Roofing marketing is a pillar of every successful business in the industry.
A well-crafted marketing campaign is essential to reach your promotional goals of growth, stability, and profit.
Before I discuss my proven tactics, I’d like you to answer a simple question to determine how serious you are about growing your business:
As the founder of Roofing Webmasters, a top-rated digital marketing agency for roofers, I would find it easy to rehash marketing โideasโ from other articles and blog posts on this subject.
But I have something better: first-hand experience and data based on 15 years of internal marketing data from bonafide roofing companies.
These tactics will offer something to everyone, from the strategic specialization of the startup rooferโs SEO campaign to the grandiose branding of an expanding companyโs multi-channel endeavor.
Using my data-driven insights, roofers can generate a consistent stream of exclusive roofing leads en route to a dominant 2024 and 2025, resulting in growth and prosperity.
Any blog writer, or AI bot for that matter, can scrape information from around the web and reword it for their own marketing article.
That’s a massive problem for you because the source information is untrustworthy.
I’ve used this trusted and verified data as the basis for the marketing tactics I present in this article.
Roofing Websites
1) Create a Website
Every roofing company needs a website. Whether youโre just starting out or are a 10+ year veteran of the industry, a functional website is essential to your marketing campaign.
Your website URL will attach to your business listings and social profiles as you build authority and trust.
Most importantly, your website is controlled by you, unlike third-party content (YouTube, Facebook, etc.).
2) Purchase a Domain Name
Choose a branded domain name that incorporates one or more of your company name, industry (roofing), and location.
Avoid an unbranded exact-match domain like roofershouston.com, as consumers cannot distinguish your company from others.
Similarly, donโt choose a generic domain name like bobsthebest.com because search engines are less likely to associate it with the roofing category.
3) Invest in Mobile UX
Todayโs consumer expects quick-loading websites that are easy to navigate through a mobile device.
Check your website speed on PageSpeed Insights to gauge its current usability.
Also, make sure your calls to action, such as phone numbers, contact forms, etc., are easy to click and populate on a mobile browser.
Google Organic Search
4) Target Keywords
Use SEMrush and Ahrefs to research roofing keywords in your city.
In addition, understand that long-tail and hidden terms account for over 50% of organic clicks.
Showcase jobs and projects with thorough descriptions to pick up these long-tail phrases.
5) On-Page Optimization
Fill out title tags, meta descriptions, and breadcrumbs on each page.
Ensure your content covers the target topic and utilizes NLP-friendly writing to help search engines understand it and its subtopics.
Incorporate internal links to other relevant pages to foster positive user engagement signals.
6) Crawling and Indexing
Ensure your website and its pages are easily crawled by Google bots.
Verify your website through Google Search Console and submit an XML sitemap to streamline the crawling process.
When creating a new page or post, ensure it is accessible through the sitemap, site architecture, or internal linking.
Google Business Profile
7) Claim Your Google Business Profile
Claim your Google Business Profile if you have not already done so.
Verify your GBP with your genuine business address.
Next, connect your website URL to your listing and upload unique and original photos to your profile.
8) Request Google Reviews
Set up a review request process through 3rd party software or an automated email marketing campaign.
Ensure you also ask for reviews in person after completing a roofing project.
Meanwhile, monitor your reviews and respond to both positive and negative feedback.
9) Optimize for Google Map 3-Pack
Add content to your website to boost Google Map 3-Pack rankings.
Ensure your websiteโs homepage mentions services you want to rank for on Google Maps.
Add geo-coordinates from recent jobs as a digital hand raise on Google Maps.
Local Search
10) Local Optimization
Target locations on your website on your homepage, service pages, and individual city pages.
Your homepage and service pages should target your primary city.
Create additional pages for surrounding cities within your service area.
11) NAP Citations
Use a service like Whitespark to generate or update business citations across the web.
Remember that citations are only valuable if Google indexes them, so larger sites like Yelp and Angi will contribute to your rankings, but lesser-known sites may not.
Ensure your business information (name, address, and phone number) is consistent across platforms.
12) Local Backlinks
Partner with local businesses or organizations to become part of the community.
As you build local relationships, backlinks will naturally occur from their website to yours.
Avoid buying links from websites merely for โSEO purposes,โ as it is unlikely to move the needle.
You can check which of your pages and posts are not indexed by Google within Google Search Console and delete all of those pages from your website.
Next, check for blog posts that have received zero organic clicks in the last 6 months and delete those.
14) Enhance Existing Content
The resources youโve previously spent creating new pages and posts should move toward enhancing existing ones.
Rewrite pages that are performing mediocre on organic search and add value to them through recent jobs and unique insights.
Consider adding lead magnets on your pages like a โFree Couponโ to increase user engagement.
15) Incorporate E-E-A-T
Include badges, awards, author names, and credentials to ensure your content demonstrates expertise, experience, authority, and trust (E-E-A-T).
Install the DataPins plugin to showcase new roofing jobs on the appropriate pages.
Also, enrich your About Us page with detailed information about your company and staff.
Social Media Marketing
16) Create Business Social Media Profiles
Create social media profiles specifically for your business on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
Ensure each profile links back to your website URL and features your logo.
It makes sense to also link back to these profiles from your website.
17) Post Unique Social Content
As a roofing company, youโre not competing with Mr. Beast or a brand influencer, so publish social content that uniquely reflects your brand and services.
YouTube requires long-form and YouTube Shorts video content, which can be repurposed as Instagram and Facebook Reels.
LinkedIn also supports video content, but mix in some still images of your staff, jobs, and equipment.
18) Adhere to a Post Schedule
Short videos on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook have a short shelf life, so stick to a regular posting schedule.
Posting at least two shorts weekly between 1 PM and 3 PM Eastern time yields the broadest audience.
If you lack enough video content to manage this post frequency, consider hiring a freelance video editor to capture your roofing jobs.
Paid Advertising
19) Google Ads
If properly executed, Strategic Google Ads campaigns can yield a positive ROI for roofers.
Every Google Ads campaign should be temporary as it supplements your broader marketing efforts.
Itโs best to deploy Google Ads campaigns during seasonal opportunities for roofers.
20) Meta Ads
Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, features a popular advertising platform that incorporates an AI-assisted Advantage+ targeting algorithm.
With this in mind, you can reach homeowners on Facebook or Instagram with Meta Ads.
Like Google Ads, meta ads can be expensive, so it’s best to use social media ads as a short-term promotional tactic.
21) Nextdoor Ads
Nexdoor is a neighborhood community platform where homeowners consult with one another on various matters, including the best roofers to hire in their areas.
This dynamic presents a valuable advertising opportunity for local roofers who can target homeowners on a hyper-local level (think actual neighborhoods).
Once you infiltrate the good graces of these hotbed communities, word-of-mouth begins to gain momentum en route to a cohesive multi-channel branding campaign.
Software Solutions
22) DataPins
DataPins helps market your roofing company by showcasing recent jobs in the form of pins.
Pins consolidate geo-coordinates, min-maps- job photos, job descriptions, and schema markup to serve as a digital hand raise for search engines while instilling trust in website visitors.
The DataPins software allows roofers to tag specific service types to pins so they appear on the most appropriate website pages.
23) Link Whisper
Link Whisper is an excellent on-page optimization tool for internal linking.
The Link Whisper software tells site administrators which of their pages has internal links and from which pages.
The user-friendly dashboard makes it easy to identify which pages need more internal links.
24) WPRocket
I noted the importance of site speed in an earlier tactic, and the WPRocket plugin helps speed up your website automatically.
WPRocket is a WordPress caching plugin that incorporates various tactics, including lazy loading, to speed up website pages for visitors.
Site speed is a ranking factor, so every roofing company should invest in tools like WPRocket.
Email Marketing
25) Email Marketing CRM
Utilize a CRM like Aweber to organize your subscribers.
AWeber makes it simple to categorize subscribers by variables like consumer, prospect, lead, etc.
Furthermore, a tool like Aweber has an API to automate new subscribers from lead magnets.
26) Publish Email Lead Magnets
You may already have a list of emails from current customers. However, youโll need to get more.
One way to capture emails is to publish lead magnets on your website or social media channel.
Offer a free coupon, guide, or PDF in exchange for the prospectโs email address, which you subsequently send to your CRM.
27) Customize Email Campaigns
As you gather more emails, you can craft customized and segmented campaigns to reach your prospects best.
For example, homeowners interested in tile roof repair can be tagged with โtileโ to receive a custom email sequence detailing your tile roofing services.
The same tactic will apply to other services like metal roofing, commercial roofing, etc.
Referral Programs
28) Incentivize Refferals
Encourage word-of-mouth by offering incentives (like discounts or coupons) in exchange for referrals.
After receiving great services, referrals often happen naturally when homeowners eagerly share their experiences with friends and neighbors.
However, offering that extra incentive will allow your company to generate demand quickly.
29) Track Referrals
As your company grows, it becomes easy to lose track of referrals.
Such disorganization can breed resentment from customers who were promised referral incentives but failed to receive them.
Invest in referral tracking software to avoid such occurrences and streamline your referral process for the best results.
30) Leverage Referrals
Each new referral customer should go through a well-crafted introductory program incorporating your email marketing campaigns and video content.
Itโs important that you overdeliver at the inception of this new relationship to maximize each referral’s impact.
When referral customers are impressed, their referrer is validated, fostering goodwill at every touch point of your program.
Innovative Marketing
31) Specialization
Specializing in a roofing sub-topic or service is a great way to stand out from competitors.
