[RoofingLeads]

Grumpy, I didn't want to hijack the other guys threads so I created one here for you. Since we were doing a little bit of work on your stuff I thought I would take a look at your site.

DISCLAIMER!!!

Now, for anyone reading this we don't offer these services but they are the EXACT SAME SERVICE we utilize EVERYDAY when we produce our Roofing Leads. I used to offer SEO service but it is to dang COMPLICATED to explain to you guys and your get so confused that you move on and won't deal with it! These days we don't try to sell SEO services so and simply sell phone calls from customers wanting your roofing service in a your locally targeted area and that is simply enough for roofers to understand very easily. Now with that said, I don't mind providing some help here based on how much free time I have.

Now that I have that out of the way, Grumpy let me give you some advice on your websites.

FIRST, you have to promise your aren't going to get mad and FLAME ME for the help I give you. You can either agree or disagree, but I'm just trying to help you here so NO FLAMING ME IF YOU DISAGREE!! I'm not trying to be harsh either so if some of my words come off as harsh, my apologies. I'm simply trying to help you get more Roofing Leads from your website which is EXACTLY WHAT I DO FOR MY CUSTOMERS THROUGH OUR OWN NETWORK OF SITES IN MANY LOCAL AREAS ACROSS THE USA!

There are some basic concepts to sales and a ton of research has gone into how we setup our network of local websites. You don't want a lot of clutter to distract the callers. Things that aren't necessary, GET RID OF. Put things like "We are Hiring" in the footer and get it out of the way.

Your website is a little amateurish. Again, I'm not trying to be critical, rather give you good info here. You have some of the most valuable property on you website is blank. The top left header. Put your Company name up there with a Logo Type like "Providing Roofing Service to your local community".

This next part is VERY IMPORTANT!! Put your CTA (Call To Action) on the right side with a:

PHONE NUMBER BIG AND BRIGHT

Did you get the point.

BIG AND BRIGHT

I can barely find your phone number and that is the GOAL of the website, to get them to call you. In sales a phone call is generally thought of as the most efficient type of interaction so the objective of the website is basically "GET THEM TO CALL"!

Here is a little game I like to play. Lets imagine that you can't read. So Grumpy never finished school and never learned to read. Now go look at your website and you really can't tell what it is about. Statistics show poeple don't read all the stuff you put on there so your website needs to be VERY VISUAL. If a person who can't read doesn't know what your website is about then most people won't either.

Keep in mind, you only have a few seconds when someone clicks on your website from a search results to grab their attention. If in those first few seconds, you don't grab their attention VISUALLY, the visitor leaves (called a BOUNCE) and goes back to the search results to continue down the list of your compitors. So the point here is if you can't capture their attention visually in a few seconds, THEY LEAVE AND GO TO YOUR COMPETITOR! Also, your website gives or takes away INSTANT CREDIBILITY! A poor looking website makes you seem like a poor quality company whereas a NICE WEBSITE give you INSTANT CREDIBILITY!

Now, I'm going to get into your stats a little bit. Your website has a 9% keyword density for the keyword "Roofing". That is way to much. Try changing some of the words to "Roof", "Rooftop", etc. You want to aim for 2% but no more then 3% keyword density.

Also try to get the keywords "Commercial" and "Residential" up as they are less then 1%. Then start working on your 2 word phrases which are more important then single words. You don't even have any 3 or 4 word phrases so again you need to work on those.

This is a good little bit that will help you get stated.

Glenn

YourRoofingLeads.com
281-394-0833

 

[Grumpy]

No. I don't want them to call. I would prefer they email me. I almost never answer the phone and almost never return any messages. Besides the phone number is at the top right hand side of every single page on the site. FWIW the phone number used to be bold, but like I said, I don't want people to call.

The website is pretty much as it was since day one designed back in 2003. Yes it does need some updating. As content has been added it got cluttered, it definitely needs some updating without a doubt. I need to add more pictures to nearly ever one of the pages, and need to add videos. But I bet you can not find another roofing website with as much information as mine has.

