If you're a roofer covering Durham, Darlington, or anywhere in between, there are people searching for you on Google right now. "Roofer near me." "Roof repair Durham." "Flat roof Darlington." These searches happen hundreds of times a month. The question is whether your business shows up when they do.
Step 1: Get your Google Business Profile sorted
This is the single most important thing you can do. Your Google Business Profile is what shows up in the map results at the top of Google. It's free. It takes about 30 minutes to set up. And for roofers, it's an absolute goldmine.
Fill it in properly. Add your services (roof repairs, flat roofing, guttering, lead work, chimney repairs). Add your service area covering Durham, Darlington, Newton Aycliffe, Spennymoor, Sedgefield, and wherever else you work. Upload photos of your jobs. And then start asking every happy customer to leave a Google review.
Step 2: Get a website that mentions your areas
Google uses your website to understand exactly what you do and where. If your site says "we're roofers covering Durham, Darlington, Bishop Auckland, and Barnard Castle," Google will show you to people searching in those areas. Without a website, Google has much less to work with and you'll struggle to rank.
Your website doesn't need to be complicated. A clean homepage, a page listing your services, a gallery of before and after photos, and a contact page. That's enough to outrank most of your competition. See what a roofer's website should look like here.
Step 3: Target the right keywords
Keywords are just the phrases people type into Google. For a roofer, the big ones are:
- "Roofer Durham" and "roofer Darlington"
- "Roof repair near me"
- "Flat roofer County Durham"
- "Emergency roof repair Durham"
- "Guttering repair Darlington"
Your website should mention these naturally throughout your content. Not stuffed in awkwardly, just used where they make sense. Google is smart enough to pick up on it.
Step 4: Get reviews. Loads of them.
For local searches, Google reviews are one of the biggest ranking factors. A roofer with 40 reviews at 4.8 stars will almost always rank above a roofer with 3 reviews, even if their website is better. After every job, send a quick text with your Google review link. Most customers are happy to help. They just need reminding.
The Durham and Darlington advantage
Here's the good news. The online competition for roofers in Durham and Darlington is nowhere near as fierce as in bigger cities. There are probably only a handful of roofers with proper websites in your area. That means getting onto page one of Google is realistic within a few weeks of launching a site, not months or years.
If you're a roofer in Durham or Darlington who wants to stop relying on word of mouth alone, the steps above will get you started. And if you want a website that does the heavy lifting for you, we can have you set up in days, not weeks.