How To Maximize SEO for Construction Companies in 2024? Advanced SEO Strategies for Construction Industry.

Date : October 29, 2024 By Andrei Iunisov

Key Takeaways

• SEO for construction companies is complicated, but fosters traffic and business growth.
• Known strategies are optimizing for local keywords and creating location-based content, but there are approaches with less competition.
• Find in the article how to exploit these smart approaches in construction SEO in this article.

Understanding the Importance & Benefits of SEO in the Construction Industry

Over 764,000 construction businesses are operating only in the US, according to Statista, driving the value of new private construction put in place surpassing $1,67 trillion (4,4% of the country’s GDP), not to mention the construction industry in other countries. This is a vast and, at the same time, a very crowded and segmented market, where it is hard to differentiate, compete and be profitable. In addition, construction industry regulations are getting stricter to support the sustainability efforts of the governments, and it does not make the life of construction businesses easier. One of the ways to compete in this market and succeed in the above-mentioned circumstances is to leverage effective marketing strategies, namely in the digital space. Construction companies were increasing their investments in digital marketing by 11% in 2023. It is, therefore, harder to compete for the attention of potential clients, and this is why SEO has become crucial for construction companies today.

Improved Online Visibility

Nowadays, lots of people are starting their research for construction services or products online using search engines. SEO services help increase organic visibility so that potential customers can easily find desired construction services in search engines. Certainly, higher search rankings lead to the growth of traffic and, subsequently, the number of leads.

Cost Effective Acquisition

Unlike paid customer acquisition methods, properly executed SEO, which leverages customized strategies, can be far less expensive and more effective simultaneously. On the other hand, paid acquisition in search is expensive. Recent research has shown that construction companies spend around $4,000 on average per month purely for Google Ads, with an average cost per click of $4,82. With such a unit economy, the company might get less than 1,000 clicks per month or just above 30 clicks per day, which for SEO is a very low amount of traffic to achieve. Once you rank well for certain keywords, you’ll easily get this traffic volume without constantly paying for clicks, therefore ensuring much higher ROI.

High Quality of the Traffic

Construction SEO can target both residential and non-residential construction businesses, including subsectors of the construction market, such as plumbing, HVAC, heating, electrical, site preparation, commercial building, painting, roofing, masonry and others. For them, SEO can attract targeted audiences, such as homeowners, small and medium businesses and enterprise clients, depending on your choice of keywords.

Credibility and Trustworthiness

In the current FUD times, websites that rank well in search results are often considered more trustworthy and authoritative. The construction industry as a whole requires substantial investments, and therefore, trust and credibility are very important long-term goals to pursue with SEO.

Competitive Advantage

In my experience, the construction business is highly regulated and quite resistant to innovation, and its marketing function is not an exception. Many companies still heavily rely on straightforward paid advertising methods, which are expensive and not sustainable in the long run. SEO practices, on the contrary, have long-lasting effects and provide not only leads but also a better user experience. Customized and smart SEO strategies can provide a competitive edge, especially in certain niches where competitors adopt digital marketing methods more slowly.

Transparency in Measuring Results

While in paid acquisition Google and other companies are enforcing advanced privacy regulations like Privacy Sandbox, which makes it hard for marketers to attribute leads and prove ROI, search engine optimization is perfectly trackable. Rankings, traffic, leads and deals – the overall conversion funnel is quantifiable. With the ability to measure, one cannot manage the process, but thankfully, SEO is an exception.

SEO in Construction and Its Goals

SEO or search engine optimization is the digital marketing method that improves the visibility of the website for target search queries and increases the quantity of website traffic from organic search engines like Google, Microsoft Bing, DuckDuckGo and others.  Subsequently, SEO in the construction industry is used by businesses seeking better visibility for industrial keywords (for example, “best home renovation company”) and getting more traffic from such keywords to their websites.

The ultimate goals of any marketing activity, including the construction market, are to generate demand for construction services, bring in new and repeat customers, and help sales to close these deals. If we take specifically SEO, it includes the following sequence of goals:

• Improve visibility for target construction keywords
• Increase organic traffic from these keywords
• Convert this traffic into leads interested in construction services
• Enhance brand awareness in search, and therefore, help convert leads into deals
• Participate as a channel that drives repeat sales for construction companies

As an example, let’s imagine a mid-sized construction company that specializes in eco-friendly residential buildings. Let’s imagine that it operates primarily in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States, with offices in Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver, and its services include new home construction and eco-friendly renovations for existing facilities.

Any company wants to improve its visibility for target construction keywords, and in this example, it might seek to achieve the top 5 rankings for “eco-friendly home construction [city]” in Seattle, Portland and Vancouver, while also ranking on the first page for broader terms like “sustainable home builders Washington” and “green residential construction Washington”.

In terms of organic traffic, these builders set ambitious goals. They may want to increase overall organic traffic by 40% year-over-year. Converting this increased traffic into leads is a key priority, and therefore, the company may want to increase contact form submissions from SEO by 30% and boost downloads of their whitepaper called “Eco-Friendly Home Design Guide” by 50%. They may have also set a goal to achieve a 5% conversion rate for visitors booking a free sustainable home design consultation.

Enhancing brand awareness in search results is another vital goal for this company. They can target a 40% increase in branded search volume for keywords containing the name of their company. As a part of their niche branding goal, they may want to improve rankings for keywords like “best eco-friendly home builders in Washington”.

Finally, they plan to rank for keywords related to home upgrades and maintenance, such as “eco-friendly home renovations” and “sustainable landscape design” to increase repeat business.

Key Challenges of SEO for Construction Companies

Keyword Difficulty (Competition)

Many SEOs claim that using generic keywords like “construction services”, “home builders” or “commercial construction” will be extremely difficult to rank for, especially for small and new businesses. They typically recommend long-tail and location-based keywords, claiming they are a better choice because of the low competition in search results, for instance, “eco-friendly home renovation in [city]” or “industrial warehouse construction in [state].” Take a look at the reality from my experience:

According to my personal experience, the situation is different. Sometimes, in this niche it is better to use unconventional approaches to get better results.

Complexities of Local SEO

Construction business is often local by itself from the marketing standpoint; therefore, your search appearance has to be local as well. Localizing SEO is difficult compared to the normal project since one has to create location-based landing pages for various projects, optimize several Google Business listings and foster reviews on them. In addition, as you can see in the screenshots above, local SEO keywords are very competitive. In some cases, I would even recommend hyper-targeted SEM advertising instead of SEO because of the low probability of ranking normally for local keywords and unpredicted SEO costs in this case.

Professional Jargon in Content

There is a gap between how audiences search for certain things in construction and how industry professionals name them. Sometimes it can also change over time for a prospect, who can change search terms during their customer journey. SEOs have to optimize for both types of content, leveraging service pages for widespread terms and glossaries for technical industry jargon. For example, compare “house foundation repair” and “structural underpinning” – these keywords are used by totally different audiences, and, in my opinion, with the second one, you might get both college students and qualified customers.

Challenging Page Load Speed

To demonstrate the project portfolio on the website, one needs to upload large images, subsequently slowing down the website. Web developers and SEO managers have to work as a team to tackle these challenges and leverage lazy loading, CSS minification and other techniques to improve the Core Web Vitals metrics. Also, many people might search for construction services from mobile, making mobile optimization crucial for success but hard to achieve on the small screen of a certain device. Another example could be displaying complex technical specifications or project timelines on mobile devices that are hard to achieve without losing critical information.