For example, do you perform primarily commercial, metal, or foam roofing?
If so, consider going โall-outโ on your specialty on your website and other roofing marketing materials.
32) Podcasting
Start a roofing podcast that interviews your staff and others in your network.
Podcasts are an increasingly popular marketing medium but are still relatively untapped in the roofing niche.
You will likely be among the first to start a roofing podcast in your service area.
33) Strategic Relocation
Your business address (hidden or not) plays a role in your roofing marketing campaign.
This is especially true regarding Google Maps, which rarely ranks roofing companies whose addresses are on the outskirts of a city, small village, or unincorporated area.
Iโve helped some roofing clients move their business address to a prime location and 10x leads in less than 6 months.
Traditional Marketing
34) Door Knocking
I encourage all roofers to maintain or begin a door-knocking schedule because of its impact on your digital marketing tactics.
My data reveals that roofers who door knock benefit from SEO at a 2:1 higher rate than those who donโt door knock.
There are many reasons for this phenomenon, but one to consider is that homeowners search for your brand name after you knock on their door.
35) Print Advertising
Magazines and newspapers are primarily obsolete but still perform well with older demographics.
Buying cheap ad space in your hyper-local magazine or newspaper can prove a low-risk reward endeavor.
Of course, I only recommend this tactic in conjunction with a digital marketing presence.
36) Flyers
Flyers can help maximize door-knocking efforts or serve as a backup to homeowners who are not home or do not answer the door.
While most consumers will toss your flyers in the trash, 23% of them are potential customers.
Like print ads, flyers work best when you have a digital online presence where homeowners can further research your company and its reputation.
Community Outreach
37) Support Local Businesses
Shop at your local hardware store and dine out at your nearby restaurants.
These subtle actions present networking opportunities while building goodwill in your community.
Other business owners in your area begin to recognize your face and form a trust for your roofing business organically.
38) Attend Local Events
Whether you attend your local church for Sunday service or a Little League Baseball tournament, immerse yourself in the community you seek to serve.
I do NOT recommend attending these events strictly for promotional purposes or handing out business cards or flyers.
Instead, your presence alone is building goodwill in your community in an organic way.
39) Sponsor Local Organizations
While blatantly handing out flyers at local events is a bad look, sponsorships are very professional.
You can sponsor your local Little League team or your church, which will further your business in the community and promote your brand to more viewers.
As mentioned in the โLocal Link Buildingโ section, these sponsorships can generate valuable backlinks, contributing to your Google rankings.
Final Thoughts
Having spent the past 15+ years working with roofing companies and collecting marketing data, I feel it is only fitting that I share my insights with the broader roofing industry.
While most posts on this subject rehash techniques from other industries based merely on gut feeling, my data-driven insights are designed to encourage marketing actions from roofers.
A well-crafted website with DataPins supplemented by a strategic paid advertising campaign is the formula that most consistently delivers ROI for roofing marketing.
However, I will never discount the long-standing tradition of door-knocking and word-of-mouth marketing, both of which help maximize the impact of modern digital marketing tactics.
Roofing website design is the foundation of a successful digital marketing presence for local roofers.
That said, designing visually appealing roofing websites is easier said than done.
Still, those who achieve it reap the rewards of an enhanced reputation and a stream of reliable roofing leads that can catapult their businesses into higher revenue.
As the founder of Roofing Webmasters, my agency has designed 1,000+ websites for contractors across the United States.
Thatโs why I can tell you what kind of website your company needs, the common traits of high-performing designs, and how much money you should invest in your website development.
With the right approach and the expertise of proven website designers, roofing companies can develop a website that serves as the ROI machine everyone dreams of.
17 Best Roofing Websites of 2024
Iโve seen over 50,000 roofing websites throughout my career in the digital marketing industry.
This first-hand experience gives me insights into which websites not only look good, but also perform well online.
Based on this expertise, here are my 17 best roofing websites of 2024:
1) Geisler Roofing
Some websites, like Geisler Roofing, separate themselves immediately from competitors.
The black and white photos blend seamlessly with the siteโs clean overall design.
The backdrop photo, featuring the companyโs signage, builds credibility without overexerting its prominence.
The review widget within the siteโs footer area showcases social proof for potential customers, inspiring them to take action in the adjacent contact form.
2) Force Field Roofing
Force Field Roofing shows users an innovative website that balances innovation with clarity.
Some web designers fall into the trap of overcomplicating a website.
In the roofing industry specifically, clarity and conciseness hold great value.
Force Field Roofing wows users visually while simplifying navigation and making services accessible.
The geometry of their service buttons is equally impressive and encourages users to browse the website more extensively.
3) Mpact Roofing
Mpact Roofingโs website immediately establishes a sense of calm and community.
The Pflugerville-based company impresses visitors with clean design elements and simple navigation.
Unique photos of ownership, family, and recent projects foster a sense of personalization for potential consumers.
The siteโs header features a statement on factory-backed warranties, which is effective because of its font, stylization, and placement.
4) Hometown Roofing
Hometown Roofingโs website blends simplicity with credibility.
The siteโs design features several badges and awards to create social proof for visitors.
The site also displays transparent contact forms and CTAs so potential customers can take swift and decisive action.
The website does a great job of fostering comfort and converting it into action.
5) Roof Central
Roof Central made sure to display an immediate contact form so that visitors can take action quickly.
The design features unique and original images of authentic roofing projects in the service area.
The site tactfully achieves its desired response by working on consumer psychology (which processes information from left to right).
Roof Centralโs site also features a โpay your invoiceโ button, providing existing customers with optimal convenience.
6) Roof Top Plus
A professional design makes a great first impression on your customers, and Roof Top Plus achieves the desired result.
The website immediately appeals to viewers with a project photo background that effectively represents their Cape Coral, FL, service area.
Soon, the reader learns more about the companyโs 30+ year history by scrolling down the homepage.
A consistent color scheme exudes competence and works on the visitorโs psyche to build justifiable trust and comfort.
7) Texas Cool Roofing
Most of the time, simplicity wins out for contractor websites.
Texas Cool Roofingโs site demonstrates the power of simplicity combined with gracefully embedded photos and service menus.
Remember, a website appeals to its customer base.
In this companyโs case, they arenโt trying to sell specific products but services that require trust and credibility.
Their design strikes the perfect balance for lead generation.
8) Roof Authority
Roof Authorityโs website design quickly creates a unique value proposition by highlighting its veteran-owned status.
The siteโs design reflects its brand and company name (authority) by incorporating USA colors and embedding a high-quality video.
The companyโs specific services are clearly outlined on the homepage, and each features an individual page that users can easily navigate.
The award badges on the homepage further reinforce the companyโs apparent authority in its service area, prompting visitors to take action quickly based on confidence and rapport.
9) Endurant Roof
This company requested a sleek and minimalist design, and our design team crafted the most SEO-friendly version of that design philosophy.
Endurant Roofโs website represents a professional and committed local roofer in the SeattleโTacomaโBellevue metropolis.
Appealing calls to action and an inviting visual backdrop pleasantly urge visitors to contact the business.
The user-friendly navigation bar allows prospects to effortlessly browse for specific service types and additional informational content.
The embedded 3rd-party review widget gives prospects confidence by sliding through verified customer reviews from trusted sources.
10) A Godsend Roofing
A creative headline in H1 form is a great way to draw visitors into your company’s marketing funnel.
That’s what A Godsend Roofing achieves through its comprehensive website design.
Its yellow-and-white color scheme perfectly complements its spiritual theme to appeal to prospects.
The company immediately builds credibility with its target audience by showcasing a local-specific award badge on its homepage.
Finally, the easily clickable CTAs make it simple for interested users to contact the business.
11) Bellator Roofing and Restoration
Bellator Roofing and Restoration highlights its status as a veteran-owned company to build a connection with its visitors.
The USA-themed Veteran-Owned Business badge builds credibility from the user’s first interaction.
From there, seamless contact forms make the prospect’s next step as effortless as possible.
Finally, the homepage showcases recent jobs in its service area to give future customers confidence that they can provide unique services tailor-made for their roofing needs.
12) Cinch Roofing
Cinch Roofing’s website represents the gold standard of local website design.
The overhead shot of a luxury home in their service area quickly draws visitors’ attention.
Users then scroll down to 100% unique images of the company’s truck and recent roofing projects.
Having already built intrigue with the visitor, Cinch Roofing lists its specific services and simple contact forms to schedule a service.
13) Dalco Contractors & Roofing
The Dalco Contractors & Roofing website is a masterclass in social proof.
The design starts with a mission statement, a BBB badge, ratings, and an informative video.
Once users are warmed up to the company, they are further impressed when scrolling down to see specific awards and badges from various credible institutions.
This website even features an image of the company’s roofing license to solidify credibility with its target audience.
14) Legacy Roofing of Kansas
Legacy Roofing of Kansas’s website does a great job of showcasing a minimalist design.
Less is often more regarding website design for roofing companies in the modern era.
Users want to see clean visuals and sleek navigation to take action quickly.
This particular site achieves these goals effortlessly to drive conversions for their roofing business.
15) Nelson Roofing
The Nelson Roofing website design team clearly understands the importance of seasonal marketing for roofers.
The summer savings banner immediately presents a unique value proposition to local prospects.
Banners like these often drive conversions when compared to generic template websites with basic text.
In addition to the well-crafted value proposition, Nelson Roofing’s website features an embedded review widget that showcases testimonials from verified sources.
