SEO for general contractors: service pages, project proof and the phone

SEO for a general contractor is five things, done in this order. First, a complete Google Business Profile with the right primary category, real job photographs and a steady flow of reviews, because most contractor searches are local and the map pack takes the first clicks. Second, one page per service you actually sell: kitchen remodels, extensions, roofing, commercial fit out, each written as a full page rather than a line on a services list. Third, project pages with real photographs, the location, the scope, the materials and the duration, which is the proof no competitor can copy. Fourth, service area pages for the towns you genuinely work in, each with projects and reviews from that area. Fifth, the phone and form handling, because a contractor who answers in ten minutes converts the same traffic far better than one who calls back tomorrow.

This page covers organic and local search for residential and commercial contractors. It assumes a small team with limited time, so the order is deliberate: the first two items produce most of the enquiries.

Google Business Profile first

For "general contractor near me" style searches, the map results sit above the ordinary listings. Getting that right is the highest return hour you will spend.

• Primary category set to what you mainly do: General Contractor, Home Builder, Roofing Contractor, Remodeler. Add secondary categories for the rest.
• Service area set to the towns or counties you cover if you work from a yard or home rather than a storefront customers visit.
• Services list completed, with a short description for each one.
• Photographs of your own jobs, uploaded regularly, including the crew and the vans. Stock imagery in a contractor profile is obvious and it costs you trust.
• Licence and insurance details wherever the profile and the site allow it.
• Reviews, asked for at handover while the client is pleased, with a reply to every one.
• Hours and phone correct, and matching the website exactly.

One page per service, written properly

A services list with eight links and twenty words each ranks for nothing. Each service you want enquiries for needs a page that answers what a homeowner or facilities manager asks before they call.

• What the work involves, stage by stage, with realistic durations
• What drives the cost up or down, stated honestly, without inventing a price
• Permits, inspections and regulations you handle
• What is included in your quote and what is not
• Two or three of your own projects of that exact type, with photographs
• Reviews from clients who bought that service
• Your licence, insurance and any trade accreditation
• One next step: a phone number and a short form asking for the job, the address and the timeframe

Project pages are the asset competitors cannot copy

Every completed job is a page. Photograph before, during and after on a phone, note the town, the scope, the materials, the duration and one problem you solved. Fifteen of these pages make a small contractor's site more convincing than any amount of written marketing, and they naturally contain the words clients search: the service, the property type and the place.

Keep a simple habit: the site lead takes ten photographs at handover and sends them with three lines of notes. One person writes it up the same week. Thirty jobs a year becomes thirty pages a year.

Service area pages without the spam

Good service area page	Page that gets filtered out
One page per town you really work in	Forty near identical pages for every town in the county
Projects completed in that town, with photographs	The same text with the town name swapped
Reviews from clients in that town	No local evidence at all
Local detail: property types, common issues, the relevant permit authority	Generic copy about quality workmanship
Travel and call out information for that area	A map embed and nothing else

The rule is simple. If you cannot put a real project or a real review on the page, you are not ready to have the page. Build them in the order of the towns you most want work in, two or three at a time.

Trust signals that matter in this trade

• Licence number shown on the site, and matching the public register
• Insurance cover stated, with the type of cover named
• Trade body or manufacturer accreditation, with the logo and the membership number
• Named people on an about page, with photographs
• Years in business and the area you are based in
• A clear warranty or guarantee statement on your workmanship
• Reviews on more than one platform, because clients cross check

The enquiry handling that doubles the return

Contractor enquiries are urgent and comparison shopped. Three operational fixes change the outcome more than most site work:

• Answer the phone, or use an answering service that takes the job, the address and the timeframe. A large share of contractor enquiries are phone calls, and an unanswered call usually goes to the next result.
• Reply to form enquiries within the hour during working hours, with a specific next step rather than "we will be in touch".
• Track where enquiries come from. A separate tracking number for the Google profile, a different one for the site, and a required "how did you find us" field on the form. Without this you cannot tell which of the five steps above is paying.

Structured data worth adding

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "GeneralContractor",
  "name": "Example Construction Ltd",
  "telephone": "+10000000000",
  "address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
    "streetAddress": "1 Example Yard",
    "addressLocality": "Example Town",
    "postalCode": "AB1 2CD",
    "addressCountry": "GB"
  },
  "areaServed": ["Example Town", "Nearby Town"],
  "priceRange": "$$",
  "url": "https://example.com"
}

Add Service markup on each service page and keep the name, address and phone identical to the Google profile. Consistency across your site, your profile and any directory listing is what stops the wrong phone number appearing in results.

Lead platforms, used deliberately

Platforms such as Angi, Thumbtack, Houzz, HomeAdvisor and Checkatrade sell shared leads, and they rank well for the exact searches contractors want. Used as a supplement they fill a quiet month. Used as the whole strategy they keep the contractor paying per enquiry forever, competing on price against three others who received the same lead. The balance most contractors settle on is to keep a profile on one or two of them, because those profiles are also sources clients and search engines read, while building the service and project pages that generate enquiries nobody else was sold.

What to measure monthly

Four numbers: calls and forms from the Google Business Profile, calls and forms from the website, enquiries by service, and quotes won. Google Search Console shows which service and town pages gain impressions, which tells you where to build the next page. Judge the work on quote requests, not on traffic.

How long does contractor SEO take to work?

The Google Business Profile work can change the enquiry count within weeks because it affects the map results directly. Service and project pages build over three to six months as they gain history and links. Treat it as a programme of one or two new pages a month and the position compounds.

Do I need a blog?

Project pages are a better use of the same hour. Where you do write articles, write the ones clients ask about before signing: how long a permit takes in your area, what a realistic timeline looks like, what to check in a quote. Skip generic home improvement filler.

Should I list prices?

List what drives the price and what is included, and give ranges only where you can stand behind them. Pages that explain the cost drivers honestly get more serious enquiries than pages that avoid the subject, because the client arrives already informed.

How many reviews do I need?

Enough to look like an active business, and recent. A steady trickle from every completed job is worth more than a burst of twenty in one week, which looks managed. Ask at handover, in person, and make it easy with a short link.

What if I work across two states or counties?

Set the service area in your Google profile to match reality, and build town pages only where you have projects. Claiming a huge coverage area with no local evidence weakens every page.

Is a one page website enough?

Not for a contractor who wants enquiries for several services across several towns, because each of those is a separate search with a separate intent. One page can rank for your business name. Service pages are what rank for the work.

A kitchen extension and the first two names

A homeowner planning a kitchen extension now sometimes asks an assistant who builds them in her area and reads the first two names it gives. Project galleries, reviews and service area pages are what it has to go on.

Check yours by asking ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity the way a client would, naming the town and the type of job. Note which contractors come back and which pages are cited. AI Knows Us asks those questions across the assistants and keeps the results, so you can see whether your gallery or your Google Business Profile is doing the persuading.