Search Engine Optimization for Contractors & Independent Small Business Webites

I talked to a friend of mine yesterday who is a contractor and independent business owner. He told me that he called a fellow just outside the city of Vancouver, in Port Coquitlam, who needed some work done on his home.

Tim agreed to meet with the client. The result was a job worth $100, 000. The client explained that he called several companies but none would come to his location. Oddly, he's only about 25 miles out of Vancouver.

No one stopped to try to get to know the customer. No one asked the right kinds of questions. Everyone thought about the high price of gas, and the limitations of traveling that far for a supposed small job. Tim is happy - very happy. He said, "for that kind of money, I'll live here for the summer!"

Today, there are afforfdable internet marketing and advertising technologies that can help with this process.

Search engine optimization means that a contractor's website will be visible to potential customers. He can target the larger city of Vancouver or can optimize for smaller locations such as Port Coquitlam ,which will inevitably experience requests for renovations, building additions, new home constructions and other general contracting needs.

Combined with lead generation services, the optimized website can now pull visitors who search for "contractors in Port Coquitlam" and get the right kinds of information for you: size of project, amount, timelines, the work to be done. Just receiving an email from the customer, often, is not enough information to decide between taking a job and turning work away.

PPC advertising enables contractors and independent business owners to target customers who live in specific locations using local and geographic based targeting. This means that you can bid on low value or inexpensive keywords to drive customers to your website or create awareness about your business. Often, people don't buy on their first visit to a website. What they do is visit, look around, think about it, and then return sometime later when they are prepared to buy. But to get their business your site must be available in the first place.

I must say congratulations to Tim for the $100,000 job. Others will struggle but there is no substitute for good customer service and asking the right kinds of questions to make money. A website is just a brochure lying in a stack of papers on the floor unless it is positioned and opened at the front door of your house, right beside your keys, so you see it every time you leave and enter your home. Essentially, that's exactly what search engine optimization is: it places your business card in the hands of customers who use the Internet to find services in their area.

Pacific West Global Media is an Internet advertising firm that serves contractors and independent business owners. The company offers a number of services that include search engine optimization, pay per click advertising, local advertising, recruitment advertising and lead generation. With programs starting from $49.95 (and billing cycles that extend from 6 months to 1 year) businesses of all sizes can create a web presence and get online fast.