Understanding The Basics of SEO: A Beginners Guide For The Construction Industry

A website can be the first port of call for prospective customers to research your business. Nowadays, more than just a website is required to help your company grow and stay relevant in a fast-changing digital world. You might have heard of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and know a little or a lot about it, but we will explain how SEO can help your construction company.

Just as you carefully plan and build a structure to be strong, functional, and attractive, SEO is designed to make your website easily discoverable, relevant and appealing to search engines like Google.

SEO is like constructing a building; it just doesn't build itself overnight.

• Think of SEO as a blueprint - it essentially outlines plans aimed at achieving specific objectives.
• A blueprint outlines the design and construction plans for a building, while SEO is designed to improve your website’s visibility in search results.
• The structured approach to a blueprint is similar to SEO. While a blueprint outlines the layout, components and dimensions, SEO involves structuring website content and other elements to improve its relevance.
• Blueprints and SEO both consider the end-user or audience experience.
• With a blueprint, it focuses on providing functional spaces for its occupants, and SEO works to provide valuable content that meets the needs of users.

To ensure your website ranks well in search results, it needs a solid SEO foundation built on four key pillars: on-page SEO, off-page SEO, content, and technical SEO. Here's how each pillar relates to construction and helps your brand grow online.

On Page SEO: Laying The Foundation

On-page SEO is like laying the foundation of a building. Just as you need a strong foundation to support a structure, you need optimised elements on your website to rank well. This includes using the right keywords in your titles, headers, and throughout the text, making sure your website’s design is user-friendly, and creating meta descriptions that attract visitors.

For construction brands, this could mean ensuring service pages, product pages, and project descriptions are easy to find and full of relevant keywords. A solid foundation (on-page SEO) makes your website easier to find and keeps visitors engaged.

Off-Page SEO: Building Relationships and Reputation

Off-page SEO is like subcontracting—working with others to complete the project and build a strong reputation. It involves external factors that affect your website's ranking, such as backlinks from other reputable sites, social media engagement, and online reviews. These "votes of confidence" from others help search engines trust your site.

For a construction company, off-page SEO could mean earning links from local directories, industry publications, or partnerships with suppliers and stockists. Just like word-of-mouth recommendations, good off-page SEO shows that others trust and value your business.

Content: The Framework of Your Website

Content is the backbone of your website, providing the structure that guides visitors through their journey while offering valuable and informative resources. It can take many forms, including service pages, product descriptions, blog posts, case studies, and more.

Your content needs to be optimised and demonstrate your expertise to effectively engage new visitors. High-quality content acts as the framework that not only drives traffic but also converts visitors into new business opportunities.

Technical SEO: The Structural Integrity of Your Website

Technical SEO is like the structural integrity of a building. Just as a construction project needs a solid framework of beams, supports, and materials to stand tall, your website needs a strong technical foundation to perform well in search engines. Technical SEO ensures your site is properly built behind the scenes, making it easy for search engines to crawl and index while also providing a smooth experience for visitors.

If the technical aspects of your website aren’t sound, it’s like having cracks in your building’s foundation - your SEO efforts will falter, and you won’t achieve top rankings, no matter how great your content is.

The benefits of SEO are significant, especially if you're looking to enhance your online presence. Here are some of the key benefits:

• Increased Website Traffic: When you rank higher for relevant keywords, you improve your website's visibility, which, in return, boosts website traffic.
• Enhanced Brand Awareness: When your website ranks consistently in search results, it builds your brand's visibility and exposure.
• Long-Term Results: The impact of SEO is long-lasting. Where other channels provide short boosts in visibility, traffic and conversions, SEO is about building a sustainable foundation for online growth, now and in the future.
• High-Quality Leads & Purchases: SEO is specifically designed to attract targeted traffic and customers who are actively looking for your services or products. This means higher conversion rates from customers who are genuinely interested in your business.
• Competitive Edge: The digital landscape is constantly evolving, and your business needs to stay ahead of competitors rather than simply catching up with them. SEO helps give your brand a competitive edge by outranking competitors and establishing your brand as an industry leader.

Are there different types of SEO?

There are different types of SEO, and they include the following:

• Local SEO: Local SEO is like laying the bricks to build your construction business's presence in the local market. It's the process of optimising your website and online presence to attract more business from relevant local searches. It focuses on improving your visibility in search engine results for location-based queries, such as "construction companies near me" or "roofing services in London." This involves optimising your Google My Business Profile, using location-specific keywords, and ensuring your business is listed in local directories. Local SEO helps drive foot traffic and generate leads from nearby customers.
• E-Commerce SEO: This type of SEO is specifically designed for websites where you want to sell products or services online. It means optimising your website so customers can easily find and navigate your online shop, whether you're selling tools, equipment, or building materials.
• Mobile SEO: Mobile SEO is like constructing a project that's built to last and adaptable for every condition. It ensures that your website is optimised for mobile devices, providing a smooth experience for users accessing your site on smartphones or tablets. Just like you'd design a structure to withstand different environments, mobile SEO makes sure your site loads quickly, looks great on smaller screens and is easy to navigate. With more users browsing on mobile, optimising for mobile SEO ensures that your business stays accessible and visible, no matter the device your potential customers are using.

How long does SEO take to work?

SEO is a long-term strategy, and it typically takes 3-6+ months to see significant improvements in search rankings and website traffic. It’s worth noting that SEO is not a quick fix or a one-time solution.

Can I do SEO myself, or should I hire an agency?

You can start with basic SEO yourself, but for more advanced strategies and faster results, hiring a specialist SEO agency would be more effective. At Tradectory, we have industry knowledge and experience working with a wide array of construction businesses, so we know what works and what doesn’t. Talk to our SEO team today; we’d love to chat!

What is the difference between organic and paid search results?

Organic search results are free listings that appear based on SEO, while paid search results are advertisements that appear at the top of search engine results pages.