How to Do SEO for Contractors (5 Steps + Examples)

As a general contractor, you want a steady stream of customers for your business.

What’s a surefire way to get your business top-of-mind for potential clients?

Make sure they can find you online through search engine optimization (SEO).

When someone in your local area searches for services like yours, you want your website at the top of the results. Specifically, you want to appear in the local pack (also called the map pack):

In this guide, you’ll learn all about SEO for contractors, including:

Let’s dive in.

Why Contractors Need SEO

Done right, SEO makes your contracting business more visible online. Increasing your online visibility can boost your brand awareness and attract more customers.

Just look at Downtown Air.

My team launched an SEO campaign for them to rank them for important keywords that their prospects are searching:

This drives valuable traffic to their site.

But more importantly, that traffic gets them hundreds of phone calls and form submissions every month.

So, SEO can drive tangible results for contractors. Let’s look at how it does this.

How Does SEO for Contractors Work?

When people want to find a product or service, they often type in a keyword or a phrase on search engines like Google. In fact, this is how 72% of consumers find information about local businesses.

For example, someone might go to Google and search “kitchen remodelers in Los Angeles.”

The businesses that appear on the first page of Google for that keyword are doing their SEO right.

But how does a business show up on the first page?

There are many ranking factors, including:

Google takes these factors (and more) into consideration when ranking results.

And following SEO best practices lets you optimize your site for these factors, boosting your website’s performance.

Step-by-Step Guide to Contractor SEO

There are countless optimizations you can make as part of your overall strategy.

But for contractors in particular, these are the most important steps to follow.

Step 1: Optimize Your Local Profiles

For contractors, local SEO is typically where you should spend a lot of your efforts.

After all, you’re trying to capture the attention of would-be customers in your service area.

Building out your online profiles is a huge part of local SEO.

Here’s how to nail it:

Create a Google Business Profile

To make your business more visible to local searchers, make (or claim) a