Google My Business for Roofers
admin | Jul 13, 2021
Struggling to rank ahead of your local roofing competitors? Learn from 34,111 roofing companies across the United States to find out the proven steps to rank #1 on Google.
What is a Google My Business Listing?
This map is part of Google My Business, a free service that Google provides to local businesses to help them get found online. Often shortened to GMB, a Google My Business profile is free to claim, maintain, and update. For most local businesses and contractors, a GMB listing is the first place the general public will interact with your company online; before they reach your website, they can read reviews, find your contact information, and compare you with your local competitors. In most cases, a homeowner may make a decision on whether to contact you or your cross-town rival without ever visiting your website.
How Can Roofing Companies Rank on Google?
The Google My Business system relies on a unique system for ranking and displaying companies in the search results; this system is different from what it takes to rank a website. GMB is a crucial element to any roofing company’s digital marketing strategy.
In order to discover what works best for roofing companies to improve their Google My Business listing, we did a nationwide study of 34,111 roofing companies – all of which rank well for local search terms on Google. By analyzing the data, we were able to spot trends and tactics that all successful roofing companies are using to dominate their local search results.
GMB for Roofers – Best Practices
1. Choose the Right Categories
According to our study, 94.3% of the top-ranking roofing companies use Roofing Contractor for their GMB listing’s primary category.
If you are an exterior company that does other projects – like siding, gutters, or windows – you may need to choose between these services as your primary category. To determine which should be your primary category, you should consider the strength of your local competition as well as search traffic for each segment.
While the primary category is the most important for rankings, you can add an additional 9 categories to your listing. According to our study, the most common additional category is service establishment with 24.47% of all roofers using this category, followed by Siding Contractor (14.18%), General Contractor (7.39%), Window Installation Service (6.93%), Contractor (5.42%), and Gutter Cleaning Service (5.19%). Unfortunately, this is not something commonly used by roofers; within our study, 52.43% of companies didn’t add an additional category to their GMB profile.
2. Link to Your Website
Another crucial element to your Google profile is to link to your website. While you can rank your GMB profile without having a website, that is not common; in our study, we found that only 27.67% of roofing companies did not link to a website from their GMB profile.
In a recent study on GMB for HVAC companies, we noticed that some companies linked to a free profile like a Facebook page or GMB website. This is rare in the roofing industry; only 0.19% of roofing companies linked their profile to a Facebook page, while 1.24% are linked to the free GMB website that Google offers.
Out of all the listings that do include a website link, we can learn some additional tips from their online presence. First, many need to update their website from older, less secure technology. In our study, we found that 25.21% of those that have a website are linking to a non-secure website. This means they are missing an SSL certificate, which can lead to browser warnings and a decrease in search rankings.
We were also surprised to see that a very small percentage (3.17%) of roofing companies are using UTM tags to track how well their GMB profile is performing in analytics. UTM tags help marketers and business owners better understand where their leads are coming from and how all their marketing channels are contributing to their overall business success.
3. Choose the Right Name
Furthermore, we discovered that 7.02% of roofing companies had their target location (whether that was a city, county, or community) within the name of their GMB profile. In some cases, this is due to keyword stuffing – the practice of cramming keywords into your GMB profile name. This practice is against Google’s terms of service and can result in Google editing/overwriting your name or potentially even removing your listing. Yet, so long as Google gives an unfair advantage to keywords in the GMB name, roofing companies and their marketing teams will continue to exploit it.
4. Hide or Keep Your Address
To claim a GMB listing, you need to have a physical address. This can be challenging for smaller or start-up roofing companies who work out of the owner’s home. Google does allow service area businesses – like roofing companies – to hide their address from the public. According to our research, 24.5% of roofing companies do hide their address in their GMB.
If you have a physical location – whether that’s a shop, office, or perhaps a showroom – that is staffed during regular hours and is where customers can visit, you can keep your address public in your GMB.
