Key takeaways
- Homeowners judge a roofer on the profile before they call, so photos of real roofs and recent reviews matter as much as the category.
- Use Roofing contractor as the primary category and add Gutter service only where crews do gutter work.
- Set the profile up as a service-area business with the street address hidden and the towns you serve listed.
- Google shut down profile chat in July 2024. Route homeowners to a phone that is answered and an inspection booking page.
Google Business Profile optimization for a roofing company means choosing the right category, setting up service areas with your address hidden, and keeping the profile full of what homeowners judge roofers on: photos of real roofs, recent reviews that name the work, and a phone that gets answered. For most roofers it is where the first call comes from.
Why your Google profile is your phone line
Your profile is where most roofing calls start, including many that end up arriving by referral. A homeowner with water in the attic searches, sees three roofers on the map, and calls the one that looks local, established and reachable. A homeowner given your name by a neighbor searches it anyway, to check you are real.
What they look at, in roughly this order:
- Reviews, and how recent they are. A roofer whose last review was two storm seasons ago looks like a roofer who may not be around for the warranty.
- Photos. Trucks with your name on them, crews on real roofs, finished jobs from the street.
- The call button. On a phone, the profile is often the only page they see before they dial.
After a hailstorm, that comparison gets sharper. New names appear on the map, some of them outfits from out of the area. A complete, long-standing profile is what separates you from them before you have said a word.
What a complete Business Profile includes
Your Business Profile Often the first thing a customer sees
- Categories One primary, then secondaries that fit
- Services Each service you sell, described
- Photos Real work, the team and vehicles
- Reviews Asked for and answered
- Hours and booking link Accurate, including holidays
- Service area Area set, address hidden
What we optimize
- Category and services. Roofing contractor as primary, secondary categories only for work your crews do, and every service entered with a short description in homeowner language.
- Service areas. The towns or ZIP codes you serve, street address hidden, as Google requires for businesses that go to the customer (service-area settings).
- Business name. Exactly as it appears on your trucks, contracts and signage, with no added keywords (Google's guidelines).
- Photos every week. Tear-offs, decking repairs, finished roofs, gutter installs, crews and trucks, taken by your project managers on the job.
- Reviews. A request tied to the completed status in your CRM, and replies to every review.
- Phone and links. A tracking number that forwards to whoever answers in storm weeks, and a tagged link to the matching service page.
- Updates. Posts during storm season about the inspections you are doing, and in winter about planned replacements.
- Access. You stay the primary owner. We work as a manager and remove old employees, past agencies and anyone who should not have access.
Categories for roofing companies
Start with Roofing contractor as the primary category. It matches what homeowners search, and it is the category the roofers you compete with almost certainly use. Add secondary categories only for work you actually do (Google's category help). The rest of your roofing work belongs in other fields, and putting each piece in the right one is most of the job:
| Your roofing work | Where it goes on the profile |
|---|---|
| Roof replacement and roof repair | Covered by Roofing contractor, then entered as two separate services with short descriptions |
| Storm damage and insurance claims | The services list and the business description. It is not a category, and it never goes in the name |
| Gutters | Gutter service as a secondary category, only if your own crews install or repair them |
| Siding, skylights or other exterior work | A secondary category only when you sell it as a job on its own |
| Free inspections | A service entry and a line in the description, so the offer shows without bending the rules |
Category names change, so pick from the list Google offers when you edit the profile. Changing the primary category can prompt Google to re-check the profile, so make the change once and give it time. The category guide for roofers weighs each secondary option and when to leave one off.
How it works
- Assess. We compare your profile with the roofers who win your area: category, services, photos, review pace and edit history.
- Prioritize. We fix whatever is costing calls first, usually the category, the services list or a wrong service-area setup, and put a date on each change.
- Execute. We make changes one at a time, days apart, so a burst of edits does not send the profile back for review. Then we set up the weekly photo and review routine.
- Measure. We track calls, website clicks and booked inspections from the profile each month, and compare storm season with the season before.
If your profile has already been suspended, start with the reinstatement guide for roofers.
How VETS Growth Marketing helps
We manage your profile as a manager on an account you own, so you can remove us any day and keep everything. The work runs as a project with dated milestones, and we report in calls and booked inspections from the profile, not views. Book a growth consultation and we will review your profile against the roofers who rank above you.
Sources
- Manage your business category, Google Business Profile Help
- Manage your service areas for service-area & hybrid businesses, Google Business Profile Help
- Guidelines for representing your business on Google, Google Business Profile Help