How Your Home Improvement Website’s SEO Links Directly to Your ROI
By FrancesMary Loughead
December 27, 2021
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a crucial part of modern-day marketing. A great deal of customer interactions, selections, and purchases happen online, even for localized businesses like contracting and home improvement.
Nowadays, most customers search online for local remodelers, plumbers, electricians, landscapers and other on-time or long-term contractors. This emphasizes the importance of your business being found online, which is what SEO can help customers do.
In this article, we’ll discuss how SEO relates to your return on investment (ROI) and how you can adjust your marketing strategies to maximize efforts.
SEO and ROI
The main purpose of any SEO campaign is to gain online visibility via search results. Using relevant keywords and strategies throughout your website can help your business be found in the top search results. ROI is the return you get on spending your marketing budget.
For example, if you spend X amount of money on direct mailers, then get Y amount of new customers directly from those mailers, you can determine how much it cost you to get each customer and if it was worth it.
In 2020, U.S. businesses spent $378 billion on digital advertising. Traditional advertising through print, telemarketing, signage, broadcasting and direct mail is not cheap either. But SEO marketing is technically free. All you need is a website and a few SEO tricks up your sleeve.
SEO is not only good at generating online traffic and leads but also driving sales. When it comes to improving ROI, SEO hits two birds with one stone. One, it drastically cuts your marketing costs. Two, it draws potential customers to your business, leading to more sales, revenue and profits.
Tips to Improve ROI Through SEO
To boost ROI, SEO practices must focus on generating leads that actually convert to sales, not just superficial web traffic. SEO is a broad field covering various social, technical and creative aspects. For a location-based home improvement business, it’s best to stick to just a few key optimization tactics that work toward better ROI. Here are some tips to get you started.
Local Search Optimization
Customize your site and SEO efforts to target residents in your local area. Residents within your service area are more likely to purchase your services, so, narrowing your SEO to a geographical niche gets you valuable leads. Also, keep in mind that nearly half of all Google searches have local intent, meaning consumers are searching for their area. Include the following practices in your local SEO strategy:
- Claim your Google My Business Page.
- Add location-based keywords to your web content, CTAs and metadata. For example: plumber in New York, NY.
- Display your business name, address and phone number clearly throughout the site.
- Include location pages for each office (if more than one location).
- Encourage customers to leave reviews.
Keyword Research and Optimization
Research your keywords thoroughly to ensure they capture the right search queries. This means understanding what your customers are searching for when looking for your types of services on the internet.
The keyword structure can make or break your entire SEO campaign. Without the right keywords, your site won’t draw in the relevant traffic, and you’ll end up with few leads and low sales.
Make a list of varying words people will use to search for your services and start with those. From there, you can add location based words before and after those words.
Mobile-Friendly Website
Mobile devices currently account for just over half of all web traffic. Google is particularly keen on ensuring that mobile web users get as good a browsing experience as desktop users. To encourage this, Google prioritizes sites with an excellent mobile experience. Full mobile responsiveness gives you a completive edge over desktop-oriented sites in the same niche. And the higher you rank above competitors, the better your chances of scoring more customers.
Get Professional Advice
Google won’t charge you whenever your site organically appears on its SERPs, but the effort to get there could cost you something. With digital marketing spending hitting an estimated $325 billion in 2019, it’s important to determine what will work best for you and your budget. These costs often cover hiring an SEO specialist or consultant, buying SEO tools and publishing web media. Regardless of the costs, ensure you’re getting your money’s worth in return.
Determine your budget for marketing efforts and if you would like to use the help of a professional marketing company to get your strategies started.
Avoid Common SEO Mistakes
SEO is a great marketing tactic but must be done with thought and effort. Be sure to avoid these common SEO mistakes.
- Not budgeting accordingly for SEO efforts
- Having little or no content (or duplicate content)
- Keyword stuffing- using too many keywords just to rank higher
- Page performance issues (loading, responsiveness or poor navigation)
- Targeting the wrong audience
Wrapping Up
SEO can be an effective, low-cost tool for improving your business’s bottom line. The good news is once you decide to move forward with SEO tactics, you can hire an SEO services provider to take care of digital marketing while you focus on running the business. Reach out to learn more about how we can help you achieve your growth.
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