DIY Roofing SEO: Pros and Cons of Doing SEO Yourself
You’re keen to use SEO to get your roofing site up on Google and bring in consistent traffic and quality leads. There’s just one problem…you don’t have thousands of dollars just lying around to go towards SEO.
After all the ‘DIY SEO’ articles you’ve read, it’s starting to feel like you could handle the SEO and save some serious money – and you’re right! It’s 100% possible to apply SEO strategies yourself. The catch is whether the DIY method delivers the same results as a full agency.
Because your goal isn’t to save money, it’s to get your site up on Google and bring in new customers. Read on to find out whether DIY SEO or Agency SEO is best suited to help your roofing business make more money.
You’ve been reading SEO articles on Google. You’ve probably watched a couple of YouTube videos too. And we’re not the first Roofing SEO agency website you’ve landed on.
Now, it’s crunch time.
Do you start running your own SEO campaign, or do you bite the bullet and pay an agency to manage your SEO?
Whether you opt for DIY SEO or use an agency won’t come down to price alone. You could save your money by managing your own SEO, but would the results be strong enough to rank your site and bring in new customers?
Deciding whether to handle your own roofing SEO will come down to:
- Your SEO goals
- The strength of competition (this includes the keywords and locations you’re targeting)
- How much free time you have
- What SEO budget you’re working with
Whether you work in residential or commercial roofing, read on to discover the pros and cons of DIY SEO and hiring an SEO agency.
“Can I do SEO for free?”
Absolutely.
SEO isn’t a product, so you’re not paying to put your website at the top of Google (that’s possible with Google Ads instead). SEO is a set of strategies that marketers and SEO experts use, and those strategies are freely available online.
Jump on Google and search for ‘SEO tips for roofers’ and you’ll have all the info you need to start improving your website’s visibility for $0.
What you will have to spend is time.
SEO isn’t just an entire industry. It’s a constantly changing industry. 5 years ago you could stuff ‘best roofer in Houston’ into your content 20 times and expect to rank for that keyword within the month. Now, that strategy will have Google penalizing you and sending you to page 486 of the search results.
So while SEO is free, it takes plenty of time to understand, apply, maintain and stay on top of from month to month.
“I’ve got spare time. Why would I ever pay someone to do SEO if it’s free?”
Most roofers pay for SEO services for the same reason most homeowners pay for roofers – the results are better.
Anyone *could* throw a ladder against the side of the house and start stripping cracked tiles. Still, there’s a good chance they’ll do more damage, and in the long run it’ll cost twice as much to fix than hiring a roof repairman in the first place.
SEO is a skill anyone can learn
Thanks to YouTube videos and articles written specifically for roofers (like this one), you can apply SEO strategies within the hour. But unless you fully understand the changes you’re making to your site, you risk doing damage that costs twice as much to fix.
For example, SEO articles will tell you to add pictures to your roofing site because they’ll catch attention and keep people browsing for longer. This is an SEO boost as people spending more time on your site is a factor Google looks for when ranking you.
But there’s a catch…
If the file size of all those images you added is too large, your website load speed can slow to a crawl. And a slow website is a factor Google looks for when lowering your rankings. Every SEO change you make needs to be carefully planned and made with a purpose. And you pay for agencies and SEO experts to manage those changes for you.
In short, DIY SEO can be a huge money-saver. But it comes with a real risk of hurting your own rankings. With 92% of organic traffic going to the first page of Google, can you afford to miss out on the top spots?
Looking to practice some DIY SEO? Discover the 7 tragic website mistakes that are crippling your SEO right now (and how to fix them yourself)
The pros and cons of DIY SEO
| Pros of DIY SEO | Cons of DIY SEO |
|---|---|
| ✔ Save money (this can be thousands of dollars) by doing everything yourself
✔ Learn about SEO and marketing for yourself to help your overall online presence ✔ You’re in control, so you can tweak your SEO strategies any time you like |
✘ Steep learning curve means your results can stall without putting in hours of weekly work
✘ Time-consuming, as SEO always evolves, you can never ‘set and forget’ ✘ No support if your rankings start to tank and your traffic disappears |
“What are my options for outsourcing my SEO?”
