Land More Painting Jobs
With Highly Targeted
Painter SEO
Written By: Joey Randazzo
Joey Randazzo is the owner and Founder of Portland SEO Growth Partners based in Portland, OR. He’s worked with dozens of businesses, including multiple assisted living communities (scroll down to see a real case study) to build growth-centric SEO campaigns.
Updated: January 11th, 2023
This Painter SEO Guide Has Been Comprehensively Updated for 2023
Due to consistent algorithm updates, the relatively recent Helpful Content Update in late 2022, we’ve updated the written content that already existed on the page. We’ve written new content. And we’ve filmed new video content. Everything is up-to-date, fresh, and helpful for your painting business to dominate Google for 2023.
Painting contractor SEO case study for 2 Brothers Painting, a company in Portland, OR
Keywords
- Before working together (July 2021): ranking for 250 keywords on Google
- October 2022: ranking for 1,400 keywords on Google
Here’s a screenshot from SEMrush proving performance.
Traffic:
- Before working together, (July 2021): driving an average of 200 organic visitors from Google
- October 2022: driving an average of 600+ organic visitors from Google
Here’s a screenshot from SEMrush proving keyword performance:
Local SEO
2 Brothers is dominating locally for keywords like “Beaverton painters”
What 2 Brothers has to say about working with us…
How We Help Painters Grow Their Business & See A
5.7x ROI on Their Monthly SEO Investment
Increase Google Rankings
Get your painting business website ranking on Google for high-value keywords that home and business owners are searching for.
More High-Quality Web Traffic
Get more interested clients coming to your website each month.
Increased Leads & Phone Calls
Get more motivated home owners calling your painting business for an estimate.
You Get Your Time Back
Stop having your receptionist writing blog content or trying to figure out digital marketing on their own.
Painter SEO Goals? Dominate Here... 👇
When Someone Types into Google "Painter Near Me", You Show Up Here...
When Someone Types into Google "Painter Near Me", You Show Up Here...
Think about the way people search for painters. They’re probably driving up to their house, noticing the need for a new coat of paint, and pull out their smartphone.
They go to Google and type in something like “Painters Near Me” – the FIRST thing to show up is the Maps area of Google called the Google Local Pack. The house painters that show up here “win” and get the most phone calls.
When Someone Types into Google "Painter [City]", You Show Up Here...
When home owners are looking for painters, they often use the language of “painter portland” or “best house painter in [city]”.
The painters that rank in the Maps area for these keywords get the most phone calls and website visitors.
When Someone Types Queries into Google like "How Long Does It Take to Paint a 2500 Sq Ft House", You Show Up Here..
When Someone Types Queries into Google like "How Long Does It Take to Paint a 2500 Sq Ft House", You Show Up Here..
Home owners ask tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of questions into Google each day. Questions like…
- “Can interior paint be used outside?”
- “How much does one gallon of paint cover?”
- “How to prep walls for painting”
Ranking for these keywords in Google proves that your website is an “authority” and can be trusted.
People Are Searching Differently For Painters Than They Used To
Just take a look and see the increase in people searching for “painter near me” over the last five years.
This screenshot above comes from a tool called Google Trends (a tool created by Google itself). You can see the steady increase in the number of people searching for “painter near me.”
See The Common Theme? You Want To Increase Your Painting Business's Digital Presence Online To Be Found By Motivated Clients.
What it comes down to is, you want more home owners in your city to know that you exist. Whenever they do a Google search online around painters, you want to show up over your competitors.
How Do You Get Tangible Results With Painter SEO Services?
Step 1: Comprehensive SEO Audit
Most SEO companies skip over this step. And, this is the most important step of all.
How can you get to where you want to be with SEO if you don’t know where you are now?
We recommend doing a comprehensive SEO audit to determine your:
- Current SEO performance
- Current SEO errors
- What your local competitors are doing
- Technical SEO performance
- And more
Step 2: Local SEO Visibility Audit
The goal for painter SEO is to increase what we call your “local visibility”.
We use robust and powerful third-party tools to run an “SEO visibility test” on your business. This allows us to see how visible your business is on Google.
Here’s an example of the report:
Step 3: Create a Roadmap Based on Data
Now we have tons of data from the SEO audit and the local SEO visibility audit.
SEO for painters should be strategized based on data. The majority of other SEO companies fail to do this and, instead, go off of a “hunch” that something will work.
We recommend creating a comprehensive roadmap based on the data. If the data shows that your website is loading very slowly (which is negatively impacting performance), you should probably focus on fixing that first!
Step 4: Implement Highest Priority Changes First
Here’s where it gets a bit interesting:
Not all SEO activities are created equal.
Adding some internal links on a blog post from 2016 won’t impact your rankings as much as improving the content on your homepage.
So, based on the data, you should be targeting the “low hanging fruit” opportunities first.
You don’t have a Google Business Profile set up? You should probably start there! You don’t have a Services page? You should probably build that before worrying about the images on your About Us page.
Step 5: Local SEO Best Practices & Content Creation at Scale
Local SEO for painters comes down to the following:
- Consistent information that Google trusts
- Authority
- Accurate information
If you have a different phone number on your website than what’s on your Facebook page, that doesn’t look good to Google.
