What homeowners keep saying in roofing reviews.

How I read them

For each company I read the newest 30 to 60 Google reviews and noted every phrase that showed up more than once. Then I opened the company's own homepage to see whether it said the same thing. These are small, mostly owner-run roofers, with anywhere from under ten to over 150 reviews each.

Each of the three themes below came up again and again at five of the twelve companies. The quotes are short excerpts from real Google reviews of roofers I looked at this month, with names removed.

1. “The owner came out himself.”

This was the theme people wrote about with the most feeling. Customers name the owner, sometimes three or four times in one review: he did the inspection, he explained what caused the leak, he checked on the crew during the week.

• “…checked on his crew's work daily.”
• “…took the time to explain the issue that caused the leaks on my roof.”
• “…the owner, was also on site during the installation.”

Hiring a roofer means letting a crew of strangers onto your house for a day or more. Knowing that the person who gave you the quote will also be the one watching the work is a big part of why people say yes.

On a homepage, this can be as simple as a photo of the owner near the top and one plain sentence: “I do every inspection myself.” If that's how you work, say it.

2. “They handled the insurance company.”

After a storm, the roof is only half the problem. The other half is the insurance claim, and that is where homeowners feel most out of their depth. Reviewers describe someone who met the adjuster, explained the damage and kept going until the claim was approved.

• “…personally worked with our insurance adjuster.”
• “…helped us deal with the insurance company.”

Plenty of roofing websites list “insurance claims” as one service among eight. Customers describe something more valuable than a menu item: a person standing next to them through the process. That story belongs near the top of the page, in plain words.

3. “They left the yard cleaner than they found it.”

Homeowners worry about nails in tires, flower beds, kids and dogs. They often can't judge the quality of a roof, but they can judge the yard the next morning, and they write about it.

• “…running magnets across the yard and driveway.”
• “…the site was cleaned of shingles and all roofing nails.”
• “I couldn't even tell that they'd been there.”

If your crew runs a magnetic sweeper over the lawn and driveway before they leave, that is a selling point. Say so, and show a photo of it.

What the homepages said instead

At most of these companies, the homepage didn't say any of this in its own words. When the phrases appeared at all, they were inside a scrolling review widget that most visitors never stop to read. The headlines talked about quality, trust and years in business instead.

Those lines aren't wrong. They just don't answer the question a homeowner is really asking: what will it be like to hire you? Your reviews already answer it, in your customers' words.

Try this with your own reviews

1. Open your Google reviews and read the newest 20.
2. Underline any phrase that shows up in three or more of them.
3. Look at the top of your homepage. Is that idea there, in your own words?
4. If not, that's your headline. Your customers already wrote it for you.

One more 30-second check

While I was looking at these sites, I also tried tapping each phone number on my phone. On 6 of the 10 contractor websites I checked closely, tapping the number didn't start a call. Usually it was plain text, and on one site it opened a page that didn't exist. Most people looking for a roofer are on their phone, so this one matters. It's usually a five-minute fix.