Contractors Guide to Search Engine Optimization CONTENTS What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)? Why Do Businesses Need SEO (If They Want To Generate Business Online)? Which Search Engines Should You Consider for SEO? What Is the Difference Between Organic Results, Paid Results, and Local Results? The Problem With Focusing Only on Organic Results What Makes Google Display Your Website in Search Results? What is Relevant Content? Can I Do SEO For Myself? How Does SEO Help You Grow Your Business? If These Numbers Are So Attractive, Why Isn t Everyone Doing It? Why SEO is Not Cheap What Does SEO Cost? How Do You Measure the Effectiveness of an SEO Campaign? Our SEO and Online Marketing Solution 1
What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)? SEO is the practice of improving and promoting a web site in order to increase the number of visitors the site receives from search engines. SEO involves doing work on your website and off of your website to attempt to get your website to show, or rank, highly in the free, or organic, search results. Why Do Businesses Need SEO (if they want to generate business online)? Over 90% of people research products and services online before they make a buying decision. The majority of web traffic is driven by the major search engines Google, Bing, Yahoo, and others. If your online presence is not optimized for the search engines, the search engines will not be able to display your website in search results for searches related to your products and services. In other words, if your book is not properly indexed in the library, no one is going to find it. Which Search Engines Should You Consider for SEO? While there are dozens of search engines on the Internet, Google has about 80% of the market share right now, so businesses tend to focus on best practices for SEO for Google. Successful SEO with Google correlates with success in ranking on the other search engines as well. This guide will focus on Google. What is the Difference Between Organic Results, Paid Results, and Local Results? As we can see in the graphic below, a screenshot of a typical local contractor search, paid ads for local businesses show at the top and right of a Search Engine Results Page (SERP). Below the paid ads are a few Google Places (local) results. Below the Google Places results are the natural, or organic, results. Usually, when a business hires an SEO agency to improve their rankings, the agency focuses on the organic results. 2
The Problem With Focusing Only on Organic Results Look again at the image above. Only about 15% of the page is comprised of natural SEO results. The remainder of the page is either paid results or local results. So when you focus only on improving your business organic position, you are missing out on the other 85% of the page. Why Are the Organic Results Such a Small Part of the Page? At one time, organic results occupied nearly all of the page. Recently (the past couple years), Google has focused on local search. Their goal is to display highly relevant local search results. They also want to give less real estate to businesses who attempt to manipulate their organic rankings with questionable SEO tactics. And, of course, Google makes money from paid ads, which is why they occupy so much of the page. Google Places (local listings) are becoming more prominent in the results because Google realizes that is what people are looking for. The local listings are also what display most prominently on mobile devices, which is a big focus for Google and the other search engines. 3
A Successful SEO Campaign Focuses on Paid, Local, and Organic Results Local businesses who want to drive more traffic to their website must incorporate paid, local, and organic into their SEO campaigns. Again, if you are a local business and focusing only on the organic results, you are missing out on most of the results on the first page of Google. What Makes Google and Other Search Engines Display Your Website in Search Results? Google s aim is to display the most relevant search results possible for a given user query. Therefore, Google is looking for websites with the following characteristics: Relevant, up-to-date content User-friendly website layout, structure, and navigation Fast website load times Social proof your business is found elsewhere on the Internet, in addition to your website, such as social media profiles, local directories, other websites linking to yours Of course no one outside of Google knows how exactly Google decides which results to display, which is why SEO is an art and a science. However, the above factors are the foundation for a well optimized website. What Is Relevant Content? Google s robots crawl the World Wide Web constantly. They visit every website on the web weekly. If Google sees that your site was built 2 years ago and has not been updated since, it does not see it as a relevant site. If, however, Google sees that your site is structured well, is updated with new content weekly, and has some active social media profiles, it sees your site as relevant and will display it higher in the search engine. Note: This is why you should not ignore social media. Social media may not directly bring you business, but Google sees social media as an indicator of relevance. Social media is part of any successful business web presence. Can I Do SEO For Myself? SEO and marketing are acquired skills, just as roofing and plumbing are acquired skills. Most anyone can learn the requisite skills and apply them to their own business. But most successful business owners choose to focus on what they do best and outsource the rest. When I need to replace my toilet, I call a plumber. Can I buy a Plumbing for Dummies book, watch a few You Tube videos, get a toilet from Home Depot, and replace it myself? Probably. Do I want to spend the time and effort to do it myself, and still not guarantee that I will do it right? Or do I want to hire an expert to do it in 1/10 th of the time and ensure it s done properly. I would rather pay to have it done correctly and spend my time on growing my business, spending time with my family, or whatever else I choose to do. How Does SEO Help You Grow Your Business? SEO is only one part of a marketing strategy. SEO, in and of itself, is not a sales or marketing plan. There are 3 steps to getting business online: 4
