The great thing about modern search engine optimization is that it works like a charm for various handymen and local companies. When people look for these services, they usually refer to Google Maps. So, if you appear within the search engine’s 3-Pack, you can significantly boost your chances of landing a client.
SEO is a perfect solution for any roofing company who wants to build a sustainable brand. Although it takes time to produce results, search engine optimization gives you a chance to dominate the local market. Among others, this makes it a potent weapon if you eventually decide to expand your business.
In this article, we’ll talk about roofing SEO, how you can benefit from the process, and how it can affect your overall marketing efforts.
How does SEO work?
Google and other search engines have advanced algorithms that allow them to assess sites and web pages. Google, specifically, uses more than 200 ranking signals to determine whether a page should appear at the top of its search results. They will analyze all sorts of stuff, ranging from technical SEO aspects (page speed, architecture, security, etc.) to content and links.
For an article to rank on the top of Google search results, it needs to fulfill numerous criteria, including:
- The host site needs to be well-optimized and to provide high visitor satisfaction
- Content needs to be engaging and to provide quality information that can’t be found anywhere else
- Page rankings also hinge on external factors such as backlinks from other sites
Generally speaking, Google always puts users first and doesn’t care much about what companies think. As long as a certain page is suitable for Internet users, it doesn’t matter who wrote it or where it was posted. To assess users’ satisfaction rates, its algorithm analyzes time spent on a page, bounce rate, return rates, and other parameters.
So, while roofing companies can do a lot of things to skewer odds in their favor, the website visitors are the ones who have made the final decision. If you “win” the majority of them by providing quality information, your post will continue rising in the rankings.
SEO for Roofing services benefits
Roofing SEO services can help your company in all sorts of ways:
- People who reach your site via search engines are more likely to become customers compared to those who come through other marketing channels
- SEO sets the basis for all marketing efforts. It’s a long-term approach that can increase brand awareness and increase the effectiveness of other promotional activities
- Local SEO can establish your brand as one of the best roofing businesses within the wider area
- Unlike some other marketing channels, search engine optimization has enormous scalability. In fact, after reaching a certain level, a roofing business might even reduce its investment in this marketing approach without losing any traction
Roofing SEO drawbacks
These are the main issues with SEO for roofing companies:
- Compared to some other marketing activities, SEO comes without any guarantees
- Optimization is a long-term process that will only start yielding results after several months. If you stop the investment during the early stages, for whatever reason, you might lose all the traction without noticeable results
- Requires extensive technical knowledge and staying in touch with marketing and SEO trends
Is Roofing SEO worth it?
Whether or not SEO is worth it mostly depends on your budget and commitment. Like with other digital marketing strategies, companies working within the roofing industry are subjected to heavy competition. If you’re unwilling to spend money or you pull out your investment prematurely, you will have nothing to show for it.
Roofing SEO efforts are also heavily affected by the choice of marketing agencies. Similar to other professions, some brands are simply doing a better job than other organizations. That being said, your ability to recognize top talent directly correlates to the end results.
Optimizing your roofing site
Although there are more than 200 factors that can impact your roofing SEO strategy, the entire process usually comes down to several things:
Technical SEO
Technical optimization is the first thing that SEO professionals do at the start of a campaign. Their main task is to detect various errors and inefficiencies on the site that could affect how search engine crawlers interact with pages. Furthermore, they need to ensure that users will have a positive experience while browsing the platform.
During technical optimization, an SEO company needs to check all sorts of things, including:
- Website architecture (placement of menus, simplicity of reaching different pages)
- Website indexability (the ability for search engine robots to reach and interpret pages)
- Page speed (reducing images and other “heavy” elements so that the website loads faster)
- Mobile optimization (users should easily access main pages on phones as they do on desktops)
- Various errors (missing pages, broken links, issues with meta descriptions and title tags)
- User security (using HTTPS protocol)
Improving various technical aspects doesn’t necessarily give you an advantage over other sites; it only ensures that you don’t lag behind. Given that most roofing contractors have properly optimized sites, you can’t differentiate yourself by simply boosting page speed a bit. Instead, you need to make efforts in other areas.