16) Premier Roofing Systems
The Premier Roofing Systems website shows how a design contributes to service specialization.
Since their company specializes in commercial roofing and roof coatings, the design elements highlight these seamlessly.
Visitors see images of commercial-specific jobs, including coatings that foster confidence in this specialty category.
The clean navigation makes it easy for prospects to click through to specific service pages for acrylic, elastomeric, and silicone coatings.
17) Simple Exteriors
Simple Exteriors does a great job of reflecting its company name and brand in its design.
The simplistic and minimalist design reflects the company’s values and intrigues visitors.
As I noted with other sites on my “best websites” list, roofing consumers enjoy simplicity.
The contact forms and CTAs are well-crafted and urge visitors to take decisive action.
Finally, a list of product and brand logos builds industry-based credibility in a competitive market.
Roofing Website Design Principles
Successful websites share common traits, which include:
Visual Appeal: Unique and original images with a clean design
Mobile Experience: A user-friendly experience on smartphones
User Experience: User-friendly navigation, calls-to-action, and site speed.
Credibility: EEAT, Proof of work, award badges, and verified reviews
Content Quality: Informative pages written for people and not search engines
Branding: Clear signals of the companyโs brand, including its logo and images
Recent Projects: Images and descriptions of recent roofing jobs
Contact Methods: Easy ways to contact the business through user-friendly CTAs and listed NAP
Search Engine Optimization: Proper use of keywords, title tags, and headers on the website
Below, I will go into more detail about each aspect of website design.
Visual Appeal
Your roofing website must foster a positive aesthetic that appeals to its visitors.
Youโll want to cater to your target audience, primarily homeowners in your area.
With this in mind, consider which visuals best appeal to that core group.
You can even use survey feedback to understand better which visual components your target audience prefers.
Some visual components are universally appealing, such as clean fonts like Lato and high-quality image files that depict your staff and equipment rather than stock photos.
Embedding videos of your team and services can also appeal to a broad audience.
Considering these statistics, a positive mobile experience is essential to website design for roofing companies.
Mobile visitors must be able to easily navigate your website via their smartphones and take action, such as making a phone call or submitting a form.
The cliche statistic to cite is that failing to optimize a website design for mobile can cost you more than half of your customers.
However, the reality is more grim, as Google has stopped crawling desktop sites completely, meaning websites that donโt load properly on mobile will be fully de-indexed from search.
Failure to present a usable mobile website will cost you 100% of your online roofing leads.
User Experience
All website visitors look for a positive user experience, regardless of their device.
They want to see clear calls to action and quickly navigate to other parts of the website.
Sites that load over 3 seconds will lose over half their visitors.
Additionally, site speed is a search ranking factor, meaning slow loading times can demote your site on search results.
Credibility
Although E-E-A-T is not considered an official ranking factor, it is the name of guidelines used by search quality raters to instruct algorithmic updates.
In other words, the algorithm learns to demote sites deemed non-credible by graders.
Establishing credibility in Googleโs eyes comes down to their chosen acronym of E-E-A-T.
Experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness might seem vague to roofers, but they are easier to implement than they appear.
For example, showcasing badges from your various honors and awards and embedding a 3rd-party Google reviews widget is a way to establish credibility.
Another method to earn trust is to showcase recent roofing jobs directly on your website.
Content Quality
Roofers have been misled by marketers with the phrase โcontent is king.โ
A website designโs impact is primarily dictated by content quality, not frequency.
As a roofing company, publishing hundreds or thousands of blog posts is unsuitable for visitors.
They want information about your business and how to book a roofing service, not โ3 ways to prepare your roof for winter.โ
The most user-friendly and high-ranking websites donโt publish unhelpful content and maintain the highest quality pages.
Branding
I stress the importance of building a brand for all my roofing clients.
We know Googleโs algorithms are designed to promote brands, first and foremost.
Considering this, branding should be integrated into your website design through logos, color schemes, images, and videos.
Itโs vital that visitors immediately understand whose website they are on.
Digital branded signaling on your website is also crucial for SEO purposes.
Your logo, company name, and address should match your Google Business Profile, Facebook Business Page, and other citations on established digital platforms.
Recent Projects
The best roofing websites feature proof of recent projects to help build a rapport with visitors.
I built a software tool called DataPins that automatically consolidates job data, such as pictures, descriptions, geo-coordinates, and mini-maps, onto roofing websites.
Now, visitors in various cities throughout your service area can view projects in their location.
Similarly, consumers looking for a particular type of roofing service, like tile or metal, can view jobs that include those materials.
Showcasing recent projects helps with both conversions and search engine optimization.
Most of all, proof of authentic roofing jobs contributes to the quality of a website design.
Contact Methods
All your investment in a roofing website will be rendered useless without clear contact methods.
Your website must feature appealing calls to action for clickable phone numbers and contact forms.
You should also clearly showcase your business address in the footer of your website design.
You maximize your lead stream by giving potential customers multiple ways to contact your business.
Another thing to consider is an on-site opt-in, where users can submit their email address in exchange for a free PDF or other download.
I cannot stress enough the importance of capturing as many leads as possible on your website.
Search Engine Optimization
I am hesitant to include search engine optimization in my design principles because, when misused, it can harm your website.
However, the best roofing websites share a commonality of well-implemented optimization strategies.
In 2024, optimization is not about tricking search engines into ranking your site but rather providing signals that make your site (and company) worthy of ranking.
Legitimate content based on your experience and photos of recent jobs are the best ways to optimize your site.
Yes, you still need to perform SEO basics like keywords in title tags and H1s, but most of the work is to demonstrate authenticity and credibility.
Website Design Ideas to Stand Out From Competitors
Even if you follow best design practices to a tee, your most competent competitors are likely doing the same.
With this in mind, you must go above and beyond to stand out from competitors in your service area.
Having worked with thousands of professional roofing companies over the past 11+ years, I recommend the following design ideas to differentiate your website from others.
Unique Value Propisition
Roofing website content can be mundane even when written well.
That’s why presenting a unique value proposition provides a unique hook.
For example, a free roofing estimate with an attached form can capture leads quickly.
You can also highlight principles differentiating your business, such as being veteran-owned.
The more you can connect with specific portions of your consumer base, the better your site will perform.
Focus on People-First Content
Think about your target customer’s pain points and implement those into your H2s and H3s, along with the proper keywords based on research.
Avoid boasting about your company’s success or acumen with headers like Why We Are The Best Roofing Company.
Instead, present your homepage as a guide for your target customer.
Google recently cracked down on content made for search engines and strongly encourages businesses to create content for their target audiences.
Following these guidelines will improve both your rankings and conversions.
Break up Text Blocks
The last thing website visitors want is large blocks of text.
Many visitors don’t even want to read your content but scan it for key points.
So, make sure you break up your text with bullet points, images, graphics, and contact forms.
Keep enough space between words to boost readability and encourage users to contact your company.
Ensure your site is visually appealing on all device types, which can be achieved through responsive website design.
Shorten Form Fields
Roofing consumers don’t want their website experience to feel like a trip to the doctor’s office.
Limit the number of fields in your contact forms based on this preference.
For example, estimate forms may need about five fields total, but simple contact forms only need three.
The less information you ask for, the more leads you will generate.
Most contact form plugins also have spam filters to hide spam entries from your inbox.
Lazy Load Images
Speeding up your website can take a series of tweaks, but lazy image loading is one of the most effective.
You can use a plugin like WPRocket to automate the lazy loading of photos.
This method holds the entire image load until users consume it.
As a result, users will notice faster loading times and a better experience.
The long-term impact of site speed upgrades directly correlates with website performance.
Showcase Badges and Awards
List your awards, badges, and certifications on the homepage, as they help establish credibility and increase conversion rates.
Be sure to properly implement these graphics, as misuse can result in poor website design.
Understanding proper spacing can help place them ideally.
If your company is newer to the industry and has not yet received any awards, consider joining local communities like your Chamber of Commerce, which can provide you with a website badge.
Display a Prominent Featured Image
Your homepage photo should feature the company owner along with a roofing project.
The featured image establishes immediate credibility and encourages users to take action throughout the rest of the website.
This featured image is often the deciding factor on whether a visitor will stay on your website.
Featured images should come from your library, not stock or AI-generated photos.
Use a Social Proof Software or Plugin
Tools like DataPins and NearbyNow are tools and apps that allow contractors to publish pins each time they complete a roofing job.
The context of the job, such as its location, service type, and equipment, can all be translated via pin onto your corresponding web pages.
Websites with social proof increase impressions by 25x compared to an average site.
Social proof also helps as you add new services, products, or materials to your repertoire, as you can showcase them on your website and rank for more keyword terms.
Other Roofing Website Factors
Having spoken with thousands of roofing companies over my career, I’ve been asked questions about various website factors.
For example, roofers often ask me if a website template suits their company design.
Below, I’ll detail website factors, a common conversational topic in the roofing industry.
Website Templates
Purchasing a website template for WordPress or another content management system is common in roofing.
Similarly, some marketing companies use website templates and resell them to local roofers as part of their digital marketing services.
While nothing inherently prevents a template website from indexing on search results, its lack of unique HTML and CSS code may hinder its ranking potential.
More importantly, consumers often consciously or subconsciously detect template designs, resulting in lower conversion rates.
Website Builders
Platforms like Wix, Weebly, and Duda provide code-free website builders to roofers and other business owners.
These differ from pre-made templates in that users can manually customize their designs.
