Internal links improve SEO for roofing websites and blogs [+ video]

An internal link is a hyperlink in an online document, web page or blog post that, when clicked, takes the visitor to another section of that same document, page or post, or to an entirely different document, web page or blog post within the same domain.

Here are four reasons why effective use of internal links in your roofing company's website and blog is absolutely critical for search engine optimization:

1. Internal linking tells search engines that you think the document, web page or blog post you are linking to contains valuable content. Basically, if you aren't endorsing your own content, why should anyone else think it's important?
2. Internal linking enhances the visitor's experience. Leading potential customers to other related content within your website or blog will give them more of the valuable information they need to decide whether or not they should contact your company for roofing jobs.
3. Internal linking reduces your bounce rates. When someone views a web page or blog post, giving them additional related pages to link to will reduce the amount of times they visit just one page and then leave your site. Low bounce rates help your web pages and blog posts rank higher with search engines.
4. Internal linking improves indexing. Helping search engines easily travel from one web page or blog post to the next enables indexing to happen faster than normal. Indexing web pages and online documents is a huge part of what allows search engines to display results for a search query so quickly. The better and faster they can index your website or blog, the higher your individual pages and posts will rank when people search for roofing services in your area.

I recommend incorporating internal links into new web pages and blog posts to similar content throughout your website and blog as you create them. And as soon as you publish a page or post, your next step should be to go create at least two internal links coming in to that new web page or blog post from other existing pages or posts (where it makes sense).

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

I recommend using 1 to 5 internal links for every 500 words you type. For example, if you have a 1,500 word blog post you should have between 3 and 15 links.

I don't normally recommend linking more than one word or word groupings to the exact same destination page, post or document, but sometimes it is helpful if what you are linking to has multiple extremely relevant keywords.

If you have any questions about internal linking or search engine optimization, or would like help with creating content for your roofing company's website or blog, please feel free to contact RoofPal any time.


This episode of the RoofPal Marketing Podcast is brought to you by Dataforma. With their best-in-class web-based business management services, Dataforma can help you to run a more profitable roofing business. For more information, please call (866) 764-9992 or visit them online at www.Dataforma.com.

SEO Periodic Table - How to get your roofing website to the top of Google search

I found this great infographic on what is actually important for search engine optimization (SEO) and how important each factor is, and wanted to share it with my friends in the roofing industry (contractors, manufacturers, suppliers, and distributors).

What is most important to getting your roofing website or blog to the top of Google search? Here is a list (in no particular order):

Content quality. All pages of your website need to be well written, and there must be a substantial amount of high quality original information.

Content research. You should do fairly extensive research on which keywords are the most used to search for the content you are sharing.

HTML titles. Make sure your HTML title tags contain keywords that are relevant to the content on the page.

Architecture crawl. Make sure search engines can easily "crawl", or scan for current information, all the pages on your website or blog.

Link quality. Make sure the links on your website or blog go to trusted, high-quality websites.

Link text. Don't use link to another page on your website or blog using the words "click here" (or something similar), highlight a good keyword or phrase that makes sense for the destination page and make that word or phrase become the linked text.

Trust/authority. Your website or blog will become a trusted authority as a result of lots of inbound links, many shares on social media, and other similar factors.

Physical proximity. The closer geographically you are to someone, the better.


Additionally, here are the second-tier items that will help get your roofing website or blog to the top of Google search:

Words and phrases. On each page, make sure you are using the words and phrases that you want it to be found for when someone does a Google search.

Engaging content. Use your website or blog's analytics to see not only how many page visits you get, but how long people spend looking at the page. Are they opening it and then clicking back or closing the window quickly after, or are they reading the whole page?

Fresh content. Are you producing new content and is it relevent to the "hot" search topics of your industry?

HTML description. Make sure your meta description tags accurately describe what the page is about.

Social reputation. Are people who are respected on social media sharing links to your website or blog?

History. The more someone visits your website or blog, and especially if they have "Liked" something on Facebook or shared on social media in any way, the higher other pages on your website or blog will begin to show up for them on search.


Last but not least, here are some additional items to consider that do have some impact on how your roofing website or blog will be found on Google search:

HTML headers. Make sure headlines and sub-headers use proper header tags with relevant keywords.

Page speed. The faster your page loads, the better.

URL format. The shorter a URL is, the better. Also, make sure the URL contains meaningful keywords to the topics of the webpage or blog post.

Number of links. The more external links that point to your website or blog, the better.

Social shares. The more people who share links to your webpage or blog post on social media, the better.

