Perhaps you’ve noticed that the pace of things is increasing. The economy is slowly picking up; change is in the air, and for many contractors business is stable.

Hope, long deferred, might finally lead to some gains. I’ve heard the feeling expressed lately, but not everyone is benefitting. In the last week, I’ve looked at several contractor websites that fail and yet these roofers don’t fully understand why they’re not doing better.

Here’s the truth. Some 80% of roofing purchases today start with an online search. That percentage is only likely to grow.

Consumers who have a problem with their roof are looking for solutions and most of the time start by looking for information. Not a pitch. Not someone to buy from (not immediately, anyway).

The Importance Of Contractor Websites Continues To Grow

Google tends to show these consumers pages that are information rich, have pictures and offer reviews. More and more often those searches occur on a mobile phone or tablet computer. Soon, the search giant will begin ranking you based on the “mobile” version of your site.

Are you ready? Do you get enough search traffic now? How much of that traffic is mobile versus those looking at your business on their desktop computer?

Here’s a quick test for you to run: Write down the “most important” keyword for you to rank for in Google. While there are many keywords you’d ultimately like to rank for, let’s pick just one for now that if you were visible in search – your phone would ring more often.

Often the keyword will be “your city/town + roofer or roofing or roofing contractor.” As an example, “Philadelphia roofing contractor.”

Now type that keyword in Google search and look at who is ranking NOW. Are these sites offering solid content or not? Are the sites mobile ready or aren’t they? (Test them here). Is YOUR SITE among the leaders ranked for the keyword?

Ranked or not, it’s important to understand where your site visitors are coming from – so are you reviewing your Analytics data? In five minutes per week, you can look at how your site performs, in Google’s eyes, with data provided to you for free. I highly recommend it.

The Market Is Competitive Now – And Getting More Crowded

In the early days of online marketing, you could make mistakes in AdWords or ignore your Analytics and still do ok. Now it’s getting much more competitive, and the margin for error is small.

Almost every roofer has a website now, and most of them wrote the check because they wanted to increase their revenues. Right? But it’s not something you can just “check the box” one time and think positioning yourself online is done. Search engine technology is changing every day, and if you want to succeed, you’ll have to change too.

So let’s go back to our search results from a few minutes ago for some things you can do today to improve your luck in online marketing. I also published a case study about contractors websites, which you can see here.

Let’s look at the sites listed for your keyword. You can ignore the “big” sites like BBB, Home Advisor, and Angie’s List. We’re only really interested in the individual roofing sites listed.

As you review these sites, do you find information about the issues home or business owners might be having with their roof – or information about the company?

Often, top sites rank well because they “call out” the ideal client for the company’s services instead of taking about themselves.

Three Quick Tests For You To Consider

Now look at your site. Using the same analysis – does your copy speak about the problem you solve or about you and your company?

What about images? The best sites offer before and after pictures of work that’s been done. Sites that don’t do as well have stock images on them, not pictures of projects you’ve completed.

Have you tested the speed of your site? GT Metrix offers a free testing tool that will help you compare your site speed to that of the companies you compete against. Faster is better, and it’s something you’ll always want to improve.

Finally, look at the top-ranked sites to see where they have placed their call to action on the page. Most pages on most websites have a job to do – it’s usually to convert a visitor into a lead, right? How clear is your request? Is it easy to understand how you want prospects to respond?

This short list of items for you to check and improve on can bring more success or leave you with one of the many contractor websites that fail. The difference is up to you. If you have questions or need help, send me a message here.

Our “Formula” for roofing contractor marketing is free and available for you to download today to help you get more leads.