Local SEO for Your Construction Business: How to Get More Leads from Local Organic Searches

Construction is a business that will always be local. Even with all of the globalization of business, construction companies are still going to have specific locations and limitations on where they work and how far they will travel. Thus, having a solid local SEO strategy can guarantee that you will be able to market to your exact audience and region so that you can get the attention you desire. 

Local SEO isn’t just about using local keywords. It’s about building credibility through citations—getting your business name and address as visible as possible online is your goal. Of course, it’s also a matter of finding reputable sites, directories, and resources, because everything surrounding your SEO ranking is built on your brand authority. 

In this guide, we’ll take a closer look at local SEO for contractors and construction companies so that you can start building (or improving) your strategy. 

What does local SEO entail?

Local SEO refers to any optimization efforts that are designed to help promote your construction business on a local scale. It relies on local keywords like cities, states, and region names, but it also requires building a sense of authority and offering relevant, high-value solutions. The search engines are much, much smarter than they used to be and that has caused them to hold businesses to a higher standard when it comes to optimization. 

You need to ensure that your NAP, or “name, address, and phone number,” is accurate and consistent in every single online listing. Not only does that help determine the distance or local relevance, but it builds credibility because of the consistency. Make sure that this information is the same everywhere, and do regular audits to check for listings that have gotten off-track. 

Local SEO also includes having local links, quality customer reviews, and a mobile-friendly website that’s designed to be user-friendly and intuitive. It’s a full effort of embracing local marketing and hitting the benchmarks set by Google to get the rankings that your construction business deserves. 

How local rankings are determined 

The next thing to understand is how local SEO rankings are determined by the search engines. There are several different factors used and it seems like Google changes the rules more often than people can keep up, but as a general rule of thumb, ranking is determined by:

1. Relevance
2. Distance
3. Prominence/authority

Within these three elements, there are several smaller factors used to help rank businesses accordingly in local search results:

• Google My Business
• Reviews
• External directory listings
• On-page SEO
• Links
• Social signals
• User behavior 
• Personalization

To make sure that your construction business has the best chance of getting the highest rankings, start here and then read up on the best practices to continue enhancing your local optimization efforts. 

Best practices for local optimization 

As with any marketing strategy, local optimization has its own best practices and methodologies to follow. Although the various factors may affect your construction business differently than others, there are some general rules of thumb that everyone should follow. 

• Reviews count. It’s not just about getting them, either. Have reviews on as many directories as you can, on your website, on social media pages, etc. But, make sure that you’re also responding to or resolving negative reviews and engaging with your audience, which builds credibility. 

• Make sure that you’re the most reputable construction company in your area. This means building a library of resources for your clients and other visitors and providing people with the answers that they seek. People don’t want to work with just anyone—they want a company they can trust. 

• Create a personable online presence by engaging with social media and other forums when you can. Today’s customers aren’t interested in buying from a company. They want to work with people who can deliver the products and services that they need. Your construction business needs to be as friendly as it is skilled in the building trades. 

• Choose quality over quantity, always. When it comes to backlinks and directory listings, you want to get more if you can. The caveat, however, is that you don’t want to have a lot of links or listings on poor-quality sites or sites that don’t have good authority in the eyes of Google. Do your homework when choosing reputable places to list and link for your local SEO. 

• Complete your Google Business Profile. This means filling out everything that you possibly can, utilizing categories, etc. Take advantage of this resource to build a lot of credibility without a lot of work. Formerly Google My Business, this page is the central element of your local SEO credibility and visibility. 

• Keyword research is a critical element. You can’t just add cities to your other keywords and call it a day. That may work for some keywords, but there is actual keyword research that will go into this process to ensure that you hit all the right ones. Get creative. See what other contractors or construction companies are using. Then, do your research and see which keywords are performing best. 

Get ready for the influx of leads by partnering with the team at Smith.ai 

Now that you’ve got a strategy in place to crank up the leads, you need to make sure that you have systems in place to field them all, starting with a 24/7 answering service like the virtual receptionists at Smith.ai. When you choose to partner with us, we can assist with everything from lead screening and intake to appointment scheduling, live chat, and more. 

Plus, for those who are just getting started or who need an extra hand, ask how we can help with outreach campaigns and outbound sales support to attract the leads in the first place. And as always, it comes with a custom strategy for total management of all your needs. 

To learn more, schedule a consultation to discuss what the 24/7 virtual receptionists at Smith.ai can do for your business. You can also reach us at hello@smith.ai. 

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