Tradies comprise over 30% of the Australian workforce, making the market quite competitive. Whether you are a newbie in the business, an established company, or an individual contractor with years of experience, you still need to keep up with the digital trends in order not to lose customers.
Regardless of the type of your craft, be it plumbing, building design, bricklaying, or carpentry, you need to have a well-rounded marketing strategy in place to become visible.
A professional tradie SEO strategy can help you better target your potential clients based on demography, thus driving more leads, enhancing your local presence, and increasing your revenue.
It goes without saying that normally, your customers are people who have stumbled upon an emergency, a problem needing an urgent solution or just looking to improve their existing property and looking for reliable tradies in the area to ensure the work is completed on time and in budget.
It’s not hard to guess that the first thing they do is Google search for available specialists, who pop up in the top search results. In fact, statistics show that over 80% of Australians will search before asking a friend. This is how business will survive and grow in the era of digital and unless you adapt your business to digital demands, you can expect to lose a big share of calls and customers moving forward.
Keep in mind that tradie SEO cannot succeed with a one-time approach. It’s an ongoing process that requires constant monitoring, updates, and attention to deliver the desirable results.
Let’s now discuss several important reasons why tradie SEO matters and why you should consider investing in it:
Higher Flow of Customers
Having a website for your tradie business is not enough, you need an effective marketing strategy to promote it and let your customers know about your services.
With over hundreds of tradies who are competing in the same market space and over 95% of searches making their decisions based on who is on page 1 of Google, this is making it a very tight and highly competitive space.
Most Tradies fall into the trap of “hey I’m busy right now, so I don’t need this right now” mentality, however this is a very slippery slop fraught with danger. See, when you are busy you have the budget to do SEO but do not necessarily need it now, which is ideal because it can take up to 3-6months to get to page 1 for most keywords.
For some keywords it can take up to a year or more because it is so competitive. So, when you actually need the SEO to kick in because business has slowed down then it is more than often too late, why because now you don’t have the budget or the time to wait for SEO to kick and drive business to your door.
It takes dedicated SEO professionals to get your name in the top search results, but once you get there, your business will start growing like never before, but more important it removes the peaks and troughs in business cycles allow your business to grow through even the slow times.
Note: Getting your #1 place in the top results of search engines only means that you should keep working and improving your SEO strategies to preserve and further enhance your achievements.
Increased Conversion Rates
If your website is well-structured with fast load time, is responsive and easy to navigate then your new customers are more likely to click through and if you are a fit take action.
Optimise your tradie business website wisely, and you can expect to have an increased number of prospects who convert to paying and loyal customers.
The key here is how to tweak and fine tune messaging and design of your website or landing page plus the messaging on Google search to attract the right type of customer.
The strategy is to speak to your target audience directly as if you have been having a one-on-one conversation to answer all the FAQs and telling them why you are the Tradie to handle their job.
Gain a Competitive Edge
As it was already mentioned, trades are in high demand across Australia which creates a highly competitive market. However, it’s possible to beat your competitors and increase your brand awareness with the right SEO strategy.
Imagine two skilled and experienced tradies – one of them shows up first in search engines, the other relies on word of mouth – which one do you think will be a success? Consider your own personal actions here, when was the last time you asked a friend for a reference vs searching google? You are likely to research online 10X more than ask someone for a reference, in fact, even social proof or references have gone online as more and more people write reviews and rely on reviews and social media content to base their purchase decisions on.
Search Engines are Unpredictable
Now here is a reason why SEO is better to be done by a professional marketing agency. As a tradesman, you might not have the necessary knowledge and insights about the world of marketing and SEO.
In this case, trying to build an online presence on your own might end up being a counterproductive to becoming visible on search engines.
The reason for this is that Google are constantly updating their algorithms which simply means that a tradie SEO strategy that worked at some point, might start to fail.
It takes a specialist with the needed knowledge and resources to monitor these changes and react proactively in order to protect and improve your rankings.
Cliché or not, Content is Still King
It’s not only the algorithms of Google that undergo changes, but the search results as well.
Google is regularly crawling and indexing websites and updating its top results based on different changes and additions.
Being in a top spot today does not guarantee the same result tomorrow. The only way of protecting your position is content; quality content!
Content is pretty much the most crucial part of any SEO strategy, the key to long-lasting top positions in search results.
If you want your tradie website to rank high, you should post relevant, informative, and eye-catching content on a regular basis.
This is another reason why you should think of trusting your tradie SEO to the experts who will ensure your web presence brings tangible results on all fronts.
The good news is – that’s exactly what we do. Should you be interested, our SEO specialists would be happy to give you an obligation-free consultation.
