MASTERING SEO FOR TRADESMEN - AN ESSENTIAL GUIDE
If you are a tradesman - be that a plumber or painter or anything in between - you have to take digital marketing seriously. Word of mouth and repeat client work simply aren’t enough if you want to expand and grow your business.
However, you have probably seen the price for Google Ads or social media marketing campaigns and you aren’t convinced of the return on investment.
That’s where search engine optimization (SEO) comes in. By harnessing the power of Google, you can drive users to your site, build trust and authority with them, and cultivate more leads.
Best of all, once you lay the groundwork for this strategy, it keeps working. As long as your site ranks high in Google’s algorithm, you can get more prospects with no additional work.
In this guide, we will show you everything you need to know about SEO for tradesmen, from getting started all the way through writing and promoting your work. We will also show you one of our clients and how we built a local painter’s website to receive over 10,000 visitors a month.
How does SEO for tradesmen work?
Search engine optimization sounds complicated, but it’s actually quite simple. A user types something into a search engine (usually Google), and the algorithm will crawl the web and present that user pages that most accurately match their search term (or keyword).
If you want to promote your trades business, creating a website and optimizing it for all the search terms that relate to your work. There are multiple ways to approach doing this, and no one particular way is better than the other.
The Four Pillars of SEO
Local SEO - Local SEO is exactly what it sounds like. It’s optimization centered around finding local results. In the modern algorithm, all search results have a local bent. That means you no longer have to optimize for “plumber in Chicago”. If someone types in “plumber near me” or even just “plumber”, a well optimized result will appear.
Technical SEO - Technical SEO factors in the way your website is designed and optimized. When you are focused on technical SEO, you are working on things like indexing, site optimization issues, and so on. If you aren’t experienced in these things already, you will either want to hire someone to do it or use a tool that makes the process easier.
On-page SEO - Also called content SEO, this work is centered on optimizing web pages for search results. This includes writing content targeting keywords, optimizing header tags, and writing meta descriptions/excerpts.
Off-Page SEO - Off-page SEO includes any efforts to improve SEO that aren’t directly on your website. This includes earning backlinks, which is one of the most important ways to improve domain authority (see Step #7).
GPS Media specializes in on-page SEO services. Our agency can help you develop a robust content plan that improves site traffic, builds trust and authority with prospective clients, and generates more leads.
A step-by-step guide for SEO for tradesmen
1. Get a website
If you don’t have one yet, you’ll need one. You may just be using Facebook or Instagram for now, but a serious business needs a dedicated website. In this step, also create the sitemap and connect to Google Search Console (you can learn more about that here).
Mobile optimization
Once you have a website set up, you will want to make sure it is optimized for mobile browsing. That means you want to make sure it looks good and loads quickly on a smartphone or tablet. Most web traffic comes from mobile searches, and over 90% of internet users access it from their smartphones.
Load speeds
User experience is a major ranking factor in Google’s algorithm, and part of that is making sure the site is snappy and responsive. You will want to make sure your pages load under three seconds at a minimum, but ideally under two seconds. You can see which pages are performing poorly from the Google Search Console, and you can also use the Console to get advice on how to improve those pages.
2. Claim your Google Business Profile
If you are a tradesman, your SEO approach should focus on ranking in local searches. To do this, you absolutely need a Google Business Profile. You will want to make sure that the business name address and phone number (NAP) are all right on the site and on the profile.
List in directories as well
You will also want to make sure your company is listed on sites like Yelp! and similar directories related to your niche or industry. Appearing in these directories provides backlinks to your site, which will boost the site’s overall rankings.
Plus, being in directories is a great way for customers to find you, so it certainly doesn’t hurt to be in them!
GBP Posts and why they are important
You will want to create a post on your Google Business Profile at least once a week. Google tracks all the interactions on your GBP page and factors that into later rankings. Being active on the page indicates to Google that your business is open and eagerly engaging customers.
Targeting keywords in your posts will also help your business appear in related searches.
3. Push for reviews and respond quickly
Now that you have a website and GBP, users can start leaving reviews for your business directly on your Google profile. Push your current and former clients to leave you a positive review, especially if the client was enthusiastic about the work you did. The number and quality of the reviews is a major ranking factor for local SEO.
4. Do keyword research and create a content plan
Now that your local SEO strategy is optimized, you can focus on creating blog content that will add value for your prospective clients.
We recommend building content centered around answering the simplest questions your clients have. This type of content builds trust and it speeds up the sales process by answering the most frequent and “obvious” questions.
First, write out the 20 most commonly asked questions you get from prospective clients.
Then type those questions into a tool like Also Asked, and you will get a list of questions that users also search when they ask that question. Comb through this list and add any relevant ones to your list until you have 52 questions.
You now have 52 blog posts you can write, enough for weekly blog posts for a whole year.
Next, using a tool called SEMrush, type those questions into the Keyword Magic Tool. You will get the estimated traffic for that question and any other similar keywords. You will also see something called KD. This is called keyword difficulty. The lower this score is the better.
Write down the traffic (volume) for that question/keyword and the Keyword Difficulty (KD).
Next, organize the questions by keyword difficulty, focusing on the ones with the lowest KD and highest traffic. This will give you a clear list of options to focus on for the best results. If you pay for the SEO Guru plan, you can even see which keywords perform better in your zip code for maximized optimization.
Topic clusters
To get the most out of these content ideas, you will want to arrange them into topic clusters. Posts within a cluster should link back to each other. This sends a signal to Google that these topics are related and that you are an expert on that topic.
Pillar content
You will want to create several pages around pillar content. This is the type of content that people will continually come back to your site to learn about. If you are a painter, for instance, you would have a page dedicated to each of your services like interior and exterior painting. These pages should be long (2000+ words) and be jam-packed with value.