1. Drive traffic (visitors) to your website 2. Convert those visitors to leads 3. Convert those leads into actual paying customers A successful SEO campaign only helps with driving traffic to your website. You must also focus on converting traffic to leads and leads to customers. This is where 8 out of 10 small businesses fail with their SEO campaign. They invest a lot of time and money to drive people to their website and then drop the ball on the follow through. This is precisely why SEO is just one part of an online lead generation campaign. SEO does not exist in a vacuum. You cannot lead people to a 3-year old website that does not engage visitors and expect to grow your business. Here are some basic numbers to think about. For the purpose of this example, let s assume that you make $1,000 in profit from every customer you acquire through your website: Current Scenario (prior to doing any SEO work): Your website receives 1,000 unique visitors every month 100 of those visitors (or 10%) convert into leads for your business, by contacting you, signing up for a newsletter, or by some other pre-determined conversion strategy Out of those 100, 10 turn into paying customers for your business Your visitor-to-lead conversion rate is 10% and your lead-to-customer conversion rate is 10% (both good numbers). Your visitor-to-customer ratio is 1% Your monthly profit from website customers is $10,000 Post-SEO Scenario #1 (You do a lot of SEO work to drive traffic to your website, but do not do any work on your site to engage those visitors) Your website now receives 3,000 unique website visitors every month 300 of those visitors (or 10%) convert into leads for your business, by contacting you, signing up for a newsletter, or by some other pre-determined conversion strategy Out of those 300, 30 turn into paying customers for your business Your visitor-to-lead conversion rate is 10% and your lead-to-customer conversion rate is 10%. Your visitor-to-customer ratio is 1% Your monthly profit from website customers is $30,000 Post-SEO Scenario #2 (You work on the first 2 areas of your online sales funnel traffic generation and lead conversion) Your website now receives 3,000 unique website visitors every month You spend time to update your website usability, make it more engaging for visitors, add more relevant content, educate your visitors, and add inviting calls to action (invitations for visitors to contact you, sign up for a free quote, etc.) 5
450 of those visitors (or 15%) convert into leads for your business, by contacting you, signing up for a newsletter, or by some other pre-determined conversion strategy Out of those 450, 45 turn into paying customers for your business Your visitor-to-lead conversion rate is 15% and your lead-to-customer conversion rate is still 10% Your visitor-to-customer ratio is 1.5% Your monthly profit from website customers is $45,000 Post-SEO Scenario #3 (You work on all 3 areas of your online sales funnel traffic generation, lead conversion, and customer conversion) Your website now receives 3,000 unique website visitors every month You spend time to update your website usability, make it more engaging for visitors, add more relevant content, educate your visitors, add inviting calls to action, and follow up with all leads regularly, as part of your marketing program 450 of those visitors (or 15%) convert into leads for your business, by contacting you, signing up for a newsletter, or by some other pre-determined conversion strategy Out of those 450, 67.5 (or 15%) turn into paying customers for your business Your visitor-to-lead conversion rate is 15% and your lead-to-customer conversion rate is 15% Your visitor-to-customer ratio is 2.25% Your monthly profit from website customers is $67,500 As you can see, making small adjustments to these numbers has a multiplier effect on your business. We are not talking about drastic changes in any area of your online sales funnel. By turning the dial just a little on all 3 areas, we are able to see results in this example that are difficult to ignore. Comparing Post-SEO Scenario #1 with Post-SEO Scenario #3 demonstrates why SEO is only one part of a marketing strategy and why getting to the top of Google is only one step in the process. If the Numbers Are So Attractive, Why Isn t Everyone Doing It? First, let me state that there are never guarantees with SEO or any marketing strategy online or off. If anyone is guaranteeing you results, run, don t walk, in the other direction. The above is merely an example, and a modest example at that. We are not talking about making huge assumptions; we re making minor improvements in several areas that, when combined, have a significant multiplier effect on the bottom line. Second, not everyone is doing it because it takes a good amount of time, effort, and usually, money. It s very logical, but not easy. It takes time for an SEO campaign to improve your results in the search engines 3-6 months at the minimum 6
