One of the easiest ways to get free roofing leads is to have a Google Map Listing. So what is a map listing? Well, when you Google for a roofer on your phone the first thing you see is the paid advertisements at the top. Next, you see a map with three businesses listed below. Those listings are Google map listings, and they show your business information to potential customers. Things like your business name, phone number, address and your businesses Google reviews.
The map listing is designed to show nearby local roofing businesses to potential customers so they can quickly research and contact them for roofing quotes. Typically customers look at the top three listed companies in their area and contact them first if they have good Google reviews listed. Searchers can opt to look at more map listings if they choose but it is much better to be in the top 3 of your roofing search results.
How To Get My Roofing Company At The Top Of
Google Maps
The first thing that you do is log in to your google my business listing. If you do not have the listing, you will need to claim the listing. You will then go in and make sure that all of your business information is up to date and accurate. Add GOOD quality photos of your business and make sure the listing is linked to the website that you want to have shown up well in your SEO efforts. Once that is done you will select to verify the business listing. You may be sent a postcard or google my call the number to confirm the business; they change back and forth on that.
Next, you will want to make sure that your roofing business listing is on all of the local directories.
- Bing
- Yelp
- Yext
- Moz
By making sure your business is on these listings you will have your business address and website show up all over the internet. So when Google scans the internet, they will trust your business more because they see you are everywhere and have an active presence.
When You Want To Hide Your Roofing Business Address
If your roofing business is based out of your house, what do you do? You do not want your home address to show up all over the internet right? So in your Google and other listings, you can opt to have a service area and hide your home address. This way you can still rank in google maps for roofing, but the world does not have to know where you live!
Adding Pictures To My Google Maps Listing
Earlier I stated to add good photos to your roofing google listing. Why, well because some people think that taking a picture of your dirty truck is something that people want to see. Or a stack of roofing tiles that are in a driveway. That makes someone want to pick your company over the competition. Add photos of recent jobs that you have done, especially if you can do some before and after shots as well. Another one is to have pictures of you and your team. Dressed professionally, by doing this you set yourself apart from the competition. Now, will you work in those uniforms, most likely not if its 120 degrees on a Texas roof.
Keep adding these new photos to your listing and Google will take note and it will help you move up on the map listing. Google loves content and content is king regarding marketing the more quality content you have, the better you will be than your competition.
Roofing Ads on Google Map Listing
You may have noticed a year or so ago that you were able to post ads on Google maps to help you get more roofing leads. For a lot of us in the industry, we saw this as Google just finding new ways to make more money and to keep the smaller guys down. So how do you get your ads to show up in maps? Well, you typically need to have a larger budget to compete with the larger roofing companies that are spending money but its possible for the little guy to play in this area.
First, you need to know how to activate them; you do this by going into the ad extensions for your google roofing campaign. To get there, you will go to the ad section of your ad words campaign. Once in that section, you will see a subsection for extensions. Click on the extensions tab and then add extensions. Once you are there, you will then be able to see all the different ad extensions that you have. Scroll down and look for the location/map extension and sync your Google business listing with your AdWords account. You will then be eligible to have your ads shown in the map listing.
Summary
Long story short, claim your Google map listing. Publish to directories, add photos and respond to reviews.
How long will all this take? Well if you do it right six months to 1 year. That’s right; this takes some time. If you are in a competitive market, it will take a bit longer. But its worth it because these leads are practically free. So do not abandon your other marketing efforts just yet. If you are a small owner-operator type business, in the long run, this may be the only advertising you need. If you are a larger business free roofing leads are free roofing leads.
Thank you for reading my blog, more posts are on the way. Please reach out to me on the contact page if you have any questions or would like me to write about different topics.
