You’ve started your own roofing company and had someone build a great roofing website. Next you need to find a way for customers to know you’re there, but you don’t have a lot of marketing dollars.
A daunting task awaits you. How do you get found when competing with thousands of other roofers?
There are a lot of things you can do that are free but…take time. You are probably aware of a number of them. You can post regularly on the appropriate social sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn and so on.
Did you know that you can SEO your own roofing company website? If you are not afraid of getting into the back end of your site, we have some simple pointers that are the first steps to getting found in the Search Engines.
Google Is The Biggest Player
Most of our clients have over 90% of organic clicks to their website come from Google, so we optimize for Google. Google likes several basic things:
- Rich Content
- Lots Of Content
- Optimized Meta Data
- Natural Language
Rich Content
While many folks say they like a “Clean Website” and like to keep the content on their websites brief and the pictures and videos extensive, Google likes words. They like lots of words that talk about the products or services you provide. You need to give Google those roofing keywords.
So, the first thing you need to do is find out how people search for roofing companies is your target area. SEO companies like us have tools that we pay for to provide lists of appropriate keywords that people use to search. Most companies do not want to invest in that type of software. A simple way to build a roofing keyword list is to search for roofing companies in your town and see what Google suggests below the search line. You can also go to the bottom of the page and see the ‘Searches relate to’ section. Then search with those terms and build a list of top words that people use to search for your industry or company.
For example, if I search for ‘hybrid batteries’ the related searches include:
Lots Of Content
Companies that provide roofing SEO services, like Roofing Contractor Marketing, can invest in products that help us to write great content that is robust enough to compete for the front page real estate in Google. We see competitors for our clients with 1000 to 1800 words on a page they are trying to rank. The issue for most companies is that they need to market effectively and succinctly to the customer.
How can you get all these words on the page and not turn-off a prospective client? Put the content below the fold, i.e. keep the well-designed user experience at the top of the page and then add a section just before the footer to include several paragraphs with the relevant, rich content to give Google the verbiage they need to know what your company is all about.
Optimized Meta Data
Meta Data is just a fancy word that tells Google and the other Search Engines what is most important on the page.
The first place that Google looks is at the Title Tag. So, if you want to get found for your Company Name, put that in the title tag. Your website will have an area that relates to SEO and will give you a place to put the title tag for every page. If you are trying to sell Used Hybrid Batteries Online, then that would be the first part of your title tag.
The Second place Google looks at is the Meta Description. This is usually next to the Title Tag area on the website. Each page has a Title Tag and a Meta Description. The Meta Description is the brief sentences that show up below the website url in your search results. Make the description brief, captivating, and include you most important keywords.
An example for a company selling hybrid batteries might be:
XYZ can save you money with competitively priced refurbished hybrid car batteries. We specialize in Toyota Prius, Honda Batteries and the best replacement battery options..
The Third place Google looks is at your headers. At the top of the page, include an H1 tag that includes one of your most important keywords. Then before each of you paragraphs include an H2 or H3 with secondary keywords.
Natural Language
In years past, companies would fill their pages with keywords and repeat the most important keywords on the page many times. Google doesn’t like that anymore. Google likes to see well-written natural content and the spiders that crawl your website will pick up all of the relevant keywords throughout the page. If you are selling your roofing company services and want to mention all of the important brands you install, you would not need to say ‘Owens Corning Asphalt Shingles, GAF Asphalt Shingles, Tamko Asphalt Shingles and so on. You can mention all your brands and then talk about the Asphalt Shingles elsewhere on the page. The Search Engines can put the pieces together for you. The point is, write well and write naturally.
These suggestions are just the beginning of good website optimization. There are many other steps that those of us in the industry do to optimize a site. If you find this too overwhelming, we are happy to review your site and let you know what needs to be done to your website to give you the best shot at getting found by the Search Engines.
Original Post on: Can You SEO Your Own Roofing Website? Yes!