Small businesses can benefit from website builders’ ease and cost-effectiveness, but like templates, they can limit rankings and conversions.
Whether or not a website builder is right for your roofing business depends on your budget and marketing goals.
AI-Generated Websites
More services now offer AI website generation for roofing companies and other businesses.
While the technology is impressive, it also presents potential copyright concerns, among other risks.
I recommend that any code or graphic generated through AI go through an editing process by a professional web designer.
As for website content generated through AI tools like ChatGPT, your content creation process must adhere to Google’s guidelines.
Mass-producing website content through AI clearly violates Google’s Helpful Content Update.
Crawling and Indexing
Websites that aren’t crawled and indexed by Google are a waste of money for roofing contractors.
It’s critical that your design does not block crawler bots from search engines like Google and Bing, which can happen accidentally with inexperienced designers.
Additionally, you should always include an XML sitemap in the footer of your website to encourage crawling.
Another way to boost crawl efficiency is to create internal links from one page to another.
For example, your roof repair page can link internally to your roof replacement page.
Make sure to register your site on Google Search Console to be alerted of crawling and indexing errors.
Domain Authority
Your website’s authority will influence its overall impact on lead generation and conversions.
One way to build authority is through backlinks.
If you partner with other legitimate businesses like material suppliers, ask them to link back to your website.
Follow the same advice for other businesses you network with, such as local restaurants or sports teams.
While link building can be done legitimately, it’s important not to engage in “black-hat” link-building practices like buying links or mass-producing “guest posts” for the sole purpose of building a link.
If you choose to engage in nefarious link schemes, Google can devalue certain links or levy a manual penalty to remove your entire website from its index.
Final Thoughts on Roofing Website Design
As the owner of a long-time digital marketing agency for roofers, my team and I have been crafting unique website designs for 11+ years.
Over that span, weโve accumulated immense data to refine our website design process.
My experience and data give me unique insights into the traits shared by the most successful websites in the roofing industry.
Visual appeal, user experience, branding, and contact methods are some of these qualities outlined throughout this article.
While I outlined specific ways to implement these into your website design, I also understand that roofing companies are constrained by time and lack of design expertise.
I invite you to call my personal cell phone at (800) 353-5758 to discuss how my team can craft the best roofing website design for your company in 2024.
AI SEO for roofers helps roofing companies appear in answers from large language models (LLMs) like those that power Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, and ChatGPT.
Iโm Nolen Walker, the founder of Roofing Webmasters. For over ten years, Iโve been helping roofers rank on search engines like Google and Bing.
As artificial intelligence emerges into normalcy for an increasing number of Americans, ensuring your roofing business is included in this new information medium is critical to maintaining or improving your online visibility in 2025.
The following guide outlines how roofing companies should expand their SEO strategy to account for AI, LLMs, and increasingly popular tools like Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, and ChatGPT.
What is AI SEO for Roofers?
AI SEO for roofers is the optimization of web content for artificial intelligence tools and large language models (LLMS).
The goal of AI SEO is for your roofing company to appear in AI-generated answers from these various tools and models, resulting in greater awareness, visibility, and engagement.
What Makes Artificial Intelligence Search Optimization Unique?
AI SEO is unique from traditional SEO because it targets answers from large language models and AI tools instead of conventional search engine results.
Optimizing for AI answers requires an additional set of tasks because LLMs generate their answers based on training data rather than a search engine algorithm.
AI SEO Examples for Local Roofing Companies
With proper artificial intelligence search optimization, roofing companies can appear directly in Google AI overviews for roofing-related search queries.
Check out the example below where a local roofer appears in an AI overview for consumers seeking a TruDef Duration roofing system in their service area.
In a separate example, we see a different local roofing company appearing in the response from Perplexityโs LLM-generated answer.
Using AI-targeted optimization, your local roofing company can also appear in these types of AI answers.
Optimizing for Artificial Intelligence Training Data
In a recent study by Rand Fishkin of SparkToro, he describes brand mentions across training data as the critical factor for showing up in AI and LLM answers.
Simply put, you must get your roofing company mentioned in this training data.
AI Training Data Explained for Roofers
LLMs are trained primarily by Internet data like web pages, articles, lists, and directories.
As a result, your roofing companyโs website and listings on major directories may be used as training data.
Maximizing Training Data Mentions
Your traditional SEO efforts serve as a foundation for training data. For example, having an official company website, a Google Business Profile, and listings on other directories like Yelp and BBB all contribute to your chances of appearing in AI-generated answers.
However, youโll want to take this a step further to maximize your LLM visibility. Using a tool called DataPins, which I invested millions to develop, you can showcase recent roofing jobs directly on your website with descriptive job captions.
This way, AI tools like Google Gemini, Perplexity and ChatGPT can be trained on your specific jobs rather than just traditional web content.
AI SEO Tools for Roofers
Specific tools exist to help roofers appear in LLM answers from AI platforms. I invested millions to develop one of these tools for my agency.
All of my Roofing Webmasters clients are currently using this tool as part of their digital marketing campaign.
In addition to my agencyโs in-house tool, additional third-party tools can help roofing contractors with LLM optimization.
DataPins
DataPins is my agencyโs in-house tool that helps roofing companies rank in Google AI Overviews and other LLM-generated answers.
The toolโs capabilities expand beyond AI as it helps roofers rank in Googleโs Map 3-Pack along with traditional search results in addition to the AI Overviews.
All my Roofing Webmasters clients receive DataaPins as part of their monthly marketing service.
ChatGPT
Consumers might use ChatGPT to search for local roofers, but local roofers can use it to optimize for LLMs.
After all, GPT – ChatGPTโs large language model knows how to optimize models like itself.
Check out this prompt that helps local contractors outline their web content of artificial intelligence search optimization.
SparkToro
SparkToro helps local roofing companies find the types of platforms that their target customers are consuming.
Having your company mentioned on these platforms makes you more likely to be included in trending data that powers AI answers.
These mentions are to LLM answers what backlinks are to the traditional search algorithms on Google and Bing.
The Future of AI Search for Roofers
Google still owns the majority of the search engine market share, and AI overviews became available to all users on May 14, 2024.
Because the most used search engine now delivers AI-generated answers, optimizing for LLMs should become part of every roofing companyโs digital marketing strategy.
In addition to this increased priority, roofers should anticipate new ways of searching that will emerge in the coming months and years.
SearchGPT
While some users already seek answers from ChatGPT, its parent company, OpenAI, has developed a full-fledged search engine to change the online search landscape.
SerachGPT will not be another Google but rather a new kind of search engine that may shape the changing behaviors of online consumers.
While SearchGPT is not currently available to the general public, all local roofers should be aware of it.
Perplexity
Perplexity is one of the most popular AI search engines currently available to the public.
While its usage is not remotely comparable to Google or even Bing, it does reveal the potential future of online search with the makeup of its platform.
One of Perplexityโs strengths is providing sources for research-based search queries.
It uses an LLM to deliver relevant answers based on online sources like websites, a potential peek into future search engines’ operations.
Moving Forward With AI SEO for Roofers
AIโs impact on search engines has already started with Googleโs AI Overviews and will continue expanding in 2025.
Roofing companies already invested in traditional SEO practices should expand their strategy to target AI platforms and large language models (LLMs).
For more than ten years, my agency, Roofing Webmasters, has helped thousands of roofers adapt to various changes in digital marketing.
My goal is to help your local roofing company thrive in the age of AI search and LLMs with my innovative software tool, DataPins, and other cutting-edge strategies.
To further discuss AI search and its impact on your roofing business, call my personal cell phone at (800) 353-5758 .
Roofing SEO is about making your roofing company’s website and business listings rank on Google search results. By appearing on the world’s top search engine, you attract the highest-quality leads and the greatest return on investment.
However, to achieve SEO success, you must follow a set of proven techniques to ensure that your website and listings comply with Google’s guidelines and attract the right types of visitors.
This guide is based on my 10+ years in the SEO industry. But before I dive into all of the nuances of search engine optimization, I want to provide context as to why you might find this guide particularly helpful and relatable.
I’m Nolen Walker with Roofing Webmasters, an SEO agency for roofing companies like yours. I started my agency back in 2013 after some marketers overcharged my home service business and failed to deliver results.
The behavior of these marketers inspired me to start an SEO agency for people like you and me.
This shared experience of dealing with self-serving marketers gives me a unique, empathetic position from which I operate my company today.
Furthermore, it allows me to address the pain points of regular business owners who want to grow their businesses online.
Over the past decade-plus running Roofing Webmasters, those principles have powered my company to develop a unique SEO strategy for roofing companies, resulting in thousands of roofing clients.
You can see some of those below:
While I am always open to working with new roofing clients throughout the United States, I owe it to the roofing industry to share my decade-plus of expertise free of charge.
The roofing industry has given me so much personally that I owe it to all of you to provide free value to the people who deserve it most, the hardworking roofers of the USA.
I believe in something called the ripple effect, where this guide may spur the next great marketing campaign for local roofers and help them avoid the pitfalls of the increasingly dishonest marketing industry.
This guide will outline search engine optimization (SEO) and how to rank your website on search engines like Google. I’m not going to BS you or patronize your company or marketing.
In this Roofing SEO guide, you will discover:
What SEO is, and why it is essential
Best strategies for keyword research and optimization
Best strategy for on-page SEO
Best strategy for technical SEO
How to earn high-quality backlinks from credible sources
How long SEO takes to start working
How to track, measure, and analyze SEO performance
How to use DataPins to increase organic traffic 25x
SEO is a Learning Process for Roofers
After completing this guide, you will better understand SEO for roofing companies, its purpose, and how to use it to generate high-quality roofing leads.
