Construction activity is slowing down in some places, so this is a good time of the year to evaluate your business from a high level standpoint and begin considering what you can do to build a bigger, more successful company. We talk often about strategies for better performing the actual work, but today we thought it would be a good idea to have a talk about your MARKETING. You may do very well through word-of-mouth alone, but you can greatly improve your chances of success if you combine word-of-mouth, top quality work, and actively promoting your business with modern marketing strategies. Today we are going to talk about Local SEO, which is the process of making sure that your business appears in search results when someone performs a search in your market area.
When someone who is physically located in your geographic area performs a search, you want them to find you. This is a specific type of SEO called “local SEO.”
Key Components of Local SEO
The key components to a local SEO campaign are:
● Optimizing your website for local search.
● Managing your Google Business account.
● Creating citations.
● Getting reviews.
Local Optimization
The whole point of local optimization is to make it very clear to Google that you are a legitimate business, what your business is, and where you are located. To accomplish these goals, do this:
● Use your page titles, meta descriptions and copy to make it very clear what your business is, as described in the on-page optimization section above.
● Put the street address and phone number in your website footer.
● Have a contact / location page on your site with your address and a Google map.
● If you have more than one location, each location should have its own page with complete contact information.
Google My Business
Have you ever noticed when doing a search on Google, how often a map appears on the search results page with markers showing you businesses that match your search? This happens through Google My Business.
Set up a Google business page by going to:
https://business.google.com/
If you don’t already have a Google account, that is step one. Click the Create account link and just follow the instructions to create a Google account.
Once your Google account is created, you will arrive at a welcome screen that has a blue button that says Continue to Google My Business. If you don’t see that button, use the web address shown above to get to the Google Business signup page.
The first page of the signup process is where you start telling Google all about your business – your name, address, phone, category, etc. Be very careful to type in all of your information correctly. The information you type in here should match what is shown on your website.
Google will then attempt to display your business address on a map and require you to click a button stating that you are authorized to manage the business and agree to Google’s terms.
To complete the process, you will need a verification code that you get via a postcard from Google.
While you wait on the postcard from Google, you should go ahead and start filling out the details of your Google My Business page. Use every option there is. Give your page a header background. Provide hours of operation, your website address and a phone number.
Add as many photos as it will let you. Show high quality photos of some of your finished jobs to demonstrate your proficiency.
Once your page is verified, which you can do after you receive the Google postcard, your property will be eligible to appear in Google local search results.
Managing your Google My Business account is very important. Don’t just set it and forget it. You can reply to reviews that your customers leave about your business on Google. If you have the time to leave a personal message for every single person who leaves you a review, then that is great. But the MAIN thing is to quickly respond to any review that is negative or asks a question.
If there are any reviews that are inappropriate or don’t really even seem to be from someone who was actually a customer, then you should flag it as inappropriate. This is done by clicking the three little dots next to each review on the Reviews listing page.
The Insights page in your Google My Business account will show you some valuable information pertaining to how people found your Google business profile. For example, it will tell you a list of search queries that people used to find your business.
Google My Business also has an extremely valuable feature called Posts, which is a sort-of microblogging platform that you can use to have little articles appear in your Google listing. It is a fantastic feature!
So now that you have a Google My Business account set up with information that matches what is on your website, the next step is to start setting up some citations.
Citations
A citation is simply a reference or listing of your business in some kind of local business directory or portal. It is important to have these for local SEO purposes.
When setting up citations, the address and phone number shown in the citation must match the information shown on your website and as set up in your Google My Business account. You need to make it clear to Google exactly where you are located.
Here are some of the top general-purpose directories at which you should add your business:
● www.Yelp.com
● www.BingPlaces.com
● www.CitySearch.com
● www.HotFrog.com
● www.YellowPages.com
● www.SuperPages.com
● www.Foursquare.com
In addition, if there are directories of local businesses in your area, you should list your business there as well.
Visit all of these websites and add your business. I would probably start with Yelp.
Yelp
To get your business listed in Yelp, you first have to see if it is in the Yelp directory, and then claim it if it is. To do that, go to the bottom of the page at https://www.yelp.com and click the link that says Claim Your Business Page.
On the next page, click Manage my free listing. Then type your zip code and business name in the appropriate boxes, and then click the Continue button.
On the next screen, add your business details. Tell Yelp all about your business, similar to what you did when you were setting up your Google My Business account. Again, make sure that the information you type in here matches EXACTLY what is shown on your website and in your Google My Business account. EXACTLY.
I will say it one more time, in case you missed it: EXACTLY.
The process for signing up at the other local directory sites will vary. Some of them will require verification similar to Google. In some of them, like Yelp, your business could already be in the site, in which case you will have to claim it.
The above list is nowhere near a complete list of local directories, but if you start with this list, that will give you a real good start. If you add to this list over time, you will increase your total citations, thus helping improve your search rankings and potentially exposing your business to many new prospects.
If you don’t believe that Yelp and similar sites apply to construction companies and contractors, just go to Yelp and search “construction.” You will see your local competitors (the ones who are smart enough to do this stuff) with reviews. If you’re not in that list, you are at a competitive disadvantage.
Ask your satisfied customers to leave reviews for you at Yelp, Google and other places. If you combine actively pushing your brand’s Internet exposure with building up a catalog of reviews, you will be well-positioned for success.
NEED HELP?
The ProfitDig marketing team can take care of all of this for you. Contact us today to learn how we can help you use digital marketing to grow your business.