3 Ways to Outrank Your Roofing SEO Competitors [Even When They Have Bigger Budgets]

Every time you jump on Google you see the same roofing companies sitting in the top spots. Maybe they’ve been around longer than you, and maybe they have bigger SEO budgets than you – but that doesn’t mean you can’t knock them off their perch.

The secret to successful SEO is picking your battles. Let the big boys spend thousands of dollars trying to rank for the same keywords. By targeting specific roofing searches, known as long-tail keywords, you can rank for hundreds of keywords that those big roofers never even notice.

And that’s just ONE of our proven strategies to outrank ANYONE. Imagine how powerful our #2 and #3 strategies will be (actually, don’t imagine it. Read on to find out).

If you want more roofing leads and customers, you need to be on Google.

But every other roofer in your suburb, city and state wants to be on Google too. If you’re late to the party, or haven’t focused on your website much until now, it can feel like an impossible task to get a top spot.

Luckily, you don’t need the biggest SEO budget to outrank your roofing SEO competitors.

The following 3 strategies apply to residential and commercial roofers. As long as you have a website, you’ve got the foundation to outrank anyone. Read on to discover how to become the #1 roofer in your local area when people go searching on Google.

Any roofer can apply SEO strategies thanks to the rise of SEO-friendly articles and videos on Google and YouTube.

These guides are packed full of tips and tricks, but they don’t always include the possible downsides of DIY SEO. Just as an article on re-tiling your own roof won’t have a section on ‘what to do if you shoot a nail through your palm’.

Before you start the fight for rankings, you’ll need to understand your opponents.

Your SEO rivals may be different from the local roofer you spot in your suburb each week, so you must analyze the right roofers from the start.

This is a crucial step before applying any roofing SEO strategies, because going after the wrong competitor can leave you fighting the wrong battle. At the same time, local roofers rake in the money targeting keywords you should have been chasing.

Forget fancy SEO analysis tools that want you to sign up just to check out your competition. The easiest way to analyze the roofers you’re up against is with a Google search.

Jump on Google and search for ‘roofing service you provide + location’. For example, ‘roof repair London’ or ‘storm damage maintenance Florida’.

Make a list of each roofing site that ranks on the first page for your search.

“What do I do with the list of roofers that are outranking me?”

Your homework is to check the list of ranking roofers against Google’s SEO checklist.

Google wants to deliver the “best” results possible for roofing customers. There’s a variety of ways they determine what result is the “best”. The influencing factors include:

• Is your website mobile-friendly?
• Is your website secure? (HTTP vs. HTTPS)
• Is your content 100% original and high-quality?
• Is your content long enough to provide value?
• Is your website able to load within a few seconds?
• Is your content attracting backlinks from relevant websites?

If roofers are outranking you, they’re likely performing better than you across these metrics.

Website not ranking? Access our FREE website checklist and find out what SEO mistakes you’re making (you’ll be shocked at where you’re going wrong)

If you’re falling short on any of the SEO metrics above, you should look to fix those problems to close the gap on your competition.

Outside of those changes, there are quick and easy ways to outrank the biggest roofers in your industry – even if you’ve got 1/10th of their budget. The secret is to avoid competing with them in battles you can’t win. Start targeting keywords that are easier to rank for AND more likely to land you a new customer instead.

By pairing this keyword strategy with helpful content and a few local SEO tweaks, you’ll never have to stress about your rankings again.

Read on for our 3 proven ways to outrank the biggest roofers in your industry.

Every roofer wants to rank for a keyword like “roof replacement”.

With roof replacements bringing in anywhere from $6,000 to $20,000 (depending on the materials and size), you’d be crazy if you didn’t want to rank on the first page of Google for that keyword.

But with so many roofers wanting to rank for the same keyword, you’ll end up facing seriously stiff competition . And when the level of competition goes up, the roofing companies with the biggest SEO budgets tend to take the top spots.

Outranking them is easy. Let them fight for super-competitive keywords while you target long-tail keywords.

Long-tail keywords are longer search terms, typically 4 or more words, and can even be complete sentences. These are more valuable keywords (aka money keywords) because the people using them know exactly what they want – which puts them closer to a sale.

For example, someone searching for ‘roof replacement’ could have a metal roof, or tiles, or shingles, or a wooden shack…you get the idea. Ranking for a keyword like this – known as a ‘Head Keyword’, can bring in thousands of site visitors each month, but those site visitors can all be looking for different roof replacement help.