It takes time and often a professional web designer to design your website for visitor engagement and to optimize it for search engines It takes time to create relevant and valuable content on a regular basis It takes effort nurture your leads and convert them to customers None of these things happens automatically. They require time and attention. They require the business owner to be proactive. As you know, nothing good comes without effort. But the results can be life-changing. The difference between the initial and the final scenarios is significant - $120,000/year vs. $810,000/year. Again, your mileage may vary and there are no guarantees, but by now, you get the point. Why SEO is Not Cheap With 90% of consumers researching future purchases online, businesses that ignore online marketing do so at their own peril. Having a robust online presence is no longer an if question. A successful SEO and online marketing campaign demands a lot of work up front as well as ongoing work on a monthly basis. Marketing is not a set it and forget it strategy. It s a process, just as traditional selling is a process. Between website design, content creation, on-site optimization, and off-site optimization, an SEO agency is putting in hundreds of hours of work. Sure, there are SEO agencies that will charge you $200 a month for SEO and promise you the top spot in Google. As with anything else in this world, if it seems too good to be true, it usually is. You can also buy an umbrella for $5. But you don t. What Does SEO Cost? The answer to this is highly specific on the business and the industry involved. It is near impossible to pinpoint an exact number without some research into a business s current marketing efforts, industry and competitive analysis, and future goals. To provide a range, a good online marketing campaign, including SEO, will have an up-front cost and a monthly retainer for at least 6 months. For a Local Builder or Construction Firm, the initial cost can range from $3,500 - $10,000 and the monthly retainer can range from $750 - $5,000 and even higher. If you re paying less than this, you re just not making a good effort to grow your business and there is a good chance you are wasting your time and money. Why? Because the pie is limited. Space on the first page Google is limited. You are competing with others in your area for real estate in the search results. If your SEO agency is spending 2 hours every month on your campaign and your competitor is spending 20 hours every month, guess who has a better chance of getting the prime Google real estate? It s an unfortunate reality and I m not usually a limited pie size thinker, but this is Google s world and we must adapt to it if we want to play in it. How Do You Measure the Effectiveness of an SEO Campaign? A $200 per month SEO agency will send you a report every month that shows you how many people visited your website during that month. 7
A marketing agency that works on your overall marketing strategy, by contrast, will constantly measure several statistics and make adjustments on a monthly basis. Here is a partial list of what a marketing agency will do to report on the results of your marketing campaign: Provide a monthly report that details how many visitors your site received, where those visitors came from (Google, Yahoo, paid ads, etc.), how long they stayed on your website, which pages they visited on your website. Put a unique phone number on your website (that forwards to your main phone number) so you can measure how many phone calls you received each month from website visitors, in addition to emails and contact form submissions from your website. Capture email addresses from interested visitors who sign up for your free guide, your newsletter, or some other educational information you provide. Track people by those email addresses to see who returns to your website, how often, and what they read on your website. For example, if you notice that a particular person visits your website twice per week and is always on your page about solar roofing (assuming you are a solar or roofing contractor), you can contact them to see how you may be able to help them further. Provide detailed stats on which calls to action are working the best, which are not, your lead conversion rate, and other visitor engagement statistics. Provide a search engine ranking report that details how your website is performing in the search engine results and how you compare with your key competitors. If you re not measuring, you re not marketing. As I mentioned above, SEO and marketing are part art, part science. This is the science part of it. Everything gets measured, re-evaluated, and adjusted constantly. This is why marketing is an ongoing process, not a one-time event. Our SEO and Online Marketing Solution Our goal here at Contractor Dynamics is to help builders and contractors like you grow your businesses with strategic marketing. All of the information on our website and blog are intended to help you Do It Yourself if you have the interest, knowledge, and time. However, typically, the contractors that we work with who see the most success realize that their time is better spent doing what they know how to do best, and receiving guidance from us for the nuts and bolts of marketing and strategic growth. This is why we have developed a completely Done For You SEO Online Marketing Solution that will help you grow your business in a significant way. You can learn more about it here. Dynamic Online Marketing Solution 8
QUESTIONS? www.contractordynamics.com joseph@contractordynamics.com 732-733-2390 9