SEO for Construction Companies: The Ultimate Guide

Too many construction companies don’t realize how powerful their website can be for business. They pay little attention to it. After all, your architectural and engineering contacts are always going to feed you with clients… right? That may be true, but if you neglect your website, you’re missing out on a tremendous opportunity to showcase your prestige, expertise and to expand to new markets. That’s why you need search engine optimization. In this article, you’ll get the ultimate guide to search engine optimization for construction companies:

The benefits of SEO for construction companies
National SEO vs. Local SEO – What they are and which you should focus on
Four steps to improving national SEO right now
Three tips to rock local SEO

By the end of it, you’ll have concrete steps to up your website’s search engine optimization and position yourself as an industry leader.

Benefits of SEO for Construction Companies

National SEO vs. Local SEO for Construction Companies

How to Improve National SEO for Construction Companies

How to Improve Local SEO for Construction Companies

Benefits of SEO for Construction Companies

There are three major reasons why a construction company should care about SEO:

Construction SEO builds prestige
Construction SEO helps you expand to new markets

Let’s have a closer look.

SEO Builds Prestige for Construction Companies

There are few industries where prestige is as vital as it is for construction.

When people plan big building projects, they’ll want the best hands to work on it. They’ll want a company that has the expertise and experience to turn their dream into a reality.

With a good website, you can showcase all the projects you’ve worked on and the impact you’ve had on communities.

However, that’s not enough. You can put all your success stories on your website, but it’ll be worthless if nobody finds it.

That’s why you need search engine optimization.

With a strong SEO rank, anybody looking for information on construction will come across your website. And they’ll leave remembering your name as an expert.

Thousands of people search “construction companies” on search engines every month – over 15,000 to be exact.

When your website is the first to show up, so many more people will see the wonderful works you’ve constructed. And this will build respect for your company name.

How about when people type your company name into a search engine? Is all they get your website and your LinkedIn profile in the search results? If so, that’s not enough.

Imagine how much better you’d look if people would also get articles on the major projects you’ve worked on! Something you can only achieve with good SEO.

SEO Helps You Expand to New Markets

The great thing about SEO is that you can get ultra-specific.

If you want to position yourself as an expert in building, say, hospitals, good SEO can do just that.

Even if you have no projects to showcase, you can show your expertise by giving in-depth information on building hospitals.

This way, anybody that reads your articles won’t only know you’re a company that can be trusted – they’ll also see you as the company to go to if they need help with hospital construction.

That’s how SEO can help you branch into new markets.

National SEO vs. Local SEO – Which Type of SEO Should Construction Companies Focus On?

There are two types of SEO: National SEO (also called traditional SEO or just SEO) and local SEO.

National SEO focuses on ranking your website for any keywords related to construction (or the type of construction you specialize in).

Good national SEO will bring in traffic from all over the world. If you’re looking for projects anywhere, this strategy will bring your name to potential partners across the country.

On the other hand, local SEO focuses on ranking your website for local construction keywords, which are any keywords with a location on it.

SEO keywords like “construction company in Jacksonville” or “construction regulations in Baltimore” are local keywords.

If you’re trying to showcase your work to people in a particular state or city, going after local SEO keywords will get them to your site.

Most of the time, businesses focus heavily on either national or local SEO and pay less attention to the other. Restaurants go all out on local SEO, while product-manufacturers pour their efforts on national SEO.

However, things are different for a construction business.

Construction companies should focus on both national AND local SEO.

Also, the methods a construction business should use to succeed are slightly different from other industries.

While general SEO practices that you typically find online will help – they won’t hit the bullseye. That’s why you need to learn how to do SEO specifically for construction companies.

How? Read on to find out.

How to Improve National SEO for Construction Companies

Construction company SEO is slightly different than conventional SEO because it puts heavy emphasis on building credibility.

There are four key ways you can improve your national SEO:

Content Writing
Link Building
Web Design
Technical SEO

Let’s have a closer look.