In addition, you will have the tools to rank your website for thousands of keywords on Google and other search engines.
What is Roofing SEO?
SEO is the process of refining digital content to rank higher on Google search results for industry-relevant keywords. Search engine optimization (SEO) can include tasks like title tag editing, keyword placement, internal and external link-building, and website enhancement.
SEO can apply to an official roofing company website, Google Business Profile, and other online entities. Any task performed to increase organic search rankings, impressions, or clicks is a form of search optimization.
Why is SEO Important for Roofing Companies?
Letโs say you own and operate a roofing company in Lubbock, TX. Ranking #1 on search results for โroof repair in Lubbock, TXโ and other similar terms will drive relevant consumers to your business.
Whether they find your Google Maps listing on the Local 3 Pack or locate your roofing company website in traditional organic results, they discover your roofing company name, address, and phone number.
With that information, they can now contact you directly. In short, higher rankings ultimately produce increased lead generation and sales, which is what every roofer wants.
A successful digital marketing strategy goes beyond the rankings themselves. For example, once a visitor enters your website or views your listing, you want to make it as easy as possible for them to contact you. Not every website visitor becomes a lead, but you can improve the conversion rates.
Each service requires clear explanations, so prospective customers can quickly determine that you provide what they want when visiting your site for the first time. These and similar tasks form the conversion rate optimization process (more on that later).
SEO Strategy: The Planning Stage
Search engine optimization (SEO) is not an as-you-go process. A well-laid, detailed strategy is essential for SEO to work properly. Keyword research provides the foundation of SEO strategy.
First, roofing contractors must identify terms that attract the most relevant consumers to their website and other digital assets.
Your business should note each keywordโs search volume and competition levelโtools like Moz, SEMRush, and UberSuggest provide volume metrics.
Choosing the right keywords benefits all your subsequent digital marketing activities, such as developing a URL hierarchy, writing content, and executing on-page SEO.In other words, you must nail your keyword selection.
Keywords and search queries arenโt just abstract concepts floating out there in space. In many ways, they represent your target customers.
Thatโs why keyword research tasks should be calculated and intentional. If you run a roofing company in Hartford, CT, you wonโt want clicks from people in New York City.
National Keywords
Local websites arenโt competing against everyone in the country for the same term. So high-volume keywords like roofer, roofing company, roofing services, etc., depend on the searcher’s location.
Before starting more extensive keyword research, every roofer should know the top roofing keywords. These terms are the basis of your overall strategy.
They also inspire ideas for long-tail keywords that will be even more relevant to your local business and help you generate the right kinds of roofing leads.
Local Keywords
When it comes to connecting with people in your community, the most optimal keywords include references to the target service area. The keyword โroof repairโ shows a consistently high volume throughout the United States.
If your roofing company serves Atlanta, GA, your keyword would be โroof repair Atlantaโ or โAtlanta roof repair.โ In other words, you want the keyword+location to create a local keyword.
Many of the tools previously mentioned (Moz, SEMrush, etc.) can show you the volume of local keywords. For example, according to Moz, โroof repair Atlantaโ has a search volume of 11-50 and, therefore, would be a better term to target than โAtlanta roof repair,โ which has a volume of 0-10.
Using the city name instead of “near me” ensures that you target explicit queries rather than implicit queries, which can help you outrank competitors who fail to do so. With this in mind, your traditional on-page SEO (meta, title, headers, etc.), โroof repair Atlantaโ will be a valuable search term.
Service Keywords
The most successful roofing websites use interior pages to describe more specific services their company offers. Like your homepage, these internal pages should intentionally target keywords you want to rank.
Letโs say your roofing company provides a modified bitumen roof installation. Youโd want to research the volume for terms like โmodified bitumen roofing servicesโ and โmodified bitumen flat roof installation.โ Once again, you will want to add the location term to make it long tail.
The keyword for a roofing company in Louisville, KY, would look like โmodified bitumen flat roof installation Louisville.โ
With such a long-tail keyword, youโd have a significant chance of ranking in the top 5 on search results for that query. If you execute it really well, you might even score the #1 placement!
URL Structure & Hierarchy
Once you research and identify the best keywords for your roofing company, you can then construct a URL hierarchy. In simpler terms, youโre building a map for how your pages will be organized. Every website has a homepage, and most have an About Us and Contact Us page as well.
The structure of the site and how deep it goes separates roofing websites from each other.
Your main service pages are at the top of the URL hierarchy, also known as top-level pages or โparentโ pages. For larger roofing companies providing both residential and commercial services, those two main categories would each serve as a parent page. The URL for these pages would look something like thisโฆ
www.yourroofingwebsite.com/residential-roofing/
www.yourroofingwebsite.com/commerciall-roofing/
Under those main pages would be more specific, lower-level or โchildโ pages.
โCommercial Roof Replacement,โ for instance, would be a child page of Commercial Roofing, while โResidential Roof Replacementโ would be a child page of Residential Roofing. In the URL, a child page would look like thisโฆ
Child pages can be further divided into sub-levels as needed. If you have a parent page for Commercial Roofing and a child page for flat roofing, you can have yet another child page beneath that for something (like modified bitumen).
You should not go more than three pages deep in a hierarchy; however, longer URLs are difficult for Google to crawl and, therefore, less likely to rank well on SERPs.
Images & Videos
User experience plays a key part in a websiteโs performance. Thatโs why images and videos naturally fit well in most SEO strategies. You should designate certain images for specific pages to prevent duplication and accidental mismatches.
The best images are always original; they are shots of your actual company, facility, employees, equipment, and transportation. The worst images are stock photos, which are the last resort for roofers without photos of themselves.
Search Engine Optimization: The Implementation Stage
SEO is a massive-scale undertaking spread across multiple activities. You shouldnโt expect to understand every optimization method utilized on the web at first glance. Several concepts may seem foreign to you, at least initially.
If youโre wondering whether or not a specific activity is part of optimization, remember this:
Any activity that influences rankings can be considered part of SEO.
Critical planning and research make it easier to implement your SEO strategy smoothly. The better the overall picture you create in advance, the easier it will be to maintain a cohesive plan as you arrange your website, listings, etc.
Again, SEO is not an as-you-go process. As the saying goes, โFailure to plan is planning to fail.โ
Custom Design
When visitors arrive at your roofing website, it takes less than a second for them to form a subconscious impression of your brand. This decision instructs whether or not they stay on your website or move on to the next result on the previous SERP.
Several factors subtly influence a userโs experience. Some are less tangible, like aesthetic taste, while others are more easily defined, like resolution.
Aside from a pleasant appearance, users also crave simple navigation, clear and convincing calls to action, clean graphics, and instructive menus. They want to feel confident about the companyโs reputation and leave with an impression of trust and reliability.
Websites with obsolete designs are more likely to be perceived as scams. If your business page looks like it was created with DreamWeaver in 2003, Google will remove it from the top of search rankings.
Contact Information
The most important part of local SEO for roofing companies is contact information. NAP visibility is paramount since the lead conversion funnel predates the visitorโs call to action.
For those unfamiliar with the acronym, โNAPโ stands for โname, address, and phone number. “That information should be clearly evident on each website page (especially the homepage).
Your NAP data should be accurate and consistent across every single page. A mistake with your company address or phone number can result in a substantial loss of leads.
Worse yet, it can initiate a snowball effect that drops your rankings because of poor user experience and decreasing trust. Even a small error can have large implications for a roofing contractor.
For this reason, checking your phone numbers on each page is a good habit to get into.
Ensure your NAP information is consistent across off-site listings like the Better Business Bureau!
Call To Action
A call to action (CTA) is an element of your site that directs visitors to perform a given action, such as calling your office. Your NAP data often accompanies it.
Strong calls to action provide a compelling incentive to your visitors, encouraging them to call your number or complete some other kind of action that gets them inside your sales funnel.
CTAs vary significantly in complexity and design. Some urge users to call your number from their mobile device (e.g., a clickable phone number button), while more complex CTAs cast a less demonstrative hook (e.g., a โFree SEO Auditโ button).
CTAs have different goals and functions, too. A free SEO audit offer casts a broader net, targeting uncommitted prospects at the start of the sales funnel.
This type of offer may not convert people as effectively as direct phone calls, but it at least puts them on your radar and generates some buzz for your local roofing company.
Phone number links are best for on-site conversions, especially for mobile visitors who can click to call.
Website Personalization
Nothing establishes trust faster than personalization. Your roofing company website should display images of your roofing company. It doesnโt matter who takes the photos.
It can be as simple as snapping some photos of your employees and trucks with your smartphone device. If you like, hire a professional photographer to follow your crew for the day.
You have many options to personalize your website. Your homepage deserves original photos, most of all. Prospective customers want to know who theyโre dealing with.
Effective marketing speaks directly to the consumer. Ordinary stock photos wonโt convey trust; they limit website conversion rates.
Badges & Accolades
Personalized photos of your business create trust. Badges and accolades further build that confidence in your brandโs reputation. If your business has ever received any type of certification, it probably comes with a digital badge for use on your website.
Bages can come from national organizations like the Better Business Bureau or local ones like your regional Chamber of Commerce. Other ideas for badges include newspapers and news websites on which youโve been featured.