But a keyword like ‘full terracotta tile roof replacement’ is specific. As a long-tail keyword this will bring in fewer site visitors per month, but the people who end up on your site will have a SPECIFIC problem and need a SPECIFIC solution.

With this approach you can stop competing with roofers who have bigger websites, bigger reputations and bigger budgets. 70% of all keywords searched are long tail. You can start snapping up long-tail keywords with significantly less competition. With the added bonus that those site visitors are more likely to need your roofing services.

Wondering how to optimize for long-tail keywords? Start creating high-quality content.

You can target long tail keywords naturally by creating helpful content for your audience. Long, 100% original, and high-quality content will naturally include a range of long tail keywords that Google will pick up on.

For example, let’s say you wanted to rank for the keyword ‘Metal Roof Repair Cost’ which drives 240 searches per month.

If you wrote a thorough, helpful 1,000 word article on ‘The Cost of Metal Roof Repair’ you might also rank for additional long tail keywords that pop up organically in your content. This drives more monthly traffic.

When you create 100% original content that’s helpful and valuable (that means no quick-fire 300 word articles that barely scratch the surface), you’ll be showing Google that a). you consistently publish quality content that deserves higher rankings and b). your content is full of long tail keywords that earn higher rankings.

The goal is to create content that is the best in the field. Your content needs to be 100% original, high-quality and full of practical tips.

This is called ‘creating a high barrier to entry’. And this is how you crush your roofing SEO competition!

It’s easy to get caught up in the hype of SEO and the excitement of ranking your pages on Google, but it’s not the pages you rank that matter – it’s the people that search for them.

Ranking a page on ‘tile repair’ isn’t helpful if the people who find your content live 500 miles away.

Improving your local SEO is how you put your content in front of local customers. These people use keywords like ‘roof repair near me’, or ‘local roof replacement services’. Here are a few simple ways to help your site appear for these local searches:

Create a Google My Business (GMB) listing

Your Google My Business (GMB) listing is a free entry on Google’s own directory. Without spending a cent you can claim your own GMB. This will include info about your roofing business, your services, your opening hours, and your best contact details.

Creating and optimizing a GMB is the #1 way to boost your local SEO, as a GMB allows you to rank on Google Maps. Even better, the average GMB listing receives 59 actions every month. Whether it’s calls, clicks through to your websites, or directions to a physical location, these actions translate to more customers and money.

Add your roofing site to local directories

Google takes into account your number of citations to determine your Local SEO results. The more citations you build (these are mentions of your site on directories and listing aggregators), the better your rankings.

Make sure to add your business to relevant directories, as quality trumps quantity. If you can find directories for home improvement businesses, like homeadvisor.com or roofing-directory.com, you’ll be helping your Local SEO.

Looking for roofing directories? Unlock EIGHTY (yep, 80) business listing sites you can start using today

Get your NAP in order

Your NAP stands for your:

• Name of Business
• Address of Business
• Phone Number of Business

Organizing three pieces of contact info might seem minor, but Google uses your NAP to test your credibility. If you’ve used one NAP on your GMB and entered different NAPs on your directory sites, Google thinks “hmmm, a credible business wouldn’t use different NAPs, they’re not credible enough to rank”.

Make sure you use the EXACT same NAP on your Google My Business listing as you do on directory sites to boost your Local SEO. If you spell your business name as ‘John Smith’s Roofing Company’ in one place, don’t spell it ‘John Smith’s Roofing Co.’ in another.

SEO is a strategy to boost visibility, not a product.

That means you can apply these changes yourself if a). you have the time and b). you have the technical know-how.

Just as anyone can install a Colorbond roof if they have time and a willingness to learn, a pro roofer can get the job done faster and with better results.

If you’ve got spare time each week – you’re looking at 5-10 hours to read up on the basics, then 2-3 hours of SEO maintenance and upkeep each week to stop your results from sliding – then you can apply these strategies yourself.

If you’d prefer to skip the hassle of learning SEO, an agency can take care of your rankings for a fee. This cost goes towards delivering better results, so while it costs more to go with the pros, you typically end up with better results and more leads. In the long run, this helps you make more money than you spent.

Thinking of a little DIY SEO? Compare managing your own SEO vs. hiring an agency [full pros and cons PLUS cost breakdown]

Looking to put our roofing SEO strategies to the test? Claim a free consultation and walk away with a complimentary SEO blueprint