As a contractor, you may not be eager to hear this, but the number one thing that you can do to improve your website and increase traffic is to write a blog. You would probably rather be on a project site or writing a quote, but don’t dismiss the effectiveness of a high quality blog for your construction business.
An established blog can expect to drive an average of 55% more traffic to your website than a site without a blog.
Why so much?
Blog articles are often shared and they answer questions. If you write a helpful article with winter maintenance tips, your customers will share it, then their friends will share it, and so on. Your articles will also rank with search engine results on relevant topics. Still not convinced?
Presence
Contractor blogging is an important part of creating an online presence for your company. Today’s consumers investigate every purchase they make online, from deciding what book to read to choosing a contractor to build their home. Your company needs to be not just visible, but over the top visible, being everywhere they look, and a blog helps you do that.
Expertise
Writing a blog enables you to establish yourself as an expert in your field. When people in your area are considering a construction project, who are they going to trust? The contractor with a basic website pushing salespeople on them or the contractor with an extensive blog who demonstrates knowledge of their particular project?
As clients share your blog articles with their friends, you will establish a relationship as an expert among people who may not have heard of you before. The word of mouth recommendation that their share acts as builds your reputation by leaps and bounds.
Connect
A construction company with a solid blog has a unique way of connecting with their local community and beyond. Blogs are a great place to have a conversation with customers and potential clients. Each blog should conclude with a question or invitation to share. When you receive these comments, you need to respond to each one. As people see that you value their input, you can create a thriving online community that increases loyalty to your business.
Growth
Because clients are likely to share blog articles that they feel are particularly useful, you will find your web traffic increasing. As you interact with new website visitors, your subscriptions to email newsletters and specials will grow. The steps that begin with a new person reading your contractor blog, grow into new sales that help you grow your business.
Feedback
By communicating with clients and prospective customers through blogging, you will learn interesting things about your customers and the reputation of your business. This is a great way to gain testimonials in the comments of your posts. You may also learn that specific services or topics are being talked about which may open new business lines. This gives you ideal blog topics, but may even lead to changes in your business. For example, if you discover that many of your customers would like to build bathroom additions, this may be a service that you decide to feature on your website or as an email blast.
SEO
The higher the quality of the content your website holds, the greater your website’s SEO. Since you will be writing blog topics related to your business, the keywords that potential clients are searching for are going to appear there without any keyword stuffing. As your traffic increases, search engines will upgrade your ranking in search results, giving you more swings at the plate for lead development.
These are great reasons to blog, but another reason is it saves you money. Even if you outsource your blog content creation with a company like ours, you will, over time still save on marketing expenses as blog content will continue to devliver leads long after the articles are wrttien.