Everything You Need to Know About SEO (for Painting Contractors)

Search engines can bring more than half of your total website visitors. This is more than the average traffic that a website gets from direct traffic, social media, email, advertisements, and third-party website links. Best of all, visitors from the search engine results page have a more positive reception towards the information on the page they visit. This makes it easier for your content to convince them of the benefits of your service and to take action on your offer immediately.

Unfortunately, having a website for your business does not mean it will attract traffic from search engine pages. This is why SEO for painting contractors is a necessity to maximize the potential of your website. With it, your website has a good chance of appearing in your customers’ search results and attracting visitors who are interested in what you have to offer.

What is SEO?

SEO stands for search engine optimization. It is the activities done to improve your website’s search ranking for your targeted keywords. These keywords are chosen based on their relevance to your business and their popularity among your target market. With the successful implementation of SEO, your website can attract visitors who are interested in your website’s content or who need the services you offer. This leads to increasing your visibility online and website traffic, which results in attracting high-quality leads that you can turn into paying customers.

The Benefits of SEO for Painting Companies

SEO can help improve your website’s search ranking. It can even help your website get to the first page of your target market’s search results. But, how does an improved search ranking help your business? Well, here are the benefits of SEO for painting contractors:

Attract more visitors to your website

On average, more than half of website traffic comes from the search engine results page. Search engine optimization can help your website increase its ranking on this page and attract as many visitors as possible from those searching for the keywords you target.

Since you are targeting keywords related to the services you offer and the location of your business, you can say that these visitors are

Attract high-quality leads to your website

High-quality leads are those who are looking for the services you offer and are qualified to become your customers. Their existing need and readiness to hire a painting contractor only require an enticing offer for them to finalize their decision to hire. Because of this, they are the best leads your website can attract for your business.

Attracting high-quality leads is one of the benefits of SEO for painting contractors. This is made possible with the use of keywords with transactional or commercial intent. Examples include key phrases like “hire a painting contractor near me,” “where to find a painting contractor,”, “what to look for in a painter,” and “which type of painting contractor to hire.”

Provides a high ROI

SEO is not free. It requires you to hire the right professionals to implement it properly for your business. You will also need their help to ensure that your SEO is updated according to the latest search engine guidelines.

However, SEO does not cost for every click made on your link in the search results. It also has one of the highest conversion rates for leads and sales. Because of these, you can expect a high return from your investment in SEO.

Increase the chances of people sharing your content on social media

When people who found your content in their search results like it, there is a good chance that they will share it with their social media contacts. This will help you reach new customers and attract more organic traffic to your website. Plus, you are benefiting from the trust these new visitors have for the one who shared your content. As a result, they have a more favorable view of your brand than someone who first saw your website on their search engine results page.

Moreover, when your people share your post on social media, your content gains more visibility online. Although social media links do not have a direct influence on the search ranking, search engines still detect the increased traffic from it as a positive sign of your content’s value. As a result, a page attracting visitors from social media will have a higher search ranking.

Provide a good user experience to your visitors

SEO for painting contractors can improve your visitors’ user experience on your website. This makes it easier for them to read your content and browse other pages on your website. These make your website more effective in establishing your audience’s trust in your brand, educating them about your services, and converting them into leads or customers.

Moreover, a good user experience design will make your website easily navigable for your visitors. They do not need to think too much since your page elements are arranged in a way that your users can understand intuitively. Because of this, they will explore the different pages of your website and read more of your content as long as they have the curiosity to do so. This translates to more interactions between you and your audience, which increases the chances of your content or copy converting them into customers or leads.

Increase your brand’s online credibility

When your customers see your website in their search results, they see this as an indication of your brand’s legitimacy. This legitimacy comes with them considering your business as higher quality and more trustworthy than other unfamiliar brands in your industry. Because of this, you gain a competitive advantage against businesses that do not reach the first page of your customers’ search results.

Moreover, since SEO for painting contractors also aims to improve your website’s user experience, your website will look professional to your audience. Having a professional-looking website is similar to having a presentable storefront that leaves a good impression on its visitors. This good impression can be the difference between a visitor considering hiring you as a painting contractor or looking elsewhere that looks trustworthy in their eyes.

Improves the effectiveness of your content marketing

Content marketing provides your audience with valuable content for every stage of the sales funnel. This makes it possible for your audience to move along the sales funnel without any active input from a sales team or customer service representative. As a result, you can convert members of your audience into leads passively.

