6 ways construction companies can rank higher using local SEO

You may have heard of local SEO, but what you might not know is that focusing on your local area for leads is more important than ever for your business. 46% of all Google searches are people specifically looking for local information. If you’re not taking advantage of that fact, one of your competitors might be – leaving you out in the cold when it comes to those toasty warm leads.

We cover 6 ways you can take advantage of local SEO as a construction company, including some of the benefits of going local vs sticking to national with your SEO strategy.

What is Local SEO?

Searches for businesses ‘near me’ and ‘close by’ have grown by more than 900% in recent years, which shows that your customers are more savvy about finding local services than ever before – presenting plenty of opportunity for some successful local SEO to help your business get seen in all the right places.

It’s all about location, location, location when it comes to your construction business. After all, if you’re based in Bristol only, there’s not much point in your team fielding enquiries from Bradford. If you want to target local leads, you need to get specific. That’s where local SEO comes in, giving you the key to unlocking customers who are actually near you.

Local SEO is effectively taking the principles of national SEO, helping you climb rankings and gain visibility, and distilling that into a strategy that specifically focuses on your local area. The same strong foundations with a brand-new, ultra-targeted campaign built on top.

What are the benefits of local SEO for construction companies?

Before we get into the practical ways you can boost your local SEO, let’s take a look at some of the key benefits of this location-based strategy:

Better visibility

As with any type of SEO, the goal of local SEO is to get your business in front of your potential customers. Once they’ve found you, the conversion process begins, transforming searchers into genuine leads for your business. The difference with local SEO is that you are visible in searches that are relevant to your local area. For example, ‘house construction companies in Birmingham’ or ‘builders in Bromsgrove’.

Connection to local customers

Local SEO for construction companies condenses down the enquiries you receive to those that are most relevant for your specific services. A customer who wants a resurfacing job in Durham is no good to you if you offer your services in Dorset. Local SEO connects you with valid customers for your business in your targeted areas, saving you time and preventing frustration from people you can’t help.

Trust and credibility

As much as 41% of people are more likely to trust a local business than a big company. Combine that with additional trust signals, such as positive Google reviews on your Google Business Profile, and your first introduction to your potential customers will have a far stronger starting point. Credibility goes a long way towards tipping the scales, and local SEO can help you gain trust and credibility simply by being perceived as a regional brand.

Warm leads

A potential customer who is searching for a local business is up to 88% more likely to directly get in contact with that company. Local SEO will often produce warmer leads, potential customers that already know what they want, compared to leads from general SEO that may be earlier on in the decision-making process. This shortens the process from quote to approval, saving your business time and bringing the work in.

6 ways you can rank higher using local SEO for construction

So, how can local SEO for construction help you rank higher and gain the attention of potential customers? Here are a few tips to get you started:

1. Optimise your Business Profile

Your Google Business Profile is a fundamental part of your local SEO strategy, improving your visibility in searches and helping to enhance your credibility as a local construction company. You’ll need to do the following to get the most out of your Business Profile:

• Claim and verify to take full ownership so you can begin to populate your Business Profile
• Add your contact information, including your business name, address and phone number (NAP), to your profile to make it easy to get in touch
• Use relevant categories for your particular market, such as ‘general contractor’, to help potential leads understand the services you offer
• Cross-post completed projects, offers and other relevant information from your website to your profile to make it easy to see the work you’ve done
• Upload high-quality imagery of your work and team members to your profile to help customers get to know you

2. Use location-based keywords

Want to boost your rank in local search terms? Then you’ll need to let your customers know exactly where you are and the area you work in. Location-based keywords enable potential leads to connect directly with the services they want near them. They are also often less competitive than national SEO terms, especially when you are targeting individual areas (like a town) rather than counties.

For example, if you offer roofing services in Cornwall, using keywords like ‘roofers St Ives’ or ‘roof repair Truro’ can place you in important local searches. Even better, those searches are more likely to be people with higher intent. That means they’re actually looking to connect with a local, dependable company that can retile their roof or sort out a leak.

More than a quarter (or 28% if we’re being accurate) of local searches result in a purchase. If you want to be one of the companies that take advantage of that 1-in-4 chance, you need to bring local keywords to the forefront of your SEO strategy.

