Website SEO Hocus Pokus and Smoke & Mirrors

Had a little spare time so I compared our website score to some competitors on an SEO scoring website. I was surprised to see that we scored as high as some who have really extensive SEO budgets and do a lot of work on their sites.

Our site is basic, not very professional-looking, and I rarely optimize it. But it tells the story and if you're looking for us you'll find us. Granted, if you're looking for someone else, you probably won't find us - and that seems to be the major difference between a low budget site and a big budget site.

As usual, one size does not fit all. If you want people to stumble onto your site from all over, maybe a big SEO budget works. But if you want a place to send your customers to get company info, I don't think you need a big budget website.

And here is more anecdotal evidence: I know who is doing what in the roofing industry in this region for the most part. Some of the most basic plain-looking websites are for some of the most successful roofing companies. Conversely, some of the most flashy websites who pop a roofing company's website every time you do a search for bacon, tires, cigars or roofing, are some pretty marginal roofing companies.

Clover83,

Thank You. I returned the facebook like.

I charge between $90 and $250. Most are between $90 and $150. I plan on having 1 guy doing this full time. $90 takes about 1/2 hour to the job and 1/2 hour tops at the job. Travel time away is charged to the next job. $90 for the maximum of 1 hour of your time. Most become repeat customers.

You get to upsell on any roof or siding repairs, gutter repairs, trimming back trees. I also will replace spotlights on the house.

That is $650 - $720 a day from 1 man. No materials, Small Ford Ranger pickup equipt with ladders and standoffs, 1 mans labor for a day {about $250 with taxes..}, no callbacks you can not go wrong.

I gave your FB a like Lefty. I went to your first website and thought the company name sounded familiar. Then the end of the video showed that sparrow and I remembered that I stumbled across one of your pages back in the day. That's a great idea.

https://www.facebook.com/CloverRoofing

Do you do alright cleaning gutters? I've thought about adding that service for years but always talk myself out of it mainly for lack of a pricing scheme. We don't hang gutters but do install guards.

I have 2 sites that come up on the first page of goggle. Plus adwords ad which gives us 3 spots on the first page. Working on goggle maps which would give us 4 pieces of real estate on the first page of goggle in our geographic region. I have about 60 micro sites that I made. They are not finished. I need to develope the content on each of the pages. But it does not stop me from getting leads and work.

www.lehighvalleyguttercleaning.com www.bluemountainguttercleaning.com www.bluemountaininsulators.com www.lehighvalleysidingrepairs.com www.bethleheminsulation.com www.lehighvalleyroofrepairs.com

If you visit any of these sites like my facebook page. Let me know that you did this and I will like yours.

Well I haven't done a rank check since I've been managing my page. I used one from moz.com and found that I wasn't coming up on FB, Yahoo, and some other sites even though I'm registered at them. 43%!

Do you guys use a free rank checker or pay for all that stuff?

Back in the old days of the internet it was easier. I maintained my YouTube videos at the highest ranking by having all my friends on an internet forum I managed to set my Youtube video address as their homepage to drive up the hit numbers. Every time they opened their browser, I got a hit.

These days I'm not marketing to a wide customer-base, geographically. By the time my potential customer gets my quote, he has seen my logo/URL combo at least 6 times. My YouTube videos are on my website so the ranking isn't that important to me.

I have a new sales tool that lets me present our company to the prospect without forcing him to get online where he might see my competitors.

I think it boils down to key words and age of your active domain name. There are two types of SEO optimizations, "organic" and "black hat". Many SEO firms use black hat tactics to raise your ranking status fast. But as soon as you stop paying your site will start to drop like a lead balloon. Like you said, "SEO Smoke and Mirrors". But, when it's organically grown SEO is slower, methodical and has sustainability... But that too is changing.

Tim, in your case, Googling, "chopped fiberglass roofing" Kold King pops up first because of age- then your videos should be next. By adding "Dallas" the ranking changes because of SEO. But, Google is now putting more emphasis on social media, ie; Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. the more activity the more ranking. (not to mention Google maps is playing a role).

Type in "Foam Roof Repair"... and pages of roofers pop up add "Dallas Foam Roof Repair" and a YouTube video is at the top of the page.

Keep up your videos and you will see your website ranking climb. MHO