If you’re creating content for your roofing website, but haven’t built an SEO strategy yet, you need to take a step back and focus on your strategy first. Having a strong SEO plan in place will ultimately make all of the content you’re creating work so much harder for you in the long run.
The world of digital marketing and SEO is full of complex rules and is ever changing thanks to the algorithms of search engines. To help your roofing company avoid the mistakes of roofers past, the Summa Media team is sharing the 10 most common SEO mistakes we see roofers make. Keep reading below so you know what to avoid!
10 SEO Mistakes to Avoid
- Not Optimizing Content for Your Target Audience
When choosing keywords to use throughout your website, you must choose keywords that your target audience is actually searching for. There are many sites that allow you to look at the keywords that are bringing people to both your site and your competitors. Use those keywords as a starting place for your SEO strategy.
- Ignoring Mobile Responsiveness
In an age where over 60% of online searches are performed on mobile devices, your website must be responsive. This means that when a user is directed to your page on their phone or tablet, the site is optimized for the device that they are viewing it on. Google looks favorably upon sites that allow for this.
- Keyword Stuffing
It may sound counterintuitive, but when it comes to keywords, less is more. We have all read a piece of website content with a keyword blatantly placed throughout the text awkwardly and unnaturally with the clear goal of ranking high. While this may have worked 15-plus years ago, those days are gone. Your keyword should appear on the page approximately one or two times for every 100 words, keeping it at 1 – 2% of the total words. You should also never force it into the text, but let it appear naturally throughout.
- Forgetting to Optimize Your Images
Your website could be full of the most high quality, professional roofing images on the internet, but if you haven’t optimized them for search engines, it doesn’t matter. In order to ensure your images are working for you, you must rename the file from Image_0678 to a descriptive title that contains your keyword. You also need to use the alt-text to describe the photo and include the keyword there as well.
- Focusing on Broad, Impossible to Rank for Keywords
Many of our roofing clients often come to us with the hopes of ranking for search terms such as: “roofing services” or “roofing contractor”. While we understand why you would want to rank for these terms, it is unfortunately harder to do than you might think. A better use of your time and effort would be focusing on longtail keywords with 3 – 5 words to try and get in on the rankings for more targeted searches.
- Disregarding Analytics
Analytics are everything for SEO, how else do you know if your efforts are working? Lean on Google Analytics to better understand your search ranking, keyword performance, desired keywords, and your audience demographics to help tailor an SEO plan that works for you.
- Not Caring About a Slow Load Time
Not only do slow loading websites drive visitors crazy, Google also prefers websites with quick load times. If your website is taking longer than 2 – 3 seconds to load you should take a look at your image sizes and plugins to try and optimize speed.
- Using Scraped Content
Many busy business owners who understand the importance of web content, but lack the time to create it themselves often turn to scraped content. Scraping content is when you take content from another website and then publish it as if it’s your own. Not only is this blatant plagiarism highly unethical, Google will also either ignore the duplicate content completely or penalize your ranking.
- Failing to Optimize Titles and Meta Descriptions
Although it may sometimes feel like it, Google is not yet completely psychic and the algorithm is not going to be able to tell what your site is about unless you tell it. Optimize your page titles and meta descriptions show Google’s algorithm that your website has relevant information for a particular search.
- Having a DIY Attitude Towards SEO
The Summa Media team knows that most roofers can’t resist a good DIY, that’s part of the reason you entered the roofing industry in the first place! But just like you advise your clients not to DIY their roofs, we must advise you not to DIY your SEO. As we have detailed, SEO goes far beyond “just keywords” and is best left up to professional expertise.
If you’re ready to implement a strong SEO strategy to help you get noticed by prospects, the Summa Media team is here to help. Contact our team today to learn more about all of our service offerings, including SEO.