Seasonality and Fluctuations

Seasonality is obvious in the construction industry, especially in some regions. As a result, search volumes and demand can differ dramatically in winter and summer. Take roofing services – in summer the search volume for “roof replacement” is growing, while in winter, the search volume grows for “emergency roof repair” because of snow damage, at least where I used to live. The flexibility and adaptability of the SEO strategy are the keys to delivering prominent results in construction SEO, which means creating evergreen content that works off-season, too.

Long Sales Cycle

Long sales cycles are more of a problem of attribution. When the customer journey is long and complicated, it is tough to define whether it was SEO, PPC or any other type of traffic that led to a sales opportunity. One of the ways to address this problem is to measure micro conversions (newsletter sign-ups, webinar registrations, requests for calculation, sample requests, design consultation bookings, interactive quizzes or downloads of guides) that are easier to attribute.

Mixed Target Audience

Since construction businesses can target multiple markets (homeowners, businesses or government organizations), each of them has separate search behavior and keywords. The key to success is to segment the audience during keyword research, landing page or blog creation. Various keywords require specific landing pages or blog content to rank better and deliver clicks from search results.

While working with a construction customer long ago, I initially had a single “commercial construction” landing page that did not rank well. After segmenting the audience and choosing proper niche keywords, we separated several business divisions on dedicated pages like “office building construction”, “retail space renovation” and “industrial facility expansion”. This resulted in a significant spike in organic traffic and rankings because dedicated pages were more relevant and, therefore, easier to rank.

Keeping Content Up-to-Date

Since Google prefers fresh content, construction websites need to be updated regularly. In my experience, it is usually hard to find topics for the regular production of new content in this niche internally, especially because the core services remain unchanged. The only way to solve this is to have a blog that discusses industry trends, lists project updates and provides educational content. This allows construction SEOs to add fresh content on a regular basis and satisfy Google’s requirements. Last but not least, creating high-quality, helpful content on construction is very hard to outsource, and it is challenging to do this in-house because of resource shortage, too.

Keyword Research in Construction SEO

Who should conduct keyword research for construction SEO?

The first goal above is the visibility for construction keywords. But what actually are these keywords, and how to research them and select the best ones? This question is critical, as, in my opinion, keyword research is the part of SEO that needs to be executed in-house by the marketing department, and construction companies are no exception. Only the essential knowledge of products and services provided by your construction company can define the most effective keyword strategy, and obviously, this is internal expertise. Your SEO contractor can be your resource, but you must guide them and manage the process.

How to execute keyword research?

Whether it is your internal team or outsourced agency, when researching keywords, make sure your strategy includes a mix of the below keyword types. They need to align with different products and services and appeal to various customer needs and search intents. Here are several types that you might consider:

Generic keywords around your products and services

These keywords are connected with products or services that your construction company offers. For example, “residential construction”, “commercial building services”, “home renovation”, or “industrial construction”.

Keywords aligned with the prospect’s location

These keywords are targeting local buyers of construction products and services. It’s essentially a subgroup of the previous type. Examples may include: “construction company in [city name]”, “builders near me”, “home remodeling [state/region]”. Such keywords are vital for your local construction SEO strategy, which I will cover below.

Niche expertise keywords

These keywords focus on specific areas of your overall construction expertise. For instance, “green building construction”, “historical building restoration”, “earthquake-resistant construction”, or “modular building services”.

Keywords about specific construction projects 

Such keywords are a subgroup of the first type but cover specific construction projects: “new home construction”, “office building renovation”, “warehouse construction”, or “school building project”. They can be connected with your expertise and niche, too.

Keywords related to construction materials

This type of keywords is widely used in construction or building materials niches. If your company specializes in working with certain materials, then here are several examples: “steel frame construction”, “timber frame builders”, “concrete contractors” and others. These keywords can interconnect with expertise or specific project keywords, making them long-tail ones.

Keywords that address specific construction-related challenges 

One of the most effective types of keywords in terms of lead generation. Such is used by searchers looking for solutions: “fix foundation cracks”, “repair storm damage”, or “upgrade old electrical systems”. In many cases, searches for these keywords end up with leads, and therefore, they are very competitive.

Informational keywords

These keywords are used by people seeking information about various construction topics: “construction process steps”, “how to choose a contractor”, or “construction cost estimator”. As their intent is relatively far from completing a transaction, the competition levels are usually not so high.

Keywords connected with seasons or events

For example, “post-hurricane reconstruction”, “winter home improvement projects”, and “back-to-school facility upgrades”. It is not always possible to identify such keywords beforehand, but sometimes industry expertise allows for forecasting the demand and building content tailored to such terms.

Industry-specific terminology or keywords connected with construction equipment or technologies 

These are technical jargon used by construction professionals: “BIM services”, “LEED certification construction”, “value engineering in construction”, “crane rental for construction”, “3D printing in construction” or others. Typically, these are involved when the ultimate goal is to market to the construction industry members by themselves.

How to Choose Construction Keywords Wisely?

When I was doing keyword research for my several clients from the construction industry, I was always paying attention to the following parameters to identify the best keyword opportunities:

1. Search Volume

Obviously, search volume is an important parameter, although it is not always better to concentrate on high-volume keywords. They may be too generic and competitive. Therefore, it’s only a single variable in the equation. As an example, the “best construction companies” keyword has 1,700 searches per month in the US, while the “best residential construction companies” keyword has only 30, but it may be more relevant for your business.

2. Keyword Difficulty

This metric, which is called different in various SEO tools, refers to the level of competition. Based on certain factors, usually off-page ones, it estimates how difficult it is to rank for a certain keyword. There needs to be a balance between search volume and keyword difficulty, especially if your budget and resources are tight. Same as above, the “best construction companies” keyword has 35 keyword difficulty, while the “best residential construction companies” has only 20 and is far easier to rank well for.

3. Relevance

This factor is about how close this keyword aligns with your company’s products or services. Mathematically I would picture it as a probability to convert into a lead after searching a website using such a term. Similarly, the “best construction companies” keyword may include those who are looking for commercial building construction, while “best residential construction companies” is purely focused on the residential market piece. If you’re focusing on this market, it makes no sense to target the first keyword, especially if you’re on a budget.

4. Search Intent

Each search intent represents various stages of the customer journey. An effective SEO strategy for construction must enable engagements with the prospect during all stages. Therefore, search terms you want to rank for should have different search intents (not only transactional, like many people think).

Users seek knowledge or answers to questions with keywords of informational intent. For example, “how to choose a contractor for home renovations” might be a good keyword to rank for in order to touch with a prospect at the very top of the conversion funnel. As a navigational intent example, we can take “home depot website”, where users will be looking for a specific construction-related website or brand during their journey, and this is where you can get your website in front of the right audience. Transactional intent can include “best home renovation companies near me”, featuring users who are researching products or services before making a decision.

Tools for SEO Keyword Research

Effective research tools such as SEMrush, Ahrefs or Mangools will let you know how much search volume and keyword difficulty you will have for the particular keyword, allowing you to choose the best ones to rank. As you can see in the screenshot below, search volumes sometimes are unpredictable (10 for “best home renovation companies” in Denver, while 140 for “house renovation contractors near me” in the same place), while the keyword difficulty ratio is opposite (25 vs 14). This example illustrates how important it is to have all the variables of the equation in your hands to make the right keyword decisions.

How to Conduct Competitive Analysis in Construction SEO?

