Tips for improving SEO, creating Facebook ads and responding to reviews

Before you make a big purchase, you likely spend some time researching your options online. Your customers are doing the same thing. In fact, 90% of people do some online research before making a purchase — especially when it comes to a large investment like building or remodeling. Whether prospective customers are researching through Google, social media or review sites, you want to make it easy for them to find your business.

Here are three tips for how to promote your business online.

1. Improve Your Website’s SEO and Rank Higher on Google

Google, the most frequently used search engine, looks for specific search engine optimization (SEO) factors when it ranks webpages in search results. The factors consider what the searcher is looking for — for example, what homeowners are looking for when they do a Google search for “roofing contractors near me.” The more your website serves the intent of the person searching, the higher it will rank in Google’s search results. For tips on building your own company website, read this blog post.

There are many ways that you can improve your website’s SEO and organic ranking. Here are a few of the easiest steps to take:

• Incorporate keywords into your website’s copy. Use Google Keyword Planner or other keyword tools to research which keywords make the most sense for your business. The best keywords are relevant to your business, answer the questions that your customers are searching and cover the gaps that your competitors are leaving. Look for keywords that have a high average monthly search volume, have low competition and are highly relevant to your business. Pro tip: Incorporate them into your headings (larger text) for a bigger emphasis!
• Fix broken links. Google will downgrade your search engine ranking if your website has a lot of outdated or broken links. Check your website for broken links and update or remove them.
• Remove webpages that don’t get traffic. If your company’s website has old pages that don’t receive any visitors or are no longer relevant, consider deleting them. Having many pages that don’t get traffic or are outdated can negatively affect your ranking.
• Add descriptions to your images. Including captions and alt text — or the written copy that appears in place of an image if it fails to load — for your website’s photos can help Google analyze the images more accurately and improve your SEO. Learn more about writing good alt text

2. Create Facebook and LinkedIn Ads to Reach Prospective Customers

If you have Facebook and LinkedIn accounts for your company (and you should!), you can use social media ads to reach prospective customers. Facebook might be the most appropriate social media platform to run ads that reach homeowners. Through Facebook Ads Manager, you can choose different objectives for the ads, such as driving traffic to your website or viewing a video. You can also target the ad to specific people through factors such as location, age and interests, and schedule your ad to be live for a certain amount of time as well as view analytics through Facebook Ads Manager. For more tips on creating Facebook ads, see this checklist.

Similarly, you can also set up ads on LinkedIn. Since many professionals use LinkedIn, it can be a good place to reach business owners who may have commercial roofing and siding needs.

3. Respond to Online Reviews

A positive review on Yelp, Google or Angie’s List alone reflects well on your business, but you can make reviews work even harder for you by responding to them. Responding to reviews shows that you care about what your customers think. When you receive a positive review, respond with gratitude for the customer’s kind words. When you receive a negative review, thank the customer for their feedback and share how you will make the issue right. Make sure to avoid engaging in online banter; instead, you should provide a phone number or email the customer can use to speak to someone directly and resolve the issue offline. Doing so will show that you are professional and care about your customers.

Having a strong presence online can help your business get noticed by customers. Follow these tips to maximize the power of your website, social media and customer reviews. For more tips on promoting your business online and offline, read our eBook.