How to Optimize Your Remodeling Website for Local SEO

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Remodeling is an ideal business to pursue in a world of rapidly changing tastes. 

At the same time, contractors should learn to attract customers in a cyber-centric world. The best way to do it is to delve into digital marketing and local SEO. Come on, let's get to it! 

10 Local SEO Tips for Remodeling Contractors

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1. Claim your Google Business Profile

This should be the first step in your local SEO efforts. A Google Business Profile (GBP) gives you a web presence even if you don't have a website yet. You can have a GBP in two ways:

• Claim a Profile - This happens when you have a website with your address, phone number, and opening hours. Google or a third-party aggregator may pull data off this website to create a listing. 

Be serious about including accurate details in your profile, which may suspend your account (shown in the below screenshot). Google always strives to save users from false information.

• Add a Profile - If your business has not been listed on Google yet, you need to add it manually. Before you can do that, however, you need a Google account. Head over to 'Create your Google Account' for this. 

You can do both of these by going to Google Business Profile manager. Click on 'Manage now' and start adding your information section by section. You can also add your location on the map. 

Read: Step-by-step Setup Guide for Google My Business Set up

2. Ensure Your NAP is Consistent

NAP stands for name, address, and phone. You should ensure consistency in NAP on all your web assets, including: 

• Google Business Profile, take a look example below in the screenshot. 

• Website and blogs
• Social media accounts
• Directories like Yellow Pages and Yelp

Consistency is crucial because Google will cross-check your NAP on multiple platforms. This is to ensure Google lists the right business for location-based searches. 

Here's a list of items to check 

• Capitalization and abbreviations of the business
• Style of writing the address 
• Phone number*

Note: If you aren't consistent in your NAP, each variation will be considered a separate business. 

*Tip: You can use Dynamic Number Insertion (DNI) in your NAP if you use marketing methods like PPC ads. It will not affect the consistency of your NAP across the web. DNI is a call-tracking method that allows you to measure calls from different marketing methods.

3. Make Your Website Mobile Friendly

Most people search for local businesses on their mobile phones or devices like a tablet. 

As such, if your website isn't optimized for mobile screens, you are losing out on the tone of the business. An optimized screen also helps you with: 

• User Experience - Such a website will organize content in a way that helps users find information quickly.

• Lesser Bounce Rate - A bounce rate happens when a user leaves your site without navigating to other pages. A website not optimized for different screens tend to have a higher bounce rate. 

The screenshot below shows the bounce rate, indicating users' access to the site without any hassle. 

• Higher Dwell-Time And Depth Rate - This indicates the user took the time to read the content/checked out other pages.

Note: There are two ways to optimize your website for different screens. 'Adaptive design' gives you a set of standard screen proportions. 'Responsive design', however, adjusts the website to any screen size. 

4. Seek Customer Reviews

You may have a great website and fine copy, but all that pales in comparison to customer reviews. In the digital world, customer reviews are the greatest social proof. 

Not only do they convince customers to visit your place, but they also send positive vibes to Google. This will result in a higher ranking and revenue. Here's how you can garner more reviews: 

• Ask customers to leave a comment or review on your GBP or website. Educate them on how they can do it. You can also run contests or offer gifts to collect user reviews shown in the below screenshot.

• Incentivize reviews with a free pdf or post-remodeling inspection, etc.
• Respond to reviews as quickly as you can. If it's a negative one, try to address the issue. Don't ghost such a customer!
• Highlight on your website a review with the customer's photo. Ensure you take the person's permission to do that.

Read: How to Respond to Positive & Negative Reviews in Google My Business

 5. Keywords Are The Key

The success of your local SEO depends on the keywords you choose. Find out which words or combinations people use to find remodeling contractors. This is, however, easier said than done. To help you hit the ground running, here's a trick. 

• You can find keywords using any search engine.
• Enter 'remodeling contractors' into the search bar, and it keeps showing ‘auto complete’ suggestions, as in the below screenshot.

• Note down the suggestions made by the engine.
• You can also find keyword suggestions at the end of a SERP (under 'related searches').

In the 'People also ask for' section in the middle of a SERP, you will find questions rich in keywords.

Note: This is a trick you can use only in the initial phases of your SEO efforts. Down the line, you may have to use special tools to find low-competition keywords.

6. Keep an Eye on Your Competitors

Your competitor is your first point of reference for all your local SEO efforts. Through competitor analysis, you will discover:

• Keywords in your niche
• Backlinks from high authority sites
• Design and navigation tips
• Content strategy

There are several methods to do competitor analysis. The easiest way is using Google. You can directly feed a keyword into Google and see which company shows up on top. 