If it aint broke don't fit ix. I already get more leads than I can handle from the website. I already rank #4, my google+ page ranks #3, and I also rank #10 for the keyword "chicago roofing". Other than the images and videos and a little clean-up. I have no other changes planned for the website. Of coarse I am always adding data, data data. I spoke to a few web design seo type guys, but there is no way I am going to pay thousands of dollars for what is essentially a few man-hours of work.


The following doesn't really mean anything other than stats for bean counters. At the end of the day I think we can all agree, the only thing that matters is leads leads leads. In July I had 2,807 unique visitors to my site, with a viewing of 5,906 pages, this excludes known spiders. 99% of that traffic came from the United States. The #1 landing page was http://reliableamerican.us/services/low-slope-roofing.html which is exactly the way I like it. The #2 landing page was http://reliableamerican.us/articles/roof-hail-damage.html which pleases me because I am doing a public service with that page. Google, Facebook and DIYchatroom are the #1, 2 & 3 referring websites.

Top 6 key phrases are: flat roof options
low slope roofing
cedar siding
aluminum vs vinyl siding
low slope roofing options
flat roof systems

Gotta get rid of that siding junk, but at one point many years ago I was heavily promoting siding. Now I just ignore the calls and emails asking for siding.

So yeah I know my site isn't perfect, and yeah I would agree with most of what you are saying about my site is true, but at the same time it is doing its' job hands down.

BTW this was all data for July 2012.


It seems like you are trying to sell me on something, don't waste your time.

 

[RoofingLeads]

No. I don't want them to call. I would prefer they email me. I almost never answer the phone and almost never return any messages. Besides the phone number is at the top right hand side of every single page on the site.

Grumpy, everyone has different goal that meet their needs. If you were to take the calls live, your business would probably triple or quadrupedal. Statistics show that 75% of people won't leave a message if they get a voice mail and simply call the next company. I can actually refer you to answering service that only cost $1 per call to have a live operator take you calls. In your case I actually had to search for the phone number and finally found it. In comparison, take a look at this site. http://www.sugarland-roofing.net. See how simply and clean it is with a phone number predominate.

It sound to me you are comfortable where you are and aren't looking for growth. But you are leaving so much money on the table, BUT again, everyone has their own goals.

The website is pretty much as it was since day one designed back in 2003. Yes it does need some updating. As content has been added it got cluttered, it definitely needs some updating without a doubt. I need to add more pictures to nearly ever one of the pages, and need to add videos. But I bet you can not find another roofing website with as much information as mine has.

I know you think information if good, but people just don't read that stuff. Someone that is in the lower stage of the buying cycle might be doing some research and find that useful, but in general our ROOFING LEAD GENERATION websites around the nation are 3 or 4 pages and some get 200+ callers a months. LESS REALLY IS MORE!!! Again, it seems to be working for what you want out of it.

I spoke to a few web design seo type guys, but there is no way I am going to pay thousands of dollars for what is essentially a few man-hours of work.

I couldn't agree with your more. In fact, I stated very clearly in my original post "we don't offer these services" outright and but we utilize them in our everyday work to get roofing leads for our customers. The brick wall we always faced was convincing people they need SEO. It really does take more than "a few man-hours of work" as you stated, but regardless, selling SEO we faced the same attitude 99% of the time. So we quit selling SEO and focused on something much more important LEADS!

In General SEO people like to show you stats of how many poeple coming to your website and lots of pretty graphs, but none of that mean anything if the PHONE ISN'T RINGING! We focus on the phone ringing and only charge by the call and not SEO!

It seems like you are trying to sell me on something, don't waste your time.

I'm sorry if you got that impression as I thought I was pretty clear I was just offering help! It was pretty clear to me from the start you weren't going to be interested in our service since you do it yourself and we don't really work on individual's website as I've stated several times.