Knowing what your competitors are doing in regards to SEO is essential for making your website show up better in search engines, especially in the construction industry. By looking at how other construction businesses are optimizing their websites for better search rankings, you can find successful strategies to improve your own website’s rankings and also avoid mistakes leading to time and budget losses. Here are some vital steps describing a simple algorithm that will help identify potential growth hacks for your website optimization:

Step 1 – Finding Your Competitors

Start by finding out who your main competitors are in search. This includes local construction companies that execute similar types of projects, bigger companies that might serve in your area and informational websites that focus on construction services. You can use Google to search for your target terms like “commercial construction [city name]” or “home renovation services” and analyze search results. In addition, check local business directories or websites like Houzz or HomeAdvisor to find other companies operating in your area and check how their websites rank in tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs .

Step 2 – Checking Competitor Websites

Look closely at your competitors’ websites from the SEO perspective and pay attention to types of content they leverage for SEO, how they structure this content and organize navigation between pages. You should also consider the content that is primary not for SEO but supports it. Analyze how your competitors represent their services on transactional pages, how they display their case studies and in what visual formats and what social proof and call-to-action elements they place on the pages.

Step 3 – Looking at Keywords

Use SEO tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs (see the thorough description of such tools below in the corresponding section of the article) to find out which keywords your competitors are using to get traffic and what is the dynamics of their ranking performance. This will help you see what keywords you might be missing during your keyword research, what keywords would be too competitive for you to work on right from the start, as well as identify if your competitor SEO strategies are performing or not.

Step 4 – Learning from Content

Check out the types of SEO content your competitors are creating. Based on step 3 you will be able to understand their target keywords and their search intent, and now you can concentrate on the content topics that they are using to satisfy this search intent. Learn how often they publish new content and the frequency of the content updates they perform. By understanding what type of content and what content schedule works for them, you can improve your content strategy. In addition, to understand their content optimization best practices, use tools like Screaming Frog that  show what approaches they use to optimize meta titles, meta descriptions, headings and internal linking.

Step 5 – Analyzing Backlinks

Despite Google claims, a backlink profile is important for construction companies. Use tools like Ahrefs or Mangools LinkMiner to find out where your competitors are getting their backlinks from. This information will uncover where your competitors get backlinks, which will ultimately provide you with new linking opportunities. There are different types of backlinks discussed below in this article, like industry directories, local business groups, construction magazines and blogs, that you could find in your competitor backlink profiles and reach out to. You may find some decent chances to get links from suppliers, local events or sponsorships connected with your competitors.

Step 6 – Checking Local SEO

Local SEO is very important for construction businesses, which I will discuss in the corresponding section below. However, research-wise I would recommend starting with your competitors’ Google Business Profiles to see how they list their service categories, profile attributes, company descriptions, photos and posts. Check on what platforms their business is listed apart from Google Business, for example, Yelp or Yellow Pages. Most importantly, pay attention to the number of reviews and average ratings, as well as how they respond to customers.

This is very basic SEO research, but it is a good starting point to craft your overall SEO strategy or adjust the existing one if results are not promising. I would recommend performing such analysis once a quarter. By regularly checking on your competitors, you can improve your website’s visibility and attract more customers for your construction business.

The Three Key Pillars of Construction Website SEO Optimization

Technical SEO Optimization for Construction Websites

Technical SEO makes sure your website is optimized according to Google’s guidelines by addressing its frontend and backend components. For many this only includes ensuring mobile responsiveness for users looking up construction services on the go, protecting lead forms’ data sent through a secure connection over HTTPS, and speeding up the page load. However, there are more technical requirements that any construction website has to comply with to ensure better rankings.

The first step is to make sure that the search bot indexes your website correctly. Google Search Console needs to be installed on the website to manage the indexing of the existing pages and to submit new pages for indexing. In this console you should upload your XML sitemap with all the URLs of the pages you would like Google to discover. In addition, you have to make sure that your robots.txt file is correctly set up and includes the link to the XML sitemap, as well as that your URL canonicalization works properly. Here is the Google guide for indexing – https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing. Obviously, you’ll need to execute the same procedures for Bing and install their Webmaster Tools, too.

Next, after ensuring your construction website is indexed properly, you’ll need to optimize its look in search results. Technically you should implement the following:

• Add branded favicon
• Add structured data markup of the following generic types: Article, Logo, Breadcrumb and WebSite
• Add structured data markup of the following types related to construction: LocalBusiness, Service, Review and VideoObject
• Optimize large images of projects, minimize JavaScript and ensure fast server response times, which is especially important for construction websites
• Create AMP pages; they can still be beneficial for construction blog posts or project galleries for faster loading on mobile devices
• Follow the rules for byline dates for your blog content
• Optimize your website for Follow feature in Google Chrome
• Submit a video sitemap to improve the indexing of construction object videos
• Optimize large images of construction projects for speed, quality and responsiveness
• Use descriptive alt text for images to ensure accessibility
• Make your construction videos indexable by placing them on dedicated pages and with video-specific page metadata and headings
• If you’re running your construction business internationally, use hreflang tags and country-specific domains or subdirectories
• Optimize the content that is rendered with Javascript to be easily discoverable by Google bot, which is essential for interactive construction project tours and quote calculators
• Use internal linking between service, project and blog pages to help users and bots navigate between them
• Try including target keywords in URL slugs and avoid “get” parameters in them (e.g., /services/eco-friendly-home-construction)
• Use pagination attributes for multipage portfolio and blog sections (rel=”next” and rel=”prev”)
• Ensure your 404 error pages offer interaction capabilities (search bar, visual sitemap, etc)
• To speed up the page load, leverage PWA technology and lazy image and video loading for showcasing construction sites

You can find detailed guidance from Google on how to implement these features here – https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance. Once you have implemented all the recommendations, your website should now be indexed properly by Googlebot and should look prominent in search results. The next step is to make it actually rank higher for your target keywords.

On-page SEO

Optimizing your construction website’s structure and content is the primary goal of on-page SEO. For each particular keyword (or set of similar keywords) you have to identify search intent and what types of content rank better for this particular keyword, and then plan and write your own content (or rewrite the existing one). Depending on the search intent, it can be either an informational piece (a blog article, a glossary article, or similar), a commercial one (product or service page) or other types of content. A well-rounded, multichannel content strategy that understands the concerns and challenges of your audience is essential for success in construction SEO.

Informational Intent

In my opinion, any informational content usually ranks better than commercial content. Therefore, you should maximize informational content on your website and prioritize accordingly. Below are some example categories of informational content.

Blog Articles

Create in-depth and engaging blogs on diverse construction-related niches. For example, “How to Plan a Home Renovation” will give readers a comprehensive, step-by-step guide or a “Guide for Sustainable Building Materials” that would provide insights into more eco-friendly options available for your construction projects. It helps train future clients while establishing your company as an expert in the industry.

FAQ Pages

Develop FAQ pages that answer common client concerns in relation to the construction process, timelines and cost expectations. They should be descriptive, including project duration, budgeting, types of services and any other concerns your audience may have. An informative FAQ page builds trust and reduces potential client hesitation by offering transparency. Here are some typical things to include that I find useful for search engines on such pages:

1. How long does a typical project take?
2. How do you determine the cost of a project?
3. What types of construction services do you provide?
4. Are you licensed and insured?
5. How do you handle changes to the project scope once work has begun?
6. What measures do you take to ensure quality work?
7. What kind of warranty do you offer on your work?
8. What is your payment schedule for projects?
9. Do you use subcontractors?
10. What sustainable or eco-friendly construction practices do you employ?

