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CITYFLOORSUPPLY.COM

YOUR HARDWOOD FLOOR CONTRACTING BUSINESS ON THE INTERNET

1 1 W a y s t o A d v e r t i s e Y o u r H a r d w o o d F l o o r C o n t r a c t i n g B u s i n e s s o n t h e I n t e r n e t • C i t y F l o o r S u p p l y 2

Hardwood flooring contractors have always relied

on word-of-mouth advertising to connect with new

clients, and this method still remains the primary

lead generator for many. But the world of industry

has evolved rapidly in the past decade along

with the growth of the internet. Businesses of all

sizes, including independent contractors, are now

expected to maintain attractive websites. What’s

more, you’re not only expected to build a website––

you also have to employ a host of marketing

tactics to convince people to actually visit it. Taking

action online is crucial to attracting visitors to your

website, promoting your business, establishing

your credibility, connecting with prospective clients,

and converting prospects into customers.

If you’re unwilling to spend money to host a

website, you can utilize free site-launching options

like Wordpress, Blogger, and Wix. These websites

allow you to get a site up and running in no time.

Although you won’t have your own domain name

if you choose one of these free options (if you

go with Wordpress, for example, your site name

would be cityfloorsupply.wordpress.com instead of

just cityfloorsupply.com), it’s much better to have

something on the web to represent your business

than nothing at all. Because so many contractors

in the hardwood flooring industry have yet to

launch a website, you can put yourself ahead of the

competition by starting to build and improve your

web presence today.

Introduction

Here are a few tips to build an effective website for your contracting business…


1

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Create a portfolio to show off pictures of your work.

Scott Avery, owner of Auburn Refinishing, says

that professional pictures of past projects are a

crucial component of a contractor’s website. An

NWFA member and industry blogger, Scott says

that the pictures on his website are extremely

influential in people’s decisions to hire him.

Create a gallery on your page that people can

click through, and include details about each

project. iPhone pictures won’t cut it, Auburn

says—hiring a professional photographer could

bring you a lot of business in the long run because

they can make your work look breathtaking.

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Learn the basics of SEO.

If you’re serious about marketing your business

on the internet, you should focus on the

content of your website first and foremost.

Search engines are the biggest generators of

internet traffic. More than 11 billion Google

searches are conducted in the U.S. alone each

month, so it’s important to make sure your site

is attracting visits from people who are likely to

invest in your services.

Writing website content is where SEO (search

engine optimization) comes in. You’ve probably

heard the term a lot. You likely know it’s

important, but you might not be too sure what

it means. Here’s Wikipedia’s definition of SEO:

“Search engine optimization (SEO) is the

process of affecting the visibility of a website or

a web page in a search engine’s “natural” or

un-paid (“organic”) search results.”

Simply put, SEO is about increasing the

chances of connecting to your target audience

via search results. The best way to improve

your chances is to edit the text on your website.

According to Scott Avery, the “best customers”

are those who do extensive research before

committing to a product or service. You don’t

want these people to gloss over your website.

If someone looks up your business on the

internet, they should be able to find your

website. Potential customers will make a

decision to either contact you, or drop you from

their list of prospective contractors based on

the level of trust and authority established after

browsing your site.

In order to have a successful website that

converts leads, you want to attract not only

people who are searching for your company,

but also locals who are searching for

contractors but might not know about you yet.

This is exactly what good SEO techniques help

you achieve.

There are multiple ways to improve your site’s

SEO and attract relevant visitors:

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Find the best keywords to use on your siteKeywords are the phrases that people type into search engines. SEO involves figuring out which

keywords are best for your purposes, and incorporating those keywords into different areas of your site

so it shows up when people search for them. Ideally, your website would appear on the first page or

even in the top five results when people search for the most important keywords you’ve incorporated

into your website.

There are a number of ways to find the best keywords to use on your website. One way to do this is to

simply start typing different search terms into a Google search bar and looking at the suggestions that

pop up. The most popular phrases are those that are closest to the top of the list. In the screencap

below, we have entered a search query for “floor sander,” and Google has suggested other related

terms based on our location in the suburbs of Philadelphia.

If you owned a site for a hardwood floor equipment rental center in the greater Philadelphia area (like

City Floor Supply), the second key phrase (“floor sander rental [in] Philadelphia”) would be better to

incorporate into your website because it’s more likely to attract people who are looking for that very

specific, localized service.

If you were to trying to attract people who are just searching for the term “floor sander rental,”

however, you would be competing with big-name companies like Home Depot and Lowes who have

more money to spend on their internet marketing efforts. It would be more difficult for your site to

appear on the first page of Google or any other search engine for such a broad and popular search term.

