There’s a big problem with the majority of SEO advice that’s out there, at least as far as it impacts the average contractor. Most of the advice is aimed at people who are trying to compete with other websites on a national, or even on a global scale.
But as a contractor, you really only need to market to a select group of people: the ones in your service area. While it might be a nice ego boost to have 30,000 readers for your landscaping blog it won’t be very helpful to you if most of those readers are coming in from other states.
The solution is to pay very close attention to adding local keywords to each and every blog post that you write.
Don’t get intimidated. Local keywords are just the names of the cities that you serve.
There are several ways to do this without sounding like a robot. One way would be to tie into local events or conditions somehow. For example, if you’re a gutter contractor, you may have a blog post that begins like this:
“Here in Minneapolis, we see a lot of homeowners with ice dams in their gutters.”
Another way is to focus in on local events for some of your blog posts. You are, after all, part of a community, and it’s not a bad idea to support that community.
A third way would be to create a little bio at the end of each blog post. These are nice because you can include a little call to action at the end of your bio without looking too sales-focused in your main post. Set it aside in italics, and write something like this:
We serve Coon Rapids, Anoka, Blaine, and the rest of the Minneapolis-St.Paul metro area. Call us today for a free estimate!
You can (and should) mix and match these efforts for best results. If you do, you will ensure that most of your readers will be in a position to act on your great information by calling you in for their next project!