Have you ever been interviewed by a local reporter? If so, you can absolutely add a newspaper icon in your website’s โAs Seen Onโ section.
Consider prestigious certifications like these below when adorning your website:
Multimedia Content
Images are great, but videos are even better. If you have video footage of some of your roofing jobs, perhaps before and after shots, they can really take your website to the next level.
Video is the fastest-growing content asset in the world, and very few roofers feature them on their company websites. This represents a market inefficiency for roofing contractors to capitalize on simply by taking the time to produce videos.
This footage can be captured with a basic smartphoneโthere is no need for a professional videographer! The ideal strategy is to upload your video to YouTube and then embed the code from that video into your websiteโs HTML.
This way, you can rank on both video search engine results and YouTube while enhancing your company website’s user-friendliness. Even audio-only podcasts, which can be syndicated through Apple or Spotify, can quickly increase brand appeal.
Video content from YouTube can appear directly on Google SERPs, increasing its SEO value exponentially.
Showcase Testimonials
Most roofers understand the importance of Google Reviews, but did you know that showcasing testimonials on your homepage influences SEO results, too?
For one, reviews are user-generated content, which Google loves. Secondly, verifiable reviews showcased on your companyโs homepage promote an enhanced user experience, promoting visitor trust.
Some plugins allow you to showcase reviews on your homepage. One of them is DataPins, which actually helps roofers generate more reviews on GBP and Facebook while showcasing the ones they already have directly on their website.
A plugin like DataPins offers numerous SEO benefits for roofers because it combines user content, trust, and brand awareness.
Mobile Optimization
Most visitors access websites through mobile devices. With this knowledge, every roofer should ensure their site is mobile-optimized.
With the onset of Googleโs mobile-first index update, theyโve made it clear that pages with mobile appeal will be given priority on search results.
Thereโs no shortage of factors that can enhance a mobile webpage; the same is true of factors that can ruin them. Enhancements include responsive design, clean navigation, and clickable calls to action.
Negative factors include viewport distortion, slow loading times, and image misalignment. As you might imagine, mobile users’ attention spans are exceedingly short, and little can be done to retrieve it once it has passed.
Consider if the mobile user’s needs are met when clicking on your search result from their smartphone.
Google Analytics Tracking
Google Analytics has long been the most powerful tool for tracking SEO performance for roofing websites as it measures traffic from various sources, from Google Organic to social media referrals.
However, a recent change to Google Analytics, in the form of GA4, has made the interface less user-friendly.
Google Search Console is now the most user-friendly tool for tracking SEO performance. However, Search Console is restricted to traffic from Google Organic Search, which means it does not account for traffic from other search engines (like Bing) or other sources (like referrals).
With this in mind, it’s essential to continue to track your website through Google Analytics 4, even if the analysis is less enjoyable.
The best tool Google has to offer roofing companies is Google Analytics 4. It provides measurable results of your websiteโs performance and can produce reports to help improve weaknesses and capitalize on strengths.
Perhaps the most essential feature of GA4 is the Acquisition Report.
This report tells webmasters how many visits their website gets daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly, including a breakdown of where the clicks are coming from (i.e., organic, direct, referral, etc.)
Although Analytics is somewhat limited in revealing very few of the exact search queries that lead to your clicks, simple comparative analysis can help you deduce precisely what is driving your traffic and instruct ways to improve.
If you see sudden shifts in your traffic, either up or down, you can diagnose issues and address website needs.
SSL Security
Most reputable browsers warn users when they are on a website that is not secure, meaning one with http:// instead of https://. If you are unfamiliar with SSL security, it is a security protocol that protects data transfers over the web.
Sites that have it enabled are https:// addresses, which is precisely what youโll want your site to display.
SSL is indicative of trust and makes for a superior user journey. While roofers rarely sell products online (e-commerce), they still want to create the optics of strong security.
Because it can influence a userโs perception of your site, SSL must be considered, at the very least, an indirect SEO ranking factor for roofers.
Local roofers rely heavily on Google Business Profile and Maps to help their business rank on local search results. The address listed on your homepage (something we discussed previously) should exactly match the one listed on your Google Business Profile listing, which will, in turn, appear on Google Maps.
The goal is to appear in the Local Map Pack a snippet of the top 3 GBP listings in a particular service area. Of course, youโll also want to rank on traditional organic results for queries involving your target keywords and locations.
Remember that you should only target cities you can service and that the closer your address is to the target area, the more likely you are to rank for the term, especially on Google Maps.
Some companies are large enough to require multi-location SEO. This is only true for roofers with multiple legitimate business locations and verifiable addresses. Since Google Business Profile listings are verified through postcard confirmation, any kind of illegitimate address is prohibited.
These include virtual offices, PO boxes, and anything that cannot be considered a place of business. Google Business Profile recently altered its requirements for businesses that operate out of a house.
If your roofing business address is also your residence, GBP asks you not to include the address itself on the listing. Still, youโll need to verify that address privately using either the postcard or video verification method.
Local Business Citations
Most roofing contractors have heard of directories like Angi’ and HomeAdvisor, which are platforms for NAP citations. There are countless directories on which to cite your local roofing business.
From niche directories like Angieโs List and HomeAdvisor to more generalized platforms like Yelp and BBB. Some of these directories offer premium services, which you should consider separate from the citation itself.
The goal is to claim all of your free citations and ensure the accuracy of the existing ones. Sometimes, youโll find that citations that you never manually created exist.
This can be from data mining sources like Acxiom, which pulls your company info from public records and then sells it to major data distributors.
Tools like Whitespark and Moz Local can help you claim and correct citations.
NAP Consistency
In congruence with claiming business citations on local business directories, youโll want to ensure their consistency simultaneously. Tools previously mentioned, like Whitespark and Moz Local, can help streamline that process, especially for tenured businesses with thousands and thousands of citations.
Of course, accuracy is the most critical factor, but consistency also matters. Even if your address uses a suffix that varies in spelling, you want it to be identical on every citation. For this reason, choose a singular suffix spelling and stick with it for every citation.
Optimizing your citations ensures your roofing company sends. as many consistent signals to search engines as possible.
Google Business Profile Optimization
Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) is a directory, but it is also so much more than that. It is the central hub of your entire local SEO strategy.
Not only should your GBP listing be claimed, verified, and accurate, but it should also be optimized for conversion.
I spoke previously about website conversions, but GBP listings can also be a significant source of leads. Optimizing your listing with company photos, Google posts, and Q&A content is the best way to increase conversions.
Furthermore, you want to include the Call Now button so mobile users can click straight from their mobile devices and connect with you through a call.
A Google Business Profile is a roofing company’s most critical aspect of Local SEO.
City Pages
Even roofers with one location often serve multiple cities within a radius. To reach those cities, you must create unique and informative city pages optimized for their respective locations.
I strongly discourage the mass production of city or county pages, a tactic known as โspinning.โ However, the onset of ChatGPT has supercharged this technique, which can produce 100% unique city pages with a couple of prompts.
While using ChatGPT to produce your city pages is tempting, its long-term impact on your website is unknown. My agency, Roofing Webmasters, has run tests showing that some websites are penalized for using this content while others are not.
As a general long-term strategy, you should avoid any tactic that introduces a high level of risk to sustainable success.
Some roofing contractors use the software to mass-produce pages for every city, town, and county within their general area. You might use tools like ChatGPT or Jasper to create this content, but Google can detect it.
Search engines have smartened up to this pitiful concept and penalized websites that engage in it.
City pages should be unique and specific to the location they are optimizing for rather than a re-hashed duplication of another page.
On-Page SEO for Roofing
The general public’s most widely understood optimization components are methods known in totality as on-page SEO. They include altering title tags, meta descriptions, header tags, URL slugs, and content writing.
The SEO strategy cited earlier will frequently be used with on-page optimization.
You will take the keywords chosen in your research phase and implement them onto your web pages in various formats.
Most roofers who have some knowledge of digital marketing associate SEO with on-page methods, and rightfully so. They are the most straightforward tasks and the ones that are most frequently discussed in the mainstream.
SEO takes time and patience but has a lasting influence. When you optimize a page for search, you seek more than short-term gratification; you seek long-term equity.
Pages you create and optimize today could serve your business well for decades to come. As they gain tenure and trust, they will also gain authority.
The better your pages are optimized, the higher they rank, and the more they will venture into other forms of your roofing SEO strategy, including off-site, local, and technical SEO. Knowing this, it is crucial to be precise when performing on-page tasks.
Keyword Placement
During on-page optimization, your keyword strategy will be deployed in various ways. From title tags to meta descriptions and the body content in between, you should use keywords properly by placing them in the most opportunistic spots.
The left-hand side of any of the elements mentioned is typically that spot. But be careful; you want to avoid redundancy, and you want content to enhance the reading experience, not hinder it.
So if your keyword is roof replacement in โcity,โ your title could be:
Roof Replacement in City, your H1 could be Roof Replacement Services
Meanwhile, your meta description could read:
Roof Replacement Services From [Company Name] Are Affordable, Reliable, and Easy to Schedule. Residents of [City, State] Can Call [###-###-####] To Schedule Their Services Today!
You now have the keyword in three on-page elements without any of them sounding spam-like or misleading. You should follow suit for H2 and H3 tags, image alt text, and the paragraph content on the page.
One thing to remember at all times is never stuff keywords. Only use the term within your paragraphs when it makes sense to the reader.
Title Tags
A page’s title tag or SEO title appears in search results as the clickable portion of the result. You want keyword relevance, of course, but you also want something that urges people to click.
