SEO Services for Fence Companies:
Free Local SEO Guide

If you own a fence company, you know how tough it can be to attract new customers. Increasingly, people who need fence work simply start with the first listing in Google and work their way down if needed. Clearly, to maximize your customer base, you need to occupy that all-important top spot in Google listings.

SEO Guide for Fence Companies

Here, we will walk you through a proven 5-step process that can move your business to the top of the listings. But first, let’s take a look at why local SEO is so important.

3 Reasons Fence Companies Should Invest in Local SEO

The Yellow Pages Are Dead, and Google Is King:

Gone are the days when you could simply take an ad in the phone book and wait for calls to come in. Today, a stunning 97% of prospects looking for a local business search online—and Google is king of the hill.

Free Traffic:

Even in the internet age, advertising is a huge expense for many companies. But if you can rank highly in Google, you will have a constant stream of free traffic that you can convert into paying customers.

Speedy Results:

When you are competing on a national or international level, it can easily take 6 months to a year to see improvements in your Google ranking. But if you think about it, your prospects are looking for a fence company in your local area, not halfway around the world. Your only competition in local SEO is the other fence companies in your vicinity, many of whom are not even focusing on local SEO at all. This means that you could easily move to the first page of Google local rankings in as little as 30 days.

Step 1: Know Your Keywords

Make a list of keywords that relate to the services your company provides. For example, you might choose “chain link fencing”, “fence repair”, and “privacy fence”. When you have a fairly extensive list, sign up for a free Google AdWords account.

Don’t worry, you don’t have to create an ad campaign. You just want access to the free Keyword Planner tool. This will allow you to input the keywords on your list to see how much traffic they generate, and will provide additional keyword ideas that you might not have thought of before.

Now it’s time to decide which keywords to focus on. Keywords fall into 2 basic categories:

  • Buying Intent: These keywords signal that the prospect is imminently ready to make a purchase. For example, someone searching for “fence repair Orlando” probably needs her fence fixed immediately and is looking for the right company for the job.Focus your local SEO campaign on buying intent keywords for the fastest results. Make sure those keywords appear on your homepage, and target your Services pages around them.
  • Research Intent: Research intent keywords signal that the prospect is interested in fences, but is just looking around right now. For example, someone searching for “fence designs” may be dreaming of a future project.Although these keywords should be lower priority, don’t discount them completely. Blogs and FAQs that focus on research keywords are a great way to introduce your company to those who might buy later.

Step 2: Optimize Those Keywords

Once you know which keywords you want to focus on, you need to optimize for them in 2 places—your Google My Business page and your website. Here’s how:

Google My Business

Your Google My Business page is what appears in the “Map” section of Google listings for local businesses. This mini-site increases your online presence and quickly introduces your business to new prospects. In addition, it can boost your rankings quickly, because it is typically easier to get a Google My Business page rather than a webpage to rank highly in Google.

To optimize your Google My Business page, make sure it is fully and clearly filled out. Here is what you need:

    • Verification: Before you can do anything else, you need to claim your page and go through Google’s short verification process. You will know this is complete when you see a checkmark and the word “Verified” next to your business name.
    • NAP: Your business name, address, and phone number must be accurate on your page, and consistent across all listings on the internet. To emphasize that yours is a local business, use a local phone number rather than an 800 number.
    • Categories: Under Google’s guidelines, your categories list should describe what your business is rather than what it does. For a fence company, examples include Fence Contractor and Fence Supply Store. You can also add any supplementary services that you perform, such as Handyman.
    • Description: This is a 100 to 200-word overview of your company that ends with a call to action. A good formula is: {Name of Company} offers professional {fence building and repair or similar} in {Your City}. {Provide some information about your company and/or why customers choose you.} Call {Phone Number} today for a free estimate!
    • Hours: Make sure your service hours are consistent across the internet. If you offer emergency repair services after-hours, list that information separately.
    • Images: Images help to increase engagement, so post a few photos of finished fences or employees on the job. Make sure your images have a sharp focus, are sized between 10KB and 5MB, and have a minimum resolution of 720px x 720px. We also recommend replacing the generic Google My Business background image with a branded image.

