are overview only (like this one) where each category or topic can be expanded and improved.

4. Optimize your Google Business profile

Having a Google My Business page is THE MOST IMPORTANT factor in ranking well in search and getting more customers.

Google’s algorithm for search ranking does not just consider keywords, domain authority, and trustworthiness, but relevant locations with highly optimized profiles.
Optimizing your Google My Business profile is the first thing a business should do when focusing on improving SEO as it allows you to be the first result even when searching for broad keywords like “edmonton electrician”.
Here are a few examples:

THE GOOD
2021 01 30 10 18 49 colz electric Google Search We create high-performing websites for the construction industry.
 
THE BAD
2021 01 30 10 25 33 rite on electric Google Search We create high-performing websites for the construction industry.
THE UGLY
(No GMB profile at all, even when searching for the actual business name)

2021 01 30 10 24 22 taylored electrical services Google Search e1623850317423 We create high-performing websites for the construction industry.

Three quick tips on optimizing your Google My Business Profile:
  • Register your business at Google My Business and add your business information.
  • Start gathering reviews from your customers. Every business should have at least 5 reviews, and a great score is anything above 4.4.
  • Add a Call-to-Action similar to the first screenshot. Do you want customers to contact you before requesting a quote, or can you send them straight to one of your estimating forms?

5. Get social

Links from Social Media do not contribute much to your websites page ranking, but it does one thing better than any other medium. It spreads useful and viral content by incentivizing people to share it with their networks.

People can’t link to content they don’t know about, so you could be creating tremendous value on your site, and no one would ever know.
Someone much wiser than me once said, “It doesn’t matter what you know if nobody knows you know it.”

Three quick tips on engaging with Social Media:
  • Maintain a list of your best-performing content, update it, and share it regularly. Don’t feel bad about sharing old content. Remember that most social shares do not reach the full audience.
  • Don’t treat social media as a chore. Engage with your audience in an active and helpful way, and they will become your biggest fans.
  • Create more partnerships with the industry.
    Consider using your platform to elevate other businesses that you enjoy working with.Your goal here is to build real relationships and useful partnerships with people in your community. It’s not enough to just like every post they share, you need to engage, ask questions, and be useful to them.

6. Create high-quality infographics and imagery

contractor website design We create high-performing websites for the construction industry.

We live at high speed these days, and much can be communicated to our short attention spans with a well-designed infographic.

What is your customer searching for, or what is their unknown unknown? (i.e. what do they not know that they do not know?)

Infographics for home and car maintenance routines have been a home-run. Everyone needs a reminder once in a while to clean their dryer lint trap, replace their furnace filters, and de-ice their freezer.
How does this apply to your industry?

Three quick tips on creating useful imagery:
  • Use a site like Canva to quickly create images that can be directly shared to social media. Small, frequent, and useful images are more effective than once-per-year supermassive infographics.
  • Do something that someone did before, but do it BETTER.
    You don’t have to reinvent the wheel, and you can use existing content to build yours. Just don’t plagiarize.
  • Make sure you tell a story that is interesting and useful to your audience. Random information and statistics about your industry are not engaging unless you are posting to a forum specific to your trade.

7.  Submit your site to search engines

This is so simple that I wasn’t sure if I should include it, but too many site owners believe that they can “build it and they will come”.

Google will index your site if somebody else is linking to it, but how will someone link to it if they can’t find you? And how will Google find you if no one is linking to you?
Submitting your site to Google also verifies the ownership of the domain, which increases your domain authority.

Three quick tips on connecting your site to search engines:
  • Connect your site with Google Search Console. They will also give you useful information on which keywords are best for bringing users to your site.
  • If you want to go the extra mile, also submit your site to BingYahoo, and Yandex.
  • Make sure you sign up for interruption-of-service notifications. If your site goes down, you want to be the first to know.

8. Host or participate in a podcast

Do you like to hear yourself talk?

Do you often go on long and intense monologues?

Well, then podcasting may be for you.

Podcasts are one of the best ways to engage with your audience these days. The podcasting platform is still new enough that there are giant market gaps, especially in construction and trades-related categories.

Look around for podcasts that you can participate in as a guest, or start your own if you have the voice and personality for it.

Three quick tips on using podcasts to your advantage:
  • Search Google Podcasts and Apple Podcasts for relevant shows in your market. Reach out with a topic in mind and ask if you can be a guest host. Remember to sell yourself and your story.
  • Getting started with your own podcast show takes little more than some time, about $100 in recording equipment (a decent microphone), and some editing skills.
    Here’s a great guide by Buffer on starting your own podcast.
  • If you’re set on starting your own podcast, see if you can find a good co-host or partner. If you don’t have the editing skills, maybe find someone that does.