Still, technical SEO serves as a basis for all other processes. If there are too many issues on your pages, people will simply walk away after landing on your platform. In fact, there’s a chance that your pages might not even be indexed in the first place.
High-quality content
In a normal situation, people won’t find your roofing website by themselves. Instead, they will find it in a roundabout way while searching for answers to various questions. For example, they might stumble upon your blog while looking for roofing tips and tricks or exploring the best roofing materials.
This is why it’s so important to have quality content, otherwise known as on-page SEO. With each new article you create, you increase the number of leads you can attract to your roofing business. Every post should revolve around a specific keyword, which is meant to satisfy a user query. However, for a blog post to be successful, it needs to fulfill numerous criteria:
- Articles need to revolve around relevant roofing keywords
- Each post needs to satisfy user intent and provide optimal solutions to their problems
- Blog posts should be a part of larger clusters and funnels
Content is always in the front and center of all roofing SEO services. Even if you do everything well, you won’t be able to attract potential customers to your site without actionable blog posts. In the majority of cases, they revolve around informational topics, helping users increase their knowledge of the subject instead of trying to sell roofing services.
Keyword research
For a piece of content to be effective, it requires proper analysis and preparation. So, keyword research is the first thing you’ll have to do during the process. The purpose of this action is to accomplish the following:
- Marketers have to find phrases that have a high enough search volume to justify creating an article yet don’t have too much competition. Modern keyword research tools provide scores for roofing keywords, so you can quickly determine if a phrase is good enough
- When checking the viability of a keyword, an SEO expert needs to analyze the first page of Google for that particular query. If the page is populated by extremely strong websites with high reputations, you likely won’t be able to penetrate the rankings
- Marketers also have to determine how that phrase links to your roofing company. Most notably, they need to determine if it can attract the right type of leads to the blog
Keyword research is vital for two reasons. First, it allows you to shortlist relevant phrases for your business. Second, it allows you to prioritize these phrases based on relevancy. So, when you start creating content, you’ll know which article to start from for maximum efficiency.
Funnels and clusters
Good content can only take you so far. Even if you optimize a few articles and drive massive traffic to your roofing website, that doesn’t mean you’ll gain new clients. For the most part, this is because people don’t know what’s expected from them. In fact, some of them might not even realize you’re offering roofing services once they land on your blog.
This is why you need to guide their actions and show what’s expected from them. With clusters and funnels, you can lead visitors from one page to another until they finally land on your service pages and contact you.
While funnels and clusters are somewhat similar, they’re also very different. The main purpose of a funnel is to guide a person from one page to another with internal links. By using them, you create a logical reading structure where you would entice a person to visit more and more pages.
Although clusters are somewhat similar and also rely on internal links, their purpose is completely different. Marketing agencies create these article structures to boost the relevancy of a single page, not necessarily drive traffic to other pages (although this might come as a secondary effect.
When creating a content cluster, you first need to determine what is your “pillar page.” This is the central element of your strategy and the focus of your optimization. Then, you create numerous satellite pages that would support the pillar and boost its relevancy. That way, you can internally increase the authority of a page without relying on external assistance.
Content creation
After finishing the ideation phase, it’s time to put things into motion. When creating content for a roofing SEO campaign, you need to implement the following best practices:
- Make sure that the language is simple enough. The common roofing topics revolve around home maintenance, so you’ll try reaching as many users as possible. While complex language might seem more professional, it will likely present an obstacle for many readers
- If possible, embed a video on top of the post. Based on everything that the MiroMind’s team has seen when working with roofing contractors, people react well to visual content. Among others, videos help users when performing various manual tasks
- That being said, you should use a proper, logical structure for “How To” articles, which are common in the roofing industry
- Make sure that the post is easy to skim through, as users should gain quick answers to their questions. If possible, add some unique information that can’t be found in other articles
- Adding extra FAQs and links to resources on the bottom of the page might also boost your placement within search engine results pages
For the most part, you should be good as long as you implement the common SEO practices that people use for other types of posts. Always focus on users and try to provide as good an experience as possible
Relevant, quality links
The biggest issue with content is that the search engines don’t know what to make out of it. This is especially true during the early days, as there’s not enough user data to assess its quality and relevancy. In theory, a blog post will never reach page one as there’s nothing to propel it forward.