When a user clicks on a page, it increases its click-through rate (CTR), which signals to Google that people like what they see from your initial result.
You want an appealing title tag that represents your website and services. You donโt want to mislead anybody because they will exit immediately if they feel like theyโve been swindled.
For local roofers, you wonโt need anything too over the top within a title tag. It might be as simple as โRoofer in Pflugerville, TX | Schedule Your Roof Inspection Today.โ Analytics will help you monitor the click-through rate, and you can adjust your title tag based on behavioral metrics.
Moz can help you preview a title tag to ensure itโs within the character limit for optimal presentation.
Meta Descriptions
The text underneath the title tag on a SERP result is known as the meta description. Depending on who you ask, the character limit is either 150-160 or 300.
Like the title, a meta description should appeal to the search engine user. Itโs not quite as crucial because fewer people actually read it.
Still, it helps to have one instance of the keyword and an accurate depiction of what the user will find when they click through.
You can even include your phone number at the beginning of the meta description so that consumers can call you before entering the site.
Header Tags
Headings are important for formatting purposes, but research shows that they also matter for search rankings on a more direct level. There are several types of header tags. You have your H1, your H2, and your H3. Some websites even have H4s and H5s, depending on their style sheet.
The H1 header matters most for on-page SEO. It is essentially considered a subtitle on a given web page, so having your keyword within is ideal.
As I stated before, your H1 should never look spammy. The keyword must fit naturally within it and make sense within the page’s context.
H2s and H3s are more important for formatting than anything else. But as you should know, formatting enhances ease of use and positively impacts search rankings. It also serves as a great way to categorize sections of a page.
URL Slugs
The URL slug or the permalink is the section of a web address that appears on the right-hand side.
So if your website is myroofingcompany.com and your page is created as a lower-level page underneath a parent page like Residential Roofing, your URL Slug would be:
myroofingcompany.com/residential/enter-url-slug
What you fill in as the URL slug should be topically relevant, concise, and, if possible, include the keyword.
An example of a good URL slug for residential roof repair is:
myroofingcompany.com/residential/roof-repair.
Youโll notice how that reads better than an alternative like:
Thereโs less redundancy in the former example; the latter is harder for search engines to crawl and easier for your visitors to look at. URL slugs are also known as permalinks because they are permanent.
If you no longer need the page, you can implement a 301 redirect, which will auto-direct a user from that page to a newer update. Still, the permalink will remain intact.
Image Alt Text
An often overlooked on-page optimization factor is image alt text, which describes an image on your web page.
An image file should always be titled in lowercase letters with dashes for those who don’t know.
If you upload an image of your roofing truck, a suitable file name would be company-name-truck.jpg โฆ or something to that effect. Once the image is uploaded and embedded into your content, you should fill out its Alt Text.
This is more or less a description of what the image is. So if itโs your truck, the Alt Text should be similar to the title: Company Name Truck. This is a small but effective task for on-page SEO.
Off-Site SEO for Roofing
If youโve wondered why on-page SEO isnโt just called โSEO,โ itโs because other kinds of optimization take place away from a website and its pages. These tasks are referred to as off-site SEO or sometimes off-page SEO. Regardless of which term you subscribe to, the concept is the same.
Google evaluates signals from external sources to judge your web presence in totality. A clear example of this is inbound linking. In fact, inbound links were the original measure of a websiteโs value and remain an important ranking factor today.
Although link building was once easy to manipulate, that is no longer true. Successful off-site optimization requires more work than it once did. For links to hold value, they must be relevant to the entity they link to.
A diet pills website that links to your roofing repair page will not do much to boost its value in the eyes of search engines. Links come in many forms, including social media platforms, business listing directories, and other websites.
Off-site SEO aims to expand brand awareness and develop a web presence over time.
Social Media
A company website is not the only representation of your roofing business online. Roofers can leverage free social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, and YouTube to expand brand awareness.
Since these web entities exist exclusively from your main site, they are considered โoff-siteโ and, therefore, part of an off-site SEO strategy.
Often, on and off-page methods can be merged with social media. For instance, sharing a pin (a recent job) on your Facebook feed contributes to both on and off-page elements.
Moz also considers social signals a local ranking factor, so social media activity alone will likely enhance one’s overall development.
Link Building
There are so many ways to build inbound links to your website; some help, and some hurt. Antiquated tactics, such as buying links from blog comments or PBNs, are frowned upon by Google.
While purchased links wonโt necessarily cause penalization, their zero-sum value contributes to resource depletion. Better ways to build links involve networking with other web entities or personalities, including marketing influencers.
Blogger outreach is a way to pitch your websiteโs relevance for inclusion in a guest post on another domain. The more relevant the domain is to your roofing company, the more link juice will navigate towards it.
Earning links naturally remains the safest and most effective strategy, and writing great content that ranks is the best way to achieve that goal.
Tools like Moz, Majestic, and others can track inbound links from other websites.
Technical SEO for Roofing Contractors
Websites earn rankings not just from on-page optimization or off-site link building but also from technical optimization.
Technical SEO is executed behind the scenes on the back end of a website. It involves refining HTML & CSS coding and implementing microdata tags known as schema markup.
Schema helps search engines parcel data and most appropriately rank your website based on its subject matter and relevancy. Technical optimization also involves issues like 301 redirection, XML sitemaps, and site speed optimization.
Technical optimization can be the most foreign concept for roofers without knowledge of computer programming. To the average eye, HTML and CSS look like gibberish. However, Google views the code far differently than an internet user would.
To Google, the technical aspects of a website are essential when determining its inherent value. Most of all, they contribute to driving relevant users to websites that will address their needs.
301 Redirects
When a webpage is no longer valuable to visitors, it should be redirected to a more relevant page. You donโt want to delete a page outright because it has already been indexed on search results.
Deleting a page can cause significant problems for your website, frustrate would-be visitors, and harm your SEO efforts.
With a 301 redirect, the URL destination will remain indexed but funnel the users who click through to a superior page without them even realizing what happened.
XML Sitemaps
Every website needs an XML sitemap to encourage Google to index every page. Since not all pages will be internal links from the homepage, you still want them to be indexed on search engines.
Sitemaps are particularly useful for larger websites, as Google has more difficulty crawling the number of pages on sites like these.
Like with other forms of technical optimization, the goal is to make Googleโs crawling process as simple as possible.
Site Speed Optimization
Attention spans are shorter than ever, and a siteโs loading speed is critical to roofing websites. Clean code accelerates loading speeds, while obtrusive elements like JavaScript can slow it down.
A professional designer or programmer can perform several tasks on a site’s back end to ensure its loading speeds are as fast as possible.
This is important for search engine optimization because users donโt want to wait more than 1 second for a page to load.
If theyโre forced to, they are likely to move on to the next result, which increases your bounce rate (the rate at which users exit your website immediately after entrance) and potentially decreases your ranking.
Targeting Specialized Roofing Services With SEO
Depending on your market, quickly ranking for terms like “roofing services” or “roofing company” is unrealistic. However, specializing in a specific roofing system or service can differentiate your company and earn more clicks early in the process.
This strategy empowers you to stand out and be confident in your SEO approach.
Keywords that include specialized services have lower competition on Google Maps and traditional organic search results, which allows roofing companies that incorporate these services into their SEO strategy to rank for these terms quickly.
For example, many of my clients target metal roofing, commercial roofing, tile roofing, and roof coatings early in their SEO process.
Metal Roofing
Terms like metal roofing company and metal roof repair are valuable for ranking your company on Google search. Creating a page for “metal roofing” is not enough, as Google favors companies that incorporate this specialty into their brand.
For example, including “metal” in your company name lets you target and convert customers seeking metal roofing services. Having metal in your official business name also gives you an SEO advantage on both Google Maps and Google Search.
Commercial Roofing
Unlike metal, commercial roofing is a broad term that features a variety of subtopics, like TPO and EPDM roofing. While it’s not as granular as other specialized services, it allows your company to differentiate itself from traditional residential roofing companies.
Commercial roofing jobs are also higher-ticket projects, meaning the value of each commercial customer is more significant than that of your residential counterparts.
Like with metal, including commercials in your business name allows you to rank quickly on Google Maps and Google Search for commercial-related queries.
Tile Roofing
Some contractors prefer to stick to residential projects but still seek ways to differentiate their business from competitors. A great example of this is tile roofing, which is within the umbrella of a residential contractor but targets a specific sub-niche of consumers.
My agency has witnessed success in crafting a marketing strategy around tile roofing. Several of our clients have included tile within their business and have enjoyed fantastic results on Google Maps and Twitter for a sustained period.
Roof Coatings
If you find the commercial roofing niche too broad for your start-up company, drilling down to a sub-niche like roof coatings can prove valuable. This is especially true in densely populated areas that likely already have multiple commercial competitors.
As with tile roofing, my agency has helped companies focus on commercial roof coatings and implement “coatings” into their official business names.
Although users frequently search for “roof coatings,” there are also sub-topics within the coating umbrella, like silicone and polyurea coatings, around which you build additional content.
AI’s Impact on Roofing SEO Strategies
Artificial intelligence has already impacted SEO on multiple levels, both positively and negatively. While using AI in SEO practices requires nuanced discretion, it is important to embrace new technology rather than fight against it.
ChatGPT is the most user-friendly AI tool for SEO. Roofers can leverage ChatGPT in multiple ways to help with SEO. However, other use cases may harm SEO performance.