Glossaries

Craft a construction terminology glossary to break technical terms into everyday, easy-to-understand language. This can help bridge knowledge gaps for clients who may know little or nothing about construction jargon. Transparent answers enhance user experience and lead to trust in a customer-centric organization. Below is what I would put in a sample glossary for a construction firm’s website. These keywords might be searched for when considering home improvements:

1. Open floor plan
2. Kitchen backsplash designs
3. Subway tile patterns
4. Farmhouse sink installation
5. Shaker cabinet styles
6. Quartz vs granite countertops
7. Crown molding installation
8. Wainscoting ideas
9. French doors interior
10. Smart home systems

 How-To Guides

Create detailed, step-by-step guides on topics of interest, such as DIY construction works or step-by-step breakdowns of the construction phases. From simple home improvements to complex renovations, the content can be particularly informative and valuable for the clients and demonstrate your expertise and mastery in every construction detail. Here are some examples:

1. How to Install Subway Tile Backsplash
2. Professional Guide: Phases of a Major Home Renovation
3. Maintenance Guide: Preparing Your Home for Winter

Each guide targets different search intents and helps capture potential clients at various stages of their journey.

Videos and Blog-to-Video Content

Certainly, you can use video materials for tutorials, project demonstrations and industry insights, but it is very time-consuming to have a video production in place, especially for small businesses. The wise way to approach this is to recycle your written blog content in the form of a video. The current level of AI development allows converting your current blogs into videos using tools like ClipTalk Pro or Invideo AI. As a user, you simply take your blog post, copy it into chatGPT or Claude and prompt it to transform the content into a short video script. After verifying the output, paste this script into the above-mentioned tools and get a ready video in just several minutes. You can then create an engaging thumbnail also using AI and upload it to YouTube to increase viewership and engagement.

Commercial Intent

Service Pages

Elaborate on the detailed terms of each construction service that your firm offers. Group your service offerings by category, including residential construction, commercial projects, or renovation. Each page should at least provide a service overview, detail the process, key features, benefits, reasons clients should choose your company for that specific service and the pricing. However, ranking commercial pages in search is quite challenging because of the low content volume on such pages, and hence, I usually recommend increasing the content using the following blocks:

1. Project timeline estimates
2. Case studies or examples of past projects
3. Client testimonials specific to the service
4. Team members or experts involved
5. FAQ section related to the specific service
6. Related services or cross-selling opportunities
7. Certifications or awards relevant to the service
8. Materials and equipment used
9. Warranty or guarantee information
10. Financing options (if available)
11. Compliance with local building codes and regulations
12. Environmental or sustainability considerations
13. Before and after photos or videos
14. Interactive elements (e.g., cost calculators, virtual tours)
15. Links to relevant blog posts or resources

If you manage to include all of these elements, you will be able to create comprehensive service pages that address potential clients’ concerns while showcasing your expertise.

Case Studies

This will serve as case studies for the work done in the past, which included before-and-after visuals of problems covered and your results. A key element that should be added to case studies is the client’s feedback to create social proof and demonstrate potential value for each project. Case studies can also build trust and further enlighten potential clients about what they should expect when working with your company. Here is what I recommend adding to improve the rankings of such pages:

1. Project overview
2. Clear problem statement
3. Solution showcase
4. Project details and specifics
5. Before and after visuals
6. Quantifiable results
7. Client testimonials
8. Project team spotlight

Use storytelling techniques to make case studies engaging. I would also recommend adding video content, such as a client’s interview or testimonial. Later on, you can share this on your company’s social media and in email marketing campaigns to increase social proof.

Comparison Pages

Develop comparison pages that detail the pros and cons of various construction methods, materials, or technologies. For example, develop a comparison page for traditional versus sustainable building techniques. Another example could be a comparison page for roofing materials or a comparison of home heating systems. These pages will help clients choose the most appropriate technology ideas from a well-informed decision-making process. The demand for such pages in search is clearly evident:

Buyer’s Guides

Provide the buyer’s guide in detail so potential clients understand what to look for when hiring a construction company. You can include expertise in a certain niche, experience, certification, insurance, reputation, safety record, quality record, after-service support, pricing models, and examples of previous work. A good-quality buyer’s guide can make your business the trusted advisor in the client’s overall decision-making process. In addition, such guides are very useful for SEO since they are examples of long-form, helpful content that improves the topical authority and satisfies search intent, not even talking about its backlink potential.

Balancing Technical Content and Client-Focused Content

It is important to have a good mix of technical content for industry professionals and less sophisticated content for non-experienced clients. Technical content shows that you are knowledgeable about your work and ensure quality of your services, while content for regular clients without deep industry knowledge helps attract their attention to your business.

Technical Content

For technical content, think about writing detailed articles about different construction methods, building materials, explaining regulations or processes in the industry. This helps promote your company as a market expert, showcase expertise and establish trust between your employees and prospects.

Client-Focused Content

For content aimed at clients, focus on answering common questions and concerns that homeowners or business owners might have. Example topics could include “Understanding the Home Building Process,” “Top 10 Questions to Ask Your Contractor” or “How to Budget for Your Renovation Project”. Make sure to explain all the information in simple language, while using pictures to help explain technical concepts.

My recommendation would be to aim for about 70% of your content to be client-related and 30% to be purely technical, but you can change this proportion based on who you are trying to reach and what your business objectives are.

How to Optimize Your Existing Construction Website Content?

Meta Tags 

Meta tags, which include meta title and meta description, are HTML elements that describe the content of your page to search engines. Since they appear on the search engine, they also impact the click-through rate in search engine result pages or simply SERPs. A strong meta tag includes some of your main target keywords but at the same time respects its recommended character limits and avoids spamming. In addition, both meta tags have to include a compelling call-to-action to improve the CTR among other SERP rankings.

For example, a meta title for a roofing service page might be: “Expert Roof Installation & Repair Services | XYZ Construction”. This title includes key services and the company name within the recommended 60-character limit, which is not cut in SERP appearance. The meta description could be: “Protect your home with our high-quality roofing services: from shingle replacement to complete roof installations. Get a free estimate today from our certified team!” This description provides insight about services, highlights the expertise and includes the call-to-action. The recommended length of 150-160 characters is respected.

Header Tags (H1, H2, H3 and more)

Header tags organize content and make it easier to read. Additionally, header tags pass to search bots the hierarchy of your article’s content. It is best to optimize them with keywords to some extent, but of course, not make them spammy. Utilize H1 for the main title of the article, while H2, H3 and the following ones have to be used for subheadings. I would recommend using a single H1 tag on each page, as well as following the order (i.e., start the page with H1, not with H6, etc).

An H1 tag for a home renovation page might look like this: “Expert Renovation Services to Transform Your Home”. This clearly states the main content of the page. Subsequent H2 tags could include service subcategories, for instance, “Kitchen Remodeling”, “Bathroom Upgrade” or “Whole House Renovation”. Inside each H2 you can use H3 tags to dive further into each service, such as “Custom Cabinetry” or “Energy-Efficient Appliance Installation” for the Kitchen Remodeling section. Such structure helps search engines understand the content hierarchy.

Content Structure and Readability 

Not only the content itself, but also the structure of the content is very important in the construction industry. Google prefers content that is easy to read and understand, and the construction industry often has challenges in communicating complex building information. One of the best practices here is to leverage short paragraphs that can help explain confusing construction processes. For instance, if you describe home construction project steps, each stage could be written as a short paragraph, making the process easier to digest. This also improves the time on site, which is beneficial for Google in assessing the quality of your content.