History. The longer your website or blog has existed, the better.

Social connections. The more those you are connected to on social media Like, comment on, re-Tweet, etc. posts containing links to your website or blog, the better.


Please also note the pink and orange sections at the bottom of the chart that discuss violations and blocking. These are some things you definitely do not want to be doing, as it will decrease your positioning in Google search.

If you have any questions about this blog post, please email me at Chris@RoofPal.com.

5 Tips for Better SEO Results

You want to be found online by homeowners and/or building owners and property/facility managers they search on Google, Yahoo! and Bing, so here are five easy tips that will help you, the roofing contractor, get found more often in search engines:

Well-Written Title Tags
Your target keyword(s) should be displayed in the page title as close to the beginning of the page title as possible. When your website shows up, Google bolds the SEO keyword(s) in the title tag used by the user in the search to make it easier for their eyes to see relevant listings.

If your title tag is not well-written for search engines, your content may not rank well enough to be found.

Relevant and Well-Written Description Tags
When a user reads the listings on a search result page, their eye is skimming the title, and secondarily reading the description. If your description is weak in comparison to your competitors’ descriptions on the same search results page, you can miss out on click-through's.

For the best SEO results, your page's Meta titles and Meta descriptions must be written in a way that engages the visitor and so that it is keyword-relevant in order to be found by users and to convert click-throughs from the search results page.

Relevant Content
Google’s recent Panda updates are proof that content is still the most important thing to get strong SEO results. Don't short-change this - you need enough content to earn authority with Google, Yahoo! and Bing. SEO results are driven by quality content written to meet the needs of your audience, and lots and lots of it.

Engaging Calls-to-Action
If your SEO objective is to produce sales-ready leads, then getting qualified visitors to your website is only half of the equation. It serves no purpose to strive for SEO results that drive traffic to your website if you can’t convert a good percentage of visitors into real sales-ready leads. Experiment with calls-to-action to find the right one(s) for your company.

Social Search Drives SEO Results
Even though it is late 2011, many roofing contractors still ignore social media for a variety of reasons (lack of understanding, lack of time, don't believe it matters, etc.). Both Google and Bing use as ranking signals regarding how much of your website’s content is shared across social media (and by whom). Google is using its +1 sharing button and Bing is using Facebook Likes as ranking signals. Google is also beginning to track the extent of content sharing on Google+ (their new social network).

You will improve SEO results when you make it easy for your website content to be shared through social media, contributing to social search success. Your employees should share your content and encourage customers to share it as well. Blog content is another great formats for social sharing.

If you have any questions about this blog post, or would like assistance with roofing website optimization for search and sharing, please email Chris@RoofPal.com.

Does Bad Spelling and Grammar Affect Your Google PageRank?

If your roofing website (or individual web pages) currently have a low PageRank with Google, it may be possible that this could (in part) be a result of poor spelling and grammar.

Matt Cutts, who works for Google's Search Quality group (specializing in search engine optimization issues) recently made the correlation between low PageRank and poor spelling in a Google Webmaster Help video.

In responding to a question about whether spelling and grammar matter when Google evaluates site quality, Cutts said “We noticed a while ago that, if you look at the PageRank of a page — how reputable we think a particular page or site is — the ability to spell correlates relatively well with that. So, the reputable sites tend to spell better and the sites that are lower PageRank, or very low PageRank, tend not to spell as well.”

Cutts says that spelling and grammar aren’t currently used as a “direct signal” for search ranking, but that “I think it would be fair” to use them in that way.

Google has been very clear that overall site quality and usability is part of what Panda is looking at. The question “Does this article have spelling, stylistic, or factual errors?” is even one of 23 questions that webmasters should ask themselves in relation to the Panda changes. Similar questions include “How much quality control is done on content?” and “Was the article edited well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?”

Mr. Cutts also mentions in the video that Google has studied ways to determine the reading level of content on the web, and that this type of analysis “would be pretty interesting to explore as a potential quality signal.” Interestingly, Google added a reading level filter to its advanced search results.

The bottom line is that there is no proof that poor spelling or grammar directly affects your PageRank, but it is definitely something to ensure is not an issue just in case.

If you have any questions about this blog post, or would like an independent roofing website evaluation performed, please email Chris@RoofPal.com.

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.

5 Tips for Roofing Contractors to Win in Social Search

Search engine optimization (SEO) has been rapidly evolving over the past few years: in October 2009 Google first introduced its social search strategy, have since introduced the +1 button and now they have launched Google+ (their version of a social network).

