Let’s set the stage.
You’ve just had a brand new website built (hopefully, following some of our recommendations).
Time to sit back, relax, and count the leads as they flow in, right?
Wrong.
As we’ve said before, a website by itself won’t do much for your business.
People actually have to be able to find it.
Lucky for you, we’ve put together a master-list of BLANK places to promote your contracting business and website. These include directories (free and paid), social media profiles, GPS listings, data aggregators and more.
By listing your business and website on these, you can:
- Build a larger digital footprint for your business.
- Build authority and relevance in the eyes of search engines.
- Gain a ton of high-quality backlinks (which really, really help for contractor SEO)
What does that mean for you? More visitors, more exposure, and more leads.
Look: you don’t have to be listed on every one of these websites (though it would help).
But you can’t be listed on none of them, either.
Is it time-consuming, boring, and tedious to go through the registration process for each of these sites? Of course it is. But it’s necessary to build a larger digital footprint. You want eyeballs on your website, right? Well, it takes some work.
When building out these profiles, here are some things to keep in mind:
1. Your NAP (business name, address and phone number) needs to be listed exactly the same every time you submit it. I mean it – this is incredibly important. Double-check your work. Don’t screw it up.
2. Fill out your profiles completely. Add your logo, photos, business description, services, hours of operation, and more. If you’re going to go through the hassle of filling out the profile, you might as well get as much out of it as you can.
3. Link to your social media profiles. Don’t have a Facebook, Twitter, Youtube channel, or Google Business Profile yet? Build those first.
4. Optimize your logo. Typically, these sites will show them as a square. Most logos aren’t square. Easy fix: copy and paste your logo into a blank 500×500 square using a free photo editor. Use that file when submitting.
5. You need a few dozen of these to really move the needle. I’ve made the most important ones bold, so if you don’t do anything else, make sure to focus on those.
Let’s get started.
Before you do anything else, optimize your Google Business Profile.
This is the most important piece of your digital marketing pie. If you don’t create any other profile listed here, make sure to create and optimize this one.
Most contractors don’t pay as much attention to their Google Business Profile as they should. Google allows you to display a wealth of information about your business.
- Categories: Start specific, go general. Don’t try to stuff irrelevant categories. It does more harm than good. For a list of all categories, Google “google business categories 2022.”
- Service area: Start with the city in which you’re located, and then spread out. Google allows counties, too. List as many as are relevant to you.
- Description: You have 750 characters to work with. Use them all.
- Products: Do you sell them? If so, fill it out.
- Services: Your selected categories will automatically show up as services. However, you can provide more. If “kitchen remodeler” is your primary category, you can add custom categories beneath it such as “cabinets” and “countertops,” along with descriptions.
- Images: Your logo and cover image are first. Put some care into this – people will see them when your Google Business Profile shows up in Google. “At work” photos are for when you’re on the job. “Team photos” are of, well, you and your team. “Identity photos” can be of signage on trucks or vans, office signage, business cards, etc. Don’t skip this step.
- Calls: You can activate call tracking to better understand how well your profile is working for you.
- Reviews: If you have customers, text a few at a time and ask them to leave a review. If you don’t, ask family or friends to leave a review commenting on your good qualities, mentioning you by name instead of the company. Reviews are a ranking factor – the more you have, the better.
By simply taking the time to fill out your profile completely, you can get much more value out of it – and much, much better rankings to boot! Don’t skip this step.
Here are some other things to keep in mind:
Utilize posts to keep your profile up to date.
Google allows you to write posts to keep your profile fresh. These include offers, what’s new, and event options. The “what’s new” option in particular is a great all-purpose function: you can post links to pages on your website, new blog posts, updates about your company, and more. Get in the habit of utilizing this function at least once a week. Later in this article, we’ll tell you how you can automate this task.
Google gives you a free website. Why not use it?
Google will collect all the information you’ve put into your Google Business Profile and display it on a free website. To enable this, all you have to do is click on the “Website” tab in your Google Business Profile, then click the blue button that says “Publish.”
All the work you’ve put into your profile will be displayed here, along with your core business details: your name, address, and phone number (or NAP).
You can even add additional links back to your website, giving you a quick SEO boost.
Contractor-Specific Directories & Citations
Building relevance is always a good thing, so we’ll start with some contractor-specific directories.
Paid/Free Contractor Listings
porch.com
homestars.com
thebluebook.com
wikirealty.com
ashepages.com
handyroofers.com
goodhvaccontractor.com
houzz.com
Free Contractor Listings
builersyellow.com
floorbiz.com
roofcalc.org
zip2biz.com
ehardhat.com
roofers101.com
contractorhub.com
listedin.biz
local-roofing.net
allconstructiondirectory.com
123contractorquotes.com
4specs.com
buildergreat.com
buildingonline.com
constructionjournal.com
contractorintown.com
custombuilders.com
fixr.com
masterplumbers.com
newhomelistingservice.com
meetacarpenter.com
meetarenovator.com
meetaroofer.com
meetapainter.com
homeownerideas.com
homeblue.com
usroofingcompanies.com
roofing-directory.com
constructionlinks.net
theroofing.org
constructioncrowd.com
Paid Contractor Listings
As a general rule of thumb, I don’t suggest these.
homeadvisor.com
buildzoom.com
networx.com
Data Aggregators
These listings will push your business information out to dozens and dozens of other publications. Sometimes, directories will only allow business information on their site when it comes from one of these data aggregators. If there is a cost associated with any one of these, I would recommend it over other paid directory listings.