The same logic applies to bullet points and numbered lists, which are particularly useful for construction websites. With them, you can seamlessly mention various construction materials and their features, building stages, benefits of certain construction solutions and completed projects. For example, a sustainable building text might have a bullet list that includes eco-friendly materials or energy-saving building methods.

Keyword Density

Keyword density is defined as the frequency of a specific keyword or phrase within a piece of content. When I started my digital marketing career back in 2006, it was considered an important factor in SEO, and everyone was obsessed with optimal density. Luckily, this importance has diminished because SERPs were slammed with over-optimized and useless content. By using AI, Google became much more sophisticated in understanding content, user intent and assessing content quality. Therefore, I currently suggest focusing on human language rather than trying to achieve a specific keyword density in your piece. Keyword stuffing is directly forbidden in Google’s recommendations and can actually harm your SEO efforts, not to mention that it makes content less readable. Using keywords naturally and ensuring they fit contextually is the right approach when you write your content. For instance, a sentence like “Our sustainable home construction techniques incorporate reclaimed wood and solar panels to create sustainable homes that are sustainably constructed” would be considered unnatural, and the whole text would be penalized.

How to Leverage AI for Construction Content in 2024?

Since 2022, AI has played an important role in content creation and optimization. However, construction companies must understand and adhere to Google’s regulations regarding AI-generated content to ensure compliance and helpfulness listed at https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2023/02/google-search-and-ai-content?hl=en. Here are some key considerations:

Understanding Google’s Regulations

Google values original and helpful content. The goal of AI tools is to assist in content creation and not to replace the copywriter by themselves. AI insights during content creation should be used to speed up the process and enhance quality rather than manipulate search rankings. Any AI-generated content should be verified by experienced professionals and relevant to what your audience is looking for (i.e. helpful). If you would like to use any LLM to craft the content, it is essential to verify the output and make sure it complies with construction industry standards and safety regulations. Construction SEO professionals should thoroughly review and edit AI-generated content with their own insights and practical experience to add value for their audience.

Making Use of AI Tools

There are many AI tools available that can help with tasks like keyword research, new content generation and existing content optimization. By using tools like SEO Surfer or Neuron Writer, construction companies can analyze relevant keywords, check search results, analyze content that ranks well and write their own based on this information. However, in addition to the output verification, construction companies need to make sure their content is not a simple rewrite of what ranks well now since, according to Google policies, each additional content piece needs to introduce new and valuable insights or experience for the audience; otherwise it will not rank high in SERPs.

Maintaining Human Oversight

While AI can handle much of the heavy lifting, human oversight is crucial. One needs to refine any AI-generated content to ensure that it aligns with your brand’s voice. Your brand voice comes through all your company’s communications, and it differentiates you from competitors. In construction SEO, it should reflect your company’s values, expertise, and unique approach to project execution. As an example, this can be an innovative, traditional, eco-friendly or customer-centric building. AI-assisted content pieces need to have the same voice, which will make your company more memorable in a crowded market.

Enhancing Efficiency

One of the great benefits of AI is that it can streamline your content creation process. This means you can produce high-quality content more quickly for blog posts, glossary articles and other marketing materials. AI tools are especially effective in providing ideas and generating article outlines, as well as in recycling content in other formats (see the example with the video above in the text) and tailoring it for various audience segments.

Enhancing Construction Content Engagement Through E-E-A-T Principles

Establishing E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authority and trustworthiness) plays a vital role in the construction sector, mainly because it falls under the “Your Money or Your Life” (YMYL) content category. E-E-A-T is a framework that Google uses to evaluate the quality of content, particularly for topics that could significantly impact a person’s happiness, health, financial stability, or safety. E-E-A-T emphasizes the importance of content creators having firsthand experience, deep topic knowledge and a proven reputation in their respective niches.

YMYL topics require higher E-E-A-T standards because inaccurate information in these areas could have serious consequences. For a construction company website, many topics can be classified as YMYL content, such as home safety considerations or large financial decisions related to construction projects. Because of this, it is crucial for construction companies to demonstrate high E-E-A-T in their content. This might involve showcasing the experience and qualifications of team members, providing detailed and accurate information about construction processes and safety measures and ensuring all content is up-to-date and compliant with current construction industry regulations. Let’s break down E-E-A-T:

Experience 

Share your case studies and actual construction projects. This firsthand description highlights your practical experience and provides prospective clients with verifiable information about your experience in the field.

Expertise

Make sure everything you publish is accurate and well-researched. Citing construction guidelines, industry regulations, and third-party construction experts’ professional opinions will assist you in becoming more credible. Include author biographies that highlight their credentials and validate their expertise.

Authoritativeness

Engaging in industry publications and discussions can help your business become recognized in the construction industry. Backlinks from credible construction sources with high domain authority help to boost your authority as well.

Trustworthiness

Transparent communication, such as client testimonials, project reviews, and safety certificates, can enhance confidence. Perceived reliability can be raised with an SSL certification and a transparent privacy policy on your website, too.

Off-Page SEO and Link Building

Off-page SEO for construction websites is crucial for authority and visibility. For stronger SEO, you need to develop a well-rounded backlinking strategy. Backlinks are links from other sites to yours. They are essential for your website SEO as they signal search engines that your website is reputable and authoritative. Therefore, you should focus on getting backlinks from websites with high domain authority and low spam score within your industry. Importantly, you should focus on getting the so-called “do-follow” backlinks that transfer some of that website’s authority to yours (the so-called “link juice”) and avoid no-follow backlinks that do not pass on this authority, even if they still drive traffic to your site.

Domain authority (DA) is an essential SEO metric that was developed by Moz. This metric shows how high a website can rank in search engines on a scale from 1 to 100, with a higher score indicating a greater probability of ranking. Spam Score, which was also developed by Moz, is a metric that describes how likely a website is going to be penalized by Google due to spam practices. While these metrics are useful for assessing your backlink donor’s quality, they are not official Google metrics and do not always correlate with reality, but I still recommend checking them before working on a particular backlink.

Link Building Strategies for Construction Firms

Press Releases

Use press releases to publicize significant advancements in your firm, such as new project launches, milestones, or industry accomplishments. Using industry- and locally-specific directories to distribute press releases improves visibility and builds essential backlinks. Press release distribution can be facilitated by services like PRNews.io and Newswire, which can aid in expanding the reach of your press releases and improving your link profile.

Guest Posting

Guest posting is an effective way for construction companies to increase their website visibility. Businesses can contribute distinctive insights and obtain backlinks to their website by producing valuable content, such as blogs or infographics, for reputable websites. Here are several excellent platforms for guest posting, which I sometimes use – PRNews.io, Authority Builders and LovetoLink.

Partner Outreach & Influences

Develop ties with suppliers, subcontractors, or synergistic businesses such as interior designers and landscapers for exchange link potential. However, make sure that you are obtaining backlinks from reputable websites with high domain authority and low spam score.

Partner with influencers in the home improvement, renovation or interior design niche to attract more eyeballs. Host Q&A or offer specialist opinions on the influencer platform, building trust among their audience and attracting backlinks.

Industry Directories

Getting your company listed in the influential construction and home improvement directories will improve your level of credibility and, subsequently, should contribute to your rankings in Google SERPs. Establish yourself as a construction authority and share your knowledge of what you know; for example, comment on media news stories and articles about industry-related issues with backlinks.

In addition, participate in industry conferences because your public speaking opportunities build up your E-E-A-T and also generate backlinks from conference websites. Publish a summary of your projects on Houzz or other architecture journals, thus getting more views and awareness.

