The short version
- Put the storm, leak, and moss pages up before the rain returns, and the replacement pages up before the dry months.
- An instant estimate that measures the roof from satellite imagery gives a homeowner a price range before anyone climbs a ladder.
- Give every town its own page with roofs finished there, and show your L&I or CCB number where homeowners look.
Roofing in Western Washington and western Oregon runs on the weather. A homeowner with a drip in the hallway in November wants a different page than a homeowner planning a new roof in June, and a roofing site that treats them the same loses one of them.
I build sites for contractors in Washington and Oregon, including Volks Roofing in Vancouver, WA. This is how I would set up a roofer's site for the year. Which pages go up when, what each one says, and where the proof goes.
Plan the year around the rain
The National Weather Service's Climate of Portland summary (opens in a new tab) says nearly 90 percent of Portland's yearly rain falls between the middle of October and the middle of May, and only about 3 percent falls in July and August. For a roofer in Portland or Vancouver, that split is the calendar.
The wet months bring leaks, wind damage, limbs on the roof, and tarps. The dry months are when crews tear off and reroof, and when the homeowner who patched through the winter finally books the replacement. So the site needs two sets of pages, and each set should be live and linked from the homepage before its season starts, not the week the calls begin.
| Months | What homeowners ask for | Pages to have live |
|---|---|---|
| September | An inspection before the rain, moss and gutter work | Inspection, moss removal, gutters |
| October to December | Leaks, wind damage, tarps | Storm damage, emergency repair, leak repair |
| January to March | Repairs, then replacement quotes | Repair, replacement, the instant estimate |
| April to June | Replacements for the dry months | Replacement pages by material, town pages |
| July and August | Tear offs and reroofs underway | Project pages from the jobs you are finishing |
The last row is the easy one to skip. Summer is when you have the best photos of the year, so it is when the project pages get written. Those pages do the selling next spring.
Storm and leak pages go up before the first storm
A homeowner with water coming through the ceiling does not browse. They search on a phone, open the first few results, and call the one that looks like it can come out. The pages for that moment should be short, specific, and easy to act on.
Build three of them.
- A storm damage page for wind damage, missing shingles, and limbs on the roof.
- An emergency repair page for active leaks and tarping.
- A leak repair page for the slow drip that shows up as a stain on the ceiling.
Each page gets a tap to call button at the top, a short list of what you do (tarp, temporary repair, inspection, written estimate), and an inspection form that asks for the address, the roof type, and what the homeowner sees. On the sites I build, the request arrives by email with those job details, so you can decide from the truck whether it is a tarp tonight or an inspection Thursday. After hours on a Site with Tools, the intake chat takes the same details and sends them to you by email.
Add a few lines on what the homeowner should do right now. Move things away from the drip, take photos of the damage, and stay off a wet roof. That is useful to someone at 9 at night, and it reads like a roofer who has done this before.
Only promise the response time you can keep. "We call back within the hour" is a promise the homeowner will test during the worst week of your year.
Moss, gutters, and small repairs lead to the big job
Moss is steady work on shaded roofs across the wet side of the Northwest. A moss job can be how a roofer meets a homeowner years before the roof needs replacing, and the roofer who cleaned the moss is the one they remember when it does.
Give each small service its own page. Moss removal and treatment, gutter cleaning and repair if you do it, skylight and chimney flashing leaks, and general repairs. A homeowner who searches moss removal in Kirkland wants the moss page, not a services page with twelve items on it.
Write the moss page the way you explain it at the door. What you see on their roof, how you take the moss off, what you treat it with, and how often it needs doing. Then show one roof before and after. A Site with Tools has a before and after slider that puts both photos in one frame with a handle the homeowner drags across.
Put a price range on the homepage
The first question a homeowner has about a new roof is the price, and it is the question they least like calling to ask.
Volks Roofing answers it on the homepage. A homeowner types the address, the roof is measured from satellite imagery, and a price range appears on the spot. Volks is licensed in Oregon and Washington and works both sides of the Columbia, so the same tool serves a homeowner in Camas and one in Beaverton.
You set the numbers behind it. A price per square for each material you install, adjustments for pitch and tear off, and a spread wide enough that your inspection price lands inside it. When the homeowner calls after seeing the range, they are calling about a job they already expect to pay for.
The roof measurement engine comes with a Site with Tools at $4,000, or it is $2,500 added to a Site. The estimating engine page shows how it works on a roofing site.
A page for every town you roof
A homeowner in Battle Ground wants to see roofs in Battle Ground. A town page shows the roofs you finished there, the reviews from customers there, and the neighborhoods you work in, with the inspection form at the bottom.
Your Google Business Profile has a limit here that the site does not. Google lets a service area business list up to 20 service areas (opens in a new tab) and asks that the whole area stay within about 2 hours of driving from where the business is based. The site can carry a page for every town you actually roof in. A Site has 20 town pages and a Site with Tools has 40, and a pack of ten more pages is $600.
Write each town page from real jobs. Two finished roofs, one review, and the names of the streets you know say more than a paragraph with the town name swapped in.
Reviews that name the roof and the town
Ask for the review at the final walkthrough, when the homeowner is standing in the driveway looking at the new roof, and send the review link before you pull away. Ask every customer the same way, and read my guide on getting more Google reviews for how to ask and what Google allows.
On the site, each review goes next to the roof it describes. A homeowner reading about a metal roof in Camas sees what the Camas customer wrote about that roof. The dashboard on every site counts review clicks next to visits, quote requests by source, and phone taps, so you can see whether the review link gets used.
Your license number, in both states if you work both
Homeowners check the license before a crew puts a ladder on the house, and both states have a rule about the number in advertising. In Washington, RCW 18.27.100 (opens in a new tab) says advertising that shows your name or address has to show your current registration number. In Oregon, OAR 812-003-0120 (opens in a new tab) says website advertising has to show your CCB license number.
Volks shows both numbers on the homepage, and the footer labels each one with its state. On every site I build, the number goes at the top of the site, in the footer, and next to the quote form. The details of how to write it are in my guide on the license number on your website.
What it costs to set up
The roofing website has the storm, leak, moss, and town pages above, your Google reviews next to the work, and the dashboard. A Site is $1,500, with $750 to start and $750 at launch. The first draft is ready in 7 business days, and the site goes live 7 business days after you approve the draft. A Site with Tools is $4,000 and adds the roof measurement engine, project pages with before and after sliders, and the intake chat.
There is no monthly fee on the site. Hosting costs you nothing, and your domain is registered in your name. After launch, a Site has a 14 day punch list and a Site with Tools has 60 days of updates. After that, Care is $150 a month, month to month, and covers small changes, or a change is quoted flat before I make it.