SEO for painting companies complements content marketing by helping your content attract more visitors. When you can attract significant traffic to your website and you have a passive method of generating leads for your painting services, you are not only spending less for every lead and customer gained. But, also, you will have more clients and jobs lined up every month.

Moreover, SEO can help your content creation through keyword research. It can give you valuable information on what keywords are targeted by competing websites and on which keywords do not have as much competition in terms of quality content. You can use this information for planning content that will provide the best returns in terms of search traffic and lead conversions.

Complements your pay-per-click advertising campaigns

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising charges you for every click made on your ad. PPC ads also make use of keywords to target the audience you want to reach. Although it does not use keywords in the same way as SEO, you can use the same tools for SEO for researching which key phrases to target. Moreover, you can use the same concepts in SEO to improve the quality of your landing page and increase your chances of winning the bid for your ad.

Complement your local SEO marketing

Although search engines treat local search differently, the elements that determine your ranking in general SEO are still important variables for improving your ranking in it. These include providing a good user experience for your visitors, creating relevant content for the keywords they search for, and using local search keywords in your content.

Achieve a higher rank in local search keywords

It is crucial for you as a painting contractor to rank well in your target market’s local search. Having your business get to the top spot of local search will give it exposure to search engine users who are looking for a nearby painter to hire. Since these local search users become a lead 80% of the time, your business cannot afford not to appear on their search results.

How Painting Contractor SEO Works

SEO and local SEO improve your website’s ranking in your target audience’s search results. Although both of these have similarities, there are key differences in how each one operates that you need to know. Moreover, it’s difficult to grasp how SEO works if you have no idea how search engines provide their users with their search results. So, here’s what you need to know about how search engines, SEO, and local SEO for painters work:

Search engines provide their users with the most relevant results to their searched keywords. Search engines get these results from their search index – a digital library containing information on various web pages. Then, search engines use algorithms to match and rank indexed pages based on the relevant keywords in them. Here are some of the factors search algorithms consider when ranking a page they indexed:

Backlinks

These are links in third-party websites leading to your page. Search engines see backlinks as proof of a page’s authority since it signifies other websites see the page’s content as valuable.

Although having more backlinks help, quality trumps quantity when it comes to it. Search engines will place more value on backlinks found on websites and pages that are relevant to the linked page.

Page speed

If it takes too long for a page to load completely, its visitors are more likely to exit the page and choose another search result. Since search engines want their users to get the best search results, they see slow-loading speed as a negative ranking factor.

Relevance

Search engines rank the indexed pages according to how useful it is for the user’s search. This includes how well the search keywords match the page’s content and context, and how others users using the same keywords interact with it.

Freshness

Search engines consider the date when the page was published or last updated. However, freshness only becomes a factor for queries requiring the latest content, product-related search, content about recent or recurring events, and topics that have frequent updates.

Mobile-friendliness

Since several users browse the internet through mobile devices, search engines consider mobile-friendliness as an important factor for ranking search results. A mobile-friendly website is readable, easily navigable, and fast for anyone accessing it through their mobile device. Implementing a responsive web design is the most popular and preferred method by Google to make a website mobile-friendly.

Location

Search engines take note of pages that may be relevant for local searches. If the search query requires local results, search engines will provide the pages closest to your device’s location.

Language

Search engines consider language as a ranking factor. However, language only becomes relevant for sites targeting a specific language in a multilingual country or region. The user’s search query and search preferences determine when language becomes a consideration for their search results.

How SEO works

As mentioned at the beginning of this article, SEO are the actions taken to improve your search ranking for your audience’s search results. The actions taken in search engine optimization can be divided into two categories – on-page and off-page. Here’s how each aspect of SEO works:

On-page SEO

This is the aspect of SEO involved with optimizing elements in your website. This includes technical SEO, keyword optimization, content, and internal and external links.

Technical SEO – This is the optimization of your website’s code and structure. Technical SEO improves user experience, page load speed, and navigation. Aside from encouraging your visitors to browse multiple pages on your website, the improvements that technical SEO brings will also make it easier for search engine bots to crawl through and collect information from your web pages.

Keyword optimization– Your content should contain the right keywords to attract your audience to your website. Search engines also use these keywords and their placement to determine the relevance of your content to your audience’s search query.