By being part of the community and helping others here in this forums will gain trust that we know what I'm talking about. If I haven't gained at least some trust with the VERY DETAILED INFO I've have given by now, then I don't want them as a customer.

I don't work with people who question my EXPERTISE, I ONLY work with people who see me as an EXPERT!

So no hard feelings, it seem you are quite happy with the current results you are getting and I'm glad it is working for you, but I was only trying to help.

Let me know if you have questions in the future and I would be glad to help.

Have a great day,

Glenn

YourRoofingLeads.com
281-394-0833

 

[Grumpy]

I agree 75% won't leave a message. I can be sitting in my office with the phone right next to me and I will seldom bother answering it.

I don't want an answering service unless they are free. Who needs the added expense if I can't handle all the leads I already get, why do I need to spend more to get more? Doesn't make sense. Hiring another sales rep? Been there, done that, terrible track record, cost me a quarter million dollars debt, can't find a sales rep who can sell a premium roofing system, so I will keep looking until I find one who can.

Why are you so hung up on the phone ringing That's so last century. There is this thing called e-mail. An email is just as good if not better than a phone call, those who spend a few minutes on my website undoubtedly understand what makes a good roof, THEN they contact us.


You said: "If I haven't gained at least some trust with the VERY DETAILED INFO I've have given by now, then I don't want them as a customer." that's why I want them to read my website before they call. Educate themselves, qualify me and my company, then decide you wish to hire us. You'd be surprised the people who call who recite what my website says back to me. I want more than brochure-ware website, I want information-ware.

A educated customer is our best asset. Most people wanting a new roof, don't want a good roof, or don't know what a good roof is.

 

[Guttersmiths]

I really prefer to get emails. They come from people who've read my site, read my reviews on angies, read articles, and know they want to hire me. I actually submit all of bids via email also.

The roofing leads guy def comes across like a salesman.

 

[RoofingLeads]

I agree 75% won't leave a message. I can be sitting in my office with the phone right next to me and I will seldom bother answering it.

Grumpy, I've already said 5 times if it works for you then great!! I was simply trying to offer help, but you obviously don't need it. Thanks and have a great day!

The roofing leads guy def comes across like a salesman.

Guttersmiths, well I would hope so since that is what I do for a living by getting roofing contractors roofing leads..

That is why I'm here to help people and in return I'll probably get some clients of out if...

Glenn

YourRoofingLeads.com
281-394-0833

 

[1985gt]

Word of mouth, yellow page ads, and a bit of web. Honestly I think i've gotten my very first email off the web site yesterday. Only reason it came from there is because his neighbor is an architect and didn't have our info with him at his home. Honestly with the work load we get from that and public bid jobs I really don't need more on my plate. If I was a shingler then sure, quicker job turn over. Plus I don't want a bunch of tire kickers.

 

[RoofingLeads]

Word of mouth, yellow page ads, and a bit of web. Honestly I think i've gotten my very first email off the web site yesterday. Only reason it came from there is because his neighbor is an architect and didn't have our info with him at his home. Honestly with the work load we get from that and public bid jobs I really don't need more on my plate. If I was a shingler then sure, quicker job turn over. Plus I don't want a bunch of tire kickers.

1985gt, Please, Please tell me your aren't still giving the yellowpages money! People are always encouraged to do what is working for them, but the advertising dollars you are throwing at the Printed Media could probably triple or quadruple your ROI (Return On Investment) and CPA (Cost Per Acquisition)!

Glenn

YourRoofingLeads.com
281-394-0833

 

[1985gt]

1985gt, Please, Please tell me your aren't still giving the yellowpages money! People are always encouraged to do what is working for them, but the advertising dollars you are throwing at the Printed Media could probably triple or quadruple your ROI (Return On Investment) and CPA (Cost Per Acquisition)!