To make your site stick out and attract potential customers, you should include specific, locally-oriented

phrases, such as “hardwood floor contractor in Philadelphia,” on your website to attract locals who are

more likely to invest in your services. If you only serve certain areas, you should also list them on your

site to increase the chances of locals finding you.

It’s easier to compete with a few hundred local competitors’ websites than to compete with thousands

of companies that operate on a national scale. It’s also more practical to focus on local keywords

because locals are most likely to enlist your services.

–– Top Search result related to term “floor sander”–Better to use. More localized = more relevant traffic.


The Google AdWords Keyword Planner is another great tool to figure out which keywords to include

on your website. Although AdWords itself is a paid advertising service, you can use the Keyword

Planner for free. Create your free Adwords account by visiting the AdWords homepage at

https://adwords.google.com.

You can start by compiling the best keywords you’ve found in a spreadsheet or document to keep track

of them. Then, work your selected keywords into different areas of your website. Be sure to incorporate

them into your text gracefully. Avoid simply lumping them all together––this will make search engines

classify your site as spammy and untrustworthy, and your search ranking and website will be affected

negatively. Besides inserting keywords into your content (such as your “about” page), you should also

work them into titles of pages, menus, URLS, and image descriptions, which we will discuss next.

Use picturesUploading pictures of past projects to your website not only shows off the work you produce, it can

also help out your SEO if used properly. Insert some of your key phrases in the titles and descriptions

of the pictures to attract traffic to your website from image search results in addition to text searches.

City Floor Supply uses WordPress to publish our blog, so this is an example of how to optimize pictures

on WordPress for SEO. Our targeted key phrases for this post were “riding floor sander” and “riding

floor sander for sale.” We chose these terms because of their popularity as search inquiries on Google.

Step 1: To add a picture to a blog post or page, click the “Add Media” button above the content box.


If you host your website through WordPress,

download the free WordPress SEO Yoast plugin.This plugin for WordPress allows you to manipulate the meta descriptions (the little blurbs that appear

under Google search results) and Google search result titles so they include your targeted keywords.

The plugin also lets you define the SEO keyword that you want to focus on for each specific page, and

tells you how well you’ve incorporated it into the content.

Step 2: Once you select the image you want to use, fill out the boxes on the right-hand side. Pay particular

attention to the “Title,” “Alt Text,” and “Description” boxes. For best results, incorporate your

keywords into each one of them.


Blogging is extremely important for SEO

purposes. Incorporating a blog into your website

allows you to share your expert knowledge with

your readers. It does what all good web content

should do: solve people’s problems.

According to Darren Slaughter, a marketing

strategist for home improvement contractors

and founder of DarrenSlaughter.com, “Blogging

is the single most important tool you can use to

set yourself apart from your competition simply by

educating your readers and not selling to them.”

To achieve the results you want—increased

website traffic and consumer trust—it’s

important for your blog content to be

informational, not just promotional. If people

find your content helpful, they’ll be more likely

to share it via social media or link to it from their

own websites, both of which will improve your

site’s search ranking.

You don’t have to be a writer to share your

knowledge through the written word. You just

have to know what you’re talking about. People

are always seeking out expert knowledge on the

web. Scott Avery, owner of Auburn Refinishing,

suggests that contractors use what he calls the “3

P’s of blogging” to find out what they should write

about next: projects, products, and problems.

You can publish how-to guides and lists, or write

about topics like common hardwood floor finish

mistakes, proper floor maintenance, how to tell

whether it’s time to refinish your floors, and the

like. You can also discuss products that you find

useful in your day-to-day work as a contractor that

your target audience might also benefit from,

such as wood-friendly cleaning products for

hardwood floors.

Make sure to add a personal twist to your blog

posts to distinguish them from the multitude of

content that has already been written about the

same topics.

Start a blog to show off your expertise and improve your SEO.3

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For example:

» You can write about finish problems that are unique to your area because of humidity,

temperature fluctuations, or other environmental conditions that can affect the appearance of

hardwood floors.

» Since the end goal of your blog is to promote your business, you do want to use some space

to discuss news and updates related to your company. For example, if you recently completed

an installation job that you’re especially proud of, you could write a blog post detailing your

process—an informational post with a promotional twist.

» Blog posts also give you tons of new opportunities to incorporate

keywords into your website.

» According to searchenginejournal.com, “Companies that blog have 434% more indexed pages.

And companies with more indexed pages get far more leads.” Try to publish a new 500+ word

blog post at least once a week, if time permits.


