SEO Strategies for Construction Websites
Prioritizing search engine optimization (SEO) can help you increase your site’s authority from the jump, which results in increasingly higher rankings, more traffic, better lead generation, and more sales. When it comes to contractor marketing, SEO is one of the best marketing strategies you can implement.
In this piece, we’ll cover some valuable tips for on-page and off-page search engine optimization for construction websites.
On-page Optimization for Construction Websites
On-page optimization (or on-page SEO) is the process of implementing some measures within a website to improve its rankings in search engine results pages (SERPs) and get more traffic.
Below, we’ll discuss some on-page optimization techniques for construction websites.
Internal Linking Best Practices for Construction Websites
Internal links are hyperlinks that direct site visitors to other pages on your website. These links help Google find and index all the pages on your website. And if you optimize them well, internal links can also send page authority to important pages on your site.
Below are some tips to optimize internal links:
Use keyword-rich anchor text: An anchor text is the piece of text you attach your internal link to. When looking for an anchor text for a piece of content, choose one that has the same keyword (or a keyword variation) as the content of the page you’re linking to.
Google recommends this because keyword-rich anchor texts tell its algorithms what the linked page is about. Take this link as an example.
From the anchor text, it’s easy for users and Google’s bots to understand that the linked article discusses professional construction website designs.
Link to important pages: When you link to another page on your site, you’re sending link authority (and traffic) to that page, which can help it rank better in Google.
Link from your homepage: Your homepage is arguably the most authoritative and visited page on your website. That’s why you should link to other pages from your homepage. For example, on Contractor Gorilla’s homepage, we link to our blog. That link sends page authority to all the posts in the blog.
Don’t add too many internal links: Internal links have the most value when there are 100 (or fewer) of them on a page. When it’s past this mark, internal links don’t bring as much value.
Note: The 100 (or fewer) links on a page refer to both internal and external links.
Site Speed and Performance for Construction Websites
Research from Portent shows that the conversion rates of websites drop by an average of 4.5% with each additional second of page load time. A page that loads in 1 second has a 39% conversion rate, while one that loads in 5 seconds only has a 22% conversion rate.
That stat, coupled with the fact that users lose focus when a site takes too long to load, should tell you why it’s important to optimize your site speed — especially if you’re creating a user-friendly construction website.
Before you make any changes to your site speed, audit your current performance with PageSpeed Insights. This tool assesses your Core Web Vitals on both mobile and desktop and provides a color-coded score that shows you your site’s overall performance. It also identifies opportunities to optimize your site and improve your score.
Evaluate your current hosting provider: Your hosting provider plays a huge role in how fast your website loads. There are three common types of hosting: shared, Virtual Private Server (VPS), and dedicated hosting.
- Shared hosting is the most cost-effective option, but it splits hosting resources among many sites, which reduces overall performance. If you experience a spike in traffic or consistent amounts of large traffic, your page will load slower.
- VPS hosting options divide its services on a shared physical drive, which can improve performance. But if your resource loads are high, you may experience slow page load times.
- Dedicated hosting servers are the most expensive option, but they significantly increase your load speeds no matter the amount of traffic you get.
Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN): A CDN is a set of multiple servers distributed across several geographical locations that provide web content to users depending on the location closest to them. So instead of one server handling all requests, user requests are redirected to the nearest server — which results in a quicker response.
Reduce the number of plugins: If you’re using content management systems (CMS) like WordPress and Squarespace, you’re probably using plugins to enhance the functionality of your site. However, too many plugins on a website can slow it down.
Minify your JavaScript and CSS files: Minifying JS and CSS files involve removing unnecessary code from them, such as unused functions and variables, comments, white space characters, line breaks, extra semicolons, longhand CSS selectors, etc. Doing this will reduce file sizes, which, in turn, reduces load times.
You can combine or minify JS and CSS files manually or use plugins like WP Rocket or WP Super Minify.
Use website caching: Instead of rendering a new page every time a visitor lands on your site, caching allows browsers to store the current version of your website on the hosting and present this version to users until you update your website.
Many CMS tools will automatically cache current versions of your site, but you can use caching plugins like WP Super Cache, W3 Total Cache, or WP Rocket.
Compress your images: Construction websites usually have a lot of images, which can bog down a website. Tools like TinyPNG and Bulk Resize can reduce the size of an image without reducing the quality. You can also install image optimization plugins like WP Smush and Shortpixel to compress images.
