SEO for Contractors: A 90-Day Plan for Owners

SEO for contractors comes down to three things, in this order. First, a complete and honest Google Business Profile. Second, one clear page on your website for each service you sell. Third, a steady flow of real customer reviews. Work on them week by week for three months, and count phone calls and quote requests instead of "traffic". By the end you'll know whether it's working.

This guide gives you that calendar: what to do in week 1, in weeks 2 to 4, in month 2 and from month 3. Where a step follows a Google rule, we link to the Google page it comes from. If you'd like one new guide and one step you can do the same day, every Tuesday, get The SEO Brief newsletter free.

What local SEO for contractors actually means

Search "general contractor near me" or "roof leak repair" and Google usually shows two kinds of results. One is a map with a few businesses and their star ratings. The other is the list of websites underneath. For contractors, local SEO means showing up in both, for searches in the towns you actually work in.

Four parts matter:

Your Google Business Profile. This is what gets you on the map. Our Google Business Profile checklist covers every field.
Your website. Google needs a page that matches the search. A homepage that says "we do it all" rarely matches "bathroom remodel in Plano".
Reviews. Google uses them, and so does the homeowner deciding who to call.
The same details everywhere. Your business name and phone number should match on your site, your profile and the directories.

The plan works for general contractors, for single trades like roofers or electricians, and for home service contractors who drive to the customer. Only the list of services and towns changes.

Week 1: fix your Google Business Profile

Start here. It's the quickest part to fix, and Google publishes the rules in its guidelines for representing your business on Google. Every point below comes from that page.

Use your real business name. Google says the name should reflect your real-world name, as used on your storefront, website and stationery. Marketing taglines, location information and words describing your services can't go in it. "Smith Builders" is fine. "Smith Builders Best Kitchen Remodel Dallas" breaks the rules.
Hide your address if customers don't come to you. Google says a service-area business should hide its address. Its own example: if you're a plumber and run your business from your home address, clear that address from your profile.
No virtual offices. Google says a mailing address you rent but don't operate from isn't eligible for a Business Profile.
Set a realistic service area. Google says your overall service area shouldn't extend farther than about 2 hours of driving time from where your business is based. Only list the towns or ZIP codes where you really take jobs.
Choose categories with Google's test. Pick the ones that complete the statement "This business IS a", and use as few as possible. Google adds that you shouldn't use categories solely as keywords. Your main category should match the work that pays your bills.
Add your services. List each service you sell, in the words customers use: "deck building", "basement finishing", "roof replacement".
Show your regular customer-facing hours. That's Google's wording. If you don't take night calls, don't say you do.

Weeks 2 to 4: build one page per service you sell

This is where most contractor sites fall short. Google ranks pages, not businesses. If someone searches "kitchen remodeling contractor" and your only mention of it is one line on the homepage, a competitor with a full kitchen page is the better match.

Contractor service pages to build

Build a page for every service that brings in real money. For a general contractor, it could look like this:

Page	What it should show
Kitchen remodeling	The jobs you take, a typical timeline, photos of your kitchens, what happens at the first visit
Bathroom remodeling	The same, plus whether you do the plumbing yourself or with a partner
Additions and basements	Permits, who handles them, what a typical project involves
Roofing or repairs (if you do them)	Repair or replacement, emergency calls, insurance claims if you handle them
Service area	The towns you cover, with a sentence or a project for each

Each page should answer the questions a homeowner has before calling. Do you do this kind of job? In my town? How long does it usually take? What happens next? Put your phone number at the top, make it tap-to-call on mobile, and add a short quote form to every page.

SEO for home renovation contractors: show your own jobs

Renovation is visual. Homeowners want proof you've done jobs like theirs. On every service page, add real photos of your work, with a caption that names the type of job and the town: "Kitchen remodel with island, Frisco". Upload the same photos to your Google Business Profile. Stock photos of kitchens you didn't build don't prove anything.

Town pages: only for towns where you really work

A separate page for each town only helps if each one is genuinely different: projects you did there, the neighborhoods you work in, local permit notes. Twenty copies of the same page with only the town name changed give Google nothing new. If you have nothing specific to say about a town, list it on your service-area page instead.

Once the pages are up, link them together. The homepage should link to every service, and each service page should link to the service-area page. Our internal linking guide shows you how.

