Roofing Company Websites: What Homeowners Check

A roofing website has to prove three things fast: that you are a licensed and insured local roofer, that a homeowner can request an inspection and send photos without climbing a ladder, and that you explain storm damage and insurance claims honestly, without promises you can't keep. After a storm, homeowners are warned about roofers who knock on doors and then disappear. Your site is where they check that you're not one of them.

Why roofing starts with trust

Storm season brings door-to-door crews, and consumer agencies tell people to be careful with them. The FTC's advice on avoiding scams around weather emergencies warns that unlicensed contractors "call, email, text, or knock on your door" after a storm, push for full payment in advance, and often won't give a written contract. It tells homeowners to confirm a contractor's license with the state or county, ask for proof of insurance, get every promise in writing, and pay by credit card after the work is done if they can.

So the homeowner who just got a knock on the door looks up a few roofers first. A site that answers those checks on the first screen gets the call.

License and insurance, written out

Put them in the footer of every page, and again on your About page and storm damage page.

Your license number and the name it's issued to, exactly as they appear on the license.
Who issued it: the state, the county or the city, so someone can look it up.
Your insurance in plain words: liability coverage, workers' compensation for your crew if you carry it, and a line saying you'll send a certificate of insurance on request.
Manufacturer credentials, only the ones you actually hold, with the program's real name.
Your workmanship warranty, and how it differs from the shingle manufacturer's warranty.

Some states spell out what a roofer's advertising must show. Illinois is one. Its Roofing Industry Licensing Act says a licensed roofer may not advertise roofing services unless the ad includes the roofing contractor license number and the licensee's name as it appears on the license. A footer line with both puts them on every page of your site. If you work in another state, check what your licensing agency asks for.

Inspection requests with photos

A plain contact form brings in "My roof leaks, call me." An inspection request built for roofing tells you whether it's a small repair, a storm claim or a full replacement before you get in the truck.

What to ask

What's happening: leak inside, missing or lifted shingles, hail or wind damage, a tree on the roof, an old roof they want replaced, gutters or flashing.
Is water coming in right now. If yes, show your phone number and say whether you do emergency tarping. Someone with a dripping ceiling shouldn't be filling out a form.
The house: one, two or three stories, and the roof type if they know it, like asphalt shingle, metal, flat or tile.
Roof age, even a rough guess.
Is this an insurance claim: yes, no, or not sure yet.
Town or ZIP code, and a phone number.
Photos.

Photos without a ladder

Say it plainly on the form: please don't go up on the roof. Then ask for what a homeowner can take safely:

The roof from the street and from the backyard
Shingles or pieces of flashing that landed in the yard
Dents in gutters, downspouts or vents after hail
The ceiling stain or wet spot from inside, and the attic if they can get there easily

With those photos you can sort the requests: a quick repair, a full inspection, or a call to say it's not a job you take.

Say what the inspection is

Write down what happens next. How soon you usually get out after a request. What you check on the roof and in the attic. Whether you share your photos with the homeowner. Whether the inspection is free or has a fee: either is fine, as long as the site says which.

A storm damage page, ready before the storm

Write this page before hail season, and update the top line when a storm comes through.

One line at the top you can edit yourself, like "We're inspecting hail damage in [towns] this week."
What to do first: take photos of the damage from the ground, move things away from leaks inside, and read the policy or call the insurance company to learn how they want the claim reported.
What you look for after hail and after wind, with photos from your own past jobs.
How to tell you apart from a door-knocker: your license number, a local phone number, written estimates and a written contract.

Skip countdown timers, "limited time" offers and "free roof" headlines. Those are the tactics the warnings describe, and a homeowner who just read the FTC page will notice.

Insurance claims: explain your part carefully

This is where it's easiest to say too much. Keep to what you actually do, and leave coverage decisions with the insurance company.

A careful version says something like this:

We inspect the roof and document the damage with photos.
We write an estimate for the repair or the replacement.
If you want, we can be there when the insurance adjuster comes out.
Your insurance company decides what the policy covers. We can't promise a claim will be approved.

No deductible promises

Never write anything that suggests you'll cover, waive or rebate the homeowner's deductible. Some states have specific rules about this. The Texas Department of Insurance says it is illegal for contractors or roofers to offer to waive a deductible or promise a rebate for all or part of one. In Illinois, the same roofing act requires a roofer's written contract to state that when the owner pays with insurance money, the roofer cannot pay, waive or rebate any part of the deductible.

Rules differ by state, and this isn't legal advice. Check your own state's rules before you write anything about claims, and when in doubt, write less.

How payment works

Say how payment works on a claim job and on a regular job: whether you take a deposit, and when the rest is due. A homeowner who has read that scammers ask for full payment up front will look for this.

Roofs you actually did

Homeowners rarely get a good look at their own roof, so your photos do a lot of the work.

Whole-roof shots from the street, before and after, from the same spot. A drone photo helps if you have one.
The details: new flashing around a chimney, valleys, ridge vents, drip edge, the decking you replaced. That's the work nobody sees once the shingles are on.
The cleanup: the yard and the driveway after you leave. Stray nails and shingle scraps worry people, so show that you pick them up.
Captions: the material, the shingle line and color, and the town.

If you install several shingle lines, show each color on a real house. A whole house in that color is easier to picture than a small sample.

A quick check on your own site

Open your site on your phone and try this:

Find your license number in under five seconds.
Send an inspection request with a photo of a ceiling stain.
Find out what you do, and don't do, on an insurance claim.
Find a roof you did in a nearby town.

For the rest of what a contractor site should show, see the contractor website checklist and our page on websites for contractors. To see how your current site does on a phone, run the free website checker.

See it with your own roofs

We build the first version of your website free, in 2 days, with your license details, your roof photos and an inspection request that sends you the photos and the address. You click around it, then decide. If it isn't for you, you owe nothing. Get your free preview.