Get More Quality Leads With Local SEO For Deck Builders
For a service-based business like decking, local SEO can be a goldmine of growth and revenue.
It is one of the most important aspects of your online marketing, and the piece that has the biggest sway on the leads you can get from online.
Let’s look at what is local SEO and how you can implement it in your business.
What is Local SEO for Deck Builders?
The main difference between local SEO and SEO is the area you’re focusing on.
A business selling Milwaukee drills will focus more on SEO because they want to sell throughout the country.
But a business building decks will focus more on local SEO because they’re building decks in a specific area.
If you’re a deck builder, you need to focus more on local SEO.
When your local SEO is on point, your decking business can appear in the top 3 results on Google on searches like ‘deck building near me‘ or ‘best deck replacement companies‘.
And when that happens, you’re on the right track and you’ll notice more leads coming in.
If you’re looking to climb the ranks in local search results, this is what you need to look for:
- Proximity - If your business address is close to the area the user is searching from, you have a higher chance of showing up higher in the results.
- Relevance - If your business name and the services you offer match what the user was searching for, you have a higher chance of showing up higher in the results.
- Prominence - If your business is prominent in the area, you have reviews, citations, and people mention you online, you have a higher chance of showing up higher in the results.
Although from 2023, these ranking factors remained somewhat the same, and Google still takes these into account when ranking pages and businesses online.
What do they all mean?
- GBP signals - all the information you added to your Google Business Profile
- On-page signals - all the information you added on your website or page
- Review signals - the number of reviews and what are people saying about you
- Link signals - all the links that lead to your website
- Behavioural signals - all the interactions users have with your page or profile
- Citation signals - all the citation Google can find about your business on the internet
- Personalization - how Google shows results based on users' history.
1. Set Up Your Google Business Profile
The largest piece of the local SEO puzzle is your Google Business Profile.
This is your business’ Google page where people can see your work, read reviews, find your showroom or office, and more.
Read our article on how to optimize any Google Business Profile for success.
Write a Clear Description
Descriptions will let both Google AI and your clients better understand what your business is about. For a deck builder, it should look like this:
You have a limit of 750 characters to tell people about your experience, how many clients you’ve served, what services you offer, the areas you serve, your unique selling proposition, and mention any awards you’ve got.
Here’s a guide on how to write Google Business Descriptions like a pro.
Selecting the 'Deck Builder' Category
The main category is a very important ranking factor as it shows relevance (an important thing Google looks at). If you’re a deck builder, this should be your main category.
Add Images Of Decks
Google Business Profiles with decks get a lot more views than profiles with less images. So, add your best images of finished decks or decks in progress, and show people what you do!
Including pictures of your team, your workspace, and before-and-after shots of your projects can make your business profile more attractive to potential customers.
Answer Common Questions
2. Get Your Decking Business Noticed Online
Having a Google Business Profile is not all you can do for your local SEO.
Also add your business to websites like Yelp, Angi, Home Advisor, Thumbtack, Nextdoor, Houzz, etc,
These are places homeowners look for professionals, and it’s great practice to have your business name out there.
These sites are business directories for contractors, and we have post about the 10 best directories for contractors.
Here’s a quick guide on how to create citations for your decking company.
#1. Find the Most relevant directories
If you checked out our 10 best directories for contractors, you already know the most relevant ones.
#2. Create an account
First of all, create an account on these websites. You’ll need one to create a listing for your business and then manage it
#3. create your business listing
It’s important to use the same information on all citations. The NAP for your business (name, address, phone number) need to be the same throughout the internet.
#4. Manage your listing
Log in to these directories once every few weeks and add new images, answer reviews, and make sure users didn’t make changes to your page (because yes, users can suggest edits and if left unattended, the site can approve them).
3. Keep Your Business Information Consistent
Like I mentioned above, keeping the name of your business, the address of your business, and your phone number consistent throughout the internet is a must.
If Google sees conflicting information, not only the citation doesn’t count anymore, but you might lose relevance points.
Besides, imagine you’d get a lot of leads from NextDoor, but the phone number there is an old one and you’re not getting any of those calls or messages.
4. Get Positive Reviews To Your Deck Building Business Profile
Google reviews are very important to build a good reputation online and increase your prominence.
Still, proactively getting reviews is fairly difficult, especially when you don’t ask for them.
Did you know that way more people leave reviews when they’re not satisfied, compared to when they are?
