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Getting started guide: Advertising your construction company for free

Getting found: How to build links to your construction company website

If you don鈥檛 have a website, social media, or tracking. Go back to our first checklist on how to start out marketing your business online.

In this guide, you will learn about some of the tools and techniques for advertising your business online for free. Many of these are marketing tools that help you save time, money, and headaches by automating the work and letting you focus on more important things.

Get listed. Everywhere. Go broad first and get specific by your industry

The following is a list of business directories that will people in your area browse local listings and find your business. It’s an opportunity to list your business for free online and get in-front of people searching for companies like yours. Pay attention to the “SEO thoughts聽and tips” at the end of this post before you go all on out on listing your company everywhere.

: Yes people still search and use search with Bing.

Just because they鈥檝e gone bankrupt and been sold doesn鈥檛 mean they鈥檙e not worth it.

Get your services listed and rated

is an online directory for small and larger businesses

Yellow Pages used to be VERY popular prior to the digital age but it鈥檚 still good to get a link up.

White Pages was how business used to be listed in the old Yellow Pages when everything was in a big book.

is a similar listing service to yellow pages and the others.

another variety of business listings that is like all the others.

YellowBot listings are free but you can pay to get extra features

Magic Yellow listings for any business owner to claim or list their busines

listing site with free listings

international listing site for all kinds of companies

Not free but a listing service to bring customers to you

service providing local listings and popular business listings

add your business profile to get found

This app pivoted to make their business about listing companies that you can check into upon visiting

Dexknows list your business and also engage with users and see stats on how your business is listed

list your business and pay more for more listings

service listings online for consumers to find, research, and rate local companies and contractors.

Kudzu service geared specifically towards contractors and homeowner service

local listing service

Let鈥檚 get industry specific:

How to find industry specific directories?
Preform the following searches and replace 鈥測our industry鈥� with the actual industry your business is in:
Your Industry +鈥漚dd your business鈥�/鈥漧ist your business鈥�
Your Industry + location (*choose town, country, state, or country) + Listings
Your Industry + directory
Your Industry + directory + add/submit/suggest/post
Your Industry+ intitle:鈥漝irectory鈥�
Your Industry+ inurl:鈥漝irectory鈥�
Your Industry+ Listings

For example, let鈥檚 say you鈥檙e a construction company:
Using the above search techniques I would consider adding my business to the following:

Some additional SEO thoughts and warnings
If you鈥檙e going to go all-out on listing your business in directories.
1). As a rule, you should only list in 鈥渒nown鈥� directories:
The most popular directories are ones that look like they鈥檙e up to date, have a more modern look aesthetically, and seem to provide value to its visitors.

2). List your business in directories that appear to be moderated with regularity
Don鈥檛 bother listing your company on a site that doesn鈥檛 appear to change its listings ever. The content they provide is stagnant (old) and therefore they鈥檒l likely

3). It can be worth paying to get listed:
The websites that require a monthly subscription sometimes can also afford to moderate their listings, freshen up the content, and market your business to others. They seldom get 鈥渟lapped鈥� by google because they鈥檙e providing a real service. But if the site looks like it was designed back in the 90s, steer clear.

4). Niche and Local Sites Are Great!
Focus on your niche! If you鈥檙e a construction site, get on directories with your competitors. You鈥檒l seldom get into trouble for posting your business alongside a gathering place with others in your industry.

Interact with forums/Q&A websites/social media/blogs

There are plenty of other places that you provide value and in return receive traffic or even new leads. Participate in the conversation other websites, blogs, and social media. Add to the comments, post links to your articles, participating in blogger exchanges, and be active in social media groups. While all of this takes time and effort, the benefits are numerous.

Benefits of more interaction on other places online:
-Increasing backlinks
-Boosting your presence online and brand awareness
-Talking with potential customers
-Establishing you and your brand as subject matter experts
-Becoming more familiar with your community
-Getting your website and blog more traffic

Forums/ Q&A websites/social media groups/ There are tons of online groups for people in your industry. These people may live and work in your town, it鈥檚 true! These people may also end up being your customers, future colleagues, and mentors.

Find and join the groups:
Forums:
Consturction Forum list

Q&A Websites:

Social Media Groups:

Get organized:
Make list of the forums and groups on social media and add them to a list on a google drive.