Links – Placing links leading to your pages or other websites contribute to improving your page’s search engine ranking. Links going to other pages in your websites ensure that search crawlers go to these pages. On the other hand, those leading to external pages can help determine the quality and usefulness of your pages.

Off-page SEO

Off-page SEO is the actions taken outside your website to help improve your website’s search ranking. These actions revolve around building and encouraging the creation of backlinks, which are links found in third-party websites that lead to your website. Effective off-page SEO can help with your site’s popularity, relevance, authority, and trustworthiness.

Here are three types of backlinks that can help with your off-page SEO:

Natural links – These are links placed in the content of a third-party website without any input from the owner of the linked page. High-quality and unique content is more likely to have natural links due since other websites will use it as a reference for their content.

Manually built links – There are links acquired through link-building efforts. These include backlinks from customers and influencers and your guest posts on other websites.

Self-created links – These links are the ones you will find in online directories, forums, blog comments, blog comment signatures, and press releases. It is important to limit self-created links to pages relevant to your website, industry, and target keywords.

How Local SEO for Painting Companies Work

Local SEO comes into play when a website aims to attract an audience from a specific location, country, or region. Businesses with physical locations make use of this to get the most visibility when their customers perform a search nearby. You can see this in play when you search for a restaurant or store near you. The results will include a list of businesses near your location related to the search you made.

However, local SEO is not limited to the list of relevant businesses in the search results. Traditional SEO practices still have a role to play if you want to maximize the potential of local search for your business. This is evident with businesses targeting audiences located in a specific location but does not have a physical store nearby. As a painting contractor, this applies to you since your service areas may be too far away for local search to include you in the list of businesses nearby.

So, what are the ranking variables you need to consider for local SEO? Here is a local SEO checklist (for painting companies) to help you optimize your business and website for local search:

Better online visibility for local search users

The premier spot for local search is the list of businesses above the general search results. The businesses and information found on this list came from Google My Business (GMB). However, you need to make sure that the information it contains is accurate since Google fills in the required fields automatically. This will not only help with your SEO but can improve the experience of your potential clients by making it easier for them to find and contact you.

Aside from this, you must link your GMB profile to your website. Doing so can increase the chances of your profile showing up in your customers’ local search results. Moreover, it can improve your website’s ranking in the traditional search results when your customers make a local search related to your business.

Encourage your customers to leave reviews

Your customers can leave their reviews on your Google My Business profile. Search engines use this as the basis to determine the value the business has for its previous customers. The better and more reviews you have equate to a better chance of getting a better ranking in the list of local businesses.

Optimize your business information in online directories

Search engines compare your business’ information in different online directories (like Yelp, Foursquare, Factual, and Express Update). The information from these directories should be consistent to improve the credibility of your business listing, which will give it a higher placement in local search results.

Target local keywords and create local content

Using on-page SEO to optimize for local search is not any different from its use of traditional SEO. You are still using the same concepts by targeting the keywords that your target audience is using. In this case, you are using keywords that your audience will search for when they are making a local search for your business.

Add location pages

It does not matter if you only have a single physical location or multiple ones for your business. Adding these to your website will add information for search engines to associate your business with its locations in their search index. This can help your business in both local business listings and general search results.

Be active in the local community

Participating in local events, sponsoring events, partnering with local nonprofits, and volunteering in organizations will give your business great online and local exposure. Your participation and contribution to these events will be published on websites covering local news. Search engines will take notice of this and associate your brand with the local area.

Best Practices in SEO for Painting Businesses

There are several ways to optimize your website for search engines. However, this does not mean that there are no established practices that will help improve your search ranking most efficiently. Here are some of the best practices in SEO that you can use to achieve a better search ranking:

01

Run an SEO audit before planning a new SEO strategy

You need to know where your website stands before planning your new SEO strategy. This is why you must first perform an SEO audit before anything else. An SEO audit involves the analysis of the following:

Technical elements such as URL structure, page speed, redirects, crawlability, mobile friendliness, and duplication
On-page elements like site content structure, keyword use, metadata, and internal linking
Server log (crawl budget analysis and user agent analysis)

As you can guess, an SEO audit can get technical. The reports from the analysis will also not provide you with actionable recommendations on how to improve your site’s search ranking. An SEO specialist or agency knows to perform the audit for you and has the experience to provide solutions for your website.

