For most of my adult life, I did not realize I had ADHD. I didn’t realize, but there were certainly signs. For example, I was once tasked with making cupcakes for an event, and I took the job very seriously. I measured meticulously, and they turned out beautifully.
And they were the most disgusting food to ever come out of my kitchen. Beautiful though they were, I had mistaken salt for sugar, and they, of course, were inedible. On first glance, the ingredients looked essentially the same, but their effects were vastly different.
Search Engine Optimization has a list of ingredients that have varying levels of importance and difficulty, but they each have a place in the mix.
There are five main segments of SEO. We will give a brief overview of each, and later on, we will use them as landmarks of how it all fits together.
On-Page Search Engine Optimization
I know it seems like everything on a website would be On-Page SEO. It’s all on a page, right? Technically, it is, but in terms of the SEO mix, this portion refers to the surface of your website. If your SEO were a house, On-Page SEO is your shingles and siding.
Definition: On-Page Search Engine Optimization is the process of optimizing the content and structure of a webpage so search engines, AI, and users can clearly understand what the page is about.
Key Components of On-Page SEO for Roofing Contractors
Roofing-specific keywords ( “roof replacement Nashville”).
Content quality and relevance (service pages, blogs, FAQs, location pages).
Title tags, meta descriptions, headers.
Internal linking.
Images and alt text.
Off-Page Search Engine Optimization
If On-Page SEO is your shingles, Off-Page SEO is your neighborhood. If your house sits next to an overgrown lot full of rusty cars, your home value is likely to drop. Alternatively, a fancy new playground down the street might bring you more value by association. Off-Page SEO is how factors outside of your website give your website more authority. If off-page is fully optimized, search engines give you more attention; if it is not, your rank will suffer.
Definition: Off-Page Search Engine Optimization is the process of building website authority with backlinks, reviews, and brand mentions.
Key Components of Off-Page SEO for Roofing Contractors
Backlinks from other sites such as local news, supplier directories, chambers of commerce, etc.
Brand mentions from reputable sources
Review management
Social media activity
Technical Search Engine Optimization
At the risk of overextending the metaphor:
On-Page SEO is your shingles
Off-Page SEO is your neighborhood
Technical SEO is your decking
All the best shingles don’t matter if the decking has gaping holes. Technical SEO is the framework for the other aspects of SEO. It is the pieces and practices that keep your website functional and keep users coming back.
Definition: Technical Search Engine Optimization is the process of building a strong framework for your website by optimizing site speed, mobile-friendliness, security, and crawlability.
Key Components of Technical SEO for Roofing Contractors
Mobile-friendly design
Responsive design
Page speed
Secure sites (HTTPS)
Structured data and schema
Fixing broken links, duplicate content, crawl errors, and other issues
Local Search Optimization
I’ll give the metaphor a rest because this is the most straightforward of the SEO mix. Local SEO is the art of making sure all of your brand information is correct and fully filled out in a certain geographical area, so you come up in all the places when someone searches “roofer near me”.
Definition: Local SEO is the practice of optimizing your online presence so your business shows up in searches in your area. Local SEO focuses on things like Google Business Profile, local keywords, citations, and reviews.
Key Components of Local SEO for Roofing Contractors
Google Business Profile optimization
Local citations (Being listed on Yelp, Angi, Better Business Bureau etc.).
NAP consistency (Name, Address, Phone Number listed the same across the web)
Local keywords and location pages
Reviews and reputation management.
AI Search Engine Optimization
AI SEO is the new kid on the SEO team, but quickly became the heaviest hitter of them all. This aspect of SEO is all about making your business come up in AI Summaries and generative search engine results. AI SEO is making sure you can attract the bots and get that essential zero-click traffic.
Definition: AI SEO is the practice of optimizing your content for search engines that use artificial intelligence. AI SEO is centered around the use of natural language, conversational searches, voice search, and content formats that AI tools pull into answers like snippets and summaries.
Key Components of Local SEO for Roofing Contractors
AI Overviews and zero-click results.
Natural language content
Voice search optimization.
Rich media that AI pulls into answers.
How All Five SEO Flavors Work Together
You might have noticed that some of the key components are listed in more than one section of the SEO mix. This marketing audit is a great way to measure how your business performs across all five types of SEO. None of the pieces are an island unto themselves; they all overlap and intertwine to various degrees. If any aspect is missing, the others are weakened or even non-functional. Check out an example of the overlap:
Example: A Roofing Location Page
You own a roofing company in Nashville, Tennessee. You want to get business not only in Nashville, but also in local cities central to the area, such as Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
You create a location page on your website for Murfreesboro.
On-Page : You write clear content that talks about the city and your services offered within it. You focus on keywords such as “roofer in Murfreesboro” and make sure all your headings make sense, and you have unique photos of your work.
Technical SEO: All of those pictures you included are condensed so they load fast, you make sure it still looks nice on mobile, and you put schema markup in place so Google knows you are a roofing service.
Local SEO: You link the page to your Google Business Profile with a pin marked on a map. You mention Middle Tennessee State University and Stones River Mall with unique pictures of these local landmarks that are optimized to technical and on-page standards. You target customers for reviews in the area that mention your keywords.
Off-page SEO: You work with a local news site to link to your page after covering a hailstorm and recommending trusted local roofers.
AI SEO: The entire page is written in an informative and conversational voice and links to outside sources. You use statistics, charts, videos, and links to your social media feeds so that when someone asks Google “who’s the best roofer in Murfreesboro for hail damage,” the AI Overview pulls a snippet from your page and highlights your reviews.
The Blend: Your pictures, copy, links, and structure overlap every section of SEO, with aspects falling under different parts of the mix.
The TL:DR
On-Page: Keywords + content.
Off-Page: Reviews + backlinks.
Technical: Site performance.
Local: Neighborhood visibility.
AI SEO: Making the robots talk about you.
Need More Information? Call us!
Search Engine Optimization and AI Optimization can feel overwhelming, but once you understand how the parts flow together, it becomes much easier. Ravenized is in the business of making marketing simple for local businesses. Check out our case studies and our Marketing 101, and give us a call to get a free SEO audit today!
