A 30-point SEO framework you can start implementing this week

This checklist is built for painting contractors who want to do SEO themselves—or who want to understand what an agency should be doing on their behalf. If you're a solo painter or run a small painting crew, sections 1–4 cover your essentials. If you operate across multiple locations, focus on sections 4–6 for geographic expansion.

You don't need technical skills to complete this checklist. Most tasks involve filling in forms, claiming platforms, or writing a few sentences of copy. The 30 items are ordered by impact first, complexity second. If you're new to SEO, work top to bottom. If you have a website already, skip to the section that matches your current gaps.

Expect this to take 2–4 weeks if you work part-time, 3–5 days if you focus full-time. None of these tasks require hiring anyone yet.

The 30 items are grouped into six priority tiers. Tier 1 (items 1–5) are non-negotiable. They take 1–2 days and account for the majority of local SEO impact for painting contractors. Tier 2 (items 6–10) build on the foundation. Tier 3 (items 11–20) accelerate results. Tiers 4–6 are optimization and scaling.

Each item includes a complexity rating (simple, medium, complex) and a time estimate. Check them off as you complete them. This isn't a race. Completing Tier 1 properly beats rushing through all 30.

At the end of each tier, pause and assess your traffic in Google Analytics. Most painting contractors see the first meaningful traffic shift 4–6 weeks after completing Tiers 1 and 2.

1. Claim and optimize your Google Business Profile | Complexity: Simple | Time: 30 minutes. Go to google.com/business. Claim your profile if you haven't already. Fill in every field: business name, service areas (use city names, not just a radius), phone, website, hours. Upload 10+ high-quality photos of completed jobs. Add your service categories (e.g., "House Painting," "Interior Painting"). Write a 2–3 sentence business description that mentions your service areas and key services. This is the single highest-impact item for painting contractors.

2. Set up Google Analytics and conversion tracking | Complexity: Simple | Time: 45 minutes. Create a free Google Analytics 4 account and link it to your website. Set up conversion tracking for phone calls and contact form submissions. Without this, you won't know which SEO efforts are working. Re-check your setup in 48 hours to confirm data is flowing.

3. Create a mobile-friendly website (or audit if you have one) | Complexity: Medium | Time: 1 hour. Use Google's Mobile-Friendly Test tool on your homepage. If it fails, your site needs a redesign or a modern WordPress theme. Most painting contractors' websites aren't mobile-optimized, which kills ranking potential. This is not optional.

4. Add schema markup to your homepage | Complexity: Medium | Time: 1–2 hours. Use schema.org markup for LocalBusiness. Add your address, phone, service areas, ratings aggregation. Use a tool like Yoast SEO (free version) or Schema.org's markup generator. This tells Google what your business is and where it serves.

5. Audit your homepage title and meta description | Complexity: Simple | Time: 30 minutes. Your homepage title should include your city and "painting contractor" or "painter." Your meta description should mention your service areas and a key differentiator (e.g., "Licensed painting contractor serving Denver metro—free estimates."). These appear in search results and influence click-through rate.

6. Create dedicated landing pages for each service and location combination | Complexity: Medium | Time: 2–3 hours per page. If you paint interiors and exteriors in multiple towns, create pages like /interior-painting-denver or /exterior-painting-boulder. Each page needs a unique title tag, meta description, and 150+ words of original copy mentioning that specific service and location. This is where most of your organic traffic comes from.

7. Write a 500+ word service area page | Complexity: Simple | Time: 1–2 hours. Create a single page that lists all the cities and towns you serve. Include a sentence or two about each area if possible. Link to this from your footer and main navigation. This page helps Google understand your geographic footprint and answers "do you serve my town?"

8. Build internal linking between service pages | Complexity: Simple | Time: 1 hour. On your interior painting page, link to your exterior painting page with anchor text like "We also offer exterior painting." On your Denver page, link to your Boulder page. This helps Google understand relationships between pages and spreads authority.

9. Generate your first 20 reviews (if you don't have them already) | Complexity: Simple | Time: ongoing. Ask past clients to leave reviews on your Google Business Profile. Send follow-up emails within 24 hours of finishing a job. Offer a small incentive (discount on next job, entry into a drawing) if your state allows it. Set a goal of one review per week. Respond to every review within 48 hours.

10. Set up a local citation audit | Complexity: Simple | Time: 30 minutes. Check your business information on Yelp, HomeAdvisor, Thumbtack, and local directories. Ensure your phone number, address, and service areas are consistent across all platforms. Inconsistent citations confuse Google and lower ranking potential.

11–15. Write five 800+ word blog posts on painting topics relevant to your service areas | Complexity: Medium | Time: 3–4 hours per post. Topics might include "How to Choose Interior Paint Colors," "What's the Best Exterior Paint for Colorado Weather," or "Interior vs. Exterior Painting: What's the Difference." Each post should mention your city or service area naturally at least 3 times. Link each post to a relevant service page. Publish one post every 1–2 weeks. These pages rank for informational keywords and drive long-tail traffic.

16–20. Create location-specific content | Complexity: Medium | Time: 2 hours per piece. Write a 400-word post titled "Painting Services in [City Name]" that explains what's unique about painting homes in that specific area (climate, home styles, common paint problems). Embed a map and link to your service area page. This captures local search intent that generic pages miss.

Tier 4 items (21–25) include technical optimization: implementing an XML sitemap, setting up canonicals on duplicate pages, improving page load speed, fixing broken links, and configuring breadcrumb navigation. These are less visible than Tiers 1–3 but are necessary for scalability.

Tier 5 items (26–28) are reputation and review management at scale: setting up a review monitoring tool, creating a review request email sequence, and responding strategically to negative reviews. This protects your reputation and indirectly improves local ranking signals.

Tier 6 items (29–30) are advanced expansion: starting a geo-specific paid search campaign to test new service areas, and building a simple referral program page. These are done after your organic SEO foundation is working.

Most painting contractors who complete Tiers 1–3 thoroughly see measurable organic traffic increase within 6–8 weeks. Tiers 4–6 compound that growth and protect it against updates.

We've created a printable PDF version of all 30 items with checkboxes, time estimates, and priority tiers. You can print it, share it with a team member, or track your progress on screen.

The PDF also includes a simple spreadsheet template for tracking your service area pages, locations, and content calendar. This helps painting contractors who manage multiple locations stay organized.

Download the full checklist and content calendar (free PDF, no email required).