How to Get Targeted Traffic to Your Website – Small Business Blogging Strategy

Once you’ve built a professional website for your handyman business, it’s time to start generating traffic to that website.

Without traffic, your website isn’t going to help much (outside of building trust with your existing customers).

This is where blogging comes in.

If you don’t have a website yet, here’s how to build one.

By blogging about the services you offer and other information related to your business, you will attract customers looking for exactly what you sell. Not only will your blog help them find you online, but the posts that you write will help establish you as an authority figure in your market.

Blogging is great for both getting traffic to your website and gaining credibility with those potential clients.

Additionally, few handyman businesses put effort into blogging so the competition is low. Most pros don’t even understand how it works.

By the time you finish reading this post, you should have:

• A firm understanding of what blogging is.
• A solid blogging strategy to gain customers with little effort and no monetary investment.

What is a blog?

According to Wikipedia “a blog is a discussion or informational site published on the World Wide Web and consisting of discrete entries (“posts”) typically displayed in reverse chronological order (the most recent post appears first).”

There are many different forms of blogs. HandymanStartup.com is a blog and this is a post within that blog. Tweeting on Twitter is also considered a blog, more specifically a micro-blog.

There are also several different purposes of a blog. Some people just blog about events in their lives and share personal stories. Some blog about a certain niche and provide actionable information for a very specific group of readers (which is what I do with this website). Other businesses blog about new products and services that they offer so their customers can stay in the loop.

And finally, some businesses use blogging as a way to generate traffic which they can turn into leads. This is the blogging strategy that I will discuss in this tutorial.

Why should you care about blogging as a handyman?

Adding a blog to your handyman website has several benefits.  Aside from what I have already mentioned, here are a couple of really good reasons.

#1  Google likes content

When somebody Google’s a keyword, Google is trying to provide that searcher with the most relevant and useful information possible.

Google does this by collecting information from a website and evaluating and indexing the information on the site. Once this is done, Google runs the information they collected through an algorithm that helps them determine what keywords the site should rank for, and how high the site should rank.

Several factors are considered in this ranking process, but it is pretty obvious that the content on the site has a very strong influence.

Less obvious, however, is the notion that the amount of content and the frequency that content is added also play a role.

Simply building a website consisting of static pages that never change is typically not an effective way to reach the first page of Google’s search engine.

By blogging about topics that are highly relevant to your business, you will be providing value to Internet users. Google will take notice and you’re website will have a much better chance of getting to the first page.

#2  Gain trust with clients

In addition to helping your website rank higher, the content you produce will help you gain the trust of your visitors.

Customers will find your site on google, read an informative blog post, and immediately the trust will build. They will see that you know what you’re talking about, and be more likely to call you for whatever home repair or improvement they are looking for.

Sure, there are probably hundreds of other people that already know the information you write about in your blog, but the customer knows that you know it and that’s all that matters. They don’t have to keep looking for somebody to help them because they already found you.

There are many more benefits of blogging as a pro handyman, but let’s focus on how this works and other benefits will become clear.

3 Easy Steps to a solid blog post

Now that you understand the value of creating a blog on your small business website, I’m going to share my method for blogging.

This method has brought me a large percentage of my business and that percentage continues to rise as my blog matures and I add content.

Step 1 – Keyword Research

The first thing I do is figure out which keywords I want to target for a specific post.

The idea of this step is to find keywords that people would use to find services that you offer.  For this example, let’s say that you offer plumbing services in Miami, FL.  Here are some of the keyword phrases you may want to rank for.

• “Leaking Garbage Disposal”
• “Faucet Installation”
• “Running Toilet”
• “Plumber in Miami”
• “Reverse Osmosis Installers”

There are many places you can go to find quality keywords that will bring you traffic.  I have used the following sources for researching keywords.

1. Brainstorm things you would type in for certain repairs.
2. Look on craigslist for common services that other handymen are offering.  If you see a certain service pop up in several ads, chances are pretty good that that service is in demand and would generate substantial leads.
3. Look on other handyman websites to see what services they offer and pick keywords up from there.
4. Use the Google Adwords keyword tool.  (more advanced method)
5. Follow this guide for identifying profitable services.

Some keywords will be much harder to rank than others and can take a lot of effort to get to the top. Keywords such as “Plumber in Miami” or “handyman in Dallas” are going to have a lot of competition and will most likely take several months, or even years before you hit page one.

But, that’s ok, because there are plenty of less competitive keywords that you can rank for much faster. Keyword phrases such as “Leaking faucet in Miami, FL” or “Roof repair in Dallas, TX” are much more specific and will have much less competition.

Step #2 – Exact match title

After I’ve done some research and I know which keyword I want to target, I choose a title based on the keyword that I’m targeting.  I also make sure to include the keyword phrase in the title.

Here are some examples of exact match titles that resemble what I use.

• “Fence Repair in Miami, FL”
• “Roof repair in Dallas, TX”
• “Sprinkler Installation in Albuquerque”

The most important thing is that you’re title has the keyword that you want to rank for in it. Also, if you are targeting a specific area, I’ve found it helpful to include that location in the title.

You may even want to get more specific and target a small area within your city instead of the entire city. The more specific your keyword phrase is, the less likely somebody will type it in. But, the more likely they will find your post if they do type it in.  Make sense?

Step #3 – Creating the content

Now that I have a good keyword-rich title that targets a keyword I want to gain business from, I write about 500 words about that topic. The idea here is to write useful content relevant to the keyword in the post title.

Example:  Let’s say that your title for this blog post is “Fence Repair in Miami, FL.” 

Intro:

Are you a resident of  Miami, Florida, and in need of a fence repair?  We have been repairing fences for 15 years and can have your backyard secure in no time…….

Body:

Here are some of the common fence repairs that we run into….(bulleted list of fence repairs and a brief explanation of each)

Call to Action:

At the end of the post make sure to include your company contact info so they don’t have to scroll back up to find it.  You need to make it as easy as possible for them to contact you.

And that’s it!  You don’t have to be a great writer or have some extremely insightful information to share.  All you need is a good keyword and some decent content that helps show off your knowledge to build confidence with the customer.

How often should you blog as a pro handyman?

The short answer is the more the better. But from my experience, it is difficult to keep up with everything else and consistently add content to my blog.

Ideally, you would write one post per week. However, when I started my business, I averaged about 1 post per month and experienced an exceptional ROI on my efforts.

Once I had enough leads to fill my schedule without having to pay for any advertising, I completely stopped blogging and the articles I wrote way back in 2012 still generate traffic and leads to my website to this day.

Blogging (also known as content marketing) is one of the best ways to generate business for any small business and I recommend you get started immediately.