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Roofing SEO: The Definitive (2024) Guide for Roofers

This roofing SEO 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 web geek cocky marketers screwed over my home service business.

The disgraceful behavior of these marketers inspired me to start an SEO agency of my own for people like you and me.

This shared experience of dealing with egotistical and conniving 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 our company to develop a unique SEO strategy for roofing companies, resulting in thousands of roofing clients.

You can see some of those below:


Client Logo Displayed
Roofing Client Logo
Roofing Client Logo Example

While we are always open to working with new roofing clients throughout the United States, our decade-plus of expertise is something we owe to share with the roofing industry at large, 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 despicable individuals in the marketing industry.


This guide will outline Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and how to rank your website on search engines like Google, with one caveat. I’m not going to BS you or patronize your company or marketing.


In this Roofing SEO guide, you will discover:


  • What is roofing SEO, and why is it 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

Roofing SEO: The Definitive Guide Cover

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 2024.

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?

Roofer 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 various tasks, including 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?

Let’s say you own and operate a roofing company in Lubbock, TX. Ranking #1 on search results for “roof repair in Lubbock, TX” 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.


SEO Bar Graph Statistics

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 percentage of those that do.

Each service requires clear explanations, so prospective customers can quickly determine that you provide what they are looking for 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 is not an as-you-go process. A well-laid, detailed strategy is essential for SEO to work properly. With this in mind, 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 keyword’s search volume and competition level—tools 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 aren’t just abstract concepts floating out there in space. In many ways, they represent your target customers. That’s why keyword research tasks should be calculated and intentional. If you run a roofing company in Hartford, CT, you aren’t going to want clicks from people in New York City.


National Keywords

Don’t worry. Local websites aren’t 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 their more extensive keyword research, every roofer should be aware of 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 in 2024.


Roofing Company Keyword Research Ubersuggest

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 “roof repair” shows consistently high volume throughout all parts of the United States.

If your roofing company serves Atlanta, GA, your keyword would be “roof repair Atlanta” or “Atlanta roof repair.” 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, “roof repair Atlanta” has a search volume of 11-50 and, therefore, would be a better term to target than “Atlanta roof repair,” which has a volume of 0-10.

You should still use both terms within the body of your content in support of Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI), something we’ll discuss in greater detail later. However, for your traditional on-page SEO (meta, title, headers, etc.), “roof repair Atlanta” will be the more valuable search term.


Roof Repair Atlanta SEMRush Screenshot

Service Keywords

The most successful roofing websites use interior pages to describe more specific services their company offers. Just like your homepage, these internal pages should intentionally target keywords you want to rank for.

Let’s say your roofing company provides a modified bitumen roof installation. You’d want to research the volume for terms like “modified bitumen roofing services” and “modified bitumen flat roof installation.” 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 “modified bitumen flat roof installation Louisville.”

With such a long-tail keyword, you’d 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!


Local Keyword Ranking Louisville (Screenshot)

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, you’re 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.

What separates roofing websites from each other is the structure of the site and how deep it goes.

Your main service pages are at the top of the URL hierarchy, also known as top-level pages or “parent” 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 this…


www.yourroofingwebsite.com/residential-roofing/

www.yourroofingwebsite.com/commerciall-roofing/


Under those main pages would be more specific, lower-level or “child” pages. “Commercial Roof Replacement,” for instance, would be a child page of Commercial Roofing, while “Residential Roof Replacement” would be a child page of Residential Roofing. In the URL, a child page would look like this…


www.yourroofingwebsite.com/residential-roofing/residential-roof-replacement/


Child pages can be further broken down into sub-levels as needed. If you have a parent page of Commercial Roofing and a child page of 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, as longer URLs are difficult for Google to crawl and, therefore, less likely to rank well on SERPs.


URL Hierarchy Example from Roofing Website

Images & Videos

User experience plays a key part in a website’s performance. That’s why images and videos naturally fit well in most SEO strategies. Designated certain images for specific pages, you prevent duplication and accidental mismatches.

The best images are always original, meaning 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 who don’t have any photos of themselves.


Video Page Example

Search Engine Optimization: The Implementation Stage

SEO is a massive-scale undertaking spread across multiple activities. You shouldn’t expect to understand every optimization method utilized on the web at first glance. Several concepts may seem foreign to you, at least initially.

 If you’re 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, “Failure to plan is planning to fail.”


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.

There are several factors at play, subtly influencing a user’s experience. Some of them are less tangible, like aesthetic taste. Other factors are more easily defined, such as 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 company’s reputation and leave with an impression of trust and reliability.

Websites with obsolete designs are more likely to be perceived as scam-y. If it looks like your business page was created with DreamWeaver in 2003, you can expect Google to remove it from the top of search rankings.


Custom Design Element Examples

A roofing website should have a unique differentiating presentation by showcasing your company’s logo and contact information.


