Industries
Basement and foundation contractor marketing for homeowners who research before they call.
Kojo Growth is a marketing agency for local service businesses. For basement and foundation contractors the work starts before the call: a crack in the wall or water on the floor sends homeowners to read for days, collect two or three inspections and compare them against the national brands. We build the symptom pages, your region-wide Google presence, weather-timed ads and a follow-up after every inspection.
- Pages for each symptom and service: waterproofing, crawl spaces, wall repair and piers
- A Google Business Profile set up for the whole region you cover
- Search ads that follow the weather, with every call tracked
- A follow-up after every inspection
By the Kojo Growth teamPublished Last updated
Free audit: see where your basement and foundation business stands.
- Your Google Maps ranking across town
- Your reviews against the top three
- Your website on a phone
- Who you're up against
- How many people search for what you do
- The three fixes that matter first
How customers find you
How people find a foundation contractor
This is the trade where people search the symptom first. “Is a horizontal crack serious?” comes long before “foundation repair near me”. The company that answers the first question tends to get the second.
Symptom searches come first
“Water in basement after rain”, “bowing basement wall”, “crack in foundation”. Homeowners want to know how bad it is. A plain page for each symptom, with photos, is how a local company gets into the research early.
Region-wide, not town by town
People search “basement waterproofing Michigan” as readily as their own town. A foundation company's service area is a region, and the pages and profile need to say so.
The weather sets the calendar
Spring thaw, the first week of heavy rain, a wet fall. Searches for waterproofing jump with the weather. Ads that scale up in those weeks aim to reach people while the water is still on the floor.
Two or three inspections, then a comparison
A job this size gets compared. Homeowners read reviews for how the crew treated the house and whether the warranty held up. Detailed reviews and an honest follow-up beat the fanciest brochure.
What usually goes wrong
The problems we see most for basement and foundation contractors.
If a few of these sound familiar, the audit shows what they cost your basement and foundation business, with the fixes in order.
Outspent by the national brands
The franchises often run ads on every search, in every town, all year. Competing on the same terms drains the budget. Local companies compete on symptom pages, region pages and reviews, not on outbidding them.
No pages for the scary questions
The site lists services. The homeowner is searching “should I worry about this crack”. A competitor's blog post answers it, and the homeowner books the competitor's inspection.
A free inspection, then silence
Several free inspections a week, a quote left on the kitchen table, no follow-up. Homeowners sit on foundation decisions for weeks. Whoever checks in with a useful answer has the better chance at the job.
A profile that doesn't match the service area
The Google profile shows one address and the default radius. You drive two hours for jobs and show up on the map for none of those towns.
Referrals from inspectors and agents run on memory
Home inspectors and real estate agents are often the first to see a cracked wall or a wet basement. If they don't think of you in the week of a sale, the referral goes to whoever they texted last.
The warranty question has no answer in your reviews
A homeowner's biggest question is what happens if the water comes back. Reviews that say “nice guys” don't answer it. Reviews written from a prompt about the work and the follow-through do.
What we'd focus on
The services that matter most for basement and foundation contractors.
Not every service, every time. These are the ones that tend to move the numbers for basement and foundation contractors; the audit sets the order.
- Get found
Websites
A page per symptom and per service (waterproofing, crawl space, wall repair, piers), region and town pages, and your own job photos on all of them.
See the service - Get found
Google Maps & local SEO
Service areas set to the region you actually cover, the right categories, job photos on the profile, and a monthly map scan across the towns you drive to.
See the service - Get called
Google Ads
Search ads that follow the weather: scaled up in spring thaw and heavy-rain weeks, trimmed in dry ones, with every call tracked back to the search that brought it.
See the service - Get chosen
Reviews & reputation
An ask after the job and again after the first big rain, with a prompt about the crew, the house and the warranty. Those are the reviews homeowners compare you on.
See the service - Get chosen
Content
Plain-language pages on what each symptom means, what the fixes are and what drives the cost, written with you so they match how you work.
See the service - Follow up
Email & text follow-up
A text after every inspection and a scheduled check-in, plus a note to the inspectors and agents who send you work, so a quote on the kitchen table doesn't sit there until the national brand calls back.
See the service
What people search
The searches behind the calls.
The numbers are real monthly searches for the places shown, statewide and in Ann Arbor. The examples are the searches we check for your area in your audit.
Searches a month in the US
Real search data- “basement waterproofing michigan”Advertisers pay about $30 a click on Google Ads590
- “foundation repair michigan”Advertisers pay about $31 a click on Google Ads210
- “basement waterproofing ann arbor”Advertisers pay about $18 a click on Google Ads40
Searches we check in your audit
Illustrative- “water in basement after rain”A symptom search, weeks before the call. A plain page with photos can win it.
- “foundation crack repair near me”The map pack decides this one. Service areas and reviews settle who gets opened.
- “crawl space encapsulation [your town]”A specific service with its own search. It needs its own page.
- “bowing basement wall repair”High worry, high value. The page should say what the fixes are and when each applies.
How it starts
Easy to start. Built to keep growing.
A free audit of your basement and foundation business first, then a plan in writing, then the work, then a report every month.
- 1
Free audit
We check your Google Maps ranking across town, your reviews against the top three, your website on a phone, who you're up against and how many people search for what you do, then write up the three fixes that matter first.
- 2
Plan in writing
A 30-minute call to walk through the audit. Then a written plan: what we'll do, in what order, the price and the term. Nothing starts until you say yes.
- 3
We build
We take a day-one baseline, then fix what matters first: your profile, your website, your tracking, your follow-up. You approve anything that goes public.
FAQ
Straight answers, up front.
What basement and foundation contractors ask us before they start.
How do I market a basement waterproofing or foundation repair company?
Answer the questions people search before they're ready to call, on pages of your own: what each symptom means, what the fixes are, what to expect from an inspection. Set your profile and site up for the whole region you cover. Run search ads that scale with the weather. Ask for detailed reviews after every job and follow up on every inspection. The free audit shows where you stand on each.
How do I compete with the national foundation brands?
Not by outbidding them. Local companies compete on what the franchises do less well: pages that answer local questions, a profile and reviews that show you're from here, a more personal follow-up after the inspection, and a reputation for being there after the first big rain. Ads still help, but aimed at weather and towns rather than everywhere all year.
How long does the Google Maps work take for a region-wide service area?
Longer than for a single town. A profile can't be everywhere at once; what works is the right service areas, region pages on the site, and a flow of reviews that mention the towns you work in. Profile fixes can show up in a few weeks; wider map visibility usually takes months. Nobody can promise rankings and we won't; the monthly map scan shows what moved.
Should the pages talk about cost?
Yes, in a helpful way. Homeowners are searching for it, and a page that explains what drives the cost of a foundation repair (the fix, the access, the length of wall) earns trust without quoting a number for a job you haven't seen. We write those pages with you so they're accurate for how you work.
What do you need from me to start?
For the free audit, your business name or website and the main city you serve. If you go ahead: manager access to your Google Business Profile, a set of job photos (before, during, after), the service area you actually cover, and a little of your time each month for the questions only you can answer.
Other trades
Built for the trades people call.
The free audit
See where your foundation company stands before the next heavy rain.
Send your business name or website and the main city you serve. The free audit returns your Google Maps ranking across your region, your reviews against the top three, and the three fixes that matter first.
- Your Google Maps ranking across town
- Your reviews against the top three
- Your website on a phone
- Who you're up against
- How many people search for what you do
- The three fixes that matter first