3. Create location pages

If you really want to get specific, location pages are the way to do it. These landing pages give you a way to laser-focus those all-important local SEO keywords. Location pages are particularly valuable if your company covers a wider area, letting you drill down to specific markets with multiple location pages that bring in the results.

Say, for example, your business has coverage across the whole of Scotland – while referring to Scotland in your SEO might get you some results, trying to pile on extra keywords for anywhere from Aberdeen to Abernethy on one page will result in some unattractive-looking keyword stuffing – a big no-no for Google and for your website user experience.

4. Build your visibility with local directories

Don’t underestimate the benefit of local directories for your construction company. Credibility and trustworthiness are key to bringing in new leads, and online directories are one way to build up your online presence and authority effectively.

As a type of local SEO citation, platforms like Yell, Free Index, Thomson Local and even Facebook all give you new chances to reach your customers via search rankings. The more consistent the citations you can get, the better, building up trust with Google block by block – or directory by directory.

One thing you won’t want to forget is making sure that your information is correct across all platforms. That means making sure your name, address and phone number (NAP) are a match, from social media to trade listings. Keeping everything in line is vital for maintaining a strong presence on search engines.

5. Improve your website

To be successful in SEO of any kind, you need to know how to play Google’s game. One of the biggest areas Google pushes is website quality, which they measure with Core Web Vitals:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): how long your website takes to load the largest element
• Interaction To Next Paint (INP): how responsive your website is to clicks and interactions
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): how much your page layout moves when loading

If your website isn’t up to scratch, the best local SEO for construction in the world can’t land you that top spot. Increasing site speed can be as simple as reducing image sizes and improving server response times, but the results can speak for themselves. The faster your website, the more Google will rate it, ensuring your location pages and keywords reach their target audience.

6. Work with local SEO experts

Putting in the work to build location pages, research keywords and increase your visibility on directories is all extremely beneficial for targeting local customers. If you’re keen to get things right the first time, working with a specialist in local SEO can enable you to start bringing in the leads while leaving all the effort in the hands of professionals.

A local SEO expert can provide advice on how best to target the audiences you want to gain leads from. This could be offering support to improve your website speed, researching effective, highly targeted keywords or looking at your direct local competitors to figure out areas where you could gain an advantage.

Sherbet Donkey offers SEO audits, covering both local and national SEO to help you position your business where you want to be seen most. We help businesses like yours across the UK to target local customers with clever keyword integrations, helping you to achieve your goals and up your leads month on month.

Does local SEO produce more leads for construction companies?

Compared to a strategy focused solely on national SEO, absolutely. Think of how you search yourself – if you’re after a quick and easy dinner and you happen to be near Sherbet Donkey HQ, you’d be much more likely to search ‘Indian takeaways in Bromsgrove’ instead of just ‘takeaways’. We’re more specific in how we search than ever before, and the customers looking for businesses like yours are no different.

Beyond the quantity of leads, local SEO is the perfect way to pump up the quality of the enquiries you’re getting into your business. People searching with intent know what they want, which means they’re more likely to book with you, with less convincing needed to get the job over the line. You do less work upfront and get more work in return – what’s not to like?

Is local SEO still important for AI searching?

Yes, local SEO for construction companies is just as valuable for AI searching as it is for the more classic form of search engine usage. AI tools utilise keywords to populate information, which makes location pages invaluable to help you appear in search results.

ChatGPT and Gemini also aggregate results from local directories like Yelp and Free Index, which makes this aspect of local SEO just as important as the work you put into your own website.

AI has changed the landscape of SEO in new and unexpected ways, but when it comes to local search, traditional Googling still decisively wins. Recent studies have confirmed that Google still pushes Business Profiles and often doesn’t list AI overviews on local searches at all, which means the ‘old school’ strategies for local SEO are still incredibly valuable.

Become a local legend with Sherbet Donkey!

Sherbet Donkey is the expert when it comes to targeted, powerful local SEO campaigns that help your business reach the top. We build our services on a strong understanding of your goals, your business and the customers you want to attract, with tailored solutions that get you ahead of your competition.

Ready to become a local legend? Get in touch with our team today to get your SEO audit booked in.