Katchmark Construction Search Engine Marketing Work

Katchmark Construction is the leading roofing, guttering and siding installer in the Washington DC area. Katchmark can gain exposure to many potential customers in free, or organic search by combinining product keywords with locality names. On a web site with a limited number of pages, making such product - locality name combinations is a challenge.

Photo galleries may offer areas with many pages, pages which can be described in terms of product and its location. In other words, they can be described by attractive, target keywords. The photo gallery in question is titled “Photos of Completed Roofing Projects in Northern Virginia and Washington DC by Katchmark Construction” and has a five by six cell table with 30 thumbnails of photos which can be seen each on their own photo page (you may want to open the Katchmark photo gallery page in a new window if you would like to study this case more closely). Naturally enough, these photos are of roofing, siding and guttering products, especially of the highest value roof materials - slate, steel and copper roofs, high-end siding, copper gutters. As originally copywritten, each had a description of the roofing product featured in the picture. These pagese are static html and had the site default title - the company's name and phone number. Owing to the fact that these pages are written in static html, they offer the easiest access to the search marketing practicioner, however, automated solutions might make the placement of search optimizing modifications easier.

For each page a combination keyword set can be devised, with that set containing product/service words and location names. Katchmark, as is typical of a great many businesses encounters a problem in search marketing - to wit - people tend to search on shorter phrases - phrases containing only the product they are looking for. This method of search makes search engines ideal outlets for nationwide or even international product marketing, since successful efforts at search optimization or the use of search advertising reach to customers everywhere, a superb result for a company or organization with nationwide scope - companies which can ship by mail, which have ubiquitous distribution, which can deliver directly to the end user's computer via an internet connection, as well as in other circumstances.

For a company which must deliver goods or services locally, however, the nationwide scope, particularly of free search, is a distinct disadvantage. It is not, however, an insuperable disadvantage. The pay per click advertising venues offer regionally restricted advertising options, and for firms targeting free search, the inclusion of place names follows the natural progression of search - if someone is searching for a locally provided product, and in the first search, only types the product - the lack of local providers of that product in the first search results leads naturally to a second search - adding a local place name to the words in the initial search. Katchmark has this goal, and has a site with a limited number of pages which could be appropriately targeted with product related keywords. The photo gallery, with its 30 subsidiary pages gave many additional opportunities to target product/locality name combinations. Let us take the last picture as an example. The product keywords are “copper guttering” and the locality keywords are some of the possible designations for the three states in Katchmark's sales area, Virginia, MD and DC (across a range of pages we will aim at other ways these areas will be described - the abbreviation for Virginia, spelling out Maryland). The “holy trinity” of onsite elements, link text, on-page text and page titles must also reflect these keywords, and they do, but optimally, will not be identical but will have slight variations. It is very easy for someone at, for instance, Google, who wants to detect when their system is being gamed to improve search results for a site's pages, to look for and accurately find identical text strings. By varying the text, it is more likely to reflect what Google and other search engines are looking for, natural language reflecting keyword richness, not by design, but by naturally and accurately describing their subject. We seek that natural language and will benefit from it, not only in ranking, but in appeal to the humans, who are, ultimately, the ones who may actually buy the product.

In this case, the link text for the last picture is “Half round copper guttering for Virginia, MD & DC homes, detail” - note the keywords. The title of the page “Copper Guttering for Virginia, MD & DC Homes from Katchmark (703) 817-0200” includes the keywords as well but lacks the more detailed description of the guttering product, and differs in the capitalization pattern. The on page text includes the link text plus additional text: “Half round copper guttering detail, for Virginia, MD & DC homes. Want more information about copper gutters for your home?” repeating the product keywords twice, in variant. No variants were included for the place names.

Here are further examples from this photo gallery:

keywords	GAF Timberline Roof, new and replacement roofs, GAF shingles, Chantilly, Loudoun County, Virginia	Condo Condominium Roofing shingles aluminum ridge vents Fairfax County	Ecostar synthetic slate roofing new home Montgomery County, MD, Katchmark Construction, metropolitan Washington DC suburban Maryland's high quality roofer.
link/anchor text	GAF Timberline Roof in “Charcoal Blend” new and replacement roofs using quality GAF shingles, Chantilly, Loudoun County, Virginia	Herons Cove Condominium Complex Roofing with Tamko 25 year "Rustic Redwood" shingles and black aluminum ridge vents - Fairfax County Condo Projects	Ecostar synthetic slate roofing “Majestic Slate” (“Midnight Grey” color) in a completed new home project in Montgomery County, MD, by Katchmark Construction, metropolitan Washington DC's & suburban Maryland's leading high quality roofer.
Page Title	GAF Timberline Roof in "Charcoal Blend" - New & Replacement Roofs, Chantilly, Loudoun County, Virginia	Condominium Complex Roofing with Tamko ® Shingles & Aluminum Ridge Vents, from Katchmark Construction (Fairfax County Projects)	Ecostar Synthetic Slate Roofing “Majestic Slate” in a New Home Project in Montgomery County, MD, by Washington DC's & Suburban Maryland's Leading High Quality Roofer, Katchmark Construction
on-page text	GAF Timberline Roof in “Charcoal Blend” One of many complete projects by Katchmark Construction of Chantilly, Virginia (Loudoun County) - the area's quality roofing leader. Looking for a GAF roof? Need a roof replacement or roof repairs?	Roofing for Herons Cove Condominium Complex with Tamko 25 year “Rustic Redwood” shingles and black aluminum ridge vents, one of many completed condo roof installations in Fairfax county, VA. Need pricing or work for a condominium roofing project?	Roofing: Ecostar Majestic Slate, a synthetic slate material, in the color “Midnight Grey” in a completed new home project in Montgomery County, MD, by Katchmark Construction, metropolitan Washington DC's and suburban Maryland's leading high quality roofer. Looking for a contractor experienced in delivering synthetic slate roofs? Need a a contractor for a roof for new construction or roof repairs?

On a final note, the keywords for the last column includes the words “high quality” - copy writing words which on the face of it one might not expect to be keywords. In the vast number of searches, millions every day, are every combination of searches imaginable. It is more desirable to achieve high ranking for short searches - for Katchmark to turn up high for “roof contractor Fairfax” but search marketing professionals, like me, must realistically understand that they may not be able to achieve results for any particular keyword set of value to clients. In this case, if it is not possible to achieve good ranking for “roof contractor Fairfax,” achieving top ranks for “quality roof contractor Fairfax” or “best roof contractor Fairfax” will result not only in the target listing being displayed in searches, but in the listing being displayed in highly desireable searches.