Roofing has two customers who behave nothing like each other. A roofing website usually speaks to one of them.
One has water coming in and wants somebody today. The other has decided the roof needs replacing, has three quotes to get and will take a fortnight over it. The first is a phone call. The second is a decision worth many times more. Getting found for both takes different work.
The emergency search is won before they read anything
Somebody with a leak searches on a phone, looks at the map listing, and rings whoever appears with decent reviews and a number they can tap.
They aren’t reading your about page. What decides it is whether you’re in the local results at all, whether the reviews look credible, and whether calling you is one tap. Google says local results depend mainly on relevance, distance and prominence, and for this kind of search that’s most of the game.
Worth checking on your own phone, off your own wifi: search your town plus roof repair and see who comes up and how many reviews they hold against yours. If three firms with two hundred reviews each sit above you, that’s your answer.
The re-roof is researched for weeks before anyone rings
A full roof replacement gets researched. People want to understand what it costs, what the options are between tile, slate and flat systems, how long it takes, what scaffolding means for their drive, and how to tell a good job from a cheap one.
Most of that research happens on somebody else’s website, because it’s rarely the contractor who’s written it down. That’s the opening.
A page that explains what affects the price of a re-roof, honestly, including why you can’t quote without looking, will earn visibility and will do a good deal of the selling before anyone calls. You don’t need to publish a price list to be useful about cost.
Lead sellers are the competition on the searches you want
Search for roofing work in your own area and see how much of page one is actually roofers. A good deal of it tends to be lead generation companies who capture the enquiry and sell it on, sometimes to several of you at once.
That’s the market you’re competing in, and it’s why the direct route matters more here than in trades where the middlemen are weaker. Every enquiry that reaches you through your own site is one you didn’t buy and don’t share.
It also means the obvious keywords are expensive ground, because those companies are bidding on them with a business model built for it.
Where I’d start
Depends where you’re currently losing the call. Roofing enquiries arrive as phone calls, so a number that can’t be tapped on a phone costs you emergency work every week, and one that isn’t tracked means you can’t prove any of this either way. Both come before content.
After that, roughly:
- The Google Business Profile, with categories right and a review habit somebody owns. This is most of the emergency work.
- Separate pages for separate jobs: repairs, flat roofs, re-roofs, chimney and leadwork, whatever you want more of. One roofing services page competes for none of them.
- The re-roof content, because it’s the highest value work and the least contested writing.
- Call tracking, so a change in visibility ties to a change in the diary.
Would Google Ads help?
Often yes for emergency work, because the intent is immediate and the job converts on the call. Be aware you’re bidding against companies whose entire business is buying those clicks.
For re-roofs the maths is different and usually better, because the job value is high enough to absorb a more expensive click. Either way, know what a job is worth and record where calls come from before setting a budget. There’s more on my Google Ads service.
What about AI answers?
The research questions around a re-roof are exactly what assistants answer well: what does a new roof cost, how long does it last, what’s the difference between these materials.
So a fair amount of that research now happens without anybody visiting a roofing website. The response isn’t a technical fix, it’s being the source worth quoting: specific, local, honest about cost ranges and clear about what changes them.
Ask a few assistants what somebody should know before replacing a roof in your area, run it more than once, and see what comes back and who gets named. There’s more under AI search visibility.
Who this suits
Roofing contractors competing with lead sellers for their own local searches.
Firms who want more planned work and less reactive repair, where the website has to do the explaining.
Specialists in flat roofing, heritage, leadwork or commercial, where far fewer businesses have written anything useful.
If you’re already turning work away, more visibility isn’t the constraint and I’d tell you that.
What does it cost to work together?
I can’t price this from a trade name. It depends on what’s there now, how much of it there is and what turns out to be wrong. I’d look at the site, whatever you can share from Search Console, and who’s actually ranking in your area. Then I’d tell you what I’d do first, why, and what it would cost.
Most of the work happens remotely, and I’m near Liverpool if a conversation in person would help. Nearby towns are on the locations page.
Questions people ask
How do I compete with the lead generation companies?
Not by outranking them on the broadest terms, which is what their business is built to do. On the local searches, the map listing and the job-specific pages they don’t bother writing, a real roofer has the advantage.
Should I have separate pages for repairs and re-roofs?
Yes. They’re different customers with different urgency and different value. One page covering all roofing work competes properly for neither.
Do reviews matter that much for roofing?
For the emergency searches they matter a great deal, because somebody with water coming in is choosing fast on limited information. Google treats them as part of prominence, and on an emergency search they carry more weight than anything you write.
Should I publish prices?
You don’t need a price list, and most roofing jobs can’t honestly carry one. Explaining what makes a roof cost more or less is more useful than a number, and it’s what people are searching for.
Do you work with roofers outside the North West?
Yes. The work is remote and my clients are spread around the country. Roofing has its own page here because the two-customer split is specific to it. Other trades are on the trades page.
Start with an assessment
Tell me whether you want more repairs or more re-roofs, and what you’re currently paying for leads. I’ll look at the site, your profile and the live results in your area, then tell you where I think the first useful change is. You can request a free assessment or get in touch. Other sectors are on the industries page.