If people can’t find your website, you’re losing out on business. We asked the experts from Euro Start Entreprises how to make your contracting or landscaping business appear in a Google search.

The unfortunate truth about marketing yourself on the internet is that you can't just expect people to find your website on their own - you have to work to make it visible. At the core of this is what's commonly known as ‘search engine optimisation’, or ‘SEO’.

Often seen as a digital dark art, SEO is much more straightforward than many people think.

While there are intricacies that are best left to professionals, there's a surprising amount that you can do yourself. With a few simple tweaks, you can improve and increase your construction company's visibility on Google. 

1. List your business on directory websites

Your aim is to create a presence online that’s as reassuring, impressive and confident as you would be if someone visited you in person.

Directories are a good place to start because they are still a common point of call for finding local businesses and tradespeople. And the more places your business appears online, the more legitimate it will look.

Perhaps the most important of these is Google’s business directory, logically named Google My Business. Adding your details to this directory will allow your business to appear in a special box next to the Google results (commonly referred to as the knowledge graph) when people search for your business name, showing your details and an associated image.

It also increases your chances of showing up in Google Maps, a version of which sometimes appears above the search results. 

Signing up is as simple as visiting the Google My Business hub and following the instructions. Simply fill out your business details as required.

The service is free and being listed by Google will be hugely beneficial for helping local people find you. It will also set you up with a Google account, which is useful for other services such as Google Analytics and Google AdWords, which you may find yourself exploring further down the line.

2. Keep your website up-to-date

In the old days of the internet, most websites would be almost entirely static, acting more like books than interactive resources.

Now we expect content on a business’ website to be timely. Part of the trust we place in a website comes from whether it seems up-to-date, both in its design and its content. This shows both that the business is successful and takes care over its presentation, which may indicate that it also takes care in its everyday work.

Nothing beats good web design, and it’s always worth investing in a sharp, modern-looking template, but there are simple ways to keep your site looking fresh.

The easiest is to create a blog and add entries at steady intervals. Many websites promote their blog somewhere on the front page to increase its visibility.

This not only provides an up-to-the-minute resource - such as showing off your latest work - but is also beneficial to how search engines rank your site. A website that’s kept up-to-date and features valuable content that people enjoy reading will perform better than others, and could improve your position in Google searches.

The experts at Euro Start Entreprises

We’ve teamed up with business experts Euro Start Entreprises to help small construction and landscape businesses tackle daily challenges and grow their company. Euro Start Entreprises have been helping entrepreneurs open and expand their businesses all over the globe since 2007. With offices and agents in over 30 countries, they provide not only company formation services but accountants, serviced offices, foreign exchange services, company checks, business insurance and telecommunications services.

Caterpillar provides links to blogs or websites which include content which Caterpillar believes could be helpful for small construction and landscaping businesses. Caterpillar and its independent dealers appreciate this business and Caterpillar intends to provide some support to the customers by such links. Please note, however, that Caterpillar assumes no legal responsibility for the content of the blogs or websites. The content has been created by third parties who are responsible for its accuracy.

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