Glenn

YourRoofingLeads.com
281-394-0833

We run a 2 1/4" X 3 1/2" add in the phone book. It's been there since the 80's when the company started, in our area more people are apt to pick up a phone book then google search. We do though atleast come up on the first page of google. As I said word of mouth and repeat customers are our main source of business. We don't do shingles so our normal jobs do not turn over in 1-2 days. We have jobs that last 1-2 weeks up to a couple of months, we even had one that kept a crew of 8-10 busy for 3 years. When you re-roof a couple major manufacturing plants and have customers who have been calling you since the 80's, you can't buy that type of advertising. They just keep calling repair here, new curb there.

My point is if I had to sift though 10-20 leads a day I wouldn't get anything done. Depending on job size it takes anywhere from 1/2 day to a week or more to get a bid out, during that time pubic bid ops and private estimates keep coming in. I just can't turn out bids like shingling companies can, it's a completely different ball game.

 

[RoofingLeads]

Advertising Methods, Roofing Leads

We run a 2 1/4" X 3 1/2" add in the phone book. It's been there since the 80's when the company started, in our area more people are apt to pick up a phone book then google search. We do though atleast come up on the first page of google. As I said word of mouth and repeat customers are our main source of business. We don't do shingles so our normal jobs do not turn over in 1-2 days. We have jobs that last 1-2 weeks up to a couple of months, we even had one that kept a crew of 8-10 busy for 3 years. When you re-roof a couple major manufacturing plants and have customers who have been calling you since the 80's, you can't buy that type of advertising. They just keep calling repair here, new curb there.

1985gt, my purpose here is not to tell you how to run your business, nor is it to get in a big debate. We all have our own opinions and I respect yours. Again, my purpose on these boards is solely to help people out by providing information related to the internet no matter whether or not you are a customer of mine. With that being said, I wanted to provide some material for you.

With advertising you should never expect to rely on a single source, but have business coming from multiple sources. Over 20 years, I've tried just about every type of advertising you can think of. Some worked, others didn't. I've done everything from Magazine, Yellow Pages, Mouse Pads, Pens, Shopping Carts and you keep the things that have the best ROI. With the internet your ROI is so much lower because you don't have "Printing" and "Distribution". That is one of the biggest things putting the Yellow Pages out of business.

"Word of Mouth" from repeat customer is a HUGE source that many business owners simply don't take advantage of. I don't remember the exact number, but statistics show it is 5 or 6 times more costly to get a new customer than to get repeat business from an existing customer. Also, in general with "WOM" advertising, if they are a good customer they in return will refer good customers to you. Never ask for referrals from a bad customer. Many people will take on any customer but over 20 years if I've learned one thing, that is you BUILD a customer base, not acquire one!!!

Regarding the Phone Book, if you go to Google you can do a simply search about "phone book advertising decline" and get 1000 articles on the subject. No matter where you are phone book usage is dying. My 85 year old grandfather who lives in a tiny town with a population of 500 even uses Google to look everything and uses the phone book for a Door Stop out on his back porch.

http://toomuchwhitespace.integritiv...on-the-decline-in-phone-book-usage-from-yelp/

But again, keep doing what you are doing now since it is working, but at some point you need to find something that works online and start a migration if you want to still do business in the future.

My point is if I had to sift though 10-20 leads a day I wouldn't get anything done. Depending on job size it takes anywhere from 1/2 day to a week or more to get a bid out, during that time pubic bid ops and private estimates keep coming in. I just can't turn out bids like shingling companies can, it's a completely different ball game.

You made a statement which confuses me: "if I had to sift though 10-20 leads a day I wouldn't get anything done". I'm not sure, but I think you might be confusing us with other services like ServiceMagic. Quite Frankly, I can't believe those guys are still in business!

I understand your pain here which is why we are very specialized and only market to people in the 4th stage of the buying cycle. Earlier in this thread Grumpy mentioned he has lots of material on his website and that is good for people in the 1st & 2nd stages of the buying cycle. Our system is designed from the START to bring in the type of callers our customers are seeking in roofing and only targeted to callers in the 4th stage of the buying cycle.

To explain this further here are the 5 stages of the buying cycle.