Local Business Associations

Engage local chambers of commerce and construction industry associations, as they can give high-quality backlinks.

Content-Based Link Building

Develop shareable valuable content, such as a report on the industry, an infographic, or a construction industry guide, which attracts natural links from other sites. Another example of such content can include relevant online tools and resources that can organically gain backlinks, be it cost or time estimators or downloadable guides, checklists and templates, such as “Home Renovation Checklist” or “A Guide to Choosing the Right Contractor”.

Share Your Knowledge with Reporters

Sign up for sites like Qwoted, Featured or Help a B2B Writer. These sites let you share your ideas and knowledge with reporters. When they use your helpful information in their articles, you can get decent backlinks to your website. As always, try checking domain authority and spam score before contributing any effort.

Connect with Journalists

Find and follow journalists who write about construction. You can comment on their articles, like and share their work on social media, ultimately building connections to start a conversation. Building a friendship with these writers can lead to chances for interviews or mentions with backlinks to your website in their editorials.

Get on Top Lists

Try to get your company listed in local or industry lists like “Top 10 Construction Companies in [city]”, which you can find in search results. To be included, act like in the case of journalists – research the author, build a connection and reach out with a request. This option can also be a paid one in case it’s an advertorial, and I encourage you to consider it if the publisher has a decent domain authority.

Host Webinars

Set up online classes or workshops about construction topics. Promote these events on social media and invite people to join. After the event, write a summary or article about what you discussed and share it. Others may link back to your website for more information.

How Does Social Media Marketing Contribute to Construction SEO?

Social media is not a direct ranking factor for search engines, but due to higher visibility and potentially more visitors, it indirectly contributes to your construction SEO efforts. Here is how:

1. Being active on social media helps more people learn about your construction company. When more people search for your company by name, it tells search engines that your brand is authoritative. This will contribute to your website’s domain authority and will help it rank better.
2. When you share things from your website, like blog posts, project highlights or helpful tips on social media, it can bring more visitors to your site. More visitors and their activity on your website can help search engines understand that your content is valuable since they are suspected of measuring your behavior using browser data through the Navboost algorithm. If behavioral data suggests that your content engages readers, your search rankings will improve.
3. Links from social media might not help your SEO directly, but they can still get you noticed. When more people see your posts, other websites might link to your content. In addition, visitors from these links can contribute to a behavioral factor, and therefore, these backlinks are valuable.
4. If your construction company works in specific areas, social media is great for finding local customers. By talking with local community pages and using local hashtags, you can get noticed by more people nearby. This can lead to more branded searches for your business in your area, which is beneficial for your website authority.

Here are some ideas on what construction companies can do on social media:

• Share updates, before-and-after pictures and time-lapses of your work to interact with your audience;
• Reach out to local home improvement and construction groups (Facebook and Nextdoor) and provide valuable insights;
• Make Pinterest boards for inspirational designs and projects to attract new clients;
• Connect with others in the industry on LinkedIn, share thought leadership articles, and establish partnerships.

By using these helpful strategies, construction companies can make social media marketing work in conjunction with their other efforts to improve overall SEO performance.

How Does Video Content Support Construction SEO in 2024?

Video content is becoming very important for SEO in the construction industry, especially in 2024. Here’s how videos can help construction SEO:

1. Videos can make people stay on your website longer, which is a good behavioral sign for search engine ranking algorithms like Navboost. For construction companies, videos that show project walkthroughs or time-lapse construction can be very engaging and solve this task. As described above in the social media section, this can indirectly help improve your search rankings.
2. If construction companies organize their video content on dedicated pages (made specifically for videos) with special structured data markup “Video” type, they can increase their chances of videos being indexed and showing up in video results on SERPs. These eye-catching search results can help more people click on your videos, which can contribute to video views, branded and non-branded organic SEO traffic.
3. When construction companies make sure their videos are written out and organized well, they can compete for being located in featured snippets on SERPs. This is especially helpful for “how-to” questions about construction or home improvement, where one can often notice videos above the main results. Getting listed in featured snippets can significantly boost your video views and foster click-throughs to your website from search results.

Overall, video content is an important factor for better SEO rankings in the construction industry. It helps get more people engaged, gives chances to show up in special search results and ultimately increases your brand awareness and traffic.

Local SEO for Construction Companies

Local SEO is essential for construction companies because an increasing number of people are using the internet to find local construction services. On the other hand, construction businesses usually serve local areas and require a prominent local SEO strategy to capture search traffic from specific neighborhoods and communities.

Because people are searching for construction services by adding “near me” to the initial keyword, and also because local results are shown at the top of SERPs, construction companies need to ensure presence in local searches. Here’s how to boost your local SEO presence:

Google Business Profile Optimization

A well-optimized Google Business Profile is essential for local SEO. Therefore, you must add accurate information about your construction business, including name, address, contact details, services, images and working hours. You should also ask your customers to leave a review that can help boost your local rankings.

NAP Consistency

The word NAP stands for name, address, and phone number. Ensure you add the same information to all business listing directories (e.g., Yelp, Angie’s List), social media platforms, and your official website. It is because search engines use this information to verify your business. Incorrect details confuse users and negatively impact your rankings. Ensure that your NAP is the same on all the directories you submit to.

Local Citations and Directories

Local citations occur when your business is mentioned online in online directories. Being listed in credible local directories can enhance your online presence. Therefore, you must submit your information to industry-specific directories (e.g., Houzz and The Blue Book), yellow pages, and review sites.

Location-Specific Content

Location-specific content enhances your online presence. Besides, Google loves it, and therefore, it improves your ranking in search results. To optimize your regional content, you can do local SEO for construction by creating:

• Location-specific Service Pages: Create separate pages for each location (e.g., “Home Renovation in Austin”).
• Blog Posts: Share how local projects, trends, or regulations impact construction.
• Location-Based Keywords: Use keywords like “city general contractors” or “construction services in the neighborhood.”

Structured Data Markup for Local SEO

Schema markup is important because it helps search engines understand and show your construction business information better when people search for it locally. You should use LocalBusiness schema on your website to share things like your name, address, phone number and business hours. Use Service schema to highlight the construction services you offer in different places. Adding Reviews schema lets you show customer ratings and reviews right in search results, which can help more people click on your business. You can also use Organization schema to give extra details about your company, like your logo and social media pages. With the correct use of structure data markup, your construction business can look better in local search results and get more clicks out of them.

VR in Construction SEO

Virtual reality (VR) is becoming a big part of how construction companies market themselves, and it provides additional benefits for their SEO results in addition to providing new ways to connect with potential clients and show off projects. Here are some ways VR is being used in construction SEO:

Virtual Project Tours

Construction companies are making exciting VR experiences that let potential clients “walk through” finished projects or see what buildings will look like before they are finally built. These virtual tours can be added to company websites, which helps keep visitors on the site longer and improves behavioral metrics used by the Navboost algorithm. As I explained above, this clickstream data helps search engines evaluate the quality of your content.

Interactive 3D Models

Companies are leveraging 3D models of their construction projects that people can explore. Users can look at these models from different angles and even change their look and feel, giving them a unique experience. Not only does such experience help the company’s website stand out in search results across competitors, but again, this improves behavioral ranking factors.

VR-Enhanced Case Studies

Construction companies are using VR technologies to create engaging case studies of their projects. These case studies allow potential clients to see how places looked before and after renovations or building new projects. By keeping visitors on websites longer, this type of content contributes to behavioral SEO factors and might even get other websites to link back to yours.

