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How to rank top of Google for the keyword ‘roofers London’
When targeting a keyword in SEO, it’s essential to analyse the strategies of the top ranking websites. This way we can determine what is needed to take the number one position.
As any homeowner in London will know, roofing services don’t come cheap. According to Which, the average cost of a new tiled roof is around £14,000. A flat roof for a single garage can cost around £1,000, or if the roofer uses EPDM, it’s more like £1,600. On top of this, roofers in London often charge a callout fee of around £150.This means, a roofing company can expect to make anything from £150, to £14,000 upwards for a conversion on their website.
According to the latest Salesforce figures, the average conversion rate is 2-3%, and can be 5% or higher.
So, a roofing website that ranks highly in London could attract around 1,000 visitors per month. This could generate up to 30 leads or more, potentially worth thousands, or tens of thousands of pounds each month. With over 7,000 monthly searches for roofing services in London, securing a top ranking position is highly valuable for any roofing company looking to dominate the local market.
So, let’s see how it’s done.
Page one results
As of February 2025, the page one results for the main keyword ‘roofers London’, looks like this:
| Position | Website |
|---|---|
| 1 | https://www.checkatrade.com/Search/Roofer/in/London |
| 2 | https://www.no1roofing.com/ |
| 3 | https://www.londonroofingltd.com/ |
| 4 | https://www.thelondonroofers.com/ |
| 5 | https://trustedtraders.which.co.uk/roofers-in-london/ |
| 6 | https://www.trustatrader.com/roofers-roofing-in-london |
| 7 | https://londoncityroofing.co.uk/ |
| 8 | https://roofer-northlondon.co.uk/ |
| 9 | https://www.lbroofingspecialist.co.uk/ |
| 10 | https://samsgutters.net/roof-repair-london/ |
Checkatrade are in 1st, and two other directories, Trusted Traders and Trust-a-Trader are in 5th and 6th respectively.
This means the other seven positions are up for grabs. I’m going to analyse the top 4 ranking roofing websites, and see how they compare.
First, let’s look at the two biggest ranking metrics, volume of pages, and number of websites linking.
Competitor comparison
| Website | Position | Pages | Links |
|---|---|---|---|
| Element Roofing Co (https://www.no1roofing.com/) | 2 | 30 | 141 |
| London Roofing Ltd (https://www.londonroofingltd.com/) | 3 | 63 | 111 |
| Hightop Roofing London (https://www.thelondonroofers.com/) | 4 | 33 | 95 |
| London City Roofing (https://londoncityroofing.co.uk/) | 7 | 30 | 80 |
The table is ordered by link volume, with the highest ranked having the most links.
London Roofing Ltd has 33 more pages than Element Roofing Co, but Element Roofing Co has 30 more links, and these may be outweighing the pages.
So, we just need 30 pages of content and 142 links and we’ll be first right? Not quite. Google results are more nuanced than that, so let’s dig deeper.
Content depth
It’s not all about quantity when trying to rank a website on Google, and quality is far more important. One simple way we can assess quality is to look at the content depth and types of content. This indicates helpfulness, which is a key component of Google’s helpful content criteria.
Element Roofing Co
| Metrics | Qty | Content Type | Qty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Pages | 30 | Transactional | 28 |
| Total Word Count | 17897 | Informational | 0 |
| Average Word Count | 597 | Company | 2 |
| Videos | 1 | Case Studies | 0 |
| Images | 640 | ||
| Thin Pages | 14 | ||
| Errors | 0 |
London Roofing Ltd
| Metrics | Qty | Content Type | Qty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Pages | 63 | Transactional | 16 |
| Total Word Count | 21465 | Informational | 0 |
| Average Word Count | 341 | Company | 11 |
| Videos | 1 | Case Studies | 36 |
| Images | 1261 | ||
| Thin Pages | 58 | ||
| Errors | 0 |
Hightop Roofing London
| Metrics | Qty | Content Type | Qty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Pages | 33 | Transactional | 18 |
| Total Word Count | 66877 | Informational | 10 |
| Average Word Count | 2027 | Company | 5 |
| Videos | 1 | Case Studies | 0 |
| Images | 131 | ||
| Thin Pages | 4 | ||
| Errors | 4 |
London City Roofing
| Metrics | Qty | Content Type | Qty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Pages | 30 | Transactional | 21 |
| Total Word Count | 9589 | Informational | 0 |
| Average Word Count | 320 | Company | 9 |
| Videos | 6 | Case Studies | 0 |
| Images | 332 | ||
| Thin Pages | 19 | ||
| Errors | 7 |
Relevance
Perhaps the biggest ranking metric on Google is relevance. So, considering our search term is ‘roofers London’, let’s see how these websites compare. In this analysis, I looked for multiple variants of ‘roof’, such as roofing, roofers and roofer, and the word London, within key elements of each page.
