When it comes to SEO, everybody claims to be an expert, and if you’ve had to search online for a SEO agency, it’s a busy marketplace. Don’t let that put you off, SEO is a valueable tool for online growth, stick around and learn a little bit about SEO for trades and how it can help grow your business.
Want to skip to the juicy SEO details:
What exactly is SEO for Tradesmen?
SEO, or search engine optimisation, is the process of optimising your website for search engines. Appearing higher on Google will help you appear in-front of more of your customers. Search engines have one job, find the answer for the query that was searched. For example, you may have typed into google, “SEO for tradesmen” and found this blog, well, that’s SEO for you.
Unlike Google Ads or PPC (Pay Per Click), SEO service grows your business organically, and the investment you make into SEO is long term. Users are more trusting of a website if it’s not “sponsored” and doesn’t look like an advertisement. Having a well designed SEO ready website means your visitors will have a better experience and are probably more likely to buy from you
Is your website SEO ready?
Imagine trying to build a house on wet footings, if the ground work isn’t right, everything on top will be wonky…
It’s the same for your website. You cannot SEO a bad web design, and many good SEO service agencies will advise you redesign your website before they get started. It’s not to squeeze more money out of you, but their efforts and your money will be much less effective.
You can check how well your website is performing using a tool such as page speed insights. Enter your website address and check your desktop score, anything below 80 would really need addressing before you think about SEO.
There are many other factors to consider other than overall performance, but it should give you a good idea.
We’ve designed many trades business websites with on-page SEO (more on this later) and have achieved some great results with a redesign alone. Having your website professionally re-designed with the correct structure and agency can see some great results without having to further invest in your online marketing.
Want us to send you a free website audit? Fill in the form below and we’ll get that over to you pronto with some tips!
How can SEO help benefit your business?
Let’s be honest, the trade sector is a very competitive space. The UK has more than 2 million trades people, and 800,000 of those are self employed. If you want to get noticed, stand out online and create some authority, you need all the help you can get.
SEO gets your website appearing above your competitors on search engines. Users are more likely to click on the first 3 organic* (*non-sponsored) results, so getting your business in the top 3 is important to being found.
Do a google search as if your were to search for your own services (not your business name), for example, “plumbing services”. Appearing in top spot is simply* a case of doing better than everyone else on that page.
*It’s not that simple at all.
What types of SEO are there?
Search engine optimisation can generally be broken down into 4 sections. Local, on-page, off-page and technical and most SEO agencies will cover all of these to get the best results for your trade business.
1. Local SEO
Type any service into Google, such as “builder near me” and you’ll be met with a list of local businesses at the top of the page along the Google map, this is local SEO. Showing up in front of customers on Google who are nearby is simple, free and great for your diesel bill. The way to show up here is with a Google Business Profile.
Having an optimised google my business profile to list your services, opening times, contact information and photos of your work alongside positive customer reviews has a huge impact on your online marketing, as more than 80% of customers read reviews before making a purchase.
Already have a google business profile but no calls? How do you compare to the other businesses that show up in the area. Ensure your profile is up to date, and you’re constantly asking previous customers to leave you a google review to help boost your ranking.
2. On Page SEO
As the name suggests, on page SEO is the process of optimising the pages on your website for them to rank on search engines. Researching a specific keyword which relate to your business and services and including them throughout your website with structure and balance.
Keyword research will help find common phrases that are related to your business. Including keywords help direct potential customers to your website and ensure you’re getting interest from the right people. Add keywords to your page headings, image alternative text, meta data and copywriting to make each web page clear on what it’s selling to your customer and Google.
All of our website designs include on-page SEO as standard, creating a solid base for your new website and giving it a helping hand in the world of digital marketing.
A small business or local business looking for a competitive advantage should also consider blogs. Blogging on your website is a great way to help get found online and educate your readers about your industry. This is where SEO captures customers from multiple sources by answering an unlimited amount of questions your customers have popped into Google. A good digital marketing agency will guide you on the best SEO package for your business in order for your blogs to be effective.
3. Off Page SEO
It’s all good and well you telling your customers how good you are, but what about others telling them how good your are? Off-page SEO is the internets word of mouth, and having other websites linking to your website is tier one internet marketing. But achieving this is easier said than done, hiring an SEO agency for this area of digital marketing services will help elevate your trades website SEO and is essential in a competitve market.
4. Technical SEO
Technical SEO is the process of improving your websites performance. The higher your website performs, the more favourable it is to search engines and the better it will rank.
Performance is tested in a variety of ways, such as load speed, website accessibility, best practice and SEO. Having a high score on each of these metrics is important for your SEO and overall search result ranking. You can check your own website performance here.
TIP: If your website is slow to load, see about improving your website hosting package, reducing image sizes and removing large content such as videos.
How to get started on SEO?
If you’re serious about SEO, it’s time to find an seo expert who can guide you and help find those customers! Whilst we do not offer on-going SEO, we can offer some useful tips to finding a reputable agency.
Ask to see the results. Any agency worth its weight will have a portfolio, showing the results they’ve had with previous or current clients.
Don’t expect overnight results. SEO can take a while to really see the benefits, give it at least 6 months before deciding if it’s right for you. But remember, once you’ve got those results and work is flying in, the SEO will most definitely start paying for itself.
New websites are harder to rank. A new website has little to no authority, and takes time to build it, so be patient and trust the process. On the other hand, our on-page SEO has seen great results within a few months due to a redesign on an old website.
SEO isn’t cheap and beware of anyone offering it on a budget. SEO is similar to rolling a boulder up a hill, difficult to get started, but once you’ve built momentum, it’s just keeps on rolling. Realistically, a new website will require an minimum investment of at least £1,500 per month to see any real results.
SEO tools to help rank your website!
If you’re a fan of statistics and data, this is your moment. Here are some useful tools to see how your SEO is performing.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is great for measuring your website traffic, user behaviour and page engagement. Setting up Google Analytics is fairly simple, but does require some code adding onto your website, so perhaps one for the web designer or SEO agency.
Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a useful tool for trade businesses and helps find any errors with your webpages and monitors how each page performs . You can also track the number of impressions your website gets on Google vs how many users are actually clicking through to your website.
SEMrush
SEMrush is a free digital marketing tool for finding the specific keywords for your website, tracking your performance and how you compare to your competition. SEMrush has it’s own website ranking tool, offers website audits and backlink information, a real must for anyone venturing into indepth SEO.
To find out more about SEO for a trade businesses, select below!