We are here to help you grow your flooring business and bring in new ready to buy customers. Our Search Engine Marketing (SEM) expert’s have written this guide to help you understand digital marketing, but also do some of it yourself if you cannot afford to hire an SEO company.
Potential Customers Are Looking For You On Google.
Here is how the majority of potential new customers will look for and find your flooring company. Keep these in mind and make sure you are optimizing yourself to attract the right customers.
- Research Phase: Most customers will research on Google with phrases like “best flooring for homes with pets” into Google or they are simply looking for “Flooring companies”. A higher quality customers is very specific with search terms or when they research your listing or website. What type of customers are you looking for?
- Local Search: More often than not they will be presented with a maps listing on Google. Above local you will sometimes see organic listings and you always get paid search results. Believe it or not, the majority of potential customers will scroll directly to maps when looking for local businesses in the area. The question we should be asking is why?
- Business Discovery: There are dozens of options to choose from, and most customers will make their decision based on several factors. These include reviews, brand, business description and overall presentation. Others might just call the first listing and go down the list until they hear what they are looking for.
- Contacting the Business: When a customer chooses your business, they will either call you directly from the maps listing or visit your website, where they will call or email you from a website contact form. Whatever method you want to use for lead generation, you should make sure it is front and center everywhere your customer goes. Do not make it hard for them to reach out and buy something.
Dominating Local Search
Understand the major digital marketing avenues available to you and what to expect.
1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Why It Matters: SEO is a long-term ROI. This is the area on Google below maps and ads where you find website listings with a title and description. The tactics to rank in organic are vary when compared to local seo. For example, citations and local content is very important for local seo, while content development, site speed and backlinks are important for Organic.
2. Local SEO
Why It Matters: Local SEO is where you show prominently on Google Maps. As mentioned above, the majority of your potential customers are looking for your business on maps. They are looking for directions to your store, store hours, reviews, pricing and etc.
3. Google Ads
Why It Matters: Google Ads allows you to bid on keywords and display your ads at the top of search results, increasing your visibility. Although the majority of customers will click on local, there is still a huge percentage of customers who click on the first listing they see.
It is also important to realize the difference in turn around on Google Ads versus SEO marketing. With ads you have a fast ROI, you can have your campaign ready within days and generating new business within hours or days of starting your first campaign.
4. Directory Listings
Why It Matters: Get listed on directories like Yelp, Angie’s List, and Yellow Pages is another way to put yourself in front of ready to buy customers. This also benefits your local and organic SEO. Majoirty of listings are free, but you can pay to show up at the top of your category. We recommend finding niche local directories that already rank for major search terms, and focusing on showing up at the top of those directories.
How To Get Started With These Strategies
Here are a few tips to getting started in search engine marketing:
- Competitor Analysis: Research what your competitors are doing. You can also look outside your area and see what similar business are doing. You have a ton of ideas out there when researching website layout , keyword targeting and content ideas,
- Keyword Research: The most important step is to identify keywords customers will use to find you. You can use tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Moz.
- Website Optimization: Optimize your content so that it targets the keywords your found, be very specific and create a page for each major search term . For example your home page would target flooring company, and your internal product pages would target each type of flooring available. From brands to types, you have dozens of options available. You want to also optimize your website so that its layout is user-friendly, mobile-responsive, and fast-loading.
- Local Citations: Maintain consistent business information (Name, Address, Phone number) across all major citation sources. Tools like Yext can simplify this process.
- Call Tracking: Tracking your ROI is vital in digital marketing so you know where your money is being put to good use. Tools like CallRail help track which sources are bring in leads. Allowing you to invest with real insight.
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The Toolbox of the Pros
A professional SEO company uses a range of tools to enhance their SEM efforts:
- CallRail: For call tracking / Email tracking and analysis.
- Ahrefs: Site audits, keyword research, competition research and analyze backlinks.
- SEMRush: Same as Ahrefs, but different in terms of output and how site audits present data.
- Moz: Another tool to help you optimize and analyze your SEO.
- Yext: To manage and maintain local citations.
- Bright Local: create and manage citations with one payment versus monthly like Yext.
Floor the Competition!
These will be your main SEM strategies for a flooring company. We recomend local seo for limited budgets, and full blown organic, local and ads for a company that can afford it. If you need immediate results, we recommend Google Ads results, or local SEO for the next fastest. A well developed SEM marketing plan will drive new business to your doors, but you have to do it right. Do not waste your time on cheap SEO services or one size fits all packages. SEO is much more in-depth than creating a few pages and links per month. You need to find the experts, who have a track record of success and are focused on ROI.
Give us a call or request a callback today if you are looking to hire an local SEO or Google ads manager.
