Local SEO for contractors: a plain-English guide

Local SEO for contractors is the work that helps you show up when someone nearby searches Google for your trade, in the map results and the regular results below them. Google says local results come down to three things: relevance, distance and prominence. You can't move your shop closer to every customer, but you can make it obvious what you do and where you do it, and you can build the reviews, links and proof of real jobs that make you better known.

None of this needs an agency. Most of it is a few minutes a week, done by the person who knows the work best.

How Google decides who shows up locally

Google spells out its local ranking factors in its Business Profile help article, Tips to improve your local ranking on Google. Here they are in plain terms.

Google adds that prominence is also based on how many websites link to you and how many reviews you have, and that more reviews and positive ratings can help your local ranking. The same page says there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking.

That's the whole game. Every tip below either makes you more relevant or more prominent.

Your Google Business Profile: what to do yourself

Your Business Profile is the listing that shows in the map pack. You manage it yourself at business.google.com. Here's what matters most, all straight from Google's own rules.

Get the basics right

• Verify the profile. Google's ranking tips say verified profiles are more likely to show up in local results.
• Use your real business name. Google's guidelines for representing your business say your name should reflect your real-world name, and that adding unnecessary information like service descriptions isn't permitted. "Ace Plumbing" is fine. "Ace Plumbing Water Heater Repair Boise" is asking for a suspension.
• Pick a tight primary category. The same guidelines say to use as few categories as possible to describe your core business, and not to use categories as keywords. A roofer is "Roofing contractor," not ten loosely related categories.
• Set up as a service-area business. If customers don't come to you, Google says to remove your address and list the areas you serve. Its service-area help page allows up to 20 areas and says the whole area shouldn't stretch more than about two hours of driving from your base.
• Keep hours current, including holiday hours. Google lists complete, accurate information as a ranking tip.

Add real photos

Google's ranking tips list photos and videos as a way to show what you offer. Its photo guidelines ask for photos that are in focus, well lit, and free of heavy edits or filters. Your crew on a job, a finished deck, a clean panel swap. Not stock photos. For more on photos and search, see do job site photos help local SEO.

Ask for reviews, and answer them

Reviews feed prominence directly. Google's help page on getting reviews says you can ask customers to leave one through a Google link or QR code. Text the link the day you finish, while the customer is still looking at the new water heater.

Two rules to know. Google's Maps content policy bans offering anything in exchange for reviews, like a discount on the next service. It also bans selectively asking only happy customers. Ask everyone.

Then reply to every review, good and bad. Google's ranking tips say replies show you value feedback and that positive reviews and helpful replies can help you stand out.

Optional: post updates

Google lets you create posts on your Business Profile: updates, offers and events. Google's help pages don't list posts as a ranking factor, so treat them as a way to show a searcher you're active. If you post, a recent job with a photo works fine.

Your website: what Google reads there

Your profile gets you into the map. Your website is where Google and the customer check whether you're the real deal. Google's SEO Starter Guide covers the basics, and these are the ones that matter most for a trade business.

1. One page per main service. A roofer needs separate pages for roof replacement, repairs and gutters, not one "Services" page with a bulleted list. That's relevance.
2. Clear page titles. The Starter Guide says a good title is unique to the page, clear, concise, and describes the page accurately. "Water Heater Replacement in Spokane" beats "Services | Home."
3. Pages about real jobs. A short write-up of a finished job, with photos and the town or neighborhood, is original content no competitor can copy. Google's guide to helpful, people-first content asks for exactly that kind of first-hand expertise. See job pages vs. service-area pages for how to structure them.
4. Your name, phone and service area on every page, matching your Business Profile.
5. LocalBusiness structured data. This is code that tells Google your name, address or area, phone and hours. Google documents it in its local business structured data guide, and also says it does not guarantee features that use it will show.

Links from other websites

Google says prominence includes how many websites link to you. For a contractor, the honest ways to earn links are the ones that come from real business: a listing on a manufacturer's or supplier's dealer locator, your local chamber or trade association, a Little League team you sponsor, a local news story about a job. Skip anyone selling links in bulk.

What doesn't work

• Paying for a map spot. Google says it can't be done. Calls offering a "Google Maps opening" are sales pitches.
• Keyword-stuffed names. Against Google's guidelines, and a common cause of suspensions.
• Buying or trading for reviews. Banned, and the reviews get removed.
• Copy-paste city pages. Forty pages with only the town name swapped is what Google's spam policies call doorway abuse.
• Expecting overnight results. The Starter Guide says some changes take hours and others take several months.

Local SEO for contractors in an hour a week

Here's a routine an owner can run from a phone and a laptop.

Once a month, add 15 minutes to look at what people searched to find you in Google Search Console, which is free. That tells you whether any of this is working. A walkthrough is in is my contractor website working.

Do this this week

• Open your Business Profile and confirm your name, primary category, service areas and hours match Google's rules.
• Remove your home address if customers don't come to you.
• Get your review link and text it to every customer from the last two weeks.
• Reply to any review you never answered.
• Pick your best job from last month and write it up on your website with three to six photos.
• Check that your website has a separate page for each main service you sell.

The hard part of local SEO for contractors isn't knowing what to do. It's doing the job pages and review asks every week when the schedule is full. GeoUP handles the job-page side: a crew member checks in from the job with photos and notes, and the post goes to your website and social pages. It doesn't touch your Business Profile, which stays in your hands.

Common questions