If Google chooses to rank your business, they can’t trust that a user will actually get through to you if they try to call.
Having consistent NAPs on high-authority directories across the internet is critical.
Now, about “authority,” that’s where content comes in. If you create content that answers your target audience’s questions, Google will see your painting business as more authoritative than a competitor’s business who doesn’t have much content on their site.
Step 6: Meticulously Track Data
The goal of SEO is to have a tangible impact on your painting business. To increase website visitors. To increase your phone calls. And ultimately to have those activities lead to more revenue.
To ensure your SEO campaign is performing successfully, you have to track data. Build a comprehensive dashboard that gives insights into your:
- keyword rankings
- phone calls
- website visitors
- and other important KPIs
Painter SEO Services Shouldn't Be 
Cutter - Everything Is 100% Customized To Your Business
Painter SEO isn’t the same as other types of SEO. But unfortunately, many other SEO companies fail to make the distinction. They continue to use the same “tips and tricks” that they use in other industries, thinking that it’ll work for painters. That’s not the best way to do it.
We treat your business as unique. We take an individualized approach to each individual industry (such as house painting), to your specific city (LA might be different than a smaller town in Ohio), and your specific website (is your website built on WordPress or Squarespace).
5 Tactical Local SEO Strategies for Painters
Strategy 1: Google Business Profile Optimizations
This is an example of a painter’s Google Business Profile:
Well, this is an example of the front-end of a painter’s Google Business Profile. The part that a Google searcher can see.
Actually, let’s go back for a second:
Why do Google Business Profiles matter for painters? Google Business Profiles are relevant and important ranking factors to rank in the Google Local Pack. Here’s a quick example of the Google Local Pack to jog your memory:
Optimizing your Google Business Profile helps you get found there ☝️
And when you’re found there, you WIN. You get more phone calls and website visitors compared to your competitors.
So, how do you properly optimize your Google Business Profile to get found in the Google Local Pack?
One word: Comprehensiveness.
The best way to optimize your Google Business Profile is to offer as comprehensive information as possible.
There are many sections in which you can provide comprehensive information, such as:
- Your categories
- Your photos
- Your main description
- Your products
- Your services
Here’s a short example that explains the difference between being comprehensive and not being comprehensive:
For your main description, you may just be inclined to write a sentence like… “We are a team of painters that are dedicated to detail and quality.”
Sounds great, right? Well, that is just one sentence… Google allows 750 characters for the main description. Use them! Do you offer both indoor and outdoor painting services? Do you specialize in residential painting? Do you offer special brands of paint with your services?
Answering EVERY possible question is how you can be more comprehensive.
Strategy 2: On-Page SEO for Your Homepage and Location Pages
On-page SEO for painters is just a fancy way of reffering to the content on your website.
It includes:
- Your title tags
- Your meta description
- Your header tags (H1, H2, H3)
- Internal and external links
- Your images
- And basically anything that you can put on a website page!
Why does on-page SEO for painters matter? It’s simple, Google cares about it.
For single-location painters, the most important page on your website, from a local SEO perspective, is the homepage. For multi-location painters, your location pages are the most important pages on your website.
When implementing on-page SEO for these pages, you want to use SEO-friendliness through keywords while also providing as comprehensive information as possible to the user (and Google).
For example, instead of a title tag like “B&L Painting – 503.111.1111” you can provide Google with more context by writing something like “Trusted Painters in Portland – B&L Painting.”
Strategy 3: Website Architecture Best Practices
This is an underrated SEO strategy for painters. Your website architecture and your sitemap are intimately connected.
Google crawls your sitemap to understand your website architecture, which in turn allows Google to understand what your website is about.
Here’s what a sitemap might look like to Google:
A little confusing, right? Don’t dwell on it too much. Just know that when Google looks at a sitemap like this, it’s putting together what your website is about (which is super important for local SEO).
The main thing is that your website structure should make sense hierarchically. Let’s use two of the main services that painters offer – 1) exterior painting and 2) interior painting.
Where should these pages live on your site? First, you should probably have a “services” page that has the URL structure similar to .com/services/
Now, any services that you offer (such as exterior and interior painting) should live UNDER this main services page. See below:
- .com/services/exterior-painting
- .com/services/interior-painting
This may seem obvious, but many websites don’t do this right and skip over the important vertical architecture. Instead, every page lives directly under the homepage. See below:
- .com/services/
- .com/exterior-painting/
- .com/interior-painting/
- .com/concrete-and-floor-coatings/
With this structure, it’s not clear to Google that “Exterior Painting” is a service that you offer. It’s just another page on your site!
Strategy 4: Content Creation at Scale
This part is fun. Home and business owners search for thousands of questions into Google every day.
Some are very local:
- best paint supplies in Portland
- best deck stain options in Portland
Some are generic:
- Can you paint over wallpaper?
- How to paint a ceiling?
- Can vinyl siding be painted?
- How many square feet does a gallon of paint cover?
