Your location is your best asset. If a prospective client runs a Google search for construction and building companies, the search results will show those companies located in the same city as the searcher.

Remember, most consumers tend to favour local businesses. This is because these businesses lay emphasis on quality work, are perceived as trustworthy, and offer personalized service. Hence, when you are advertising and promoting yourself locally, these are the qualities you should highlight to stand apart from your competition.

You know the local consumer and will be viewed as one of them and this is an advantage that you should be willing to leverage. Most consumers love shopping locally, especially when it comes to building and construction. So, when you use local SEO for building & construction, you will increase your profile locally, and be more visible online. This, in turn, will improve your bottom line and help you generate more revenue.

If you are running an online campaign, invariably you will end up compartmentalizing your campaigns. Whether it is search engine optimization, social media or online reviews, you have to realize they are all part of local SEO. These different online marketing campaigns are bound together, albeit invisibly, but offer the same results – they build your local reputation, increase footfalls to your website or blog, and convert online inquirers and visitors into paying customers.

Basically, local SEO helps Google to present consumers with accurate, up-to-date, relevant and reliable information. So, if you have done your local SEO correctly, you will show up in the local search engine results each time someone searches for building and construction companies.

As stated earlier, SEO for building and construction is a multi-pronged approach. You need to do several things simultaneously to build a credible reputation online. When this happens, it will reap the results you envisaged. You will get more orders locally and be able to pad your bottom line.

So, here are a few things that you should be doing to enhance your online presence and authority locally:

If you are spending time advertising and promoting yourself through actual Yellow Pages, you are wasting your time. Statistics show that nearly 50% consumers who perform a local search through their smartphone end up visiting a store within 24 hours of doing the search.

With more people using smartphones to look for services and products locally, it is important you have an online presence. And, Google is the go-to search engine that most people end up using. So, Google is where you should make your presence felt to prospective customers.

It goes without saying that any form of advertising costs you money. However, you can enjoy constant flow of traffic to your website, social media page or blog with SEO. Local SEO allows you to rank high in search engine results page and this, in turn, will attract free traffic. When this happens, you will get an opportunity to convert this traffic into paying customers.

Remember, you competition is local building and construction companies. So, if have the right SEO strategy in place, you will be able to research the first page of local results in Google. Why? A major chunk of your competition may not be using local SEO to boost their search engine ranking.

Local SEO for building & construction requires a little foresight, research and patience. Once you do the necessary things, you will be amazed at the results. Here are a few things that you need to do to get at the top of Google search results.

Any SEO begins with shortlisting the right keywords. So, when you are competing with other local building and construction companies, you need to jot down keywords that showcase the services you offer. Look at keywords like construction company, general contractor, home renovation, and home additions.

Once you have drawn a list of the keywords, it is time to open a Google Adwords account. Don’t worry; you are not going to start a campaign. Rather, you are using the free account to access the Keyword Planner. This useful tool lets you type in keywords to figure out how much traffic that particular keyword is generating. The tool also suggests more keywords which may have slipped your mind.

Remember, you should have a mix of keywords with buying and research intent. Buying intent refers to those search terms which indicate that the searcher is interested in getting the work done and hence, is looking for a local contractor. On the other hand, research intent keywords are those which demonstrate that the person is interested, but not ready to hire someone right away. They are still in the research phase and will make up their minds later.

When it comes to local SEO, there is no way you can ignore Google My Business (GMB) listing. Your GMB page functions as a mini website, wherein prospects get a quick preview of your company. This listing gives impetus to your Google ranking and ensures that prospective customers can find you quickly.

Run a Google My Business search and claim pages that you have not created. If you are new to Google My Business then make sure you create your GMB profile page. Fill all the fields and ensure that the information that you input is current.

You will need to claim the page and get verified by Google. Once the verification process is over, you will see a tick mark next to your company name. Thereafter, fill out the NAP – business name, address, and phone number. Ensure that details are correct and are the same as the NAPs in other online pages, like social media and online directories. This is where you should list down a local phone number rather than using an 800 number. Then select categories. Opt for about five categories that list your services. Besides your primary service, be sure to mention your secondary services. So, opt for categories like home builder, general contractor, kitchen remodeler, and home renovations.

Write a short description of your company and end it with a call to action. Make sure that the description is about 100 to 200 words and not more than that. Then fill out other information like the hours of operation, and end the GMB listing with images. This will significantly enhance customer engagement.

If you find it too cumbersome to do this, use TribeLocal, a comprehensive tool, to claim your GMB listing. It makes everything easy, simple and convenient.

As a building and construction company that serves the local market, you should initially focus on your core webpages, which are your homepage and service pages.

Go back to the keyword list and select the keywords from the buying intend category. Use those keywords in a meaningful manner in your homepage and service page. Remember, you will need a title tag for the homepage. It should not be more than 50 to 65 characters in length.

Then check the meta description. It should be around 100 to 150 characters and should be about your core services and have a call to action. Don’t forget to mention the city you are operating in, as it is necessary for local SEO.

Use your homepage well. It gives prospective customers an insight into your business and services. Write the content cleanly, accurately and precisely. Make sure you have a call to action at the end.

When it comes to your service page, create individual pages for each service. Here too, you will have to create title tag and meta description. Fill the service page with buying intent keywords. Spread out the keywords across the content and pages so that they are optimized for local searches.

When it comes to local SEO, both citations and links are important. They help your local Google ranking and ensure prospective customers can find you.

Citations are nothing but your business’ name, address and phone number in online directories. So make sure that you choose these directories carefully. You can go with construction directories, listing in your local Chamber of Commerce website, Facebook and yellowpages.com. If you are going for paid online directory listing, use Google Analytics to figure out if you spent your money wisely.

When your site has high-quality inbound links, Google will view your website more favourably. This translates to high search engine ranking. You should try to network with online and offline companies in your domain, like realtors and subcontractors. You can then request them to link to your site

Online reviews by customers play a major role in local search engine optimization. Prospective customers will read these reviews to determine whether it is worthwhile to use your services. The reviews also show Google that your building and construction company is a legitimate business. So, ask satisfied customers to write reviews on your Google My Business page, and this will give your search engine ranking a major thrust.

Once you have done the local SEO, it is time to see whether you efforts paid off. This requires you to track the results of your campaign. Use TribeLocal to find out the actual ranking of your website in search engine results. Make it a point to check your site’s ranking at least once a month to find out how you fare. The results will give you insights into what needs to be tweaked and what is working.

You also need to track the visitors to your website. You can do the tracking with the help of TribeLocal. This tool will tell which webpage attracts the maximum traffic and how many visitors you are getting through Google search.

The whole idea of search engine optimization is to get conversions. So, use TribeLocal also to track conversions. You will be able to find out which webpages are converting well and which ones are converting poorly. Those that fall in the latter category need to be tweaked and reworked so that they too yield high conversions.

• Select keywords with care
• Opt for keywords that focus on buying
• Create a complete and accurate Google My Business listing
• Optimize your website for the right keywords
• Ensure citations have correct NAP
• Build inbound links from credible sites
• Get favorable online customer reviews
• Encourage customers to post directly on Google My Business listing
• Track your SEO campaign with free tools

You can stand up against brands and bigger national companies by concentrating on the local market. Your local marketing campaigns should begin online and this will help you surge through SERPs and ensure your website attracts traffic and paid customers.