I usually steer clear of mom-and-pop clients, and I also don’t like to take on clients who are tied to a geographic area, but somehow I’ve fallen into a few of these commercial/residential service provider accounts over the years.
And these guys have become the exception to my “rules.” I love working with them, for a lot of reasons.
That said, there are a few idiosyncrasies with these businesses.
- The owners are always hand-off and a little suspicious of marketing people.
- Blogs don’t usually do much to move the needle.
- Getting photos and other assets from the client can be like pulling teeth.
- Link-building is VERY much contingent on hyperlocal, real-world partnerships like chambers of commerce and charity sponsorships (which the client almost never wants to pay for).
- The clients are super grateful when I (finally) show that SEO is starting to drive phone calls and giving them the ROI they needed.
I’ve still got a lot to learn in this space. I’m wondering if any of you guys/gals are working with roofers, small construction companies, commercial painters and the like and, if so, what have you learned? What are some common SEO tactics that just don’t apply to these guys? What are some secrets you’ve picked up along the way?
Ultimately I’d like to create a community for us to network and swap war stories. Instead of constantly sending cold emails for guest posts, we could spin and syndicate content amongst ourselves, PBN style. If our clients are in the same state, we could even set up referral networks.
I’m not really interested in starting another subreddit. Maybe a Facebook Group or WhatsApp Group?
Not a Slack channel, either (the Big SEO slack channel is useless to me… a constant barrage of off-topic goofing around and no talk about tactics and strategies and case studies).
Maybe such a mastermind group already exists and I just need to find and join it?
Hit me up at ausitneditor at gmail and let’s help these businesses get stronger!
—Marshall