It was a proud moment to see fellow construction marketers agreeing earlier this year that SEO is a top priority. 73.1% of those surveyed in our 2017 Construction Marketing Outlook survey said they planned to increase spend on search engine optimization (SEO). Further, 0% said they planned to decrease SEO expenses! Clearly, construction marketers are aware that SEO cannot be ignored and that the benefits of SEO practices are worth the cost. To further re-enforce the benefits of SEO, we’re sharing some important stats and some trending SEO issues.
All about the Numbers
So what are the must-know numbers of SEO?
81% of marketers describe their SEO strategy as successful. This proves that the money and effort tends to be worth it. If it’s making a difference in most marketers’ results, it likely will for you, too.
SEO is 85% more likely to improve site traffic than PPC. While a PPC strategy is often still necessary, especially for more competitive industries and keyword searches, improved SEO seems to do more for your company. Prospective buyers are going to want to see you come up organically.
Over $65 million was invested in SEO in 2016 alone. Clearly, marketers from a variety of industries are investing heavily in SEO’s usefulness.
66% of companies are outsourcing SEO, or using some combination of outsourcing and internal resources. So don’t feel pressure to do it all yourself. Companies that specialize in SEO often do it better and more efficiently. Check out Modern Marketing Partners for SEO services.
82% believe that SEO effectiveness is increasing. With Google being one of the greatest influencers of the Internet, this will likely not change any time soon. Consumers use Google for their needs on a daily basis – use that to your advantage.
50% of marketers argue that website traffic generation is the most important outcome of SEO efforts. It makes sense – consumers often explore product/service options on Google first, finding and clicking through various sites. With good SEO practices, you improve the chances that potential customers will click-through yours. In fact, 43% of website traffic is driven by search rankings. So your positioning matters.
Relevant content creation (57%), and keyword research (49%) turned out to be the most effective SEO tactics. So if you want to improve your chances of ranking, research keywords and create content around that. High-quality, relevant content that matches what consumers are looking for will likely result in greater search engine visibility.
Now that you understand many of the facts behind SEO and its value, let’s look at some SEO practices to take into consideration.
The Most Recent SEO Issues to Pay Attention to
3 SEO issues have been up for major discussion in the marketing community – HTTPS, mobile search, and local search.
HTTPS: The Hot SEO Topic of 2017
Throughout the year, we’ve been speculating about Google’s plans to penalize non-HTTPS websites. More so than ever, it seems that Google is cracking down – flagging non-HTTPS sites as unsafe on Google Chrome, likely penalizing them in rankings. If your construction website isn’t secured yet, it’s time to do it now. Not only will it keep you and your customers safe, but it will prevent your SEO progress from being flushed down the toilet.
To secure your site, you must first obtain an SSL Certificate from a Certificate Authority (CA). This certificate will symbolize the legitimacy of your website, as well as encrypt data when communicating with site users.
After obtaining your certificate, you must:
- Approve the certificate.
- Fully backup your site.
- Change ALL internal links.
- Check code libraries.
- Update as many external links as possible.
- Create a 301 redirect.
Okay, assuming you have this one SEO obstacle addressed, let’s move to another important SEO issue. You can also learn more about Google and HTTPS here.
Makin’ It Mobile
Now, due to widespread penalties for non-mobile-optimized sites, many have ensured that their sites were mobile-optimized. However, if you are still not mobile-optimized, the time to change that was yesterday. Just like HTTPS, lacking a mobile-optimized site means all your other hard work is useless. Save your rankings by creating a device-adaptable site.
Think Local
Finally, another consideration is to take advantage of local. We’ve previously discussed Google’s focus on local search results. Google has increasingly improved its local business rankings and displayed convenient snack pack results.
Searching the term “construction” in Chicago, for example, featured a snack pack immediately at the top of the page.
So there is value in improving your local rankings, as well as focusing on general keywords alone.
Some important factors of local SEO include:
- Domain Authority of Website
- Consistency of Structured Citations
- Quality/Authority of Inbound Links to Domain
- Quality/Authority of Structured Citations
- Physical Address in City Search
- Quantity of Native Google Reviews
- City in GMB Landing Page Title
- Click-through Rate from Search Results
- Proper GMB Category Association
- Proximity of Address to Point of Search
You can learn more about these ranking factors and how to improve them in our piece on local SEO.
SEO is Valuable, But Competitive
So there you have it, statistics about SEO’s benefits, as well as some of the most crucial current SEO obstacles. SEO efforts are often successful, but other marketers recognize this, so you’re not going to be the only one within your industry trying to improve SEO. Get ready for some competition, but if you pay attention to all this strategy’s nuances, you’re sure to succeed.