Spend Time Online and Thrive

By Chuck Magee, Raise the Rank. 

In today’s world, your online presence and your company’s success go hand in hand. Here are some suggestions to help your company look better online. 

If you want your roofing business to stand out against the competition, the best place to start is your website. However, your online inspection shouldn’t end there – you need to look at your total online presence, its individual parts and as a whole, to understand where your company stands and how to improve this all-important part of modern business. 

What is your online web presence and how do you go about making it better for your roofing company? 

Check out this Google local pack or what many call the Google Map Pack.  

Look closely, you will see not only this roofing company showing up #1 in the Google Map Pack but also a Google Ad in there. You can have this when your Google Ads account is done correctly.  

But keep looking, this was not a branded search looking for these guys. This was a Google search for roof repair. You can get this when your Google My Business account is really strong.  

Your online presence is what you look for when a roofing lead or prospect does a Google search for your roofing company or even an unbranded search like roof repair near me.  

What Google serves on the first page of the Google results is an online presence, good or bad.  

What can you do to make your online presence better?  

How can you take up more real estate on the first page of a Google search result for a great keyword for your business like, fix leaky roof near me?  

Keep reading and you will see my easy to follow six-step process for checking what your online presence looks like so you can make adjustments to your online action plan and increase your success online.  

1 – Create a great website 

You can’t have a cheap website anymore. You must invest in a great website. A great website will make you money and you need a great website to be competitive in today’s digital environment. 

There are many aspects of the internet that make up your online web presence, but today we are going to focus on six very important things that will raise your visibility with Google as well as with your roofing leads and prospects.  

If a potential customer does a Google search and they happen to land on your website and it is poorly put together with not much to offer, why would they stay on your site or call you?   

2 – Fill your website with great content 

So, how does a great website help gain roofing leads?  

Great content that’s how. What is great content for a roofing website and how will that help solve a roofing lead’s roofing problem?  

Look at this skylight page we built for one of our roofing clients.  

If someone does a Google search for leaky skylight repair, what are they looking for? 

They are looking for someone who can stop the skylight leak and repair their roof issue, that’s what.  

So, again, how does a better website help do this?  

A roofing lead wants answers and reassurance. Check out this skylight page for example.  

This page has over 2,000 words of content about Velux skylights and how skylights are replaced, but also has video showing exactly how this company is going to help, step by step. But it doesn’t stop there, this company even has a podcast telling exactly how they handle a skylight repair or replacement. 

You must set yourself up as the roofing expert if you want trust and to convert that roofing lead into a roofing client.  

After a lead reads this skylight page, it proves to them this roofing company has the expertise to handle their leaky skylight problem.  

Why go any further when no other roofer in their market has a skylight page on their website like this? This skylight page even has a Google review from a roofing client that got new Velux skylights. This is how you get trust from a lead and convert them to a client. This is how you serve your roofing leads valuable information they want, need and deserve if they are going to give you their money and business.  

3 – Your online reputation and Google My Business   

Your online reputation is your business. Most people don’t understand how powerful their Google My Business is right now and where Google is headed with GMB in the future.  

Who would you rather do business with? A company with five poor reviews or one with over a hundred five-star reviews? The choice is easy. When a roofing lead can read lots of Google reviews it is literally like taking a lead and instantly turning them into a referral.  

You tell me, would you rather run a cold roofing lead or a referral?  

There is much more in your Google My Business than just reviews. Reviews are the most important thing a roofing lead can see, however check out this GMB. 

We have even seeded this question-and-answer section with the most asked roofing questions to make sure the most obvious questions are already asked and answered by this company.  

Did you know that anyone in the Google community can ask and even answer a question in your Google My Business?  

Sounds crazy, but that’s the way it is, you can’t let a crazy answer to a legitimate question hit your GMB, so control it by seeding them yourself. If you want more roofing clients, and better clients, so you can increase your profits, you must focus on Google reviews and your online reputation.  

4 – Video! Do you have a YouTube channel? 

If not, you should. You don’t have to spend big money to create video content, your iPhone or Android device will do just fine. Real people and real situations are what people are looking for - videos of happy clients you have installed a roof for or done a roof repair and stopped their pain. This is what you need to serve to your leads and prospects if you want to turn them into a roofing client.  

A simple video of a happy couple after getting a new roof from you is all you need to help build that trust factor. 

5 – Social media  

Are you using Facebook? Facebook targeted ads are really producing well right now, you just really need to be using Facebook targeted ads. Let me make sure I am clear on this one, I am not talking about a Facebook post and just boosting it. I am talking about Facebook targeted ads, there is a huge difference. I am not saying there is anything wrong with Facebook posts, but it will not get you the same reach that Facebook targeted ads will.  

Look at it like this, if it is not raining to create a roof leak or there are no windstorms, exactly what reason do people have to get on Google and search for a roofer?  

Google is a beast when it comes to intent-driven questions, like when someone has an active roof leak, but Google is not as good at awareness as they are with intent. I am not talking about picking Facebook over Google or the other way around, you need to be using both of these powerful online platforms. If you use Facebook targeted Ads correctly it will make your Google ads produce more and better results.  

Without awareness how will you ever get a lead from prospect to consideration to purchase? If you can’t get awareness from a roofing lead, you will never get consideration, and without consideration you can’t make a sale.  

Facebook is not only a great tool to help move a roofing prospect through the buyer’s journey, in my opinion it has become a necessary part of any successful marketing plan.  

6 – Google Ads   

No online marketing plan would be complete without Google Ads. So, are you running Google Ads for your roofing company? What type of Google Ads are you running? Where are you running your ads? How much money do you spend on Google Ads? Are you tracking your roofing leads from Google Ads? Do you know if you are getting a return on your Google Ad investment? You need to be able to look back at where your lead came from. Now you can tell if you are making money from that lead source.  

If you are not running Google Ads, you really should be.  

The Google Ads dashboard is very complex and there are many settings that can derail your ad campaign. This is the reason most roofing companies don’t run Google Ads. The Google Ads platform is an advertising channel you really need to be using. You can make a lot of money with Google if done right.  

Learn more about SSA in their RoofersCoffeeShop® Directory or visit www.ssacapp.com.   

Original article source: Raise the Rank