Manage your business listings in online directories.

There are tons of online directories that collect

information about businesses and make this

information available to consumers. You can

google “Top 50 online directories” for more

information. The Yahoo! directory search engine

allows you to input your business’s info, such

as address and telephone number, which the

website compares to what’s currently listed in a

number of online business directories.

There are a few websites you can use to make sure

your listings are accurate. One is Moz Local, which

charges you an annual fee to update your phone

number, website, address, and other company

information across several online directories.

This ensures that people are getting the correct

information when they look up your business.

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1 1 W a y s t o A d v e r t i s e Y o u r H a r d w o o d F l o o r C o n t r a c t i n g B u s i n e s s o n t h e I n t e r n e t • C i t y F l o o r S u p p l y 1 1

Take advantage of Google’s tools.

When you’re done with an installation job, there

are surefire ways to tell that it’s been performed

correctly. If the finish peels, you know you

made a mistake at some point in the process.

Tracking the progress of your internet marketing

efforts isn’t as tangible as reading the results of

a new installation job, but nevertheless there

are several ways to measure how well your

internet marketing efforts are working.

One way to see that your efforts are paying off is

through increased sales landed through search

engine traffic. But how do you find out which

sales resulted from inbound traffic as opposed

to other areas of the web? Google offers Search

Console (formerly known as WebMaster Tools)

and Google Analytics which provide you with

(free) and useful statistics about your site. You

can find out which phrases people type into

Google to find you, track visitor behavior on

your site, and make sure that the Google is able

to navigate your site successfully.

Because Google is the most popular search

engine, taking advantage of what they offer is a

great way to improve your site’s rankings. Part

of this entails signing up for a Google+ profile,

which brings us to the next point.

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Love it or hate it, embrace social media.

Creating unique and helpful content is only half the battle in online marketing. The other half is getting

it read. This is what social media is for.

Social media websites provide you with an abundance of free opportunities to broadcast to potential

clients, network with other industry experts, and brand your company however you want to.

Google+, Facebook, Twitter, and Houzz are particularly useful websites for generating interest in your

contracting services.

Google+Your Google+ profile is one of the first things to come up when people search for your business on

Google, so it is prime real estate. If your business doesn’t have one yet, create one, and if you already

have one, make sure to use it fairly regularly. It’s also important to create a Google My Business

account for your company.

You can use your profile to push out links to your content and to connect with peers and potential

clients via “community” pages. One con to using Google+ for branding is that it’s not engineered to

drive traffic to your website as much as Twitter is.

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TwitterTwitter gives you free access to tons of networking and marketing opportunities. You can use the

platform to share the content on your website, special offers, and helpful information you’ve found

around the web.

The main reasons for opening a Twitter account are to promote your business and attract traffic to your

website. You can use your profile to share photos, videos, and links related to your work. Posting pictures

of your work on Twitter helps you gain followers and encourages “retweets” because tweets with pictures

attract more attention than those with just links. Of course, sharing pictures also gives you a chance to

show off your quality work and generate leads.

Be conscious of the fact that Twitter is about sharing not only your own content, but also helpful

information on other areas of the web, like industry-related news. Instead of encouraging people to

invest in your services, a Twitter that’s too “salesy” will likely be a turnoff to most of your visitors.

Twitter Analytics, which is free to use, gives you insight into which of your strategies work and which

don’t––how many people saw your tweets, how many clicked the links on your user profile, and

how many people retweeted and “favorited” each tweet. You can use the information to fine-tune

your tweeting strategy (such as tweeting at certain times of the day) to attract more followers and,

ultimately, more clients.

FacebookFacebook isn’t just about connecting friends and family. For several years, companies have used the

site to connect with prospects. Hardwood floor contractors can also leverage the site’s tools to promote

their services.

Starting a Facebook page allows you to categorize your business and enter your address to attract

relevant traffic. Other Facebook users can post reviews of your business on your page and share

pictures of the work you did for them, which you can comment on and respond to.

The keys to generating “likes” on Facebook include posting regular content and interacting with other

users. “Liking” other pages related to your industry and contributing to them will generate attention for

your page and, in turn, direct traffic to your website.


HouzzContractors can use Houzz to show off their work, open up another line of contact with prospective

clients, and establish themselves as thought leaders. Houzz is a social media website set up specifically

to connect homeowners, designers, and contracting professionals to one another. Homeowners and

homeowners-to-be love Houzz, and posting impressive photos of completed projects can generate leads

for your contracting business.