Remodeling Contractors typically focus on the local audience. Thus, the business appearing in local 3-pack is prime competition. 

For advanced analysis, here are a few tools:

• SEMrush: One of the most widely used digital marketing tools. It prepares a list of the best backlinks your competitor has. It will also tell which keywords bring them the most traffic.
• Ahrefs: Its Site Explorer makes it one of the best competitor analysis tools. Enter the competitors' URL, and it will compile a list of their best keywords.
• Buzzsumo: This tool analyses your competitor's content for its sharability. 

7. Establish Yourself as an Authority

For this, you need to showcase your expertise and know-how in the field. You can connect a blog to your website and create posts on useful topics. 

See the below screenshot of a remodeling contractor site with a blog section, videos, brochures, etc., to let users explore their offerings. 

Before sitting down to write the content, keep these points in mind:

• What are, in your experience, the topics many of your customers wanted to know?
• What were the reservations they had before committing to remodeling their property?
• Have you ever thought you could have explained a point better? 

If you find answers to these questions, you will have many blog ideas to work on right away. And don't worry about giving your hard-earned wisdom for free. 

Most of those who read such blog posts just want to know how knowledgeable you are in remodeling. 

8. Make Use of the 'Satisfying video fad'

There is a particular trend on YouTube gaining much traction these days. Called 'satisfying videos', such posts show experts going about their work. While many are in time-lapse format, many are tightly edited videos. 

You can even leverage the ‘Shorts’ option to create more business awareness by creating interesting videos around your work. 

As a remodeling contractor, you too can use this form of content. All you need to do is to open a YouTube channel. If you don't know how to edit the clips, here are three great tools:

• Adobe Rush: A new offering from Adobe, Rush is a free editing software for mobile and desktop devices.
• CyberLink ActionDirector: Trusted by many to create high-quality mobile videos. Some features, however, aren't free.
• Kinemaster: Probably the most widely used editing app in the Android world. It adjusts its features according to the processor capacity of the smartphone.

9. Earn Local Backlinks

Started posting content and videos on your blog and social media handles? 

Then it's time to earn backlinks. Local backlinks help you to get on the Google three-pack.

Here's a list of sources:

• Local Online Publications: These are websites already optimized for local searches. You earn a high-quality backlink from that site if you can pitch a story, sponsorship, or donation.
• Social Media: Websites like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have high domain authority. So, placing your website's link inside the posts gives you a lot of link juice. 
• Online Directories: Yellow Pages and Yelp are two of the most important. Register some of these websites, and you will get quality backlinks and, often, sales. 

Look at the screenshot below showing a directory listing offering a backlink to their website. 

10. Need for Speed

The strategies we discussed will fall on their faces if your website is slow-loading. Ideally, the loading speed should not exceed three to four seconds. 

People looking for remodeling contractors have a lot of options. So, even the slightest delay will encourage them to return to SERP. 

Take a look at the below screenshot showing page speed performance of a ‘remodeling contractor’ site is too low. If the performance is not improved soon, users and search engines scorn their site. 

Here are the major culprits behind slow loading.

• Large files - The website loads slowly if you have heavy photos, videos, or audio files. 

• Website code - If you have a WordPress website, select one with only a few font styles. This will reduce the number of JavaScript files to be downloaded.

• Hosting - Shared hosting is cheap, but it's awfully slow. Not only do they lead to slugging loading speed, but they also offer lackadaisical service. So, go for dedicated web hosting, if possible.

Note: Check your loading speed here!

Read: Effortless Way to Improve the Site Speed of Your Local Businesses

Local SEO for Remodeling Contractors - FAQs

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1. What Is Local SEO?

In layman's terms, local SEO refers to optimizing your website for 'near me' searches. Your customers are mostly people from your locality.

2. Who Needs Local SEO

Any business that serves the local community. These include restaurants, plumbers, photographers, remodeling contractors, and electricians. Local SEO is especially useful to those with a brick-and-mortar store.

3. What's The Difference Between SEO And Local SEO?

SEO is an umbrella term for efforts to increase organic traffic to a website. Local SEO is a subsection that focuses on searches originating from the locality. It not only increases traffic to your website but also visits your store.

Key Takeaways

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• Claim your GBP and fill up all the fields
• Ensure your NAP is consistent across your blog, social media accounts, and directories
• Use responsive web design to make your site mobile-friendly
• Reduce page loading speed by compressing media files and removing coding errors
• Obtain customer reviews and use them for digital marketing 
• Conduct competitor analysis to find out which keywords give the most return
• Write content useful to visitors
• Make use of the 'satisfying video' fad