How to Improve SEO for Construction Companies Step #1: Write Content and Target SEO Keywords for Construction Companies

Your website NEEDS content.

It’s integral to rank on search engines. Without content, there is no way anybody is going to find your website organically.

Now… what content should you write? How do you use content to establish yourself as the authority of the types of projects you work on?

There are two ways: writing about your projects and writing on SEO keywords for a construction business.

Writing About Your Projects

When you want to showcase your work, just uploading pictures is not enough.

You should also write about the project’s challenges, how you solved them, and how your work helped the community.

This will not only lead people reading to trust your company and want similar results, but it will also help your page SEO rank higher.

You see, the longer people spend on pages, the better it is for your construction SEO.

If you only have a few pictures and no text, most people will do a quick scan and hit the back button.

However, this does not mean you should put endless blocks of text that nobody wants to read. Good content writing is saying everything that needs to be said and nothing else. In other words, every word of your content should contribute something valuable to readers.

Writing on SEO Keywords for Construction Companies

The second type of content is content that targets keywords to bring traffic to your website.

Want to establish your company as the authority of building schools?

One way to do this is to write a comprehensive article on what people looking to build a school should know. A piece like “20 Things You Should Know Before Building a School” will show readers you know exactly how schools should be made.

Not only that, but you’ll also attract more traffic to your website. Informative articles like that are what bring in droves of organic visitors.

The best part?

The people who find your article through search engines are the people who are already planning to build a school (or whatever type of project you write about). They may just need your services.

So fill your website with a mix of content on projects you’ve worked on and free information that demonstrates your expertise. It’ll also give your SEO a big boost.

How to Improve SEO for Construction Companies Step #2: Build Quality Links

In SEO, domain rank is crucial for success. The higher your domain ranks on search results, the more traffic you’re going to get. One way to strengthen your domain rank is through link building. Link building is getting other reputable websites to link to yours. The more quality links you have, the stronger your domain rank will be. That said, you shouldn’t go and put your link on any website – that’s not how link building works. Gone are the days when link building was all about quantity, now it’s all about quality. You need links from other reputable websites that have something to do with construction. There are several ways to work on your website’s link building:

Link Outreach
Guest Blogging
Writing Informative Articles and Performing Case Studies

Here’s a closer look:

Link Outreach

At its core, link outreach is simply asking other websites to put a link to yours. It’s one of the most effective methods of link building.

One way you could do this is through your architectural and engineering contacts. Some of them have websites that list companies they work with.

Reaching out and asking them to link your company name to your website will strengthen your domain rank.

You could also go after press releases. Another link building strategy is to find anywhere your company is mentioned on the internet, then reaching out and asking the website owner to link to your website.

Guest Blogging

A link from a reputable website in your niche carries a lot more weight than random links here and there. That’s why another great linking building strategy is guest blogging.

Target a website you want a link from, then pitch them a guest post.

Your guest post should be something highly valuable to their audience. This way, you’ll get a bigger chance of getting accepted and earning a new link.

Writing Informative Articles and Performing Case Studies

Writing great articles targeting construction keywords will not only bring in more traffic, but it’ll also gain you more links.

Write in-depth guides, perform case studies, give out information that can’t be found on the internet (or isn’t written as well as yours).

Putting together infographics or instructive videos will also gain a tremendous amount of links.

So many people are looking for insights. If you provide them, a bunch of websites will cite your work. And when they do this, you’re building your website up as the go-to resource for all things construction.

You’ll find this is an extremely effective method of link building and SEO.

How to Improve SEO for Construction Companies Step #3: Create a User-Friendly Website

User experience is another vital part of SEO.

It’s even more important than website design. You can have the most beautiful website ever, but if visitors can’t find what they’re looking for immediately, they won’t stay long.

The longer people stay on your website, the higher you’ll rank on search results. So when designing your website, find ways to keep visitors longer.