To summarize, VR tools not only make the user experience more engaging but also foster the creation of unique and helpful content that helps construction companies stand out in search results and, therefore, improve their overall SEO efforts.

Top SEO Tools for Construction Companies

Construction companies can leverage several SEO tools to boost online visibility and drive targeted traffic. From tracking website performance to optimizing content and local listing, these tools help companies stay competitive in the crowded market. Below are some of the most popular SEO tools every construction company should consider using:

Google Tools

Google Search Console  

It is a powerful tool that provides valuable insight into how Google indexes your website. You can monitor your site’s SEO performance, identify indexing issues and track keywords that bring traffic to your website, as well as the regions from which your traffic comes and the pages on which it lands. You can even fix technical indexing issues using various Search Console reports, thereby making it an essential instrument for any SEO specialist in any industry.

Google Analytics

A comprehensive tool to track user behavior and engagement metrics of your website. Some of its reports highlight the number of page views, bounce rates, engagement rates, conversion rates and conversion paths. By analyzing these reports, SEOs can identify high-performing content while simultaneously optimizing underperforming pages. Google Analytics is vital for the research of your clickstream data and to improve behavioral ranking factors for your website.

Google Business Profile

For construction companies targeting local audiences, Google Business Profile is crucial. It helps improve your local SEO visibility by managing your presence across Google Search and Google Maps. As discussed in the local SEO section above, tactics such as providing consistent NAP information, gathering and responding to reviews and sharing updates can enhance visibility in local search results.

Keyword Research Tools

Ahrefs

Ahrefs is best known for helping with the backlink aspect of SEO projects. In addition, it can help you find popular keywords that are not too competitive and see what your competitors are doing to optimize their websites for those keywords. For example, a construction company can look at what others are doing and find keywords like “affordable home renovation” that they might not have thought about.

SEMrush

SEMrush is a complete SEO tool for finding keywords, checking out competitors and researching backlinks. It helps you see what keywords people are searching for and how well your competitors are doing in terms of on-page and off-page ranking factors. Construction companies can use SEMrush to find keywords their audience is looking for, like “sustainable building materials,” and see how their content compares to their competitors in terms of optimizing for this keyword.

Mangools

Mangools is a simple set of SEO tools that makes it easy to research keywords with information like how many people are searching for them, how hard they are to rank for and what websites are being ranked well for these keywords at this particular moment. They also have a backlink research tool, too. A construction business might use Mangools to find keywords like “commercial construction services” and discover related, long-tail phrases that can bring more visitors to their website.

Technical SEO Tools

Screaming Frog SEO Spider

Screaming Frog SEO Spider is a tool that helps you check your website for technical problems. It looks at all the pages on your site to find issues like broken links that do not work, copies of the same meta tags or main headings on different pages and missing information like meta titles and meta descriptions. For example, if a construction company uses Screaming Frog, they can find out if their contact page link is broken or if any of their service pages do not have the necessary meta tags.

GTmetrix

GTmetrix is a tool that tells you how fast your website pages load. If your website loads slowly, GTmetrix shows you what prevents it from loading faster. While page load speed is not a direct ranking factor, it is important to maintain a fast-loading website for better user experience and compliance with Core Web Vitals. For a construction company, using GTmetrix can help ensure their project photos load quickly so that potential clients can see their work without waiting for too long and bouncing off the website.

Content Optimization Tools

Grammarly

Grammarly is a web service that helps you write higher-quality content by checking for spelling and grammar mistakes. It also makes your writing sound clear, easy to read and resonate with your audience. For example, a construction company can use Grammarly to check their blog posts about home improvement tips to avoid grammar mistakes and improve the article structure before sharing it online.

ChatGPT

ChatGPT is a large language model that can be used to provide content ideas and help you outline articles. While directly copying content from chatGPT is against Google’s guidelines on using AI, one can use it to come up with topics related to construction or create a plan for a blog post. For instance, a construction company might use ChatGPT to brainstorm ideas for an article about picking the right materials for building a deck, making it easier to brainstorm ideas and structure articles.

To help you choose and budget proper SEO tools for your construction business, here is a comparison table with features and pricing:

Local SEO Tools

BrightLocal

BrightLocal is a local SEO platform that helps businesses target local markets. It provides features like local search rank tracking, local citation building, reviews management and reporting. For the construction industry, BrightLocal can be particularly useful in managing and optimizing online citations, tracking rankings for location-specific keywords (e.g., “home renovation in [city]”) and monitoring reviews across various websites.

Moz Local

Moz Local is another local SEO tool that helps make sure your business’s Name, Address, and Phone number (NAP) are consistent on all platforms. A construction company can use Moz Local to check if their business data is correct on Google, Yelp and other websites, making sure potential clients can contact them without any confusion.

ReviewTrackers

ReviewTrackers is a tool that helps businesses keep track of customer reviews. It lets you see what people are saying about your company and helps you respond to those reviews. For a construction company, ReviewTrackers can be used to track feedback from clients about their recent home renovations, allowing the company to make improvements based on what customers say.

Measuring SEO Success for Construction Companies

Like in any industry, in construction marketing it is important to track and analyze your SEO efforts to see where you are going and how you can get more traffic. Here are some essential metrics that allow construction marketers to estimate their SEO performance quickly.

Organic Traffic

Organic traffic refers to the people who come to your website from search engines like Google, Bing and others. You can use Google Search Console or Google Analytics to see how many organic visitors your site gets for a given period. Keep in mind that you need to measure both branded and non-branded organic traffic to better understand your SEO performance. For instance, if your organic traffic is 90% branded, it means that your rankings for target keywords are not performing well.

Keyword Rankings

Keyword rankings show on which position your website shows up when people search for certain search terms in target locations. While keyword rankings fluctuate on a daily basis and cannot be taken precisely during a short-term period (in most cases, it is useless to analyze ranking changes that happened over a week), their overall dynamics perfectly illustrate your overall SEO performance. Keep in mind that you need to track rankings in your target area, which is important particularly in the construction industry SEO.

Conversion Rate

The conversion rate explains to you the percentage of visitors who perform a target action on your website, for instance, filling out a form to ask for a project quote. Not all of your website audience will be ready to submit a request; therefore, you need to measure not only macro but also micro conversions, such as catalog downloads, video views and any other actions that demonstrate the user’s interest but at the same time are performed earlier in the customer journey. Keep in mind that conversion rates for SEO traffic may be low because, in the construction industry, SEO often brings top-of-funnel traffic that is still researching and not ready to buy. You can find some pieces of advice on optimizing SEO conversion rates in my other article, but here are some best practices specifically related to construction websites:

• Ease your website forms for mobile devices by minimizing the number of fields and leveraging auto-fill functionality
• Implement click-to-call functionality and proactive online chats on all website pages
• Showcase social proof elements and trust signals (prominent clients, security badges, association memberships and others)
• Add exit-intent popups to convert those who are about to leave your website
• If you are generating leads using cost calculators, make sure they are accessible on mobile devices with touch controls

Bounce Rate

The bounce rate shows how many visitors leave your site without doing anything and digging deeper into its content. It is the opposite metric of engagement rate in Google Analytics 4. If lots of people are leaving your pages quickly, it might mean that your content is not what they were expecting or looking for. Ideally, your organic traffic needs to have a lower bounce rate than your website’s average bounce rate, which solidifies the fact that you are attracting the right audience that is interested in your content. To improve your bounce rate, check that your content aligns with the user’s search intent, optimize user experience and page load time and encourage inbound visitors to navigate inside by providing other compelling materials.