NEED
↓
INFORMATION GATHERING
↓
EVALUATION OF ALTERNATIVES
↓
PURCHASE OF PRODUCT/SERVICE
↓
POST PURCHASE EVALUATION

You can read further here if you like. http://www.managementstudyguide.com/consumer-decision-making-process.htm


CONCLUSION!


AGAIN we could debate back and forth all day here, but that is not my intentions. I'm here to provide factual information to everyone and to the small group of people who need our service, I would be happy to help.

If your system is working for you, then Please stick with it. As for our system we provide a HIGHLY SPECIALIZED SERVICE to a specific type of roofing contractor who is looking to have their internet sale lead generation 100% hands off.

I'm so confident in our system that we only charge if our customer gets an actually caller who is looking for roofing service. Show me another company that provides that type of confidence in their product.

Thanks and have a great day,

Glenn

YourRoofingLeads.com
281-394-0833

PS. I actually just had about an hour long conversation with a gentleman who called from Roofing.com. He mentioned the situation over there and he is interested in our model for the Oklahoma City area. That is about the 5th person I've spoke to from Roofing.com. We are even speaking with a Husband/Wife team who might be taking over Mr. Craney's old area in Birmingham.

 

[Grumpy]

I'm so confident in our system that we only charge if our customer gets an actually caller who is looking for roofing service. Show me another company that provides that type of confidence in their product.

I can rattle several of your competitiors actually. I get emails all the time with the same promise.

 

[RoofingLeads]

I can rattle several of your competitiors actually. I get emails all the time with the same promise.

Grumpy, I'm willing to accept that challenge!! Please proceed!! Lets do a case study and everyone here will benefit. Lets just make sure we are comparing APPLES TO APPLES and not APPLES to ROTTEN ORANGES!!

 

[Grumpy]

I'm not really willing to do a case study, but let me dig through my trash folder and see what I come up with.

 

[Grumpy]

Here's the first one that popped up

comments: Icon's Pay Per Sale and Pay Per Job program is one of a kind in there is absolutely 0 risk to you. You will only pay us a small fee when and only when you are paid by your customer that was referred to you from our marketing efforts. Icon absorbs all costs associated with marketing your business online. Here is how it works: Icon designs a new website based on your business and services Icon markets your new site online targeting only potential customers in your service area Potential customers either fill out a contact form or call in to our anonymous call center Customers pre-screened requests are sent to you immediately You set up an estimate or proceed with your standard customer acquisition procedures Icon verifies the job in a customer feedback fashion Once you verify the job was started you will be chargedLOW commission, no fine print, no gimmicks!Let's start a long and mutually profitable relationship.If you would like more information visit http://www.marketingicon.net/pay-per-sale.html or call us at 631-707-8489

 

[RoofingLeads]

Roofing Pay Per Lead

Here's the first one that popped up

comments: Icon's Pay Per Sale and Pay Per Job program is one of a kind in there is absolutely 0 risk to you. You will only pay us a small fee when and only when you are paid by your customer that was referred to you from our marketing efforts. Icon absorbs all costs associated with marketing your business online. Here is how it works: Icon designs a new website based on your business and services Icon markets your new site online targeting only potential customers in your service area Potential customers either fill out a contact form or call in to our anonymous call center Customers pre-screened requests are sent to you immediately You set up an estimate or proceed with your standard customer acquisition procedures Icon verifies the job in a customer feedback fashion Once you verify the job was started you will be chargedLOW commission, no fine print, no gimmicks!Let's start a long and mutually profitable relationship.If you would like more information visit http://www.marketingicon.net/pay-per-sale.html or call us at 631-707-8489

To your untrained eye, you might actually think this firm provides the same services we do, but this company is nowhere near the TARGETED SERVICE we provide and is not APPLES to APPLES for sure. It looks like they pretty much throw a pot of noodles up on the wall and see what type of industry they can make sticks... We on the other hand focus on only a few industries which ROOFING is by far our most skilled.

