Roofing Keywords
Let’s take a look at what makes up the best roofing keywords, how to use them, how to find them and what to avoid when working on your roofer SEO.
What Are Roofing Keywords
Roofing keywords are words that customers use to search for roofing related topics on search engines. It can be anything from one word like “shingle” to multiple words like “how much does it cost to replace a shingle roof”.
These keywords are important because they help clarify the topic and focus of a page for both Google and the end user. So Google provides specific ways to use these keywords so that it understands what your page is about.
Here are some more examples of keywords and how you would use them in your website URL.
www.yourwebsite.com/roof-replacement/
www.yourwebsite.com/roof-repair/
www.yourwebsite.com/owens-corming-vs-tamko-heritage
www.yourwebsite.com/how-much-does-roof-replacement-cost-maryland
The Best Roofing Keywords
There are many different types of keywords and different strategies for how and when to use them. So let’s review a few important things to consider when choosing your roofing keywords.
Long-tail Keywords
An example of a long-tail keyword would be “how long do architectural shingles last”. A normal keyword would be “architectural shingles”. There are advantages and disadvantages to both.
You always want to go after the main roofing keywords like “roof replacement” because it has sixty thousand searches each month. But it is harder to rank for because of all the competition from other roofing companies trying to rank on Google for the same keyword.
The advantage to using a long-tail keyword is that less people are creating content for it so it is easier to rank for. Another advantage is that you can match your content on the page to the exact need of your customer.
For example, if someone searches “certainteed vs gaf” and the page on your website is created for just that topic, the user will get their information, and be more inclined to trust you because you were the expert on the topic and you had the answers.
Keyword Difficulty
All roofing keywords have a different level of difficulty to them. The more content on the web for that topic or keyword, the harder it is to rank for it.
Local searches come into play in this area too. If your local competitors don’t have content for and are not ranking for specific keywords, then it gives you a chance to rank for them even if there is a large amount of content on the internet already.
User Intent
Consider what the user's intent is for their search quarry. If someone types into a search engine, “how to replace a shingle” they are most likely a roofer trying out youtube university or a homeowner trying to do it yourself.
This is important to remember when choosing roofing keywords to use on your website. This is where you want to remember the buyer's journey. In the beginning, when someone doesn’t know what is wrong with their roof, they might search, “leak roof repair”. But later on they might search, “what is a pipe boot” or “how long does a roof last”.
If they are searching “how long does a roof last” they probably just got a quote and are considering their options.
City And Local Keywords
As you grow your roofing company, you will want to start using city names as keywords and build pages on your site centered around specific cities that you want to get leads from.
Here is a list of examples of how you can use cities as keywords in order to rank for those local leads.
www.yourwebsite.com/baltimore-roof-repair-company/
There are many variations that you can use. Just remember to use the keywords on your page, the way they are in the URL. So your H1 header should also read “Baltimore Roof Repair Company”.
You can follow the same strategy for all the different cities you want to get leads from.
Unique Words
When you give a proposal to your customer, there will be words on there that most homeowners don’t know, like the names of products such as smart vent, or inflow vents. Customers will then go to Google to figure out what these words mean, what they look like and to compare products.
This is why we recommend another option for you of creating content on your site using those keywords. “Smart vent” has well over 3,000 monthly searches. If that is a product you sell, you should have your site rank for that product. It's a golden opportunity.
How To Use Keywords
Make sure that the keyword is in the URL and the H1 header. You want the keyword to show up the same way across the whole page. So if your chosen keyword is, “How much does a roof replacement cost” then you want to keep it in that order. Because, “the cost of a roof replacement” is not the same, they will be seen as two separate roofing keywords.
Depending on how many words you use on your page, you may need to increase how many times you use the roofing keywords. At a minimum, use the word six times. But if you have 1,500 words on that page, you might want to increase it to ten.
The goal is to be clear to the user and to Google. You don’t want to over do it. If you use it too much it will come across as spam and both the user and Google will see through it.
An example of keyword stuffing could be a URL such as, “/roof-replacement-and-roof-repair-dalles-texas-emergency-response/”.
Whether you are creating the URL or the text on the page, you want it to read in an easy way that makes sense. Similar to how you would say it.
That one bad example I just mentioned could be split into multiple pages and have a much better chance of ranking for each one.
For example:
/roof-replacement/
/dalles-roof-repair/
/emergency-roof-repair/
And so on.
Where To Find Keywords
Google provides a free tool for finding roofing keywords called Google Keyword Planner. You can select specific keywords and even look for local keywords to see the search volume in those areas.
Another great tool from Google that will help you choose between different keywords is Google Trends. You can look at the search volume between different keywords. For example, “re-roof” vs “roof replacement”. Check it out, you might be surprised.
There are lots of other services and tools out there that go into even greater depth regarding SEO and keyword research. Two big ones out there are SEMrush and Moz.
Last but not least, you can use the Google search bar and search results to help you see what people are searching. So when you start typing the word roof into Google, pay attention to the suggestions it gives. They aren’t all good but they will help you get some ideas for roofing keywords that you could use.