Keyword Research and Implementation for Construction Websites
Keyword research is the process of identifying the words/phrases users type into a search engine when looking for information, products, or services related to your niche/industry.
When you know your audience’s exact search terms, you can create content that matches their search intent. This content will bring you traffic and conversions once they rank for their respective keywords.
Here are some steps to make the most of your keyword research process:
Choose a keyword research tool: Keyword research tools help you identify just the traffic potential of a specific keyword and how hard it’ll be to rank for it, among other things. Some great examples of keyword research tools are KW Finder and Ubersuggest. If you want to use premium contractor SEO tools, go for SEMRush, Ahrefs, or Moz.
Write down topic ideas: Construction is a broad niche and you likely focus on just one or two types of construction, such as bathroom construction, landscape construction, interior design, etc. Since you know the intricacies of your niche, write down some topic ideas you want to cover on your site.
For example, some topic ideas for an remodeling company may include:
- Remodeling Budgeting
- Hiring Contractors
- Interior Design Tips
- Saving Money When Renovating
- Furnishing Your Home
- Use keyword-rich anchor text:
Think about what your users may be interested in and write it down. Once you have a rough list of these topics, batch them into categories (or ‘topic buckets’). The topics in each bucket must be related so you can build a strong internal link moat.
Do competitor analysis: One of the best ways to get viable keyword ideas is to find out the keywords that your competitors are ranking for. If they can rank for those keywords, chances are you can, too. You can use SEO tools to do competitor analysis.
Find long-tail keywords: There are two kinds of keywords: seed keywords and long-tail keywords. Seed keywords comprise one or two words that are difficult to rank for, and long-tail keywords comprise three or more words that are easier to rank for. Long-tail keywords are usually expansions of seed keywords.
Since seed keywords are competitive, try to expand them into long-tail keywords that are easier to rank for. So instead of creating a blog post about “window treatments”, write one on “roller blinds vs Roman shades: which window treatment is better”.
Note: You can get even more long-tail keywords from the ‘People also ask’ and ‘Related searches’ sections on Google SERPs.
When you have your list of keywords ready, you’ll need to strategically implant them into your articles.
Here are some tips on how to do that:
Write for humans first: While your goal may be to rank high on search engines, it is people that will read your content (and possibly hire you). So write primarily for them.
Avoid “keyword stuffing”: It’s important to insert keywords into your content’s body, but just like internal linking, going overboard with it will hurt your rankings. Keyword stuffing isn’t only limited to the actual text on the page, but it also covers alt texts and meta descriptions.
Off-page Optimization
Link Building Strategies for Construction Websites
Backlinks are links from other websites to pages on your website. These links bring authority to your site and are one of Google’s most important ranking factors. However, in your bid to improve your backlink profile, focus on quality — not quantity.
One backlink from a high-authority website like Architectural Digest is worth more than 20 backlinks from low-authority sites. That backlink says to Google, “If this high-authority website can link to this website (yours), then this website must surely be putting out high-quality content”. And because of that, Google ranks your website higher on the SERPs.
Here are some great link-building strategies you can use:
Outreach: The best way to get a backlink from a prominent construction website is to find someone who works there and simply ask them to link to your site. In your pitch, explain why the company should link to your content. Tell them why your content is unique and how it’s related to their website. If you don’t give them a good reason to link to you, they won’t.
Competitor backlink analysis: Studying your competitors’ backlink profiles can give you an idea of the kinds of content and topics that attract the most high-quality backlinks in the construction industry. It could be how-to guides, listicles, opinion pieces, or something else entirely.
Broken link building: This involves finding broken external links on other websites and offering the companies an alternative link from your site. Broken links hurt user experience, so the companies may be receptive to your suggestions. You can use tools like SEMRush’s Backlink Analytics to analyze your competitors’ websites and find their broken links.
Quotes: As a subject matter expert in the construction industry, you can provide quotes to writers and journalists through platforms like HARO. Many of these writers work for reputable publications like Mashable and The New York Times. If the writer cites your quote, they’ll likely link to your website.
Linkable assets: Linkable assets are content types that naturally attract backlinks. Examples include in-depth tutorials, original industry-based research, and even free tools.
Social Media Marketing Tips for Construction Companies
According to Statista, there will be an estimated 4.89 billion social media users this year (2024). So no matter how niche your company is, your audience is likely on social media.
