Last week I talked to a plumbing contractor in Wisconsin who told me he'd spent $2,000 on an "SEO strategy" he didn't understand from someone he didn't trust. When I asked what it was supposed to do, he said, "Make me show up on Google, I guess." That's actually all you need to know. Everything else is just details.
Google is basically a yellow pages that's always open
Before the internet, contractors got work through phone books, referrals, and local reputation. Google is just the modern version of that. When someone needs an electrician at 10 p.m. on a Tuesday, they type "electrician near me" and Google shows them options. If you're not there, you don't get the call. That's SEO in a nutshell.
The goal isn't to understand how Google works. The goal is to be findable when people search for what you do.
Three things actually matter
First, your Google Business Profile. This is free. Fill it out completely. Put your real phone number, real address, real hours, and clear photos of your actual work. People look at this before they call you. If it says you're closed when you're open, that's on you.
Second, your website needs to exist and it needs to work on phones. It doesn't need to be fancy. It needs to load fast, show what you do, and make it easy for someone to call or email you. A website that looks like it hasn't been updated since 2009 works fine. A website that doesn't load on phones costs you jobs.
Third, get reviews. Real reviews from real customers. Google cares about them. Your potential customers care about them. You should care about them. Ask customers for them. Make it easy. Most contractors don't bother, which means the three who do dominate their market.
What doesn't matter as much as people say it does
I've watched contractors spend weeks writing blog posts about their industry thinking it would help them rank on Google. Sometimes it does a little. Most of the time it's time you could have spent actually running your business. Write one good page about what you do, keep it updated, and move on.
Don't hire someone to "optimize your keywords" unless you understand what they're actually doing and why it costs that much. Don't pay $500 a month for SEO if you're a one-truck operation in a small town. Do the basics first. Then worry about advanced stuff.
The stuff that actually works is boring
Show up consistently. Answer the phone when people call or email. Do the work well. Ask happy customers for reviews and referrals. Keep your Google Business Profile updated with current information. Make sure your phone number is the same everywhere online. Take new photos of your work and put them on your website every quarter.
That's not exciting. Nobody writes books about it. But I've watched this stuff get contractors from "nobody knows I exist" to "I'm booked three months out" in less than a year.
The one mistake that kills contractors
You set everything up right, get some traction, then stop maintaining it. Your website gets outdated. Your Google Business Profile still says you're closed on Mondays when you opened Mondays three years ago. Your reviews get buried and you stop asking for new ones. Six months later you're wondering why business slowed down.
SEO isn't a one-time project. It's just keeping your online presence clean and current. You already do that with your van and your tools. Treat your online presence the same way.
If you're using WerkOps to manage your business, you already have the tools to keep your customer information updated and track where your business comes from. Use that data. It'll tell you whether your SEO efforts are actually working or if you're spinning your wheels. That's worth more than any fancy SEO report from someone you don't understand.
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Written by
Dina Good
Founder, WerkOps
Dina grew up in the trades. Her father was a contractor, then a building inspector, and the job site was her classroom long before any formal one was. She went on to own her own contracting company, which is where she first felt the pain of running a skilled trade business on bad software and worse spreadsheets. A love of data pulled her into programming, and the two worlds eventually collided into WerkOps - software built by someone who has actually been on the truck.