Element Roofing Co
| Metric | Qty | % |
|---|---|---|
| Roofing in Title | 30 | 100% |
| Roofing in H1 | 24 | 80% |
| Roofing in H2 | 224 | 746.67% |
| Roofing in Page Text | 1688 | 5626.67% |
| London in Title | 30 | 100% |
| London in H1 | 1 | 3.33% |
| London in H2 | 179 | 569.67% |
| London in Page Text | 130 | 0.73% |
Hightop Roofing London
| Metric | Qty | % |
|---|---|---|
| Roofing in Title | 27 | 81.82% |
| Roofing in H1 | 26 | 78.79% |
| Roofing in H2 | 45 | 136.36% |
| Roofing in Page Text | 3185 | 9651.52% |
| London in Title | 16 | 48.48% |
| London in H1 | 16 | 48.48% |
| London in H2 | 22 | 66.67% |
| London in Page Text | 1069 | 1.6% |
London City Roofing
| Metric | Qty | % |
|---|---|---|
| Roofing in Title | 23 | 76.67% |
| Roofing in H1 | 28 | 93.33% |
| Roofing in H2 | 68 | 226.67% |
| Roofing in Page Text | 838 | 2793.33% |
| London in Title | 23 | 76.67% |
| London in H1 | 31 | 103.33% |
| London in H2 | 65 | 216.67% |
| London in Page Text | 720 | 7.51% |
Element Roofing Co has 100% of its titles including variants of “roofing” and “London”, and an impressive presence of “roofing” in H1s (80%), H2s (746.67%) and through the body text (5626.67%).
London Roofing Ltd, while incorporating “roofing” and “London” in over 80% of its titles, has significantly lower usage of these terms in headings and body text. It does, however, use “London” in H1s at a rate of 31.75%, which is stronger than Element Roofing Co.
Hightop Roofing London has a high density of “roofing” in its page text (9651.52%), but only 48.48% of its titles include “London”.
London City Roofing performs well in both keyword categories, with strong inclusion of “roofing” in H1s (93.33%) and H2s (226.67%) and a significantly higher presence of “London” in H1s (103.33%) than the rest.
Verdict
Overall, Hightop Roofing London dominates for keyword volume, while London City Roofing appears to be the most targeted for London. However, Element Roofing Co has the strongest title optimisation, which is the most important page element when determining relevance.
So, in terms of relevance, I would give Element Roofing Co the nod here, followed by London Roofing Ltd due to its inclusion of roofing and London in 80% of titles, then London City Roofing, then Hightop Roofing London. It’s close between the last two and most likely it’s Hightop Roofing London’s depth of content that’s placing them above London City Roofing in the SERPs.
So, everything is lining up as expected so far, but let’s take a look at their backlinks to see if we can uncover any surprises.
Backlinks
There are multiple tools we can use to analyse backlinks, with the top four being Majestic, AHREFs, Moz and SEMrush. For this analysis, I used SEMrush, which uses its own quality metric called Authority Score.
| Website | Referring Domains | Backlinks | Authority Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Element Roofing Co | 141 | 610 | 10 |
| London Roofing Ltd | 111 | 512 | 10 |
| Hightop Roofing London | 95 | 266 | 12 |
| London City Roofing | 80 | 131 | 10 |
All four websites have similar Authority Scores, with Hightop Roofing London just edging it. Element Roofing Co has the most links, so if we were looking at links alone, we would say Element Roofing Co should rank highest.
Element Roofing Co, London Roofing Ltd and London City Roofing are listed on similar directories, including Checkatrade, Yell.com and The Best Rated. Hightop Roofing London has the weakest backlink profile, despite having the highest Authority Score. Their links are mostly from non-relevant domains and look to be spammy, paid for, or scraped links.
Verdict
All four websites have relatively weak backlink profiles, so it’s a coin toss on who Google would say is the best. From my analysis, I would hand it to Element Roofing Co, because they have some respectable links, and they have the highest volume.
A spammy backlink profile can be saved by having good E-E-A-T signals, so it would be worth looking at this, to see if there is anything I’m missing.
E-E-A-T
E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. It’s a set of guidelines used by Google to assess content credibility. When analysing for E-E-A-T, I generally look at four categories of signals: on site, in content, social and reviews.
On site
This analysis looks at the website itself, to see if it ticks the required boxes for E-E-A-T. These include:
- About us page
- Contact page
- Meet the team
- NAP (name, address, phone number)
- Company No
- Author Bio
- Reviews
- Privacy policy/terms
- HTTPS
- Case studies
- Accreditations/industry certifications
- Awards
- Gallery
- Schema
E-E-A-T on site
| Website | On site score |
|---|---|
| London Roofing Ltd | 8 |
| Element Roofing Co | 6 |
| Hightop Roofing London | 5 |
| London City Roofing | 6 |
None of the four websites excel in this area. Using my system there is potential for a maximum score of 17, however the highest scoring website is London Roofing Ltd with 8.
In content
For this analysis, I analyse signals within content across the entire website. This includes:
- Academic/professional credentials
- Content quality signals
- Professional association signals
- Authority and trust signals
- Experience signals
- Author and expertise signals
- Academic and research links
In Schema
- Person Schema
- Organization Schema
- Review Schema Types
- Professional Schema Signals
- E-E-A-T Schema
- Educational/Professional Properties
E-E-A-T in content
| Element Roofing Co | 11.12 |
|---|---|
| London City Roofing | 6.65 |
| London Roofing Ltd | 6.41 |
| Hightop Roofing London | 2.2 |
This score is calculated on percentages. For example, Element Roofing Co has 836 words (4.67%) that signal academic or professional credentials. This includes words like association, accreditation, certification, member etc and signal associations with professional industry bodies. Again, none of the websites excel, however Element Roofing Co are the clear winners in this analysis.