02

Provide your audience with relevant content

Internet users are looking for valuable and relevant content when they use search engines. The only way you can reach your target audience when they need information related to your business or painting services is to target the keywords they use. However, do not forget to place equal importance on the quality of your writing. Your use of keywords must not come at the cost of your content’s readability and value for your audience.

03

Write for your audience and not the search algorithm

Many website owners and businesses make the mistake of prioritizing the search algorithm when writing their blog posts and articles. What they don’t realize is that it only takes one major search engine guideline update for all their work to become worthless. This is why prioritizing the value you provide to your audience will always be the best approach when creating content for your website.

Moreover, you are not aiming for a higher search ranking just for the sake of it. You are aiming to improve your search ranking to attract more visitors to your website. These visitors must read and understand your content for them to take the action you want them to make.

04

Never duplicate content

Search engines want to provide their users with valuable content. However, this content should be unique and original, or else search engine algorithms will penalize your website’s search ranking. This is why you must never post duplicate content on your website. You need to create fresh, unique, and valuable content that your audience will not find anywhere else on the internet.

Moreover, you must ensure that your website is set up so that search engine crawlers will not index multiple versions of the same page. This will prevent your website from being penalized in the search ranking since any content found in different URLs is considered duplicate content.

05

Make use of header tags to structure your content

Headers make it easier for your readers to understand the structure and flow of your content. It also makes it possible for them to scan your content and get the main points of your article. Aside from these, search engine crawlers use headers to see the relevance of your content to the search engine keywords targeted.

06

Cross-link your pages, articles, and blog posts

Placing internal links in your content will make it easier for your readers to browse more pages on your website. Of course, the placement of these links should make sense by only linking pages that are relevant to the content and the text used for anchoring the link.

Aside from easier browsing, placing internal links makes it easier for search engine crawlers to index your website. This decreases the chance of the crawlers leaving a page unindexed. Moreover, these links make it difficult for black-hat SEO websites to duplicate your content on their page.

07

Update your content

Search engines like recommending fresh content to their users. This is why newer content has a better chance of ranking at the top of your target keywords. You can keep your content fresh by updating your old articles by adding the latest information or deleting those that no longer hold true.

08

Complement your SEO with search engine advertising

Search engine ads are the first things your target market will see in their search results. It is no surprise that these ads have a higher chance of attracting clicks from search users. Moreover, these ads do not require crawlers to appear on the search results so you can expect your landing page to appear faster on the results as an ad than an organic search result.

You can use these advantages to improve traffic to a landing page when you just published it. The ad can help bring immediate traffic to your website, which improves page ranking indirectly. Also, search users who see your ads are more likely to click on your page in their organic search results.

09

Hire SEO services for painting companies

It is best to hire an SEO agency to ensure long-term success for the website’s search engine optimization strategy. SEO agencies stay updated with the latest guidelines and practices for optimizing a website for search engines. Moreover, agencies have experience with performing local SEO for painting companies or house contractors so you can expect they will take care of every aspect of it.

What to Look for in SEO Services (for Painting Contractors)

If you made it to this point in this article, you probably realized that SEO can take a lot of work. And, if you have similar thoughts to other sensible business owners, you are thinking of delegating this to a qualified agency. But, before you do so, you must first know how to find a qualified SEO service agency for your business. Here’s what you need to look for:

They explain their process for SEO to you

Before hiring a marketing agency, you must have a short consultation with them first. The consultation should include a discussion about their optimization process for you and you can determine if they have the skills and knowledge to implement SEO for your website. Their process should include an SEO audit, which requires them to have access to your web analytics. If they do not have this as part of their process, it can indicate their lack of experience or knowledge about SEO.

They do not guarantee results for their SEO services

Search engines are the ones in control of the algorithm that determines a page's search ranking, so there's no way an SEO specialist can guarantee a result from optimizing a website. If anyone claims their service can provide guaranteed results or, worse, immediate ones, it’s probably due to them implementing black hat SEO practices. These practices can provide immediate results in the short term but they will only hurt your website’s search ranking. It can even lead to your website not appearing in the search results at all.

Are You a Painting Contractor Who Needs Help With SEO?

We understand that it can be difficult to find the right SEO services provider for your business. This is why we offer a free consultation for all our potential customers. There’s no risk for your business and you get the perspective of a professional digital marketer on how SEO can apply to your business specifically. Moreover, we also offer other digital marketing services so you can pick the brains of an expert on the specific applications of digital marketing for your paint contracting business.

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