Contact Information

The most important part of local SEO for roofing companies is contact information. NAP visibility is paramount since the lead conversion funnel is predicated on the visitor’s call to action.

For those unfamiliar with the acronym, “NAP” stands for “name, address, & phone number“. That information should be clearly evident on each page of your website (especially the homepage).

It can’t just be present, however. 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!


Roofing Contact Information Screenshot

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.

CTA’s vary significantly in complexity and design. They urge users to call your number from their mobile device (i.e., a clickable phone number button), while more complex CTA’s cast a less demonstrative hook (such as a “Free SEO Audit” button).

CTAs have different goals and functions, too. A Free SEO Audit offer casts a broader net, targeting uncommitted prospects currently 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.


Roofing Call To Action Examples

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 doesn’t 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 a multitude of options to personalize your website. Your homepage deserves original photos, most of all. Prospective customers want to know who they’re dealing with.

Effective marketing speaks directly to the consumer. Ordinary stock photos won’t convey trust but limit website conversion rates instead.


Personilization Elements on Website

Badges & Accolades

Personalized photos of your business create trust. Badges and accolades further build that confidence in your brand’s reputation. If your business has ever received any type of certification, it probably comes with a digital badge for use on your website.

This can be 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 you’ve been featured.

Have you ever been interviewed by a local reporter? If so, you can absolutely add an icon of the newspaper in your website’s “As Seen On” section.

Consider prestigious certifications like these below when adorning your website:


Bages on Roofing Homepage

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 smartphone. 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 website’s HTML.

This way, you have a chance to 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.


Foam Roofing Video Carousel (Screenshot)

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 company’s 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.


On Site Review Screenshot

A plugin like DataPins offers numerous SEO benefits for roofers because it combines user content, trust, and brand awareness.


Mobile Optimization

In 2024, it shouldn’t be surprising to learn that most visitors access websites through mobile devices. With this knowledge, every roofer should ensure their site is mobile-optimized.

With the onset of Google’s mobile-first index update, they’ve made it clear that pages with mobile appeal will be given priority on search results.

There’s 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, the attention span of mobile users is exceedingly short, and there’s little that can be done to retrieve it once it has passed.


Roofing Website Mobile Display

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.

As a result, 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 website’s 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 is getting 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 take the next step moving forward in 2024.

If you see sudden shifts in your traffic, either up or down, you can diagnose issues and address website needs.


Google Analytics Tracking Screenshot

SSL Security

Browsers in 2024 will 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 you’ll want your site to display.

Not only is SSL indicative of trust, but it makes for a superior user journey. While roofers rarely sell products online (e-commerce), they still want to create the optics of strong security.


HTTPS Address

Because it can influence a user’s perception of your site, SSL must be considered, at the very least, an indirect SEO ranking factor for roofers.


Local SEO for Roofing Companies

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, you’ll also want to rank on traditional organic results for queries involving your target keywords and locations.

Remember that you should only target cities that 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 more than one legitimate business location with a verifiable address. 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, you’ll need to verify that address privately using the aforementioned postcard verification method.


Local Roofing SEO Example (Screenshot)

Local Business Citations

Most roofing contractors have heard of directories like Angi’ and HomeAdvisor, which are platforms for NAP citations. There are countless amounts of directories on which to cite your local roofing business.

From niche directories like Angie’s 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, you’ll find that citations that were never manually created by you 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.


Claim Your Listing Home Advisor Screenshot

NAP Consistency

In congruence with claiming business citations on local business directories, you’ll 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.

Accuracy is, of course, 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.


Ariat Roofing Yelp Screenshot

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.

We 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.


NAP Information on GMB Listing

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. You must create unique and informative city pages optimized for their respective locations to reach those cities.

We strongly discourage mass production of city or county pages, a tactic known as “spinning.” However, this technique has been supercharged by the onset of ChatGPT, 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. 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.


Philadelphia City Page on Roofing Website

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 Roofing 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.

Roofing 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 will rank and the more they will venture into other forms of 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

The keywords included in your strategy will be deployed in various ways during on-page optimization. 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 “city,” your title could be:


Roof Replacement in City, your H1 could be Roof Replacement Services

and 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, as well as 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.


Example of Keyword Placement Within Roofing Content

Title Tags

The Title Tag or SEO Title of a page is the one that appears on 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.

A user clicks on a page increases its click-through rate (CTR) and signals to Google that people like what they see from your initial result.

This can be a double-edged sword if you’re not careful. You want an appealing title tag but also one that is representative of your actual website and services. You don’t want to mislead anybody because they will exit immediately if they feel like they’ve been swindled.

For local roofers, you won’t need anything too over the top within a title tag. It might be as simple as “Roofer in Atlanta, GA | Schedule Your Roof Inspection Today.” 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 it’s within the character limit for optimal presentation.


Title Tag on SERP

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.

Google temporarily changed how they showcase specific meta descriptions but have resorted to their original methodology.