ChatGPT
ChatGPT is an Open AI tool for the public to utilize the large language model GPT. It sounds complex, but once you try the tool, it’s actually very user-friendly. ChatGPT can perform various SEO tasks, such as suggesting topics, optimizing title tags, and providing keyword ideas.
ChatGPT can also create full articles, blog posts, and YouTube descriptions for your content. However, publishing articles written entirely by ChatGPT is dangerous and may negatively impact rankings.
Google’s guidelines do not prohibit using AI to generate content, but they clearly stress the importance of creating content for human beings, not search engines.
Using ChatGPT to create SEO-friendly blog posts or service pages violates Google’s guidelines. That said, some text generated by ChatGPT is okay to use on your website as long as it helps your target audience complete their goals.
ChatGPT 4 can also create images, write code, and browse the web, making it an extremely powerful tool for research, brainstorming, and editing.
Other AI Tools
Thousands of AI-powered SEO tools have emerged, whether using Open AI’s API or other sources like Amazon Web Services (AWS) AI.
While some of these tools are valuable, it’s important to be skeptical of all of them. Many of them promise to deliver SEO results that are not actually possible.
You should also be wary of content writing tools that claim to write full articles. Most of these tools use API from Open AI, which means they essentially use ChatGPT to write the articles, which you can do manually.
As more AI tools emerge, it’s important to conduct reputation checks and try the tools before spending money. Some of these tools will be very helpful, while others will be hype-driven and insufficient for SEO practices.
Most SEO guides you read will rehash drivel from elsewhere on the web. As a long-time owner of the most cutting-edge SEO agency for roofers, I have unique insights that can separate your company from competitors. My best example of this is helping roofers rank for shingle brands on Google.
Unique Local Content
99.9% of local roofers are targeting the same keywords. Unfortunately, that means they all leave valuable organic clicks on the table. About half of your clicks come from long-tail keywords, which roofers fail to optimize for.
Targeting shingle brands in your service areas is a great way to pick up some of these hidden clicks. You can use DataPins to continually insert shingle brand keywords into your local content based on real-life jobs.
Adapting to Google Algorithm Updates
Google has a rich history of algorithm updates from Panda to Penguin that have changed the landscape of search engine optimization. Major algorithm updates typically target trends marketers use to manipulate search results for their clients and themselves.
For example, building backlinks with exact-match anchor text was a popular and effective strategy until Google’s Penguin update obliterated websites engaging in this practice.
Before that, the Panda update set its sights on “content farms” that used keyword manipulation so thin websites and low-quality content could outrank more informative articles.
Major algorithm updates have recently targeted manipulative content creation practices that utilize modern technology. I will outline two of Google’s most significant updates.
Helpful Content Update
The August 2022 Helpful Content Update was the first major algorithm update to target wide-scale content practices used by various marketing agencies. The onset of ChatGPT and other AI content-generation tools certainly prompted Google to take quick and decisive action with content generation.
While the HCU does not specifically target AI content, it does target the practice of mass-producing content for search engines rather than readers. Unfortunately, many roofing marketing companies misused content for years – long before ChatGPT emerged.
Because of this, many roofing company websites were hit by the Helpful Content Update and dropped in rankings and traffic.
My agency has helped many of these websites recover by removing unhelpful content and focusing on people-first content that meets the users’ intent and needs.
March 2024 Core Update
Google’s March 2024 Core Update further enforced systems introduced in the Helpful Content Update. Roofing companies saw even more ranking drops after March because of the increased scrutiny of mass-produced content, which is quite common with blog posts.
Within the documentation for this update, Google referred to a practice called “scaled content abuse,” which generates many pages for search engine manipulation. In the world of SEO for roofers, this aligns with “city pages” or “local landing pages” along with blog posts.
It’s becoming increasingly important for Google and its users to trust the author of website content. My agency developed a SAAS tool, DataPins, to inject legitimate branded signaling through schema markup and unique job images so that websites can meet Google’s new standards for E-E-A-T.
Choosing an SEO Agency
For most roofing companies, incorporating SEO yourself is a tall task. You don’t have the time or resources to devote to everything this guide covers.
As a result, you will have to choose a good SEO company to implement these strategies on your behalf. Before selecting roofing SEO services for your company, you should consider a few things.
Case Studies
Does the SEO company have a proven track record of success? Many have case studies on their website demonstrating organic traffic improvements over a fixed period. Of course, you shouldn’t automatically trust these studies. Still, the fact that they can showcase previous results is a green flag.
Pricing
SEO service pricing is a significant factor for roofers. After all, who wants to pay $5,000+ per month for SEO?
The most honest agencies charge between $500 and $2,500 monthly for search engine optimization, which is an excellent budget for your SEO campaign. Be careful, however, as some agencies lock you into a long-term contract.
Once you get stuck in a 12 or 24-month agreement, leaving your agency becomes more frustrating and expensive.
Reviews
You learned how reviews impact your roofing company and its SEO. The same is true for whichever agency you research on Google.
Check the Google Reviews for your top 3 agency considerations and compare and contrast the feedback. Google Reviews is the most trustworthy source as it guards against fake reviews or spam reviews.
Comfort
Last but not least is your comfort level with the SEO provider. Does your point of contact sound like a salesperson? Or do they sound like someone who genuinely understands SEO for roofing contractors and how it can apply to your online campaign?
In addition, attentive SEO specialists should craft a unique plan for your company. Perhaps you offer a specialty service which they should represent on your company website.
Nolen’s Last Words on Roofing SEO
As a former blue-collar business owner and the owner of a long-running SEO agency, I speak from experience, expertise, and empathy.
The minutia of a title tag and a meta description only matter in the context of how it can help your roofing business thrive.
As the founder and CEO of Roofing Webmasters, I’m often asked by roofing companies about how and when they should update their roofing company website.
While providing a simple, one-size-fits-all answer would be nice, my 13 years of experience with website design and digital marketing has proven that each case presents a unique set of circumstances.
The following guide will provide a nuanced answer about the best approach for updating a roofing website in 2024.
Key Takeaway
I recommend updating your roofing website design every 3-5 years. However, website content and SEO updates should occur monthly, at minimum.
What a Website Update Actually Means for Roofers
Part of the lack of clarity about website updates is the ambiguity over what an “update” actually means.
Let’s take a look at some of the scenarios below:
Design Update: A web designer upgrades the website’s design elements, which can include both visual and technical elements (sometimes called a website redesign)
Domain Name Update: The domain name of an existing website (i.e., roofrepairdenver.com) is updated to a separate domain name (joesdenverroofing.com)
Content Update: A writer either publishes new content (text, image, or video) on the website or rewrites existing content
SEO Update: A website administrator makes on-page SEO changes to an existing website, like editing the title tags, meta descriptions, and keyword placement of specific pages
Technical Update: A web admin upgrades technical components of an existing website like WordPress plugins, PHP framework, or CMS version
Necessary Website Updates for Roofing Websites
In looking at the list above, some (but not all) of these update types are necessary for a roofing company website. I will break down the timeline and logic of each below:
Design Updates – 3 -5 years
Domain Name Updates – Never (except for special circumstances)
Content Updates – Monthly
SEO Updates – Monthly
Technical Updates – Monthly
Remember that content, SEO, and technical updates can occur more frequently than once per month. I recommend a minimum monthly interval for these kinds of updates.
However, randomly updating content or SEO just for the sake of it is also unwise. Ensure your updates are informed by data and feedback from Google Analytics and other measurement tools.
Roofing Website Update Tips
Updating your business website should align with your business goals. For example, setting a goal to generate more roofing leads online can inform content updates to your existing website.
Take a look at some of the best update tips for a roofing website:
Consult Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a great tool for auditing your website and tracking which pages are underperforming. Viewing this data provides valuable insights on what updates to make in the future (or immediately).
You’ll want to use these reports to update your content and SEO and then track how the analytics change based on those updates.
Analyze Competitor Performance
Competitor performance often encourages roofers to update their websites. Over my career, I’ve spoken with thousands of roofers, and they don’t like losing.
That said, it’s important to understand why a competitor is performing well before taking action.
The key is to outsmart your competitor’s white, data-driven, white-hat SEO tactics.
You can use a tool like SEMRush to perform a keyword gap analysis between you and your competing websites.
This report will showcase the keywords your competitor’s website is ranking for that yours isn’t
From there, you can create a content asset to compete and eventually overtake their ranking positions.
Remove Unhelpful Content
One of the most common pitfalls I see with unsuccessful roofing websites is the urge to mass-produce content for the sake of updating.
Roofing company websites often feature hundreds or even thousands of blog posts that provide little to no value to readers.
My agency has already helped hundreds of roofers remove this unhelpful content and prioritize unique and valuable pages.
Use DataPins
DataPins creates unique value by consolidating E-E-A-T signals based on your recent roofing jobs. Each pin produces geo-coordinates and schema markup to accompany job photos and captions.
DataPins also sends automated review requests through text and email, increasing review frequency. In addition, customer testimonials appear on your website via the accompanying Google Reviews plugin.
Final Thoughts on Updating Your Roofing Website
As user expectations increase with each passing year, roofing companies should ensure their websites meet the standards of their target consumers.
Luckily, various tools exist to help companies upgrade their website and offer new features to enhance user experience.
While updates can be helpful, it’s important to avoid updating your website for the sake of it.
My agency, Roofing Webmasters, can help you make data-driven white-hat updates that will contribute to long-term digital marketing success.
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