§ 01
SEO by industry · Contractors
SEO for contractors
A kitchen remodel is a $40,000 decision made over three months, and the search that starts it is “kitchen remodel cost”. Contractor SEO is not about being first for an emergency — it is about being the site someone keeps coming back to while they decide.
§ 02
What your customers actually type
US monthly searches, what a click costs in ads, and how hard the organic slot is to win (0–100). Source: Semrush, September 2026.
Difficulty under 20 is winnable in months for a well-built page. Over 50 is a long campaign. The point of the audit is to tell you which of these you can take in your market, and in what order.
§ 03
How search works for contractors and remodelers
The mechanics are local-service mechanics. The details are yours, and the details are where the rankings are.
Long consideration, so content compounds
Nobody hires a general contractor from a map pack. They read cost guides, look at project photos, check reviews, come back a week later. That means the pages that rank for “bathroom remodel cost” and “how long does a kitchen remodel take” keep earning quote requests for years, long after an ad budget would have stopped.
Projects are your service-area pages
A finished remodel in a named neighbourhood, with photos, the scope, the timeline and the rough cost, is the best local page a contractor can publish. It proves you work there, it ranks for the neighbourhood, and it answers the question every prospect has: what does this actually look like when you do it.
Directories own the top of the results
Houzz, Angi and Yelp hold organic slots for most contractor queries. You will not out-rank them for “general contractor near me” in year one. You can out-rank them for “home addition contractors in [town]”, for cost queries, and in the map pack — which is where we aim.
§ 04
What we usually find
Three faults that show up on most contractors and remodeler sites we audit. None are exotic. All are fixable.
Fault 1
A portfolio with no words
Forty beautiful photos in a gallery, zero text. Google cannot see a photo of a kitchen. A project page with two hundred words, the neighbourhood, and the scope is worth more than the whole gallery.
Your best proof, invisible in search.
Fault 2
Services as a bullet list
“Kitchens · Bathrooms · Additions · Decks · Basements” on one page. Five markets, no page for any of them.
Not ranking for the jobs you most want.
Fault 3
No cost information anywhere
Contractors avoid it because every job is different. Prospects read that as “more than I can afford” and call someone who published a range.
Pre-qualified leads going to the competitor with a number.
§ 05
What the engagement looks like
Audit in two business days. Site live in three to four weeks. Month to month after that, cancel any time.
Audit the site and the job mix
The jobs you want more of, the areas you work, the projects you can show, and who ranks for each. Two business days.
Service and project pages
A page per job type with cost ranges and timelines, then project pages by neighbourhood built from your actual completed work.
Cost and process content
“What does a bathroom remodel cost”, “do I need a permit”, “how long will I be without a kitchen” — the questions asked in month one of a three-month decision.
Profile and reviews
Google Business Profile with project photos, categories per job type, and a review request tied to the final walkthrough when the client is happiest.
§ 06
Questions contractors and remodelers ask us
We get most work from referrals. Is search worth it?
Referrals are the best leads you will ever get, and search is what a referred prospect does before calling you. They Google your name, then they Google “kitchen remodel cost”. If both searches land on your site, the referral closes. If the second lands on a competitor, sometimes it does not.
We do not want to publish prices.
You do not have to publish a price. You publish a range and what moves it — square footage, finish level, structural work. That pre-qualifies the people who call and removes the ones who were never going to afford it.
Can you use our project photos?
Yes, and they are the most valuable thing you have. We turn them into project pages with real text. If the photos are poor, phone photos taken in good light on the final walkthrough are enough — stock photography of someone else’s kitchen is worth less than nothing.
What if we only want the website?
Then that is what you get, from $2,900, and you own it outright. Plenty of contractors take the build and nothing else. The audit tells you whether the retainer would pay for itself in your market before you decide.
Next step
Find out what your site is costing you
Send your domain and the towns you deliver to. You get a written audit back within two business days: the technical faults, the service areas you have no page for, and the exact terms your closest competitor ranks for that you do not. No call required to receive it.