Data Axle
Localeze
Foursquare
Data Provider
General Directories & Citations
yelp.com
manta.com
mapquest.com
foursquare.com
merchantcircle.com
citysquares.com
ebusinesspages.com
cybo.com
agreatertown.com
callupcontact.com
tuugo.us
us.enrollbusiness.com
iglobal.co
find-us-here.com
myhuckleberry.com
wherezit.com
cityfos.com
a-zbusinessfinder.com
onestopb2b.com
place123.net
freebusinessdirectory.com
fonolive.com
trepup.com
us.justdial.com
n49.com
local.com
americantowns.com
biznet-us.com
askmap.net
ablocal.com
alladdress.us
wand.com
expatriates.com
teleadreson.com
travelful.net
ringmybiz.com
freelistingusa.com
multifamilybiz.com
promoteyourbusiness.thomasnet.com
shopinusa.com
mylaborjob.com
spoke.com
igotbiz.com
gomylocal.com
addyp.com
4mark.net
411.info
city-map.com
esi.info
makeitlocal.com
facilityaxs.net
nextbizthing.com
peeplocal.com
companylist.org
yundle.com
cleansway.com
welocalpeople.com
linkcentre.com
suppliersof.com
gbguides.com
beatyourprice.com
freepostfree.com
usnetads.com
lasr.net
hot-web-ads.com
usaonlineclassifieds.com
ikeanded.com
desktoppages.com
allthelocal.com
yellowbrowser.com
myallday.com
partypop.com
longmeadowbiz.com
askyp.com
mybusinessmaps.com
cbsyellowpages.com
myreadylink.com
pages24.com
brabys.com
usaypage.com
a2zyp.com
relevantyellow.com
welocalpeople.com
jayde.com
myyellowpagesplus.com
businessgatewayfife.com
trellian.com
esi.info
roboy.com
fat64.net
idahoindex.com
usaonly.us
digabusiness.com
whodoyou.com
whofish.org
siclists.com
citiservi.com
usbiz.org
golocal247.com
us-business.info
onlinebusinessoffice.com
pressmania.com
theworldwideclassifieds.pressmania.com
adlandpro.com
addonbiz.com
1abc.org
9sites.net
addfreewebdirectory.com
alistsites.com
addbusiness.net
freetoprankdirectory.com
addfreewebdirectory.com
GPS Listings
http://www.where2go.com/
https://www.zeemaps.com/
https://mapfling.com/
https://here.com
https://www.easymapmaker.com/
https://www.tomtom.com/
Social Media Accounts
Sure, you’re not going to use all of these. You’re not expected to. But simply having the listing rounds out your digital footprint. After all, the biggest brands in the world are on all of these. Why shouldn’t you be?
Facebook.com
Pinterest.com
Twitter.com
LinkedIn.com
YouTube.com
SnapChat.com
Instagram.com
Angel.co
BloggerAngel.co
Blogger.com
Gravatar.com
Artmight.com
Pinterest.com
Sites.Google.com
Trello.com
Tumblr.com
WordPress.com
coub.com
Bravesite.com
BuzzFeed.com
Boredpanda.com
Diigo.com
Disqus.com
Medium.com
minds.com
MySpace.com
Quora.com
slashdot.com
Wikidot.com
Issuu.com
Scoop.it
Strikingly.com
Spreaker.com
Fliphtml5.com
Itsmyurls.com
Udemy.com
Magcloud.com
Ted.com
Hometalk.com
4shared.com
All4webs.com
Answers.informer.com
ask.fm
authorstream.com
Evernote.com
Getpocket.com
padlet.com
Behance.com
Deviantart.com
instructables.com
Justpaste.it
kickstarter.com
Intensedebate.com
myopportunity.com
paper.li
Pastebin.com
Plurk.com
Wix.com
Scribd.com
Skillshare.com
Ello.co
Start.me
viki.com
wattpad.com
Pearltrees.com
Slideserve.com
kiva.org
ideafit.com
Weebly.com
500px.com
wanelo.com
BlogLovin.com
Keybase.io
Forumotion.com
Blurb.com
Yarabook.com
Instapaper.com
Artfire.com
threadless.com
Filesharingtalk.com
List.ly
mathoverflow.net
chordie.com
huntingnet.com
letterboxd.com
goodreads.com
lookbook.nu
triberr.com
crunchyroll.com
weheartit.com
the-dots.com
speakerdeck.com
lumberjocks.com
sketchfab.com
slides.com
atlasobscura.com
mapleprimes.com
knowyourmeme.com
folkd.com
ttlink.com
academia.edu
substack.com
Submit your business and website to these places to build a larger digital footprint.
It’s all about getting eyeballs on your message.
How do you do that?
Be everywhere you can be online.
Have an incredibly large digital footprint.
Again, you don’t need to submit to all of these website, but you can’t submit to none of them either. If order to get more visitors to your website, people need to be able to find you. By building a larger digital footprint, they’ll be able to.
This is a pretty exhaustive list, but I’m sure I’ve missed a few.
Let me know in the comments below!