If you answer these types of questions through comprehensive blog articles on your website, it will accomplish 2 things:
1. You may rank in Google for these keywords that people are searching and therefore drive traffic.
2. Google will recognize your efforts and see your website as an authority over your competitors. Google will think, “Wow, they’re answering all of these painting-related questions that users are searching for. Their website is more valuable than local competitors who haven’t answered any questions.”
Strategy 5: User Experience is a Bigger Deal Than You Think - Stop the Keyword Stuffing!
The old days are gone. PBN link building… Keyword stuffing… all the stuff that used to work.
Google’s getting smarter. And Google’s starting to understand that a user’s experience on a website is important.
What does this mean for you as a painter?
- Make it easy for users to find what they’re looking for. They shouldn’t have to spend 5 minutes figuring out if you offer concrete coating services.
- Make it easy for users to contact you. Your phone number should be clickable on a mobile device. You should consider an online estimate tool so that someone can get an idea of how much their paint project will cost. Anything to make the user’s experience SUPER easy.
- When writing content, you should actually offer value to the reader. Gone are the days of outsourcing writers who write vague, keyword-stuffed articles. Your content should thoroughly answer the user’s questions and add value to them.
On Average, Our Painter SEO Services Cost
31% Less Than Other SEO Companies
Compared to Other SEO Companies That Average Between $1.5k and $3k Per Month.
FAQs About Painter SEO Services
Here are the most common questions we’ve heard.
What is Painter SEO?
Painter SEO is a form of digital marketing that helps painters increase their visibility in search engines, particularly Google.
The specific SEO strategies that are used for painters vary greatly (which is why all painter SEO is NOT created equal).
Strategies include:
- keyword research
- on-page SEO
- off-page SEO
- local SEO
- Google Maps optimizations
- landing page creation
- content creation
- PR
- and more
Why is Painter SEO Important?
Painter SEO is important because it allows you to get in front of your target audience (the people looking RIGHT NOW to find a painter for their home or business reno project).
Think about how social media marketing for painters works: People are scrolling through Instagram or Facebook and stumble upon an advertisement for a painting business in their city. They might be actively looking for a painter, but it’s fairly unlikely.
On the other hand, SEO puts you in front of motivated buyers looking for what you have to offer:
SEO for painters allows you to show up in Google for people actively looking for a painter. People searching for “best painter near me” or “painter in downtown Portland.” Ranking for those keywords has a MUCH higher conversion than people scrolling on Instagram.
How Long Does SEO for Painters Take To Work?
Painter SEO can take 1 week – 6 months for you to start seeing results. It depends on a variety of factors:
- How big of a city you’re in
- How high your website’s “domain authority” is
- How long your website has been around for
- How your current SEO is performing
- And much more
Some of our clients have seen 2x – 3x the phone calls within a month after starting their SEO campaign. Other clients don’t see noticeable increases in phone calls for 2-3 months.
But think about this:
If everyone could make a couple of tweaks on their website and rank overnight for the HIGHEST value keywords out there, like “best painter in Omaha” then the internet would go haywire.
These things take time. Google built their algorithms that way on purpose.
What Painter SEO KPIs Should We Track?
Painter SEO should be closely tracked.
You want to know, with absolute certainty, that the money you’re investing in SEO is working for your painting business.
So, you need to track certain metrics to ensure that the campaign is working:
- Keyword rankings: Are your ranking on Page 1 of Google for your most important keywords? How are your keyword rankings changing from week over week? Month over month?
- Online lead submissions: Are you seeing more online leads? How are they changing month over month?
- Organic website traffic: Is your organic website traffic from Google going up or down? Which keywords are driving the most traffic to your site?
- Phone calls: Are you getting more phone calls from people searching on Google? How are phone calls changing over time?
What Type of Content Should Painting Business Websites Have?
Painter SEO should include content that your target audience is searching for on Google:
How do we know what keywords/content your target audience is searching for? We use advanced software and tools that give us insider information and data. We, for example, know that 8100 people per month (on average) search for “how to remove paint from wood”.
With that being said, we do extensive keyword research to find the topics/questions that home and business owners have.
Questions like:
- “How to paint a brick fireplace?”
- “How much to paint a house interior”
- “How to prep walls for painting?”
If you create content that answers these questions, then you can potentially rank in Google when people search for these.
Also, Google will favor your site more than competitors because Google will have more trust in your site.
What are the Most Valuable Painter Keywords for SEO?
How To Work With Us
First of all – we don’t work with all painters.
We only work with painters that:
- Treat their employees and their customers well
- Are ambitious about growing their business
- Have the bandwidth to take the growth that will come from working with us
Step 2
Check Your Email
In less than 24 hours, one of our talented SEO specialists will send you a 3-5 minute customized video analysis. It will explain opportunities for you to outperform competitors.
Step 3
Sit Back And Watch Your SEO Skyrocket
Just look at our case studies of the success that other Portland businesses have seen. You can have the same results.
If you’re looking for Portland SEO services, we can help. Give us a call today to learn more about our pricing and availability.
Let's Take Your Painting Business From the "best kept secret" to the "most sought after brand"
