The 2nd Easiest Way to get your Contracting Business to the Top of Google [in 2017]

If you can get your contracting business to the top of the google search results you will get tons of leads and customers. This is especially true if you’ve been following the Ultimate Client Generating Machine and your website is up to par.

But, you’re probably asking yourself: why bother learning the 2nd easiest way if there is an easier way to get to the top?

That requires some explanation…

Google Result Pieces

Any time a google search is performed for a local company or service the results are like this:

(click to view full sized image)

As you can see the results are composed of 3 distinct blocks.

Google Ads (Adwords)
Google Local Map Pack
Google Organic Search

Google Ads

Pro’s
- Fast & Easy to get your business into
Con’s
- Expensive – pay for every click to your website
- Less trusted than other results – many people scroll past ads without looking

Although there are some big con’s, many businesses are still very successful with google adwords (if they use the right strategy).

Google Map Pack

Pro’s
- More trusted than Ads
- Easier to get into than Organic
- Free clicks
- Good reviews will make your business look great
Con’s
- Takes more time to get into than Ads
- Less trusted than Organic results
- Bad reviews will kill your business

Google Organic Results

Pro’s
- Most trusted by searchers
- Free traffic (don’t pay per click)
Con’s
- Requires a lot of time & money to get your business to the top – This is what search engine optimization (SEO) is for
- Can be very difficult to get into depending on competition

Why to get into the Map Pack

This article is titled “the 2nd easiest way….” because the easiest way is to pay for adwords.

If you don’t have a very solid strategy you will lose money doing adwords (not might lose money – you will)

The most difficult way is SEO, which requires a lot of time and money (but potentially gets the best results – organic)

So that leaves the map pack which requires some effort, but is very doable for the average business owner.

How to get into the Map Pack

There are 4 major things that influence your position in the map pack.

Google My Business Page
The Searcher’s Location
Local Citations
Google Reviews

Google My Business

You need a google my business page before you can appear in these results. Make sure you fill it out as completely as possible. Get started Here.

The Searcher’s Location

We can’t control this and it doesn’t matter anyway.

Example:

If someone in Buffalo searches for “plumber” and your business is in Rochester it will never show up in their map results.

This is a very good thing – it means you’re only competing with people in your local area.

Local Citations

If you create a profile with your business name, address, phone number and website address on other relevant websites – this is called a local citation.

Example: create a facebook page for your business – add your name, address, phone and website.

IMPORTANT: Make sure these are identical across websites – they should be identical to your ‘Google My Business’ page

If you have multiple phone numbers always list the same one
Copy your address out the same everywhere
Same with name and website

You can find an ordered list of websites to create citations on at whitespark here.

Google Reviews

This is the last piece of the puzzle.

You need google reviews – more is better – get as many 5 star reviews as possible.

To make this easy whitespark to the rescue again.

You can join their site to make a ‘Review Handout’ that you can give out to your customers after every job to help get reviews from them.

Or you can use their Google Review Link Generator to create a link that you can send to your customers.

With these two tools you should be able to rack up reviews quickly.

Wrapping Up

Getting to the top of the google results can be a game changer for your business. The amount of new leads and customers you can get for having your business in the map pack is completely worth the effort.

Good Luck!