At Roofer’s Guild, we aim to educate the roofing industry about SEO and digital marketing.
However, there’s no cookie-cutter approach. Each location requires a nuanced strategy, especially the Venice of America.
Roofer’s Guild helps roofers in Fort Lauderdale rank for keywords like “roofing company fort lauderdale” and “fort lauderdale roofing services.”
While you are speedboating over the Port Everglades, your website can generate thousands of clicks on Google and Google Maps.
Here is the step-by-step process to rank your website in 2024:
Domain Name and Hosting
If you already have an official domain name and hosting provider, you are a step ahead of start-up roofing companies.
However, those without these staples must invest in them as a first step to SEO success.
Purchase a Domain Name
Navigate to https://instantdomains.com/search and look for a domain name that matches your brand name. It helps to include the city name within your domain, but it’s not mandatory.
Avoid choosing a generic name, however, as this can cause confusion and lower conversion rates.
Let me give you an example.
Ideal domain name: ftlauderdaleroofkingz.com
Good domain name: roofkingzfl.com
Risky domain name: ftlauderdaleroofers.com
A domain name typically costs around $9.99 per year.
Hosting
Next, you must find a hosting provider to make use of your new domain name.
You can use something like Siteground, which is considered a top-level hosting provider.
Check out their hosting plans and prices.
It’s going to cost at least $215.88 per year.
You might be able to find lower-cost hosting plans from other providers. However, the quality of the hosting may be lower.
This can impact how quickly your website loads for visitors, which also affects SEO.
WordPress Installation
The next step is installing WordPress on the website. Most hosting providers, including Siteground, offer one-click WordPress installations.
The process is as simple as clicking a button in your hosting dashboard.
WordPress Themes
Once WordPress is installed on your website, you can choose a theme to replace the stock theme that comes with new WordPress installations.
You can choose a free theme, purchase a custom theme, or hire a WordPress web developer to create an original theme.
Your theme can impact SEO because template websites are less likely to rank on Google.
Furthermore, themes may vary in SEO accessibility based on the crawlability of the menu, footer links, and other SEO architecture.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is the currency with which SEO accrues its value. A website without content is virtually worthless when it comes to Google rankings.
For example, installing WordPress as a one-page website makes ranking for various roofing services nearly impossible on traditional organic results.
You can still rank on Google Maps with a one-page website, but it lowers your chances compared to sites without a well-planned website architecture.
The following SEO content tasks will ensure your website can maximize its presence on Google search results.
Content Mapping
Your next step is to create a content map covering all your services and service areas.
As a Fort Lauderdale roofing company, your service area may expand to surrounding cities like Cooper City, Margate, and Wilton Manors.
Your services might include residential roof repair, commercial roof repair, asphalt shingle roofing, tile roofing, TPO roofing, foam roofing, etc.
Here is an example content map to consider:
Homepage
About Us
Residential Roofing Services
- Asphalt Shingle Roofing
- Tile Roofing
Commercial Roofing Services
- TPO Roofing
- Foam Roofing
- Roof Coatings
Contact Us
Blog Posts
- The 7 Best Roof Materials for Fort Laurdedale’s Climate
- Roofing’s Impact on For Lauderdale Architecture
- Best Roof Replacement Options for Fort Lauderdale Homeowners
Content Production
The next step is producing the content based on your pre-determined content map. You can hire content writers, use ChatGPT, or invest in an SEO agency for roofing companies.
Of these three options, Roofer’s Guild recommends investing in an industry-specific SEO agency.
Hiring freelance content writers can have varying results, and they may use AI tools to generate their content.
Using AI tools like ChatGPT to produce your content may result in algorithmic penalties on Google search, especially if you don’t exercise a nuanced editing process.
Hiring an experienced SEO agency with plenty of Google reviews protects you against the most undeniable outcomes.
On-Page SEO
The next step is to optimize your content for on-page SEO. These tactics help Google quickly understand the topics of each page and which users the content is targeting.
Remember, Google is still a machine, so you must help it understand your content. However, you don’t want to over-optimize your content, as Google is designed to prioritize content created for human beings, not search engines.
Yes, it’s a fine line and requires nuance and years of experience.