Not sure your service pages match what homeowners search? Connect The SEO Brief to Claude for free and run the full audit on your main service page, with a free account. It checks whether the page targets the search you want, and what to fix first.

Month 2: reviews, job photos and listings

Ask for reviews the way Google allows

Reviews take time to build up, so start asking now. Google's policy on prohibited and restricted content on Maps is clear on these points:

No incentives. No payment, discounts, free goods or free services in exchange for a review.
No discouraging negative reviews, and no asking only happy customers. Google forbids businesses to "selectively solicit positive reviews from customers".
No pressure, and no telling customers what to write. Google says businesses shouldn't require or pressure people to leave reviews while on the premises, or ask for specific content in them.
Only real experiences. Google says reviews should reflect an actual experience with the business. A review from someone who never hired you doesn't qualify.

What fits the rules: ask every customer at the same stage of the job, for example once the work is signed off, and text them the review link that day. Make it the crew's habit, not something you remember once a month. Reply to every review, bad ones included, calmly and with facts.

Check your details on the main directories

Make sure your business name and phone number are exactly the same on the directories homeowners use: Yelp, Angi, the Better Business Bureau, Houzz for renovation work, and any trade association you belong to. You don't need a lot of listings. You need the important ones to be right.

Post job photos every week

Add a few photos from each finished job to your profile, captioned like on your site: type of work, town.

Month 3 onward: measure calls and quote requests

Rankings move every day, and "traffic" doesn't pay invoices. Measure the things that do:

Calls and website clicks from your profile. Google's Business Profile performance report counts the times customers clicked your call button and your website link. It counts clicks on the button, not calls you answered, so compare it with your own phone log.
Quote requests from your form. Count them every month.
"How did you hear about us?" Ask on every call, and add the question to your quote form.
What people searched. Google Search Console is free and shows the searches your pages appear for. If "deck builder" shows up and you have no deck page, that's your next page to build.

How long SEO takes for contractors

Nobody can give you a date. Google's SEO Starter Guide says some changes might take effect in a few hours and others could take several months, and that you should generally wait a few weeks before judging a change. That's why this plan runs for three months before you draw conclusions. Our theory, which we haven't measured, is that the profile often moves first, because the map shows only a few businesses for each search.

Plan ahead for seasons and emergencies

If you do storm repairs or emergency work, build that page now, not the day after the storm. Seasonal work is the same: publish your deck or exterior painting page in winter, before spring searches start.

If nothing has moved after three months, go through the five checks for why a site isn't ranking, in order.

The best SEO for contractors: doing it yourself or hiring

The best SEO for contractors is the work that actually gets done every week. Hiring makes sense when you have the budget but not the time. Google's page Do you need an SEO? is clear: "No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google." Before you sign with anyone, ask:

Who owns my Google Business Profile, my domain and my website? You should, in writing.
What will you do each month? Pages written, photos posted, listings fixed.
What will you report? Calls and quote requests, not just rankings.
What results do you expect, and in what timeframe? Google suggests asking this.
Do you guarantee first place, or offer to buy reviews? If they say yes to either, walk away.

Common false starts

Two Google profiles for the same business.
Town pages copied with only the name changed.
A business name stuffed with keywords.
A phone number shown as an image, so it can't be tapped.
An agency registering your domain in its own name.

Questions contractors ask about SEO

Does SEO work for contractors?

It can, if people in your area search for what you do. Search Console shows you which of those searches your pages already appear for. Results come fastest when your profile, your service pages and your reviews all point to the jobs you want.

How much does SEO cost for a contractor?

Doing it yourself costs time. Google Business Profile and Search Console are free. Agency prices vary, so ask for a written monthly price and a list of what's included before you sign.

Can I rank in towns where I don't have an office?

For the map, Google looks at where your business is based. Its guidelines say your overall service area shouldn't extend farther than about 2 hours of driving time from there. On your website, a good service-area page and real project pages can help you show up in the towns you work in.

Do I need a blog, or just service pages?

Start with service pages. They match the searches that turn into calls. A blog helps later, to answer the questions homeowners have before hiring. See how to write a blog post that actually ranks and how businesses get mentioned by AI assistants.

What to do today

Open your Google Business Profile and take anything out of the name that isn't your real business name.
If customers don't come to you, hide your address and set your service area to the towns you really cover.
Write down your top three services, then check whether each one has its own page.
Text a review request to every customer whose job you finished this month.
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