Here are some tips on boosting your business through social media:
Set clear goals: Before getting on social media, figure out what you’re trying to achieve through these platforms. Is it to raise awareness for your services? To get new blog readers? To get new customers for your online store?
Choose the right platforms: There are many social media platforms today, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and YouTube. These platforms are great for different things, so you need to carefully choose which one(s) you’ll use for your business.
Be consistent: When you first start using social media, you won’t get a lot of “likes”, comments, shares, or follows. That’s okay. Those things start to trickle in the more you publish content on your profile. As a rule of thumb, you won’t see much of a difference in the first few weeks, but if you give it a couple of months, your account(s) will grow.
Quality > quantity: When you start posting on social media, you may be tempted to churn out several posts per day. If you do this, you’ll likely end up sacrificing quality for quantity. And the truth is: quantity won’t keep your audience; quality will. So try to make each post the best it possibly can be.
Guest Blogging for Construction Websites
Guest blogging is when you write a blog post for a website that is more authoritative or popular than yours in exchange for a backlink to your site. This is a great way to get high-quality backlinks to your site, while attracting viable prospects.
Choose authoritative websites: As mentioned earlier, when building your backlink profile, quality beats quantity. So when choosing sites to pitch to, focus on high-quality sites in your niche that have engaged, long-term readers, are considered industry leaders, will give you a byline, and allow you to add a link back to your website.
Craft a great pitch: The downside to pitching high-quality websites is that your pitch will likely be rejected. Rejections are normal so don’t fret. Instead, focus on crafting an email that is too good to ignore.
Write an exquisite guest blog: Once you’re chosen to write the guest article, take your time to craft it expertly. Use power words in the headline to draw readers’ attention. Then use analogies, examples, and visuals to break down the topic and prove your expertise.
Tell readers the action to take: Under the guest post, you’ll have space in the biography section to add a link. You can add a link to your website’s homepage, or you can add other important links such as a link to your blog, online store, or newsletter.
Reply to comments on your post: If you get any comments on your guest blog, reply to them. Engaging with readers personally keeps you top of mind, just in case they’re considering hiring you.
Discover more ways to generate leads for your construction website.
Influencer Marketing for Construction Companies
These days, many brands are collaborating with social media influencers to generate brand awareness. If you’re new to social media and you’re looking to get more eyes on your business, you can try partnering with an influencer.
Find the right influencer: Just like guest posting, you shouldn’t just email or DM any influencer asking them to work with you. Choose one that creates content in your niche and has a dedicated audience across all their platforms.
Allow creative freedom: Just because an influencer has agreed to work with you doesn’t mean you should boss them around. They know the kind of content that resonates with their followers so give them the creative freedom to create content about your construction services (as long as the content matches your brand’s mission and standards).
Track your metrics: When your chosen influencer puts up posts in your marketing campaign, track the metrics (or tell them to send you reports) so you can see how the posts are performing. This way, if the influencer’s not producing good results, you’ll know what to tweak in your campaigns.
Use Search Engine Optimization to Grow Your Construction Business
With all the updates that search engines like Google roll out periodically, SEO is something you’ll never stop doing on your website. But putting the tips outlined above into practice is a great starting point for setting your site up for success in the future.
SEO Strategies For Construction Website FAQ
How can social media help with SEO for construction companies?
Social media signals do not have a direct impact on search rankings, and the truth is… it doesn’t matter.
Social media leads to many things that benefit SEO, including backlinks, improved engagement signals on your website, and more indexed pages for branded queries.
The impact of social media on SEO is more complicated than a simple yes/no answer.
Lets not over complicate this, here is our simple advice. Make sure you are using social media for your construction website.
What are the benefits of having a mobile-friendly construction website?
In the U.S., the share of web traffic from desktop devices is roughly 50 percent, while mobile devices and tablets are at 46 percent and 4 percent respectively.
Google has shifted to mobile-first indexing. This means that your site primarily gets visited by Googlebot Smartphone, a type of web crawler that simulates a mobile user’s experience.
For indexing and ranking in search results, the content of the mobile version of your site takes precedence over the desktop version.
Aaron R. - CEO
Entrepreneur with 20 years experience launching and managing successful web design and marketing companies. As seen in New York Times, Inc.com, Smashing Magazine, Home Advisor and other various mainstream media.
Passionate about #seo #marketing #webdesign #socialmedia #blogging #family #texasbbq