So, to determine if an article is good enough to be pushed to page one, search engines usually rely on external signals. For example, they will use external links as an indication of quality. In theory, if enough bloggers link to your post, this means that the article instills confidence, and people aren’t afraid to promote it on their platform.
Unfortunately, as marketers developed various link-building frauds over the years, Google and other search engines became very tentative. They don’t value all the links the same, and some of them might even hurt roofing companies. This is what you need to keep in mind during your link-building campaign:
- The best links are those originating from your industry and direct competitors. The reasoning is that these authors are most suitable for judging the quality of your content
- Furthermore, it’s much better to get a link from a page that covers exactly the same subject. Not only is this relevant to Google, but it also makes it more relevant to the visitors of the link-giving site. When they click on the link, they won’t be sent to some non-sensical page. Instead, they can read more about the topic, which will enhance their user experience
- The general rule is that the links from reputable sources are worth more than those coming from mediocre platforms. Once again, the logic is that authoritative blogs won’t link to just about anyone. Furthermore, this also gives you a boost based on association
- No matter what you do, it’s crucial to avoid harmful links. Industries such as adult and gambling are regarded as hazardous, and any association with these sites might harm your SEO efforts as well
If you’re a new site, other blogs likely won’t be inclined to link to your post. In fact, they probably don’t even know that you exist. This is why you need to reach out to them in an attempt to build links. These are the most common strategies roofing companies implement to gain traction:
Guest posting
Guest posting is the simplest, most straightforward way of building links for your roofing business. Basically, many sites allow users to create content for them. That way, they can gain articles for their blog without spending a dime, and you’ll get a fresh link back to your platform. Keep in mind that many sites charge for this service, so you might have to spend a bit.
HARO
HARO (Help A Reporter Out) is a platform that matches blogs with news outlets. If you have an enticing story, you can pitch it through this platform. The great thing about this method is that most news sites are authoritative and can provide a better boost than your average home renovation blogs. However, you’ll likely have to work a bit more for these links.
Social media
Backlinks from social media and forums can’t match with links from other reputable sites. This is because anyone can post on these platforms, making them easily exploitable. Still, that doesn’t mean you can’t profit from Facebook and Instagram.
By sharing your articles regularly on these platforms, you can expose your roofing site to a worldwide audience. Depending on the quality of your posts and your social media reach, some of them might even link back to the post organically without you pitching them.
Events and partnerships
If you’re active with events and partnerships, you can slowly build up your portfolio. When organizing events, many companies share this news on their blog and social media. That way, you can gain enormous reaction by just being active within your industry or community.
Organic outreach
Organic outreach is another common strategy that works similarly to social media sharing. Basically, you’re contacting numerous bloggers and sharing your piece with them. By asking them to take a look at your article, some of them are bound to link it via their website.
Local roofing SEO
In many ways, local search engine optimization feels like a completely separate activity compared to traditional optimization. Although it builds on the existing SEO efforts, the process targets different audiences and includes significantly different tactics.
With this process, a roofing contractor is trying to reach the top of the local 3-Pack in Google. This makes it a vital activity for any handyman or small local business, as it exposes the brand to a large audience within their city. Furthermore, by creating a Google My Business Account, your office is also shown on Google Maps, making it easier for clients to find you.
To properly perform local SEO, a roofing business needs to implement the following tricks:
- Optimize various technical aspects of your site
- Find relevant local keywords and create content for each one of them
- Add your company to various business directories, all while using the same company data
- Start accruing reviews from users
Although there are many things you can do to boost your placement in local results, the process mainly hinges on Google reviews. The search engine’s algorithms assess companies based on the feedback and star ratings that real people provide. That being said, your main task would be to get as many reviews as possible and to get high grades.
Conclusion
Roofing contractors can benefit from SEO in all sorts of ways. Besides improving the technical aspects of their website, this marketing tactic can reel in highly qualified leads to the site. While optimization might seem like a real hassle, the long-term benefits will easily trump any other promotional activity.