The Situation:

We received a call from a roofing contractor in NC who was “doing ok” but felt he should be getting more business. We talked for an hour about his website and how many bids each month it was producing. He felt he should be getting more than what he was, he was also irritated with the turnaround time of his current web company.

Upon searching “Roofing Contractor Durham” we found that he was not even on page 1. His website was rather old and had not been properly updated in about 3-4 years. In that time best practices for contractor website design had changed, but he hadn’t kept up with those changes.

Search engines want sites that are mobile-friendly, optimized and fast. His was neither. Prospects considering buying a roof are often doing their own online research and need lots of quality information to help them. Owners who ensure there is helpful content available for site visitors can earn the trust of buyers, which can help you to win the sale more often.

Search engine ranking for this site was poor and his phone didn’t ring enough to get the business he needed to keep his crews busy. The site had absolutely no keywords ranked on page one of Google. His current web company was clearly stiffing him.

This lack of visibility is the main reason why roofing contractors have difficulty getting Internet leads. Those who did find his site and visit weren’t calling for an inspection, with many leaving because of challenges finding information or navigating around.

Our Solution:

We designed and built a new site filled with top quality content that provided answers to homeowners who are planning to replace the roof on their house. But there’s more than meets the eye.

This is what the new home page looks like-

And here is the bottom portion of the website including their unique offer-

Here are a few things that might not be evident on first look.

1) The logo belongs in the top left because that’s how visitors know they’re in the right place. It’s essential to include, however, a tag line into your logo that explains who you are and what you’re doing.

2) A crystal-clear call to action (CTA) needs to be in the top right corner of the site. Why? People in North America’s eyes naturally go from right to left when reading. If the CTA is there in the top right, virtually every visitor will see it an understand how to respond to you.

3) The company’s unique selling proposition (USP) should be presented near the top o the site. Here it’s placed/overlaid on the image of a newly remodeled home that visually shows what his company does. We decided to also include the USP below the fold of the website with a bit more detail (shown again in the second picture) 

4) Another CTA is often present above or just “below the fold” to further reinforce how the visitor should respond if they want to inquire about the services available. In this case, it is pictured in the second picture prompting the visitor to “click for a free estimate”.

5) Make the CTA easy to do. Not pictured is a lead gen form on the home page. Fill it out, or call the number – easy to get the help they’re looking for. FREE TIP: Avoid using terms like “request a quote” or “contact for pricing”… Instead use something like “Contact For A Free Inspection”. 

6) Make sure your pages content is long enough to be considered “quality”. Home page content should be 700-1000 words and expertly explain why a prospect should choose your firm. Search engines use this information to filter out bad websites from good, and ranking the good websites much higher in the search results.