Social signals
For this analysis, I place a score on how many social platforms they’re on, their posting frequency and engagement.
Social signals
| Website | Social score |
|---|---|
| London Roofing Ltd | 9 |
| Element Roofing Co | 0 |
| Hightop Roofing London | 0 |
| London City Roofing | 0 |
Social media seems to be an untapped market for roofing in London and the only company here with any social presence is London Roofing Ltd. They are on Facebook, X, Linkedin, YouTube and Instagram, and although they don’t have a huge following, they will be gaining an advantage over their competitors in terms of social signals.
Reviews
For this analysis, the score is based on how many review platforms they’re on, the quantity of reviews and their rating.
Reviews
| Website | Review score |
|---|---|
| Element Roofing Co | 10 |
| London Roofing Ltd | 7 |
| London City Roofing | 4 |
| Hightop Roofing London | 0 |
Element Roofing Co are the standout here with excellent reviews on Google, Checkatrade and Yell. London Roofing Ltd aren’t far behind, and Hightop Roofing London has none as far as I could see.
Total E-E-A-T scores
It is close between Element Roofing Co and London Roofing Ltd, but London Roofing Ltd just about edges it, mainly because of their social score.
Total E-E-A-T scores
| Website | Total score |
|---|---|
| London Roofing Ltd | 30 |
| Element Roofing Co | 29 |
| London City Roofing | 17 |
| Hightop Roofing London | 7 |
Verdict
None of the websites excel in E-E-A-T, however, reviews are a critical factor and most are well represented in this area. However, the fact that Hightop Roofing London are ranking highly without any reviews at all, means that they aren’t essential.
There is lots that can be improved, but London Roofing Ltd and Element Roofing Co are head and shoulders above the other two, and they are ranking higher than them too, so, is this a coincidence?
Final assessment
Despite keywords for roofers in London being highly valuable in terms of driving new business, I’m not overly impressed with any of the four highest ranking website.
However, I can see why Google has them ordered the way they are and my analysis has confirmed this. Here is a table that ranks each website according to the six ranking metrics I analysed.
Final assessment
| Website | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Content volume | London Roofing Ltd | Hightop Roofing London | Element Roofing Co | London City Roofing |
| Content depth | Hightop Roofing London | London Roofing Ltd | Element Roofing Co | London City Roofing |
| Content relevance | Element Roofing Co | London Roofing Ltd | London City Roofing | Hightop Roofing London |
| Backlink volume | Element Roofing Co | London Roofing Ltd | Hightop Roofing London | London City Roofing |
| Backlink quality | Element Roofing Co | London Roofing Ltd | London City Roofing | Hightop Roofing London |
| E-E-A-T | London Roofing Ltd | Element Roofing Co | Hightop Roofing London | London City Roofing |
Based on this, I would rank these four in the same order as Google:
- Element Roofing Co
- London Roofing Ltd
- Hightop Roofing London
- London City Roofing
It appears that content relevance and backlinks are the deciding factors, which isn’t a surprise as this is the case for most keywords. However, the depth of quality across the board isn’t particularly strong, and there are definitely opportunities for competitors to make an impact within this niche.
Why are they ranking top for roofers London?
Element Roofing Co are in first position because they have the strongest backlink profile and the highest content relevance. London Roofing Ltd is in second, because they have the most content and strongest E-E-A-T, and are only just behind Element Roofing Co in all other metrics.
Hightop Roofing London and London City Roofing are closer together, however Hightop Roofing London just edge it due to their content volume and depth.
Areas for improvement
There is lots that can be improved on all four websites here. Neither website scored highly for E-E-A-T and only London City Roofing has social signals. Content is relatively thin across the board and it’s only Hightop Roofing London that has paid attention to depth, and they’ve probably gone too far by adding over 14,000 words to their home page.
All four websites have relatively weak backlink profiles and none have high authority links from respected websites, outside of directories. It looks as though there are no real standout players in this niche, which means there are opportunities for competitors to make a real impact.
Advice for competitors
If I represented a roofing company that wanted to dominate London on a Google search, I would advise creating 40 or 50 pages of in-depth content. This would include case studies with an engaging storytelling narrative. I would aim for a 100% E-E-A-T score, by implementing signals through the website and content.
I would put together a social media strategy, because there seems to be a gap here. I know roofing isn’t the most exciting subject matter for social media, but almost everyone has a roof right? I’m sure with the right strategy there are opportunities for a company to take over the social media scene within this niche.
In terms of backlinks, I would add the website to all relevant directories, and this would put them on the same level as the websites I’ve analysed here. Beyond this, I would look at adding some solid informational content. With some highly engaging informational content there are opportunities to gain links on multiple high authority websites related to properties and homes.
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