Make thoughtful comments:
Find discussions or posts that you can relate to and 鈥済ive your two cents.鈥�

Post you links to your content and your website:
The content you create needs to be woven into the conversation. This isn鈥檛 sneaky or disengenuine if you鈥檙e answering real questions and a part of the conversation.

Blogs:

Find blogs that are writing about your industry or at the very least addressing a topic that your company often deals with.

Commenting:
Although commenting isn鈥檛 anywhere near as viable as it used to be; if you are lending genuinely insightful and helpful comments it can move the needle.
-Be honest and not 聽over-the-top “salsey”
-Don鈥檛 be too long winded
-Include a link to either your website or your relevant blog post

Blogger exchange:
It鈥檚 often difficult for blogs and other publishers to always create fresh and now content. Many of the folks that run these websites will be open to the idea of a blogger exchange or posting your content on their site in return of a backlink.

How to get your content posted on other websites for free

Good content can be worth a lot. It will drive traffic, boost how high you come up in search engines, get you ranked for additional keywords, and most importantly attract new customers.

Where do you post content?
Just like if you were going to put up a sign for your business in your town, you want to post your sign where customers are going to be.

This means you should look for blogs, organizations, publications, social media pages, social media groups, forums, etc that are relevant to your industry.

Step 1) Build a list
Start by searching for the above and building a list in a google spreadsheet.

Step 2) Find out who to contact
Find the people behind the blogs, publications, and websites. You can locate their contact information under the 鈥渃ontact us鈥� section of their website or and add their email address or link to the contact form on your google spreadsheet. Sometimes you won鈥檛 be able to find anyone to contact- it happens, move on.

Step 3) Craft meaningful emails.
People know when they鈥檙e being spammed. They know when you鈥檙e writing a boiler plate email that feels like a template.
Credibility/Intro + Compliment + compliment + question. Ask for more specifically.

Example:

鈥淗i ______,
I came across your website when I was researching **Insert keyword or Topic**, I found your article **Name the article title** really well written. I especially enjoyed the section about **name a section you read in the article**. I鈥檓 writing articles in the same industry and wanted to know if you ever publish other authors on your blog?

I would be thrilled to submit a few articles to you for free if you鈥檙e open to linking back to my blog. Thoughts?

Regards,
冲冲冲冲冲冲冲冲冲冲鈥�

Depending on the industry, one out of every ten will respond positively. Make sure when you send your article over it includes at least one backlink to your website.

Step 4:
Follow up
Many people will pass on the first email about a blogger exchange. Send a 鈥渇riendly reminder.鈥�
鈥淗ey _____
I wrote you a few days back to see if you were open to letting me submit content to be published on your **Blog/publication/industry newsletter/etc***, I just wanted to see if you were open to seeing what I鈥檝e written really quick. I鈥檓 happy to send it over if you鈥檙e interested.

Regards,
冲冲冲冲冲冲冲冲鈥�
Step 5:
If they respond positively, it will eventually end up going live online. Send a thank you and ask if they鈥檙e open to letting you write again in the future. Make a calendar event and actually follow up in the future.

Extra tips on exchanging content:

You can use a blog contact details scrapper like and to save you time on getting the contact details for websites and blogs.

If you鈥檝e given away the article, don鈥檛 post that same article on your own website. It鈥檚 considered duplicate content and will look bad on you. It鈥檚 okay to put a summary on your blog and link to the article where it鈥檚 written elsewhere and of course, always promote on social media. There is canonical tagging and yes it works, but unless you know what you鈥檙e doing- just don鈥檛 risk it.

This is one part of our getting started guide, if you found this valuable then immediately go check out our detailed guide on construction marketing information and tips聽聽where you can also find the following articles:

1). The Getting started Guide: Really starting out
See our early checklist for creating聽your construction company website up and running and preparing your social media.

2).聽Getting Started Guide: Content Marketing
Our guide to using content marketing to drive traffic- what works and how to write good content for your construction website.

3). Getting Started Guide: Social Media
Learn what to publish on Social Media, the best content, how to publish, and when to publish it.

4). Getting Started Guide: Networking Offline and Offline
Get a new look at Networking on old and new channels (in person and online) with the construction industry.

5). Getting Started Guide: Advertising on your construction site
Finding ways to advertise where you work and making sure your name is everything at your construction site.

Lastly, take a look at our free masterlist of marketing and sales tools for 300+ tools and guides to help you to advertise聽your construction company for free or nearly free. Get, also, the most out of promoting your company, by downloading our free guide on how to build a solid construction marketing plan.