With more than a 60% market share in the overall web search landscape, Google remains king. So, how does a roofing contractor, consultant, manufacturer or distributor like yourself achieve positive results in the search game at a time when SEO rules of engagement are evolving so rapidly?

Content
Despite the rapid pace of change, one thing that has remained constant and is actually now more true than ever before is that content is still king when it comes to SEO. Google’s Panda update is testimony to this - they want the user to have a good experience in a search, and the best path to a good experience is delivery of relevant content. You should remain committed to producing high quality content.

Content Diversity
The good news? We have many social media platforms at our finger tips to produce content. The bad news? Google and Microsoft are watching for content diversity, which puts more pressure on you to produce a diverse mix of content. This is no small undertaking. A traditionally SEO-optimized website is no longer enough to rank well for competitive keywords. You now need to produce video and photo image content that is also optimized with proper tags and descriptions. Downloadable content can also be indexed, and therefore sends positive signals to Google and Microsoft that you are a producer of diverse content. Content across other social channels are worthy of your focus as well.

Google's +1 Button
The +1 button is gaining greater importance. We know that Google is using +1 clicks as a signal, but did you know that the location of the +1 button is also significant? When someone clicks on the +1 button on say a product page, that signals that they like that product. But when someone clicks the +1 button on say a category page, that signals that they like the entire category. Take that one step further to clicking the +1 button on a home page, signaling that you like the entire website! Get the picture? The +1 button is a bigger deal than you might have realized.

Social Sharing
Since the introduction of social search in October 2009, sharing content across various channels has become extremely important. This continues to be more true every day. Google and Microsoft are tracking the extent to which your content is shared. Consequently, the social sharing buttons on your website or blog are incredibly important.

All of Your Employees Work in the Marketing Department
If content sharing is so important, then it is even more important that everyone in your company understands this point. If every employee shares your blog posts, YouTube videos, Facebook posts, Tweets, LinkedIn company pages, etc. across their social networks, that turns the entire company into the marketing department. It takes a company-wide culture with strong leadership to execute this strategy.

Social search is here to stay, and I strongly urge you to embrace this. If you would like to discuss this further or need help getting started (or getting your company to the next level), please email me at Chris@RoofPal.com.

Also, don't forget that every person's search results are going to vary based on who they are connected to on social media. Please read my blog post on this topic and incorporate that into your social media strategy as well.

Where to spend your time on SEO

Roofing contractors should know that it is important to keep up with how search engines like Google, Yahoo! and Bing are changing and adjusting their algorithms (almost daily in some cases) in order to provide the best search engine optimization (SEO) and social media results.

In 2011 there is a clear pattern of social media influencing search results. If you had to pick just two areas to focus on for the rest of the year, here is what RoofPal.com would recommend: content and social media sharing.

Content is the cornerstone for improved keyword rankings and building inbound links over time. A lot of properly optimized content written on various strategic keyword themes drives more visits and improves search results in the long run. Blogging is a great way to frequently add content to your website. If you’re not already blogging for improved SEO results, what are you waiting for? It’s time for you to start blogging and writing content now! If you aren't sure how or just don't have the time, RoofPal.com can assist you with this.

Something important to keep in mind is that search results vary according to the personalization of the person doing the search. This personalization brings us more relevant, useful search results and makes relevant, SEO-friendly content more important than ever. This means no more top rankings or number one rankings for certain keywords, as SEO results vary from user to user. Writing optimized content regularly in addition to tracking your traffic and ROI is what’s important, not necessarily tracking individual keyword rankings.

The bottom line is that the more SEO-friendly and industry-relevant content you write, the more chances your target audience is going to find you.

Once you start blogging frequently, the next step is to share it via your social media profiles like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and others. This is no small task - just like writing content takes time and effort, social media sharing takes effort as well. But the time and effort and repetition day-in and day-out reaps tremendous benefits in the long run. Social media sharing provides SEO benefits in addition to improved lead generation results over time.

To expand your reach and improve SEO even further, it is important that you, your employees, and even friends and family if possible share your blog posts. The more people sharing your content in social media, the better. Good content spreads like a wildfire. Also, make it easy for your visitors to share your content. Be sure social media buttons are on all your web pages so that your visitors can socialize and engage with you and share your content.

Search engines are starting to heavily incorporate social media into search results. Social media should work together with SEO, so start integrating social media sharing into your content strategy for improved SEO results.

If you have any questions on this topic, please email Chris@RoofPal.com.