One of the most important parts of marketing in this digital age is having an internet presence. There are a number of ways to have your business show up on the web, but a website is one of the most important. A website will give your business credibility. This is the same credibility that having a Yellow Pages listing used to have.
You can choose to hire someone to build your roofing website, or you can tackle the project yourself. If you are thinking about trying to set-up your own website, here are a few basic steps:
The first step in getting a website is selecting a domain name. This can sometimes be trickier than it seems, especially if numerous roofers around the world have your same business name. Instead of “SmithsRoofing.com”, you may have to add additional words such as a location “SmithsRoofingBoston.com”, or choose some other catchphrase such as “TheRoofLeakDetector.com”. You will want something easy to remember. The domain name is important, but not nearly as important as the content of your website, so don’t lose too much sleep over deciding on it.
The next step is choosing a web host provider. This is the company that will host your website. Your web host can also help with the domain name an may include it for free in a hosting package. You can get a FREE domain with web hosting purchase and check for website name availability here.
Next, you will need to choose the type of website you want. The WordPress platform is popular, and has a relatively easy learning curve (compared to learning HTML and CSS code). There are many templates available that allow you to simply plug in your information, hit “publish”, and you are online!
Your next step is inserting the content onto your site. You don’t necessarily need a logo, but if you have good logo, it will help the appearance of your site. Some important pages to have are and “About” page, a “Services” page, and a “Contact” page. You really don’t need much more than that. In fact, you could really set up a 1 page website including all the necessary information that would be adequate.
Information you want to include on your page should include: service areas, email and phone contact information, services you provide, and any other useful information (years in business, specialties, etc.) Keywords are important in your content. It may seem obvious, but make sure your actual business name, location and other important information are included, and spelled correctly. If not, your website may suffer in Google rankings when someone is searching for your services.