These guys state "Icon designs a new website based on your business and services" so these guys don't do near the work we do as we cast a net of multiple sites, and tons of other internet properties over a HUGE metro area.

Not to mentioned the these guys have a generic call center and there is no telling the quality of the leads. We on the other hand send the LIVE CALLERS DIRECTLY to your phone in REAL-TIME so you can judge for yourself the quality of our calls. All calls are recorded for review by ourselves and our customer to improve the quality as time goes on.

Did you bother to take a look at their sample site? OMG, what a clusterf***! So many options that half of the callers are going to get confused and go to the next site. You can't even find a Phone number clearly marked and the form at the BOTTOM OF THE PAGE, clearly shows these guys are focusing on email forms, which means they are probably selling these leads to multiple people. In my opinion we have more research based in the top inch of our site than these amateurs have in their entire site. There are so many other issues that set us apart from these guys that it is ridiculous. But it probably wouldn't be worth my time anyway as you have clearly stated you don't need and your only providing this info to disprove our methods.

AGAIN, our system sends LIVE CALLERS TO YOUR PHONE SO THERE IS NO WAY WE CAN BE SENDING THEM TO MULTIPLE CONTRACTORS!

Grumpy, I have to be honest here and say that I've put HOURS of time just evaluating your website, trying help others and taking the time to make complete replies to everyone's posts. If I were not legit, I sure am wasting alot of good quality time here on this forums and several other when I could be screwing over people if I were not LEGIT!! Think about it. If you really want to screw people over these days there sure are far easier way to do it. Sorry but we just aren't interested in short term business relationships. We build long last relationship that produce results for our customer!! END OF STORY!!!

Glenn

YourRoofingLeads.com
281-394-0833

 

[Grumpy]

I didn't say you wern't legit. I said there are others making the same offer as you. Why are you getting defensive?


Maybe they are not the same. Maybe it's not apples to apples. They are getting you leads right? The rofoer is not paying them unless you make the sale which actually is more "fair" of any lead service. That's how improvenet used to be before SM bought them out. Ahhh those were the days No risk leads? Hmmmm very enticing.

Don't pay for phone calls. Don't pay for leads. Only pay for sales. Very interesting. Isn't that the way it should be?

 

[General Roofing]

SEO and Roofing Leads

This thread has a lot of great information for the SEO learning roofing contractor.

 

[KevinOxford770]

Every behaves different. Young folks like to email, older folks like to call. Calls tend to be better and convert higher. Plus if you can get an appointment on the phone, it is one less appointment the person is probably going to schedule.

 

[Grumpy]

Every behaves different. Young folks like to email, older folks like to call. Calls tend to be better and convert higher. Plus if you can get an appointment on the phone, it is one less appointment the person is probably going to schedule.

I don't disagree anything you said. If I am trying to sell a customer time and material, I will always do it over the phone (assuming I want the job). My conversion rate is much much much higher over the phone vs email.

I prefer email from a time management point of view. Gah calling can be so damned time consuming. Email is so much more convenient. Plus I have a paper trail with the email.

Truth be told if they call I usually don't call back infact I seldom ever check my voice mails anymore I desperately need to get my company back to where it was a few years ago.

 

[roofingleadsnow]

Roofing Leads

Roofing Leads

We have a roofing lead platform that may work for you that will become available January 2013 to the general marketplace in USA, Canada, and UK.

It's a high quality inbound marketing system that refers roofing leads between and to roofing contractors that has been operational for the last four years in beta. There is no telemarketing or outbound marketing. It is strictly incoming calls from prospective clients that have requested the service.

Contact Information:

Roofing Contractor Services Team Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/roofing.leads.98

Facebook Page
http://www.facebook.com/RoofingLeadsOnline

Twitter
@roofingleadsnow

LinkedIn
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/roofing-...42/b94?trk=fbr

GMail
[email protected]

Google+ Page
https://plus.google.com/101233540633329343441

Email
[email protected]

Website
www.roofingleadsonline.com