If you are the owner or in the marketing department of a roofing business, you may be wondering if and why you need to worry about digital marketing. After all, you do something highly skilled – no regular person wants to replace their shingles or roof on their own.
But just because you do something really specialized, doesn’t mean you don’t need to work on digital marketing. You need to master the best digital practices for roofing businesses.
You have a lot of other roofers out there.
And selling roofing repair services says no different than offering interior painting. You need to compete with other companies that paint too.
At SEO Design Chicago, we work with many companies in roofing. We’re specialists in digital marketing strategies that drive quality traffic to roofers’ websites, resulting in high quality leads that turn into inquiries, estimates and sales.
We know how to get you to the top of Google’s search engine results pages (SERP), which is where you want to be. When people have roofing emergencies, they tend to call the first few numbers they see after searching for something like “air conditioning repair near me” or “heating repair near me.”
You want to make sure you appear in Google maps, in paid Google ads and in Google search results. There’s a science to making sure you appear in these priority digital spaces. We can handle it for you, but we like to explain what we do. So this post reveals the best digital marketing practices for roofing specialists.
Table of Contents
Always Keep SEO in Mind
Word of mouth recommendations are likely one of the main ways you get new customers. Google likes to think of themselves as people who give friends (the people who search on their site) recommendations for companies that are good. When it comes to roofing, people fear being overcharged. So Google wants to put companies at the top of SERP that have clear and transparent policies about how they calculate estimates. You also want to highlight positive reviews from previous customers.
You want to make sure every page on your website is put together with these goals, and search engine optimization (SEO) in mind.
The way Google decides what website has quality SEO isn’t transparent. Google’s algorithm doesn’t come with an instruction manual. Google keeps the way their algorithm works a secret because they don’t want competitors to come up with a similar search engine.
Think of the algorithm like the most complicated roofing job you’ve ever had. We bet there were a lot of shingles involved. Google’s algorithm is like a big roof with crazy angles. There are over 200 factors that go into what makes one web page rank higher than another. As lifelong learners, we’ve learned some of these factors to help your roofing website rank higher in SERP than your competition.
Some of the insider knowledge about SEO for roofing companies includes:
- Finding and using the right keywords related to roofing
- Making sure your roofing website loads fast
- Structuring each page with subheads related to roofing issues (like the words “Invest in Pay Per Click Ads About Roofing” below)
- Including outbound links and linking from one page on your site to another
- Regularly updating your site with new content – that’s why we maintain this blog and we can start or maintain a blog for you too that’s related to roofing
We don’t know a lot about roofing. If you don’t know a lot about the terms we just used above, that’s why you may want to call us to do the job for you. We wouldn’t try to replace the roof on our offices alone. You may not want to handle the digital marketing practices for your roofing business alone either.
Invest in Pay Per Click Ads Related to Roofing Repair, Roofing Shingles, Roofing Near Me and New Roofs
Known as PPC, pay per click ads help roofing businesses get their names at the top of a search engine results page (SERP). These are the ads that appear under “Sponsored” whenever you search for something on Google. They appear above “organic” content, or the links to websites that appear when Google analyzes a user’s search terms.
You only pay for PPC ads if a person clicks on the ad. What’s great is that often, a person will see your roofing company’s name in an ad, but scroll a bit more and click on a webpage from your company that appears in the free search results. In other words, they may see an ad under the term “Sponsored” that includes your company’s name.
People are a little distrustful of ads. So they may unconsciously remember the name of your roofing company, scroll down a bit more to the organic section, then click on a link from your website. They’ll unconsciously remember the ad and think, “Hey. They must be good.” Then they’ll reach out, through a phone call, email, website form or chat bot. Your company name made an impression through a PPC ad in the user’s mind, but you didn’t have to pay for them clicking on the ad because they actually click on your website in the organic search results section.
Confused? We would be too if someone asked us to repair our own roof. That’s why you should reach out to us for a free SEO consultation.
A Bit More About Roofing PPC Ads
You don’t want to overpay or underpay for a roofing ad. Google ads work like this – you set a daily budget that tells Google, “I won’t pay more than this for my ad to appear if a person searches for x.”
If another roofing business bids higher for that search term, Google will show their ad exclusively, or in a higher spot than yours.
We can help you figure out what your daily budget should be, and more importantly, what keywords or search terms you should be bidding on. We’re big fans of terms like “Roofing near me.” We want your name to appear when people in your service zone search for that. Targeting ads to specific zip codes or areas takes some tech skills. We have ZERO roofing skills. If you don’t have skills in ad creation, reach out to us.
Google ads work – studies say that for every $1 a company spends, they earn back $2 in leads, sales or brand awareness.
Monitor Website and Ad Performance
Many companies only track how many people visit a website. That’s not enough. Website analytics is really about helping you strategize your future digital marketing practices for your roofing business. When you look at your site and ad performance, you’ll see where and why people leave your site or ad, what times of day they are looking for roofers and more.
You monitor analytics through free software like Google Analytics 4. If you don’t know how to install this on your website, or read the reports, we can handle this for you on an ongoing basis, or explain it to you and your team.
Don’t be ashamed about not “getting” how to read analytics reports. You are a roofing specialist – and thank goodness for you. Otherwise, our structures would fall apart.
We’re website structure specialists. We can improve your website and ad campaigns.
Why is SEO Vital for Roofing Specialists?
Roofing companies need a search engine optimization plan that will make their website rank high in SERP, and definitely higher than the competition nearby.
Many users are more likely to visit a website they see more than once on a search result page, especially if they are looking at a big, expensive repair or purchase. And most roofing jobs are expensive. People will do intense online research before signing an agreement with you for the work.
You want to appear in the “people may ask” area of search results, and in Google maps when someone searches for “roofers near me.” We know how to make the most use of the Google My Business tools to make sure you appear everywhere in SERP that you possibly can, including maps, reviews, images and videos.
Why is Paid Search Worth It for Roofing Businesses?
Paid Search is an important part of roofing digital marketing strategy because it allows you to target the online users looking for the products or services you offer. Sure, you have to pay for the ads, but they outperform ads on all other platforms, from radio to tv to social media to billboards to bus ads.
Paid ads aren’t just the “sponsored” ads that appear at the top of SERP. Paid ads also appear under shopping and next to one’s Gmail correspondence (and people certainly love to email friends about their roofing problems).
At SEO Design Chicago, we specialize in making sure your roofing company is at the top of specific search results your customers will see. Reach out for a free SEO page analysis and we’ll start there. Use our chat bot – in fact, we’ll install one on your website so you never miss a lead.
Contact Us Today!