With our houses becoming so much more than just home lately—office, classroom, restaurant, movie theater, to name a few—the importance of making your house a place that one wants to spend an abundance of time has become all the more relevant… Which is good news for those in the home remodeling business. 

If you’re in the business of remodeling or renovating homes, you know that oftentimes the most difficult part of your job is not the actual construction, but rather attracting a steady stream of clients to keep your hands busy. It has become increasingly obvious that the best way to reach customers—both near and far—is to take your business online, increasing your visibility, reach, and credibility. 

However, having the very best website with incredible user reviews and high-quality images of your completed projects only gets you so far… Because none of those things really add up to much if no one ever sees them. This is why search engine optimization (or SEO) for your home remodeling site is so important. 

You might be asking…

“What is SEO (and why does it matter to my business)?” 

If you aren’t yet familiar with SEO, it is basically the process of making your website—and each of the pages/pieces of content within it—more search-engine friendly, leading to higher standing in search results and ultimately more traffic to your site. It boils down to this: if Google can’t understand (or find) your site, you’re probably not going to have much luck appearing in search results. 

Let’s imagine you’re one of your customers, living in Orlando and interested in taking on a home renovation or remodeling project. Your first step would probably be to reach for your computer and conduct on the ol’ tried and true: Google. You’ll probably type something along the lines of “home remodeling company Orlando” or “home improvement Orlando” and see what Google comes up with. Then, you might look at the top few results, click on their pages and see what their sites look like and make a decision about which company to go with. 

Now let’s imagine you’re you again, not one of your customers. You want your company to be at the top of that list of search results for local home remodeling companies—and when a prospective customer clicks on your site, you want them to see stellar content that makes them reach out to you instead of a competitor. 

Optimizing your website will lead to increased visibility, high ROI (because you’re directing people to your own site), and true leads (an audience that is seeking you out rather than you marketing to a large group without any assurance that someone will bite). 

Some tips for increasing SEO for home remodeling

1. Research relevant keywords/keyphrases. Familiarizing yourself with the keywords and phrases that your intended audience uses when they search for businesses like yours is the first step in optimizing your web presence—and will inform the rest of your strategy. Google’s Keyword Planner is an excellent tool for determining a keyword’s monthly search volume, which will help you identify where you will rank with it. 
2. Image SEO is your best friend. Home remodeling is an extremely visual industry—and your customers will likely use the imagery on your site (and your competition’s) to make their decision about who they want to hire. And with at least 23% of clicks on Google going to images, forgetting to optimize your images (from the captions to the title to the alt text) can make a huge difference in your online success. 
3. Think local. Choosing key phrases that focus on your geographic area—and making your location and contact information obvious to Google—will help you gain more search traction. Most consumers seeking out a home remodeler are going to be searching for one in their area—which means targeting keyphrases like “home remodelers in orlando” is going to help you get in front of the proper audience, and will also help you rank higher than if you were just targeting “home remodeler” in general.