Make Your Contractor Website Stand Out from Local Competition

When you're building out your local contractor website, it can be tough to set yourself apart from the competition. First of all, there's the business of actually building the site, from deciding on a design and a color palette to putting the thing online. Then there's the problem of making sure it's visible. Once you've got all of those things taken care of, you have to make sure you're still standing out from the competition.

All in all, building a contractor website that stands out from your local competition can seem like a tedious, monstrous process, but know that it can be done, and it can be done well. Once you know what to do to make your site stand out, it's just a matter of implementation. So, let's get to that recipe for success right away: When it comes to creating a contractor website that stands out from local competition, you need to be clear about who you are, and you need to be technically solid. After that, it's just about making sure the right people find you. So, let's break those initial steps down:

Be Clear About Who You Are

The best way ensure your contractor website stands out from the competition is to be absolutely clear about who you are, and why you're different. What makes your contracting company better than your local competition? Do you have a hyperfocus on customer experience? Are you really great at communication? Do you offer the best prices, or the best quality? Whatever it is, it should be clear, and it should take a site visitor less than 10 seconds to figure it out. Put the heart of your contracting company at the front and center of that new website, and make it easy for potential clients to see who you are, and what you do best.

Educate

Let's say there's three major contracting companies in your local area. They all quote competitively, and do the same type of work. However, one of those contractors regularly posts blogs that demystify some of the more confusing aspects of the contracting industry, and they share them to their social media pages. That contractor, all other things being equal, is going to be the contractor who pulls in more, bigger jobs. Why? Because they've positioned themselves as an educator, and a resource for potential clients who are looking into hiring a contractor.

Remember that the modern consumer is research-driven and educated. The modern consumer wants to gather as much information as possible before they even consider talking to a salesperson or asking for a quote. By offering up the information they're already looking for, you become that resource that they go to when they have questions, and you're more likely to be the first contractor they call when they decide it's time to start collecting bids.

Be Social

It's not enough to just write those educational blogs though, you gotta post 'em too! And not just to your website. You should be sharing your tips, as well as helpful information from other industry leaders to your Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter accounts, because if no one sees what you're writing, there's not much point in writing it. Sharing useful information gets you followers, and it gets more eyes on what you're putting out. Active social media accounts are also a great way to set yourself apart from contracting competition just by sheer numbers. Most social media platforms prefer users who post regularly, so if you're posting every week, and your competition posts just every month, you're likely to have a bit of a leg up when it comes to visibility.

We should caution: don't use your social media accounts just to talk about you. That's probably the fastest way to lose followers. Make sure you're putting out content that's relevant to your target audience and your ideal buyer. Whether you wrote it, or another industry expert did, the content that you're sharing should be engaging, interesting, and answer some question your clients often have.

Address Specific Pain Points

Finally, when you're writing content and developing your contractor website to stand out from local competition, it's important to remember to address specific pain points. Sure, you finish projects and meet deadlines, but what pain points do your ideal buyers have, and how—specifically—do you work to fix those?

The more you can do to assuage common concerns that your target market is likely to have when it comes to finding a contractor that's right for them, the more likely you are to get their business. How do you ensure their project is completed to their specifications, and how do you work to maintain a tight schedule? Specific answers to questions that worry consumers the most is a surefire way to set yourself apart from local competition.

Get Technical

While all of the soft skills above will set you apart from the competition when it comes to consumers, you also need to know how to set yourself apart from the competition when it comes to search engines. Anyone building a contractor website would be wise to remember that it's not only consumers who are looking at your site and its quality—you also have the internet and its bots to contend with. What exactly do we mean here?

Well, on any search engine like Google, spiders, or bots, crawl websites on the internet to search them for information. It's these bots that decide where on results pages a site will rank, and it's these bots that tell Google what your site is about. So, when you're building your contractor website, you also have to make sure you're building with search engines in mind, and that means taking care of a few technical details.

SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the first step to ensuring that your website ranks well on search engines. There's a lot you can do to optimize your site but start by implementing keywords relevant to your contracting business. These keywords should focus on the specific type of contracting work your company does, your location, and terms that your ideal client might be searching for on the internet. Start with keywords, and once you've got a handle on those, implement some of these more advanced strategies from our SEO Site Checkup, to make sure your site is ranking as well as possible.

Google My Business Page

One great way to make sure you're really standing out from any local competition online is to claim your contracting company's Google listing. If you have a website, Google has probably already made you a stock listing that tells people who and where you are when they search "contractors near me." To stand out from the crowd, you'll want to claim that page, which is actually pretty easy to do.  

From there, you can customize your Google My Business page any way you want. Add high-resolution photos, office hours, and information about your company that's optimized around relevant keywords if you want to stand out from the crowd.

Don't Hate on Ads

Google search and Facebook ads are a sort of brave new world for those in the contracting industry. Since they're so new and different, many contractors shy away from them, at a loss to themselves. If you want qualified leads in your area to see your contractor website before anyone else's, the easiest thing to do is invest in Google search and Facebook ads. These two very powerful programs work to make sure your company is put in front of the right people, at the right time, ensuring ROI and new leads.

Though they're a little bit more complicated than the old standard YellowPages ad, it's not by much, and the ROI you'll receive makes them well worth your time. It's in your best interest to at least check them out because when done properly, they're guaranteed to put you ahead of local competition.

In the end, a successful contractor website that stands out from local competition is achieved by optimizing the content you create on that website and the tech that supports it. If you can focus on both aspects of your website, and you optimize for keywords your clients are out there searching, you're sure to see a marked improvement in your contractor website's ability to draw in and convert new leads.

If you're excited about boosting your contractor website's potential, but you're not sure about implementation, know that Evenbound can help. We've worked with a number of small businesses in your industry, and know just what to do to ensure your site stands out from local competition. The best way to see how we can help your contracting company improve is to have a conversation with our President, John Heritage.