Local SEO for contractors, starting where the jobs actually come from.
For a contractor, local SEO is decided in the map pack — three listings, ranked on your Google Business Profile. We run that profile end to end for $297 setup and $99/mo, and treat the website as the add-on it is.
- Map pack first
- Profile run weekly
- $297 setup, $99/mo
- One client per trade per metro
Most contractor SEO money is spent below the fold.
Search any service plus your city on a phone. Ads, then a map with three businesses, then — a full screen down — the first website. The map pack is where local service demand is actually resolved, and it is ranked almost entirely off Google Business Profiles: relevance, distance, and prominence.
Yet the standard contractor SEO package is a website, some blog posts, and citation submissions. Those help the organic results underneath, which most searchers never reach. Meanwhile the profile that decides the map pack has one category, no service list, eleven reviews, and no activity in a year.
Relevance and distance you influence with categories, services, description, and service-area setup. Distance you cannot change. Prominence — reviews, activity, and consistency — is where the work is, and it is the part everyone skips because it is weekly rather than one-time.
So the order we run is: fix the profile completely, get review velocity going with your existing customer list, keep the profile active every week, then layer on service-area pages and website work once the map pack position is producing calls.
The order that works for a contractor
- 011. Profile rebuildCategories, full service list, attributes, description, service areas, hours, photos, Q&A. This is the ceiling on everything else — a wrong primary category caps you no matter what else you do.
- 022. Review velocityImport 24 months of past customers into a paced campaign, then automate a request on every completed job so it never goes quiet again.
- 033. Weekly activity2–4 posts a week and a reply on every review, so the listing reads as an operating business rather than an abandoned one.
- 044. Website and service areasOnce the profile is producing, service-area pages and site SEO extend reach past the map pack radius. Available as an add-on — not the starting point.
Where contractor SEO budget usually goes vs. where the calls come from
| Channel | Typical spend | Share of local service clicks |
|---|---|---|
| Map pack (Google Business Profile) | Little to none | The majority of unpaid local clicks |
| Organic website results | Most of the budget | What is left, a full screen down |
| Blog content | A recurring line item | Rarely converts to booked service jobs |
| Citations and directories | One-time submissions | Supporting signal only |
| Paid ads / LSA | Rising every year | Immediate, but stops when spend stops |
Common questions
What is local SEO for contractors?
It is the work that makes a contracting business show up for service-plus-city searches nearby. In practice it is mostly Google Business Profile optimization — categories, services, reviews, and activity — because the three-result map pack sits above the organic results and takes most of the clicks.
Do contractors need a website for local SEO?
A website helps and eventually you want one, but it is not where you should start. You can rank in the map pack and book jobs with a well-run profile before the site does anything, and plenty of contractors do. We offer websites as an add-on for exactly that reason.
How much should a contractor pay for local SEO?
Agencies commonly charge $800–$2,500 a month, much of it on website and content work. Our GBP-first program is $297 setup and $99 a month with no contract, which is the part of the work that decides the map pack.
How long does local SEO take for a contractor?
Profile corrections can move rankings in weeks. Review-driven prominence compounds over 60–90 days. Website and service-area work is a longer horizon — several months — which is another reason to start with the profile.
Which trades does this work for?
Any trade that serves a local radius: roofing, HVAC, plumbing, electrical, landscaping, pest control, pressure washing, garage doors, painting, cleaning, towing, and junk removal. The mechanics are identical; the categories, services, and seasonality differ.
Do you work with more than one contractor per city?
Not in the same trade. One roofer per metro, one plumber per metro — we are not going to optimize two profiles competing for the same map pack.
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Last reviewed and updated by the RapidLocal team.