Today, let’s focus on the term “Louisville roofing” to determine the potential implications for local contractors.

Since roofers are in demand around the area due to the storms earlier in the year, many are looking to the Internet to do a lot of the front end prospecting and early stage follow up.

If you are a roofing contractor who serves the Louisville area, having front page Google exposure can free your sales staff to write more estimates and close more deals because people go online to find potential contractors before calling you.

You may be wondering, “how much can front page Google exposure really mean to my business?” Let’s take a peek.

Search Volume for Louisville Roofing

For starters, Google tells us that the term “Louisville roofing” generates 5,400 search queries per month, and the cost per click (CPC) value is $7.74. This is depicted in the graphic below which is probably difficult to read so take my word for it on the volumes. (If you want to see the full image, just click on it.)

Current Search Volume for “Louisville Roofing Contractor” and Related Terms

How Much Traffic Should You Expect?

Knowing that, we can deduct that the top ranked site for “Louisville roofing” likely sees 1,242 visitors from that term every month. To generate 1,242 visitors through a pay per click (PPC) campaign, it would cost $9,613.08/month.

Not a cheap search term to say the least.

What About Exact Match Searches?

Let’s zoom in a bit deeper to see how many exact match queries are run each month. Google tells us there are only 260 searches which indicates “Louisville roofing” is more of a modifier phrase that people use to find solutions.

The CPC for that term is $7.25. The likely traffic for the top site is 60 visitors/month. $435/month is what you could expect to spend to generate an equivalent level of traffic for that term.

What About “Louisville Roofer?”

To give the term “Louisville roofing” some context, consider the fact that only 58 perform an exact search for the term “Louisville roofer.” The top ranked site for that term likely only sees 13 visitors (at $10/click) which means you’d only have to shell out $130 to generate the equivalent traffic for a PPC campaign.

What About Combined Volume?

If you were to combine the traffic from both terms (13 for “Louisville roofer” and 60 for “Louisville roofing”), you could expect to see 73 visitors/month from search engines like Google.  The combined cost for an equivalent level of traffic would be $565/month or $6,780/year.

The Bottom Line

If you want to rank well for the broad term, expect to pay $9,613.08/month. Most SEO firms will focus on this number as a basis for their proposals. Don’t fall for it because that’s the broad based search volume. You want to focus on the number of people who type the phrase in exactly to get a better grip on what it could mean for your business.

If you are legitimately evaluating search engine optimization (SEO) as a viable option for your Louisville roofing business, expect to pay less than $6,780/year for the services or it’s not a good deal based solely upon the likely traffic volume to your website.

Typically speaking, SEO doesn’t include services such as call tracking to pinpoint how many web visitors call you to schedule an appointment. That’s highly recommended if you can’t determine how many callers originate from your web presence today. Don’t feel bad, most roofing contractors have no idea how many web visitors they get each month let alone how many phone calls the web generates.

SEO also does not include web design/redesign or any automated follow up. Be sure to include these key elements in your marketing plan moving forward along with your budget.

All tolled, you should expect to pay somewhere in the neighborhood of $10,000 for a marketing campaign that includes the most recommended services.

Just Imagine …

Here’s how to evaluate SEO for your roofing business … if you sign just three more roofing deals over the next year as a result of 876 visitors to your website (0.3% conversion rate), would your likely return be greater than $10,000? If so, you owe it to yourself to explore things further.

If you want some free guidance on SEO, call tracking, or enhanced web solutions, call Roger now at (502) 276-8003.

Now, imagine how you might feel in three months if your competitor takes advantage of this free consultation offer and ends up dominating Google’s front page for “Louisville roofing contractor.”