Your web design should be all about user experience. If it isn’t a place people love to be, you’ll never rank.

2. Guest Blogging

Is there a big website that you want a link from?

One way to get it is through guest blogging.

Write a blog post that will be ultra-valuable to that website’s readers, and pitch to have it guest posted.

The more relevant your article is to the website you’re pitching it to, the bigger the chance you’ll earn a link.

How to Improve SEO for Construction Companies Step #4: Fix Technical SEO (or Hire a Web Developer)

As much as we want to give SEO tips that you can work on yourself, dealing with technical SEO is probably something you’ll want a professional to handle.

Unless you know how to code and edit template files, working on technical SEO will not be easy for you. This job requires working on crawl errors, schema markups, broken links, mobile-friendliness, and page speed.

That’s why we recommend hiring a web developer (or getting SEO services to work on this for you).

Fixing up technical SEO problems is critical. If Google can’t read your pages (crawl errors), there’s no way you can rank. Google also won’t increase your SEO rank if it finds your website is slow or full of broken links.

You might not see these errors, but they’re there. Having a professional look through this for you will help your website’s SEO rank tremendously.

How to Improve Local SEO for Construction Companies

If you want to be the go-to construction company for your area, local SEO is what will get you there.

However, like national SEO, local SEO for construction companies also takes a slightly different approach.

How to Improve Local SEO for Construction Companies Tip #1: Target Local SEO Keywords for Construction Companies

Like writing on SEO keywords for construction companies, you should also target local keywords for construction companies.

Find the construction problems people are searching about in your area, and write up on those. For example, you could write about “Construction Regulations in _____” or “20 Things You Need to Know Before Constructing a Building in _____.”

Articles like these will target people specifically in your area. And you can display your knowledge of construction in your city or state to them.

How to Improve Local SEO for Construction Companies Tip #2: Sign Up for Google My Business

Google My Business is the bread and butter of local SEO.

With a good Google My Business profile, your company will be one of the firsts to pop up in the search results when people in your area type “construction companies.”

Not only that, but it’ll also be super easy for them to get all your important information such as your website, location, contact number, business hours, and maybe even pictures of your office.

So head over to Google.com/business and build up your profile.

However, it’s not enough to just create a Google My Business profile. You also need to optimize it.

This is done by giving Google as much information about your company as possible. As you set up your profile, try to fill up every blank.

You should also upload every picture Google asks for and more. Aside from the basics – your logo, banner, and office – it’s also a good idea to add 3-4 more pictures. Maybe a picture of your team?

Finally, you should sprinkle in keywords into your business description. This is a great place to tell readers what type of buildings you specialize in.

How to Improve Local SEO for Construction Companies Tip #3: Get Citations from Directory Sites

One goal of local search engine optimization is to get into the top three of Google’s map pack (also known as the 3-pack).

A good Google My Business profile is essential to getting up here. But that alone is not enough. You’ll also need citations.

Citations are any place on the internet where your company’s NAP (name, address, and phone number) appears.

The best place to get these is from directory websites. Sites like Yelp and Yellow Pages are great places to register your business and put your NAP.

If you find your business already on these websites, click “claim business” to correct or add more information.

Also, be careful with typos. If your address is misspelled, this won’t count as a citation.

Ready to take Your Company’s Prestige to New Heights?

Construction SEO is not here to replace your architectural, engineering, and other contacts who feed you projects.

Plus, it’s something that takes a lot of work to get done – and you won’t see instant results. It may take weeks or even months before your website ranks high in search results.

Is it even worth it?

Yes.

Heck yes.

With strong SEO, you’ll put yourself a step ahead of your competition. People will look up to you as an industry leader.

And when someone is looking for a good construction company in their area? Yours will be the most prestigious in their eyes.

Want the professionals to do your SEO for you?

Find out how you can get your website to that #1 spot!