What should roofing companies blog about?

Here are five things to keep in mind when writing posts for your roofing company's blog:

1. Know who you are you writing for

Don't try to make a blog post appealing to everyone. Each blog post you write should be targeting a very specific demographic, such as "commercial facilities managers who may be looking for alternatives to re-roofing", or "homeowners who don't know what to do after a hail storm", etc. Try selecting 10 of your existing customers that most represent your target audience, then write blog posts with them in mind.

2. Write about what your customers care about
Your blog posts should be focused on answering questions that you believe your existing or potential roofing customers have, or solving problems they may be experiencing. For more on this, please also see my blog post titled 'Is your roofing website optimized for the wrong things?'. Start by writing down 20 common problems your customers have with their roofs and write about those (service work, new construction, re-roofing, etc.).

3. Write like a real person
Your blog posts should be your perspective on a particular topic, and in your voice. People don't connect with mass amounts of information - they connect with you, the author of the blog. Have a personality. Make an occassional joke. Don't be afraid to be yourself.

4. Allow and encourage interaction
Offer your blog post readers an easy way to contact you, enable them to comment on your blog post and encourage them to do so. Also make sure there is a way they can share your blog posts with their connections on social media.

5.Don't hoard information
Don't be afraid of your competitors stealing your ideas. Provide your honest insights on roofing issues and how to resolve them. Let your customers understand your thought process in recommending solutions for them using real-world examples.

Blogging is an investment
Don't be fooled - blogging is hard, time-consuming work but if you think of it as a long-term investment and are patient for the results to come it will really pay off. I recommend posting 1 or 2 blog posts per week. Trust me, there is no shortage of things to talk about if you really think about your customers' problems, how you met them, the last 20 jobs you did, etc.

If you have any questions about blogging for your roofing company, please feel free to email me at RoofPal@gmail.com. And if you have a blog already, please feel free to leave a link to it in the comments below.

Internal Linking on your Website and Blog is Critical for SEO

In terms of search engine optimization (SEO), internal linking on your roofing website and blog is absolutely critical.

Here are four reasons why doing a good job at this is so valuable to a roofing contractor:

1. Internal linking tells Google, Yahoo! and Bing that you think your own webpage you are linking to contains valuable content. If you aren't endorsing your own content, why should anyone else do it?

2. Internal linking enhances the visitor's experience on your website. Leading home/building owners and property/facility managers to other related content and information will give them all the information they need that you have to offer.

3. Internal linking reduces your bounce rate. When someone views a page on your website, giving them additional pages to link to will keep bounce rate at a minimum since they aren't going to one page and leaving. This helps your pages rank better in search results.

4. Internal linking improves indexing. Google and other search engine bots can easily travel from one page to the next, contributing to that web page being indexed quicker than normal. Again, this helps your pages rank better in search results.

There are two major types of internal links. First are in-content links, which are links in the page that lead to other related pages on your website or blog. Second are navigation links, which are related keywords and categories for your pages which are usually listed in a navigation-style sidebar or header/footer.

Every page on your roofing website and blog is its own entity. In the SEO world, that means every page must have its own keywords that tells search engines what it is about. Many blogs prompt you to add keywords so searchers looking for content on a specific topic know that your page is relevant to their search.

Establish internal linking when you create the page
For in-content links, I recommend incorporating those in your new web page or blog post for any words you use to similar content throughout your website and blog as you create it. Upon publication, your next step should be to build at least two internal links coming in to the new page or post from your existing pages where there is a natural fit.

I recommend you set up navigation links as part of your website framework (so they appear on all pages).

Can you have too many internal links?
Too much of anything is bad. Having no internal links is obviously not good, and having too many isn't good either (you need to strike a balance).

A general rule of thumb is 1-5 internal links per 500 words, so if you have a 1,500 word blog post you should have 3-15 links. It is not recommended to link multiple words to the same page, but sometimes it is helpful if that page you want to link to have multiple extremely relevant keywords.

If you have any questions about internal linking or search engine optimization, or would like help with creating roofing website content or blogging, please email Chris@RoofPal.com.

Why You Should Blog

Simply having a static webpage and social media presence is no longer enough in today's rapidly changing digital world of marketing - you now also need to blog!

A website may be an important component of your online presence, but it doesn't engage your customers and can be cumbersome to keep updated. Social media is great for building relationships and trust, but you are limited to the depth of information you can post at one time. Alternatively, a blog enables you to easily update your website with fresh, relevant content and engage your customers (and can be shared via social media to attract readers back to your website).

Similar to social media, customers can leave comments on a blog which you can respond to. But unlike a status update, the discussion is centered around a specific, detailed topic that you have shaped and encourages ongoing community conversation and debate far after the post was uploaded.

Some business owners are concerned about the time it takes to properly maintain a blog. The good news is that a blog can actually take the place of many of your existing static pages, and they become interactive (not "brochure material"). Blogs can also be easily integrated into your static website as a dynamic component, giving you the best of both worlds. Blog posts don't have to (and shouldn't) just come from your marketing department - your employees who are experts at various components of your company should be encouraged to write blog posts (published with management review and approval, of course).

A blog enables you to attract new customers, build brand awareness and compel more prospective customers to buy from you. There are also great search engine optimization (SEO) benefits when using a blog. Due to its dynamic nature, a properly set up blog can attract twice the visitors your website can, and blogs get indexed by search engines like Google 4x more often than static websites.

My challenge to you is to set up a blog today and post something - almost anything, just to get started. RoofPal uses Blogger.com partly because it is free, but mostly because it is owned by Google (and I assume as a result, Blogger.com blogs are indexed more frequently and ranked higher in search results).

If you have any questions about blogging or would like assistance setting up and even managing your company's blog, please email Chris@RoofPal.com.