Website Optimization

Your homepage and service pages are the “core pages” of your website, so optimize those first, focusing specifically on buying intent keywords. Later, you can work on your “content pages,” such as your blog and FAQs, and work in some research intent keywords.

  • Homepage: The most important element is the title tag, which is like the chapter title of a book. Aim for 50-65 characters in this format: Fence Contractor in {Your City} | {Name of Your Company}.Next, you need a meta description of 100-150 characters that highlights your main services, in a format similar to: {Name of Company} offers quality {list your services} in {Your City}. Call {Phone Number} today to schedule your free estimate!Make sure that the visible headline, or H1, is descriptive but concise, and includes your primary category: {Fence Contractor} in {City, State}.Finally, aim for 500 to 1000 words of descriptive, well-written, useful copy. Provide background information on your company, describe your services, embed your primary keyword as it fits naturally, and include a strong call to action.
  • Service Pages: Create a separate page for each service you provide, and tightly tie each page to a relevant keyword. Optimize each page the same way as the homepage, making sure to substitute the chosen keyword.

Step 3: Gather Citations and Links

Now that you have the foundation for your local SEO campaign in place, it is time to start gathering citations and links, both of which will increase your reach and boost your Google rankings.

  • Citations: Citations are listings of your business NAP (name, address, and phone number) in internet directories. Look for general national directories such as yellowpages.com and Facebook, general local directories such as your Chamber of Commerce website, and industry-specific directories.Note that while many directories are free, some charge a fee for listings. Before investing in a paid directory, use Google Analytics to see if you get traffic and conversions from those sites. Also remember that your NAP must be absolutely consistent across the internet.
  • Links: Inbound links from other websites can dramatically boost your rankings, especially if they come from major, well-established sites. Build online and offline relationships with companies whose services complement yours, such as landscapers and home remodelers, and then ask whether those companies would be interested in trading links. If you need some new ideas, use the Moz Open Site Explorer tool to find out where your competitors’ links are coming from.

Step 4: Get Reviews

Reviews help to reassure Google that yours is a legitimate business, and can convince prospects to give your services a try. Although all review sites play a valuable role, to quickly boost your Google rankings, focus on collecting reviews for your Google My Business page. To get these reviews, simply ask your satisfied customers by email, making sure to include a link to your Google My Business profile. Make this a regular practice, and you will soon have a stream of reviews.

Step 5: Track Your Results

Tracking is the only way to determine the results of your local SEO campaign and find the areas that need to be tweaked. Although there is a lot of information available, focus on these 3 core metrics:

  • Rankings: When you perform a Google search, Google provides customized results based on your previous browsing behavior. To see how you are truly ranking, you need to use a tool. A great place to start is the free Google Search Console, previously known as Google Webmaster Tools. Ask your webmaster to install it, and check the results once or twice per month.To dig a little deeper, we prefer the paid tool from RankRanger.com. It delivers automatically updated ranking results across all of your SEO campaigns, and tracks your Google My Business page rankings as well as your web page rankings.
  • Traffic: Google Analytics is the best way to track your traffic, or how many website visitors you get. You can learn how much traffic you get overall, how much comes from Google, and which individual web pages draw the most traffic. Review your reports each month, and keep an eye out for long-term trends.
  • Conversions: Conversions are specific actions you want your website visitors to take. For a fence company, a common conversion is to call to schedule an estimate. Google Analytics can track both phone and web conversions, letting you know which services bring in the most conversions, and which web pages have the highest and lowest conversion rates.

Let’s Get Started!

As you can see, committing to a local SEO plan is one of the best ways to draw more customers to your fence company. For the best results, complete these 5 steps in order, fully finishing one before moving on to the next. To recap, here are the 5 steps:

  1.    Keyword research
  2.    Keyword optimization
  3.    Citations and Links
  4.    Reviews
  5.    Tracking

Want Help with SEO?

At Main Street ROI, we specialize in helping fence companies attract more local customers through Google. If you’d like help with your SEO, contact us for a free quote.

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