How to Interpret and Review Construction SEO KPIs?

Use Google Analytics and Google Search Console to keep track of the aforementioned KPIs. My recommendation is to check metrics on a monthly basis. More frequent checks will not provide any insights because SEO processes like reindexing or ranking typically take time to manifest. In my opinion, daily or weekly fluctuations can be misleading and only lead to incorrect insights.

Observing your ranking performance and traffic dynamics monthly provides you with a clearer picture of your overall website trends and selective page performance. In addition, monthly intervals give construction SEO managers enough time to run an action cycle: analyze, make decisions, perform changes and track results. This workflow enables construction marketers to make more informed decisions about their SEO strategy going forward.

Setting Realistic SEO Goals for Construction Companies

Setting proper goals for any construction project is essential for its ultimate success, and SEO for construction is no exception to this rule. According to multiple project management concepts, end goals should be SMART, which means they should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound. Apart from this classification, I am also recommending to adjust the goals to your company size and, therefore, ensure they are realistic. Here are some examples of how can this look like, numbers are given just to get a better understanding of the planning concept.

SEO Goals for Small Construction Companies

Small construction companies (in my experience, with 1-10 employees) should focus on improving their local SEO and building a good online reputation. Some realistic goals could be to increase their website visitors by 20-30% each year and to show up on the first page for 5-10 local, long-tail keywords in 4-8 months. They should also aim to get 10-20 quality leads from organic search each month within the first year.

SEO Goals for Medium-Sized Construction Companies

Medium-sized construction companies (I estimate them as up to 200 employees) can set bigger goals. They should try to increase their website visitors by 40-50% each year and aim to be on the first page for all keywords with low and medium difficulty that are specific to their industry within 12 months. These companies can work on building an effective content machine and build links in a scalable way. They could get 50-100 leads from organic searches each month in their first year.

SEO Goals for Large Construction Companies

Large construction companies with over 200 employees can go for even bigger SEO goals. They might aim to increase their website visitors by 100% or more each year and be in the top 3 positions for all keywords, including the most competitive ones. These companies should focus on scalable SEO strategies for multiple locations and use advanced technologies to make their SEO programmatic. They can easily aim to get over 100 leads each month from organic searches in their first year.

Conclusion

Despite significant time and money investments in technical optimization, content copywriting and backlink generation, SEO for construction companies has proven to be an effective method that increases their new and ongoing business. SEO does this by improving the organic traffic that brings high-quality residential and commercial construction leads while also contributing to the brand’s knowledge and authority that helps sales to close deals faster and on better terms. In the 2024 construction market, SEO still allows companies to be ahead of the curve of competitors because not all companies are actively leveraging this method of lead generation.

Construction SEO consists of selecting target keywords, understanding their search intent, creating high-quality content, optimizing websites technically and for local search terms, employing social media, video, VR and other emerging channels and generating backlinks for higher authority. All of this can be scalable for multiple keywords by using the proper techniques, procedures and tools, including AI.

SEO is a long-term investment in any industry, and construction is not an exception. Managing such long-lasting projects requires controlling SEO-specific KPIs and refining strategies periodically. However, in the long run, SEO can bring numerous benefits to construction companies seeking business growth.

FAQs about Construction SEO

How long does it take to see the results of SEO in construction?

The usual time before traffic to the website begins to spike is around three to six months. However, this does not mean that you have to wait for results so long since the first spikes in rankings and search impressions should come right after you post the optimized SEO content and fix the technical optimization issues. According to my experience, the content gets indexed in several days, and the rankings grow immediately after this. Construction-related search terms are no exception.

What is the price for SEO services in the construction industry?

The price for SEO services in the construction industry can vary significantly depending on multiple factors. In my experience, small to medium-sized construction companies might expect to pay between $1,000 to $5,000 per month for SEO, while enterprise firms or those targeting highly competitive keywords may invest between $5,000 to $20,000 monthly. Certainly, the scope of work, which includes keywords, geographical targeting, the current optimization level of the website and content, any existing penalties from Google and more, influences the end price, as well as if you’re working with the agency or a dedicated expert.

Can business owners take care of construction company SEO themselves?

This is unlikely, and this is not because of the promotional intent of this article. Apart from diving into the technical SEO optimization and website development, you will have to establish and maintain the content production funnel: research construction keywords, define search intent, write the actual content (or find and outsource the content to an external writer), optimize it and finally publish. Next, you’ll have to track the content performance, improve it (if needed) and generate backlinks, which means you’ll have to research the backlink mass of your competitors, set up outreach to publishers, negotiate terms, write articles with backlinks, and so on. I do not even mention keeping up-to-date with SEO trends and, most importantly, Google algorithm changes. SEO is a full-time job, and construction SEO is not an exception. In my experience, if the business owners cannot handle all these tasks themselves since they have to actually manage their business. Therefore, outsourcing SEO to an expert will bring faster results and will not disturb your general business process.

How construction SEO will advance with constantly changing Google Core Updates?

High-quality writing is going to be the ultimate focus of any Google Core Update in the future, especially in the era of AI-generated content. For those who are looking to find quick wins in SEO, whether by automated low-quality content generation or by leveraging a big number of low-quality backlinks, the future is not bright – such websites are likely to be penalized sooner or later. Therefore, SEO methods that are used by construction companies have to be sustainable in the long run. Ensuring compliance with Google’s regulations that were mentioned earlier in this article can bulletproof your investments in SEO and make your website less vulnerable to any single Google Core Update.

How can construction companies leverage user-generated content (UGC) to improve their SEO performance?

Construction companies can leverage user-generated content (UGC) to improve their SEO in a few different ways. Firstly, they can ask happy clients to write detailed reviews and testimonials on their website and third-party review sites. Secondly, they can create a gallery with photos or videos from customers showing off finished projects that improves visitor engagement on the website. Finally, having a blog where customers can share their experiences or ask questions in comments creates fresh and relevant content that search engines prefer to rank higher.

What are some effective ways to optimize for “near me” searches in the construction industry?

To help construction companies show up in “near me” searches, there are some very specific strategies. As a first step, such companies should claim and set up their Google Business Profile. This means making sure all the information is complete and up-to-date, including the areas they serve, their business hours and pictures of their finished projects. Next, such companies can create special pages on their websites dedicated to each location where they do business. These pages should include local keywords and information about the services they offer in those areas, as well as some reference projects in these areas. Construction firms should ask customers from these locations to leave reviews on Google, claiming the firm completed a project in a targeted area. Such positive reviews can help rank better in local searches. Finally, getting listed in local industry directories and business groups could improve the chances of ranking well for such keywords.

How can construction companies use SEO to target different stages of large-scale, long-term projects (e.g., planning, execution, post-construction maintenance)?

Construction companies, especially those that work in commercial construction on long-term projects, can use SEO to reach target audiences at different stages of their buying journey by making special content for each stage and using the right keywords. For the planning stage, they can create helpful guides about starting projects, planning procedures, design best practices and budgeting. For instance, they should focus on keywords like “construction project planning” or “building design help.” During the execution phase, they can write about how to manage projects and keep track of their progress. Good keywords for this phase could be “commercial construction process” or “building site management.” After construction is completed, they can talk about managing facilities or renovation services. This can include keywords like “post-construction maintenance” or “building care.” By changing their SEO strategy for each stage of the project, construction companies can attract potential clients at different conversion funnel levels and demonstrate their expertise throughout the whole construction process.