Title Tags
Your SEO title or title tag is what shows up on Google search results. Your title tag is usually 40-60 characters and includes the page’s target keyword.
Here is an example of a title tag
Tile Roof Repair Services in Fort Lauderdale, FL | Roof Kingz
Meta Descriptions
Your meta description also appears on Google search underneath the title tag. A meta description should be within 350 characters and expand on the description of the page and its content.
Here is an example of a meta description:
Call Roof Kingz for tile roof repair services in Fort Lauderdale, FL. Our experienced roofers have earned 350 Google Reviews and are ready to repair your tile roof today.
Headers
Header tags like H1, H2, and H3 also impact on-page SEO. You want your H1 to be the same as your title tag and your H2 to include a keyword variation.
However, avoid stuffing your headers with keywords, and ensure they read naturally to help your users.
Here are some examples of effective header tags for SEO
H1: Tile Roof Repair Services in Fort Lauderdale, FL
H2: Fort Lauderdale Tile Roofing Experts
H3: Signs of Tile Roofing Problems
Keyword Placement in Body Content
You should also insert your keyword in the opening paragraph of the page or post so that Google detects the phrase early in the crawling process.
Aside from that placement, don’t worry much about keyword density, as the days of “tricking” Google are over. The goal is to make your content easily readable to your users and target customers.
Off-Page SEO
Next are your off-page SEO tasks, which start with claiming and verifying your Google Business Profile. A Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business listing) is a roofing company’s most crucial off-site SEO component.
After you optimize your Google Business Profile, you can move on to additional off-page SEO tasks.
Google Business Profile
Google Business Profiles are eligible to rank on organic search results through Google’s Map 3-Pack results. These SERP features include three selected Google Business Profiles based on the user’s query.
For example, when a searcher asks Google for “roofing fort lauderdale, the results will look something like this:
Getting within the 3-pack requires a robust website, numerous customer reviews, and a prime location within your city.
While you can impact the relevance and prominence of your Google Business Profile, its proximity is based strictly on its map marker in Google’s map database.
As a result, if your company is on the outskirts of Fort Luardealte, ranking within the 3-pack becomes very challenging.
Consider moving your office to a prime location to generate more Google Maps impressions.
Local Citations
Next, you want to build citations for your Fort Lauderdale roofing company in various business directories. These are foundational links that help build trust within the online ecosystem.
You can use a service like Whitespark to build hundreds of citations at once, including in prime directories and data aggregators like:
- Bing Maps
- Yellow Pages
- Neustar Localize
- Yelp
It would help to target Fort Lauderdale-based directories like the Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce, which will require a membership fee.
Reviews and Reputation
Part of off-site SEO is acquiring reviews on reputable platforms like Google, Yelp, and Better Business Bearue. You can increase review frequency using software automation tools that send links to each of your customers through text and email.
However, digital review requests seldom convince customers to complete the task. Instead, you must combine those automated requests with in-person follow-ups to add a personal touch.
Your SEO rankings will increase as you gain more reviews on platforms like Google.
Local Link Building
We noted the Chamber of Commerce as a link-building opportunity, more of a citation than an SEO-driven link. You need to form partnerships with or pitch guest posts to other local websites for the most impactful SEO links.
Business Partnerships
As a roofing company, you might partner with a Little League team in Fort Lauderdale, a hardware store, or a plumbing company. These kinds of partnerships can link their website to yours, increasing your domain authority.
Guest Posts
Another way to buy local links is through guest posts. You can pitch guest posts to local bloggers in the Fort Lauderdale area or by contacting the web admin of other Fort Lauderdale-based websites.
It’s essential to pitch guest post topics that match the website’s theme and hold unique value to their readers.
Next SEO Steps for Fort Lauderdale Roofers
Manually completing the above SEO tasks can seem daunting, so many roofers opt to hire an SEO company. At Roofer’s Guild, we suggest hiring one of the top roofing SEO companies specializing in your industry.
However, there are multiple tasks you can complete before hiring an agency. For example, if you have not already claimed your Google Business Profile, you should do that immediately.
It’s possible to do SEO yourself. However, it is time-consuming and requires a general understanding of SEO best practices. We hope this guide informs you enough to get started and lay the foundation for your local SEO presence in Florida.