Hiring an SEO agency is a common step for roofers who are already busy juggling work, admin, lead-gen and billing without adding ‘SEO’ to their list.
The easiest way to find a roofing SEO agency is to test their SEO.
That means jumping on Google and typing ‘Roofing SEO’ or ‘Roofing SEO + Your Location’ and seeing the top-ranked results. After all, if you’re paying someone to rank your roofing site, shouldn’t they be able to rank their own?
It’s also helpful to claim free consultations to learn more about your chosen agencies’ services. Every agency comes at the puzzle of SEO from a unique angle. If they’re legit, they’ll be happy to walk you through their system before you commit to a cent.
Just like you’d put together a custom proposal for a new roof or to replace broken flashing, SEO agencies typically offer free consultations too.
Outsourcing your SEO will cost more. But you’re more likely to make a profit in the long-run
We know that logic sounds like a clever sales pitch, but it’s true. Here’s why…
When you pay a professional – whether it’s an SEO agency or roofer – you pay for a premium service. There’s a gulf in quality between asking your handyman neighbor to change your roof from tiles to Colorbond and you doing the job.
Just as there’s a gulf in quality between watching ‘Roofing SEO’ videos on YouTube and applying what you see, and an SEO agency with 10+ experts and 50+ years of combined experience.
Paying for SEO is an investment in your roofing business.
There’s no other way to put it – you’ll need to spend more money to hire an agency than if you do your own SEO. But that spend goes towards a strategic and targeted campaign.
- Your roofing keywords are carefully picked based on how many monthly searches they get = so you get more site traffic
- Your roofing keywords are searched by customers in ‘money mode’, looking to hire a roofer = so you get more leads
- Your website is upgraded and optimized to be faster, more useable on smartphones and easier to browse = so you get more sales
It might help to know the average business spends $497.16 on SEO service each month, so you won’t need to remortgage the house to pay for SEO. It’s possible to find SEO packages that suit your budget, and the cost goes towards generating more revenue for you.
From top to bottom, an SEO agency adds value to your site. This could be in the form of regular 1,000 word blogs that bring clicks from Google and help people see you as a trusted expert. This could be with design tweaks that make it easier for people to request a roofing estimate.
Whatever the changes, you’re paying to make your site easier to find and your business easier to hire.
The end result? Your SEO costs are recouped, and turned to profit, because your site is ranking for valuable roofing keywords and generating quality leads.
See EXACTLY how much SEO will cost your business (Hourly AND Monthly Price Breakdown)
The pros and cons of hiring an SEO agency
| Pros of Hiring an SEO Agency | Cons of Hiring an SEO Agency |
|---|---|
| ✔ More likely to see results, which mean better chance of ROI in the long-run
✔ Benefit from an entire SEO and marketing team ✔ Peace of mind knowing problems are fixed ASAP |
✘ Hiring an agency will always cost more than DIY SEO
✘ Less control over the SEO process ✘ You’re not the only customer, so there may be delays in communication |
Keen to compare our SEO services against the others on your shortlist? See why a roofing SEO campaign with Tradie Digital is GUARANTEED to deliver leads
Still on the fence? This free ‘SEO Blueprint’ should help…
We get it. It’s tough to make a choice on who manages your SEO.
On the one hand, you could keep thousands of dollars in your pocket. This could go towards new tools and equipment or towards advertising your roofing company online. But you risk falling short of your goals if you’re not able to match the results of an entire agency.
Then again, you could go with the agency knowing you’ll have a strategy in place to rank for roofing keywords and bring in more customers. But the financial obligation isn’t easy to agree to on the spot.
To make your decision easy, we’ve created a free service for any roofer who’s stuck on the fence.
Use the button below to reserve a time with a Tradie Digital expert and we’ll create a custom SEO blueprint for you over the phone.
If you love our approach, we can talk about a price that works. And if you’d prefer to go the DIY option, you’ll have your own custom blueprint to follow.
Win-win.
