Feature
Continued from p39
Graphic 2. Average monthly UK Google searches for roofers in Dorset, 12 months to August 2026( DataForSEO).
Search Type Average monthly UK searches
roofers Bournemouth Town 720
roofers Poole Town 320
roofers Weymouth Town 210
roofers Dorchester Town 170
Four town searches Town 1420
roofers Dorset County 210
Here, the price / cost of each lead does not show the full cost. You also need to look at how many of those leads turn into booked jobs. To calculate the real cost, divide the total amount spent on a lead source by the number of jobs booked from that source.
For example, if a roofer buys 20 leads at £ 20 each, the total spend is £ 400. If 4 of those leads become booked jobs, each booked job costs £ 100.
When calculating lead cost, the same rule applies to directories.
If a roofer pays £ 250 for one month of directory membership and gets 2 booked jobs, each booked job costs £ 125.
Of course, these figures are only examples and roofers should use their own spending and booking records to calculate the real cost.
Which roofing lead sources keep working after you stop paying?
You do not control trade associations or trade directories, but you own your reputation and well-optimised website, which you have built over the years. Of course, they require time and investment to build, but once they start producing leads, they provide consistent results at much lower costs. So, even if you stop paying for them, they keep working for quite a long time.
Organic search has two main parts: the Google Business Profile and the roofer’ s own website. The Google Business Profile can appear in the map pack for local searches, while the website can rank in the regular search results. Neither charges a fee for each lead.
A Google Business Profile should use the correct primary category, such as Roofing contractor, list the areas the business serves, include recent job photos, and collect reviews regularly.
Website rankings take longer to build. A roofer starting from scratch may need to use a paid lead source at the same time while the website gains visibility. Organic search also needs ongoing content and technical work to maintain and improve rankings.
For UK roofers, this is the channel our roofing SEO agency focuses on.
How does a roofer’ s own website win roofing leads?
If you want your website to bring in more roofing leads, each important town and each main service should have its own page. Homeowners usually search for a roofer using the name of their town and the job they need, rather than searching for an entire county.
The search data from Dorset shows this clearly.“ Roofers Bournemouth” gets about 720 UK searches a month,“ roofers Poole” gets 320,“ roofers Weymouth” gets 210, and“ roofers Dorchester” gets 170. By comparison,“ roofers Dorset” gets about 210 searches a month( DataForSEO, 12 months to August 2026).
Together, those four town-based searches add up to 1,420 searches a month. That is almost seven times the search volume of the county-wide term.
This is why one general Dorset page is not enough. A page about Poole can talk about roofing work in Poole, while a Bournemouth page can focus on Bournemouth customers, local areas, and relevant jobs. Each page gives Google a clearer match for the search and gives the homeowner information that feels more relevant to where they live.
A town page earns its place when it answers the search it targets. Each town page needs:
• the town name in the page title, the main heading and the opening sentence
• photos and short write-ups of jobs completed in that town
• reviews from customers in that town
• the surrounding areas and postcodes the business covers
• a phone number and enquiry form near the top of the page on a phone screen
Trueline Roofing Ltd, a Swanage roofing contractor, builds its website this
40 Issue 26 | 2026