5. Get Reviews Online for Your Roofing Company
In recent years, we’ve seen a shift in consumer behavior towards valuing a company’s online reputation. According to a recent study, 82% of consumers read reviews for local businesses, including 93% of people ages 35-54.
When homeowners are looking online for a roofing company, they are often looking at Google reviews to evaluate each company. In most cases, people are looking at 3 things: the average star rating, the total number of reviews, and the most recent reviews.
According to our study, on average a roofing company has 22 reviews and a 4.5-star rating. Yet these numbers are skewed because of a large percentage of companies with few reviews; in our study, we found that 49.29% of roofing companies have 4 or fewer reviews, and nearly one out of every four roofing companies have zero reviews (23.19%).
When we only look at listings with 5 or more reviews, we see different results: these roofing companies have an average of 39 reviews and a 4.6-star average.
6. Add Additional Features
Google My Business is a constantly evolving platform. In recent years, Google has added features like messaging, questions & answers, Google Posts, and COVID-related updates – many of which are slowly embraced by business owners and marketing teams.
We always encourage roofing companies to look for and experiment with new features on the GMB platform. By trying new GMB features, you can help your profile stand out from the local competition and perhaps drive more website clicks, calls, and leads.
One feature that’s not new but is underutilized by the roofing industry is photos. Google allows you and your customers to add photos to your GMB listing. For roofing companies, the best type of photos are of your trucks, your team members, your sales consultants, and both in-progress and finished projects.
According to our study, roofing companies have on average 41 photos on their Google My Business profile. This should give you a benchmark of how many photos to aim for with your GMB profile. We recommend getting in the habit of regularly posting new photos of completed projects – especially if you also incorporate them into your Google Posts.
Invest in Your GMB Profile, Outrank Your Competition
Claiming and updating your GMB profile doesn’t take long but can have a direct impact on where you show up on Google. Google has even released a free GMB mobile application, where you can add posts, respond to reviews, upload photos, and manage your profile.
By regularly investing time and resources into improving your Google My Business profile, you can show up ahead of your local competition and be the first call homeowners make when they need a new roof.
Google My Business Trends for Roofing Companies
Study based on 34,111 Google My Business profiles for roofing companies in the United States.
Categories
- 94.3% of roofing companies use Roofing Contractor as their primary category
- 52.43% of roofing companies don’t add an additional category to their GMB profile.
- 24.47% of roofing companies use Service Establishment as an additional GMB category.
- 14.18% of roofing companies use Siding Contractor as an additional GMB category.
- 7.39% of roofing companies use General Contractor as an additional GMB category.
- 6.93% of roofing companies use Window Installation Service as an additional GMB category.
- 5.42% of roofing companies use Contractor as an additional GMB category.
- 5.19% of roofing companies use Gutter Cleaning Service as an additional GMB category.
Website Links
- 27.67% of roofing contractors do not link to a website from their GMB listing.
- 25.21% of roofing contractors are linking to a non-secure website
- 3.17% of roofing contractors are tagging their website link with UTM to measure traffic
- 0.19% of roofing contractors are using Facebook as their website link
- 1.24% of roofing contractors are using the free GMB page as their website link
Reviews
- 49.29% of roofing contractors have 4 or fewer reviews on their GMB listing.
- 23.19% of roofing contractors have 0 reviews on their GMB listing.
- Roofing contractors have an average 4.5-star rating on their GMB profile.
- 22 – The average number of reviews for a roofing contractor on Google My Business.
- 39 – The average number of reviews for a roofing contractor with 5 or more reviews.
- 4.6 – the average star rating for roofing contractors with 5 or more reviews.
Business Name
- 29.07% of roofing companies have the words “roofing” or “roofer” in their GMB name
- 7.02% of roofing companies have their target location (city, county, or community) in their GMB name.
Additional Features
- 6.7% of roofing companies have 0 photos on their GMB listing.
- 41 – the average number of photos on a roofing contractor’s GMB listing.
- 24.5% of roofing companies hide their physical address on their GMB listing.