Signing up as a contractor gives you the chance to upload portfolio pictures, contact information, and

helpful content for homeowners and designers to access. People can also write customer reviews that are

readily available to anyone who visits your Houzz profile.

You can show off pictures of past projects and cultivate “ideabooks” drawn from pictures posted by

other users. Being a hardwood floor contractor means you probably do a lot of refinishing jobs, which

are excellent photo opportunities. You can post “before” and “after” photos to your profile. The comment

section on the project photos gives you an opportunity to field questions from interested viewers, which

can create authority for your business. You can then push out links to your Houzz ideabooks and project

pictures on Twitter and Facebook to generate views and additional followers.

YelpClaiming your business on Yelp allows you to upload pictures and update your phone number, address,

and business hours so they are listed correctly. You can also respond to customer reviews, either

publicly or via private message.

Social media managementEven if you choose to promote your brand on only two social networking sites, managing them can take

up a significant amount of time that should be devoted to your business instead.

Luckily, there are a variety of free tools that allow you to manage your social media presences with ease,

freeing up time to actually do the work you’re promoting on the web.

Hootsuite is one popular social media management tool that offers free social media management

services. It allows you to link your social media profiles together so they’re all accessible from the

Hootsuite website. You can schedule Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn posts in advance so you

don’t have to post in real time. You can also post on multiple social media platforms at the same time.


Just like your blog posts, any videos you

produce should ultimately be geared towards

informing the viewer. Creating informational

videos gives you a chance to show off your

knowledge and build your brand’s trust and

authority in the eyes of your audience. Your

site’s search ranking will improve as your

content gets shared around the web. You can

publish videos of projects you’ve completed or

are working on, product reviews, tutorials for

fixing hardwood floor problems, and anything

else related to your specialty.

When uploading your videos to YouTube,

include important keywords and key phrases in

the title and tags so users looking for relevant

information will find it. Push out the content

to your social media sites. Install a YouTube

button on your website so visitors can access

your channel directly.

Start a YouTube account & upload informative videos7

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Interacting with the other industry

professionals and getting mentioned

in the right places on the internet can

help you establish yourself and your

team as experts. The only surefire

way to get mentioned in different

places is to network––in both the real

world and the virtual one.

In the “real world,” attend industry

events and workshops. If you have

business cards, make sure to put

your website URL on them, and tell

your colleagues about your efforts

to update your web presence. Keep

abreast of what they are doing as

well. Share partners’ and colleagues’

content, and use it to generate ideas

for your own original content.

In terms of virtual networking,

commenting on other blogs and

sharing other people’s content on

social media are important methods

for drawing attention to your own

site. When submitting comments to

other sites, make sure to contribute

something relevant and helpful. If you

only provide a link to your website

without saying anything else, your

comment will be considered spam.

Comment on and get quoted by industry sites.8

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You can ask satisfied customers to review your services on a site, or several sites, of your choosing.

Google reviews are especially important to secure, as they’re one of the first things people will see when

they search for your business on Google. User ratings show up in the sidebar next to the results when

people search for your business. While it’s not easy to maintain the discipline to ask each satisfied

customer to review your work, it’s definitely worth the effort!

Ask clients to review your services online.9

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There are several web marketing companies that specialize in building sites for contractors, such

as Sites4Contractors and LiverMint Media. These companies and others like them are run by

professionals who specialize in crafting web presences for contractors. Investing in their services could

certainly pay off, as they’re trained to specifically help contractors succeed on the web.

Consider consulting a website building company to optimize your results.10

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Just because you’ve expanded your marketing

reach to the internet doesn’t mean that you have

to forget about using the tried-and-true methods

that have brought your business success offline.

If you find that lawn signs generate a lot of leads

and conversions for you, continue to put them

up. Including internet marketing in your efforts

doesn’t mean that you have to stop advertising in

traditional ways.

Don’t neglect the methods that still work for you.11

TIP#

Although many contractors still rely on word-of-mouth referrals for new

business leads, this is an unpredictable method of securing new clients. Most

consumers begin their research online. In fact, 78% of internet users conduct

online research prior to selecting a product or service. It’s important to take

advantage of this territory in order to maintain a steady business flow, and to

increase lead generation and conversion.

Luckily, internet marketing doesn’t necessitate a lot of funding. Hosting a

website can cost as little as $2.95 per month, social media profiles are free to

use, and improving your on-site SEO to boost traffic simply requires time and

research. Your internet marketing efforts can only contribute to your offline

advertising success and bring increased revenue to your business.

Conclusion

Contact Us: » P: 800-737-1786

» [email protected]

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