Like the title, a meta description should appeal to the search engine user. It’s 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.


Meta Description on SERP

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 header that matters most for on-page SEO is the H1. It is essentially considered a subtitle on a given web page. That’s why it’s ideal to have your keyword within the H1.

But as we 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 the ease of use, positively impacting search rankings. They also serve as a great way to categorize sections of a page.


Header Tags on WordPress

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. 

You’ll notice how that reads better than an alternative like:


myroofingcompany.com/residential/residential-roof-repair

There’s less redundancy in the former example, and the latter is harder for search engines to crawl and also uglier to look at for your visitors. URL slugs are also known as permalinks because they are permanent.

If you end up not needing the page anymore, you can implement what is known as a 301 redirect, which will auto-direct a user from that page to a newer update. Still, the permalink will remain intact.


URL Slug on WordPress

Image Alt Text

A sometimes overlooked on-page optimization factor is image alt text. It is the description of an image on your web page.

For those who don’t know, an image file should always be titled in lowercase letters with dashes.

If you upload an image of your roofing truck, a suitable file name would be company-name-truck.jpg … 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 it’s 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 you’ve wondered why on-page SEO isn’t just called “SEO,” it’s 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 website’s 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. With Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube, roofers can leverage free social platforms to expand brand awareness.

Since these web entities exist exclusively from your main site, they are considered “off-site” and, therefore, part of an off-site SEO strategy.

Often, on and off-page methods can be merged with social media. For instance, sharing an internal blog post on your LinkedIn feed contributes to both on and off-page elements.

Moz also considers social signals to be a local ranking factor, so social media activity in and of itself is likely to enhance your overall development.


Roofing Company Facebook Screenshot

Link Building

There are so many ways to build inbound links to your website; some of them help, and some of them hurt. Antiquated tactics, such as buying links from blog comments or PBNs, are frowned upon by Google.

While they won’t necessarily cause penalization in 2024, their zero-sum value contributes to a depletion of resources. Better ways to build links involve networking with other web entities or personalities, including marketing influencers.

Blogger outreach is a way to pitch your website’s 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.


Inbound Links MOZ

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.

For roofers without knowledge of computer programming, technical optimization can be the most foreign. To the average eye, HTML and CSS look like nothing but gibberish. But 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 don’t 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.


301 Redirect Code

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.


Roofing Sitemap Screenshot

Like with other forms of technical optimization, the goal is to make Google’s crawling process as simple as possible.


Site Speed Optimization

Attention spans are shorter than ever, and a site’s loading speed is critical to roofing websites. Clean code accelerates loading speeds, while obtrusive elements like JavaScript can slow it down.

A professional designer and or programmer can do several tasks on the back end of a site to ensure its loading speeds are as fast as possible.

This is important for search engine optimization because users don’t want to wait more than 1 second for a page to load.

If they’re 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.


Google PageSpeed Insights Screenshot

AI’s Impact on Roofing SEO

Artificial intelligence has already impacted SEO on multiple levels, both positively and negatively. While the use of AI in SEO practices requires nuanced discretion, it’s important to embrace new technology rather than fight against it.

The most user-friendly AI tool for SEO is ChatGPT. There are multiple ways roofers can leverage ChatGPT to help with search engine optimization. However, there are other use cases that may harm SEO performance.


ChatGPT

ChatGPT is Open AI’s 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 do various SEO tasks like 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 a dangerous tactic that 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 and not search engines.

As a result, using ChatGPT to create SEO-friendly blog posts or service pages is a violation of Google’s guidelines. With 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.


ChatGPT Content Ideas (Screenshot)

Other AI Tools

Whether using Open AI’s API or other sources like Amazon Web Services (AWS) AI, thousands of AI-powered SEO tools have emerged. While some of these tools are valuable, it’s important to be skeptical of all of them. A large percentage of these tools 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 are essentially using ChatGPT to write the articles, which is something 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.


Here are some of the best AI tools right now:



Exclusive SEO Tip: Rank for Shingle Brands

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 are all leaving valuable organic clicks on the table. About half of all of your clicks are coming from long0-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.


Shingle Product Brand Name Pin

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 either. Still, the fact that they can showcase previous results is a green flag in 2024.


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 will charge around $3,000 monthly for search engine optimization, as this 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 are the most trustworthy source as they guard 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

I know you’ve read different SEO guides online, and many of them probably sound pretty good. But remember that these SEO gurus have never walked a roof or run a home services business.

As a former blue-collar business owner myself and the owner of a long-running SEO agency, my words are based on 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 in 2024. These gurus can’t relate to us on the fundamental level needed to form a trustworthy partnership.

As a token of my respect and admiration from one American business owner to the next, I want to offer you this free PDF on Google’s upcoming search generative experience.

And be sure to bookmark this guide as we regularly update it based on the latest trends in Roofing SEO.


Posted: | Updated: Jan 4, 2024 | Categories: SEO |
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