9. Optimize for longtail keywords

Popular shorttail keywords like “edmonton electrician” might generate the most traffic, if you manage to rank for them, but targeting competitive keywords like that is not that useful for finding the right customers.

image40

Why?

Let’s say you’re a local commercial electrician, and you specialize in new commercial construction and high-rise buildings.
What you really want to rank for are keywords like “commercial electrical contractor edmonton”, because Google will only place so many links to your page on their first page of search results, and using highly competitive keywords is crowding out your niche long-tail keywords.

If your page is optimized for “edmonton electrician”, you’re going to get a ton of people looking for someone to fix their breaker box or install new outlets in their house. This is a waste of your time.

On the other hand, the “commercial electrical contractor edmonton” longtail keyword will not have as many monthly searches, but because it’s longer and more specific than the shorttail keyword, you will more easily rank in the search results and generate more qualified leads.

Here’s a screenshot of “edmonton electrician” and how many searches are done per month:

w+NZR6CRA5S+AAAAABJRU5ErkJggg== We create high-performing websites for the construction industry.

And here’s a screenshot of “commercial electrical contractor edmonton”:

We create high-performing websites for the construction industry.

What are we seeing here? Way less volume for the second long-tail keyword, but these are the exact customers you want.

2021 01 30 13 30 52 Keyword ideas Standard Scaffold Insulation Google Ads We create high-performing websites for the construction industry.

Three (longer) quick tips on using longtail keywords:
  • Think about your ideal customer. What problems do they have and how are they looking for a solution?
    In the example of a commercial electrical contractor, they may go to Google and search for “edmonton commercial electrical contractor wcb cor”, because they’re looking for a qualified and experienced contractor with all of their safety requirements in order.
  • Write for the modern-day search algorithm. Google no longer ranks the sites with the most keywords or exact phrases on their site. We have progressed to user intent searching instead of keyword targeting. This means users are becoming more accustomed to typing in their exact problem into search instead of keywords.
    E.g. They used to search “edmonton electrician”, but now they are starting to search for “electrician to fix my breaker panel”.
  • Create useful content (ABU!). In our experience, we discovered that it’s easier to rank for longtail keywords in long-form blog posts and case studies.
    Instead of creating just another blog post, focus on actionable guides and data-driven posts that are helpful to your audience.

    SEO has evolved from strictly keyword targeting, so it is absolutely essential to have content that is highly specific and niche.
    Constantly study your customers, gather feedback, engage with them on social media, and understand what problems they are facing and how you can help them.


10. Optimize your highest traffic source

Google Analytics is a powerful tool when used properly. Unfortunately, most people don’t use it properly. Pulling useful information and valuable insights can be tricky, especially if you have a low-traffic site, but there are a few tricks to it.

You need to familiarize yourself with two areas of Google Analytics: Acquisition and Behavior.

Acquisition breaks down the data on where your visitors are coming from, and Behavior breaks down how they interact with your site.

Acquisition – How your customers are finding you.

Behavior – What your customers are doing on your site.

On the Behaviour page of Macsson Snow Removal, we can see that most people land on the homepage and then click on their Request A Quote form. After that, they return to the homepage and go to the About page or Contact page.

This is extremely useful because you can find out what your customers are after and how they look for it. Sometimes it’s just a quick quote, and sometimes they want to know more about your company.

Three quick tips on using Google Analytics:
  • Find easy and low-effort opportunities to boost traffic. Does one of your blog posts get 10x more traffic than the others? Use it to link to your other posts and update it as often as possible.
  • Look for your high-converting pages and improve their SEO.
    Our goal with SEO and content marketing is to drive potential customers to our site, and to engage them in a way that they trust us with their business.
    One of the best ways to do that is to capitalize on one of your best pages and use it to drive traffic to other parts of your site.
  • Find new keyword opportunities by tracking your internal site search. Does your site have a built-in search bar? If you do, you can analyze all of the inputs to gather information on what your customers are looking for.
    If you have a large search volume for “products”, it may mean that your products page is not visible or obvious enough for people to find.

Want To Boost Your Business Today?

We help Canada's commercial and industrial construction companies succeed with expert web design, estimating automation, and sales optimization.

Find the best solution for you and your team.