This type of content will help you rank high on any search queries related to the content, and it will establish your company as a trusted authority in the industry.
5. Write and optimize your content
Now comes the fun part: writing your content. There is no ideal content length, but generally, it should be between 750-1000 words.
Remember that Google’s algorithm prioritizes user experience, and users want their answers fast. So put the answer to your question towards the top of the post. Think of it as if you are answering the question right off the bat, and the rest of the blog post further explaining why the answer is what it is.
Once the content is written, it’s time to optimize it. Google’s algorithm is pretty complex now, and your content won’t make it to the top by simply stuffing keywords in whenever you can. The content should be valuable to the reader and answer their question quickly.
However, there are a few things you can do to help signal to Google that your content does all of that. That includes:
Optimizing your headline: Your target keyword should appear in the headline, and there should be some sort of emotional pull to convince readers to click on your link over others. Headline writing is an art in and of itself.
Include headers: Headers help structure your post, and it can help Google understand what exactly the post is about and where users can find the information they are looking for. Putting keywords in headers and injecting questions from Also Asked as headers is a great way to show Google your content has the answers readers are looking for.
Fill out meta description/excerpt: The meta description is the text that appears below your link in search results. By default, it will show the first 160 characters of the post, but you really want to write something that targets the reader here. Again, include the keyword here and mention something that shows the reader that this post has the answers they want.
Add images/videos: Readers by and large do not want to scroll huge blocks of text. They are skimming for the answer they need, and often times that can come in the form of an image or video. Including videos and images in a post can not only make your content look more appealing but can also keep readers on your site for longer, which is another factor in Google’s algorithm.
Backlink to other articles you have written
As you write these posts, make sure you link back to related articles you have written before. This is how you will create topical authority and help all of your great content rise to the top of search results.
Add external links: While Google doesn’t inherently rank content based on external links, it’s still good practice to include links to other websites in your content. External links establish the authority and trust Google uses to rank pages.
External links are especially important if you’re relying on data from another source because you don’t want to risk plagiarizing the content.
6. Build your domain authority
This is also called off-page SEO. This type of work affects your site’s trustworthiness and reputation, and Google will continually rank higher authority sites over lower authority ones. Off-page SEO includes social media marketing, link building, and guest blogging.
Social media marketing
Connecting your social media accounts to the content you generate is a great way to promote your work. Google notices when users migrate from social media sites to your website, and those signals help tell Google that the content on your site is valuable and worth reading.
Link building
Link building is the practice of getting other websites to link back to your website. There are good and bad ways to do this, and a bad link-building strategy can result in Google flagging or (at the very least) devaluing your website.
So how do you get back links? Well, social media is one way. If another site uses an image or video from your site (that you own), ask them to link back to your site with it.
The third way to get links is guest blogging.
Guest blogging
Guest blogging is exactly what it sounds like. Reach out to a site owner within your industry and ask if you can write a blog on their site that links back to yours. This is especially valuable if the site you guest blog for has a higher domain authority than you.
Guest blogging isn’t easy, and you’re likely to face a lot of rejection/cold shouldering from other websites, but it can have a big payoff if you keep at it and get a few powerful backlinks.
7. Check your rankings and update content accordingly
You should start seeing results within 3-6 months if you follow this approach. Use tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Google Analytics to check your website’s performance. You will want to make sure keywords are ranking well and that your site is well-optimized (use tools like Ahref’s Webmaster Tools and Google Search Console).
There are a number of metrics you will need to keep track of, but some of the most important ones are:
Organic traffic: The number of visitors the site gets that find the site organically. This means that they typed in a keyword, found your site, and clicked on the link. This is different from Direct traffic, which types in the URL to your site and navigates there. Referral traffic is the amount of traffic your site gets from backlinks, including from social media. Paid traffic is the amount of traffic your site gets from paid ads.
Organic traffic is the most important of these because it shows that your SEO content strategy is working.
Engagement time: This is the average amount of time users spend on a given page. This is valuable information because it shows that users are interested in or engaged by the content you are offering.
Keyword rankings: You will have to rely on a site like SEMrush or Ahrefs for this info, but measuring how well you are performing for given keywords is critical to getting the traffic you need to be successful.
Update poor-performing content
If a blog post doesn’t perform well, don’t think that means that you have to start from scratch. Read up on your competitors, see what is working for them, and go back and update the content to give yourself a performance boost.
Constantly trying to create new content is a fast way to burn out, but updating content is a great way to do a little work that goes a long way.
Create videos and other media
If you didn’t create videos or images the first time around, try to create some when you go back to update the content. There’s no reason to do everything all at once, and injecting these pieces as you update is a great way to keep the content fresh and alive.
Plus, now that you have a blog written, you now have a script to help make video creation that much easier.
SEO helps you find your way to clients
SEO content marketing can be a lot of work, but it has significant payoffs. Once you start gaining traction in search engines, clients will organically find your service when they need it most.
If you want to pursue SEO content marketing, but don’t feel like you have the capacity for writing and planning like this, that’s okay! As a business owner, you already have a lot going on. That’s where we come in.
GPS Media is an SEO-first content marketing agency. That means our content is centered around SEO performance rather than SEO being an afterthought. Our agency has experience helping contractors just like you get the most out of their content plans.
If you’re ready to level up your company’s online marketing efforts, SEO content marketing is the way to go and GPS Media can help you #findyourway.
Fill out the form below today to get a free consultation and see how we can help improve your company’s online profile. Our team will provide a detailed audit and actionable steps so you can #findyourway today.
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