So if you don’t proactively ask a happy client for a review, it’s unlikely they’ll do it themselves.
5. Make Your Decking Website Local-Friendly
For all decking companies operating in different areas, it’s important to tailor your website pages to the main location you want to serve.
So, if you prefer doing business in Knoxville Metro, you’ll want your homepage and all the other pages on your website to mention that area.
This is very important for local SEO, as it gives proximity signals to Google.
It’s like directly telling Google ‘Hey, this is the area we serve. Please don’t show my business to people 3 states away.’
The outcome?
People who end up on your decking company’s website are more inclined to request a quote and become a lead because they see you are a local business.
6. Create Content Around Decking That's Relevant Locally
Many people think this is difficult, when in reality they’re already doing this in some way.
You know the decking industry in your area the best, so write about something that locals are interested in.
Here are some examples of articles you could tackle:
- Article about the deck building codes in your city.
- Article about the best decking materials from your area's weather.
- Article about the best supplier for decking materials in your city.
- Article about the best decking companies in your area.
- Article about certain zoning and restrictions for decks.
- Article about potential rebates for deck repairs.
You can write about anything and add ‘… in Knoxville Metro’, and squeeze all the juice you can from your local SEO strategy through blogs and other content on your site.
7. Begin a Local Link Building Effort
Building links is a more difficult strategy, but it pays off when you pull it off.
Links are internal links, external links, and backlinks.
Internal link are links on your site that lead to other page on your site.
External links are links on your site that lead to another site.
And backlinks are links that lead from another site to your site.
Out of all, backlinks are the most important, as they send prominence signals to Google.
It’s like telling Google ‘this company is referencing your site, so it must be a reliable, reputable source for decking’.
The best way to get people to link to your website?
Networking.
Talk to other contractors that are not your direct competitors, and exchange links on your site.
You’d ask a home builder to put a link to your website on his, and you’d put a link to his website.
8. Earn Google's Seal of Approval: Google Screened
Being ‘Google Screened’ as a deck builder will further increase your local SEO presence.
This program verifies your business license and highlights your services at the top of local search results.
To kick off with Google Screened for your remodeling business, start by checking out the requirements page to understand the screening and verification steps you need to follow.
9. Boost local SEO Through Social Media
While social media doesn’t directly impact your ranking through local SEO, it helps built more prominence online.
Get more people to talk about your business, create videos, get them viral, and you’ll notice a huge increase in popularity. With that popularity, an increase in leads from local SEO is guaranteed.
Look online for what other deck builders are doing on social media and come up with your own ideas.
You can hit the jackpot and go viral overnight, and then it’s only a matter of time until your business gets famous locally.
10. Sponsor Local Community Events
Sponsoring events is a very smart way to get backlinks and get people to talk about your business.
Whether it’s a charity event, a sports event, or a fair, have a booth and get out there!
This will most likely feature you in local news (backlinks) and you might even get a lead or two from people who were already looking to build or replace a deck.
Local events are great to network with peers, other contractors, or your target audience, so never miss any event.
Frequently Asked Questions
With SEO, you’re focusing on showing up higher on Google throughout the country. With local SEO, you’re focusing all your efforts into showing up higher in the city you conduct business in. Local SEO is a much better option for contractors like yourself.
Use tools like Google Search Console and Google Analytics. You can track performance even in the Google Business Profile dashboard, under ‘Performance’. You’ll see the number of clicks to your website, clicks to get directions to your address, and even calls from the profile.
It depends on multiple things. If your competitors are doing just as much, results might be slower. If no one else in the area is doing SEO or local SEO, you can see results in as quickly as weeks.
If you’d rather grow your decking business and stick to what you do best, it makes no sense to waste your precious time. It’s always best to hire an expert so you get the best results.
Local SEO will work for any service-based business, especially for deck builders. This is because over 90% of people look online for this service, and if your business shows up first, it’s very likely that users will request a quote from you before anyone else.
Need An Expert For Local SEO?
Running a decking business is probably taking up a lot of your time.
Especially if you’re doing the sales, the production, the nurturing, and the customer service.
The last thing you can afford right now is to spend time learning local SEO.
If you want to grow your company through SEO and local SEO, it’s best to work with an expert who successfully helped other deck builders in the past.
Check out our case studies and see how we’ve helped several other decking companies break past their revenue goals and create a future-proof business with SEO and local SEO!
Decided you want to get professional SEO and local SEO?