The storm damage page: what a roofer writes before the storm arrives

Which lines are written now, and which change during a storm

The week of a storm is the worst week to write anything. The phone does not stop, the crews are out, and whatever the page says is what homeowners read while they decide whom to let onto their roof. So the policy is written in a calm month and reviewed once a year. During a storm you change two or three dated lines and nothing else.

The page keeps one address all year. A storm page created when the hail comes and deleted when the work dries up starts from nothing every time, and every link to it breaks. Between storms its status line says so, with a date: "[No storm schedule in effect. Updated (date).]"

The first line is the one about danger, and it sends the reader somewhere else: "[If a power line is down, or part of the roof or a ceiling has come down, call (the emergency number where you work) or (your utility's emergency line, as the utility lists it) before you call us.]" The page gives no instructions about the structure, the wiring or the roof; those come from the emergency services and the utility.

The first visit: a tarp or a temporary repair

Say in your own words what the crew does on the first visit after storm damage, because that is what the caller is asking for: [a tarp over the damaged area, a temporary patch, or both, and how you decide which]. Then say what it costs, as a range, [the range for an emergency visit], and whether it is [credited against the permanent repair when you do that work too].

Then say what the first visit is not. A temporary repair is not the permanent one, and one sentence on the page makes that plain: "[The tarp or patch is temporary. We expect it to hold for (your own estimate, in your words), and the permanent repair is quoted separately after an inspection.]" A homeowner who reads that knows a second visit is coming, and an answer built from your page has the difference to repeat.

If you make no emergency visits at all, write that instead: "[We do not tarp or make temporary repairs. For storm damage we book inspections from (date).]" A plain no answers the caller's question as well as a yes does.

When every homeowner calls at once: an honest waitlist

After a large storm the calls can come faster than any crew can visit, and the page says how you decide the order. Write the rule as you apply it, [which calls you take first, and why, in your words], and what everyone else gets: [a place on the list, a call back within (range), a text when the crew is on its way]. Then keep one status block at the top of the page, dated every time it changes.

[Updated (day, date, time)]
Emergency visits: [taking calls in (towns), a crew within (range)] or [full until (date)]
Inspections for permanent repairs: [booking from (date)]
The waitlist: [how to join it, and when we call back]

The date is what makes the block worth reading. "Booking inspections from [date]" lets a homeowner decide whether to wait for you or call someone else, and it gives an AI assistant with web search on a current fact to repeat instead of an old promise. Update it whenever it changes, and at least [twice a day] while the storm schedule runs.

If you pass work to another contractor when you are full, say so only if it is true, and say to whom: [the company you refer to, and why you trust it with your callers].

Where you are based, and the license and insurance you hold

Put your base on the storm page itself, in plain words: the street address of your office or yard and the year you moved in. A company run from home, whose address stays off its Business Profile as Google's guidelines ask of a service-area business, names its town instead, with the years it has worked from there. Then list the towns you take storm work in, and if they are the towns you serve all year, say that too.

The license and the insurance go on the page as they were issued: [license number] from [the issuing authority, named the way it names itself], where your jurisdiction licenses roofing work, and the cover you carry, as your policy describes it, [the kinds of insurance, and the insurer]. What a roofer must hold differs from place to place, so the page states only what you hold and how a homeowner can check it: [ask for a copy of the certificate, or look the license up with (the authority)].

The same facts must read the same way everywhere you publish them. In our audit of 9,483 small business websites (40 trades, 90 metros, late August to early September 2026), 43.1% were inconsistent about who and where they are across their own homepage, contact page and about page; that is every trade in the sample, with no roofing cut. Copy the address, license and insurance lines from the about page rather than writing them again; the overview for roofing contractors covers the rest of the site.

The response time you commit to, as a range you keep

Say what the clock measures before you give a time. From the call to what: [a call back], [an inspector at the house] or [a tarp on the roof]? Those are three different promises, and a homeowner who reads "within [hours]" reads the one they need most into it.

Then give two ranges, both your own: "[In an ordinary week, a crew reaches you within (range) of your call. In the (days) after a storm, within (range).]" Take the storm-week range from your records of the last storm rather than from a good afternoon, because it is the range homeowners hold you to in the week that matters. Date the line, and change it on the day you can no longer keep it.

What the homeowner receives after the visit

A storm visit ends with records, and the page lists them: what each shows, when it arrives, and who receives it. Every entry below is yours to fill.

End the list with a sentence that keeps the page on its own side of the claim: "[What your policy covers, and how to claim, are questions for your insurer. We provide the records above.]" Whether a contractor may deal with an insurer on a homeowner's behalf is regulated differently from one jurisdiction to another. So the page describes only what the company provides, and sends the homeowner to their insurer, and to their own counsel for anything beyond that.

What the company never does

A short list of what you never do answers a question a storm caller may not ask aloud: can I trust whoever turns up? Write only the lines you keep, in your own words, because each one is a promise a homeowner can hold you to.

• [We never ask for payment for a permanent repair before (the point you set).]
• [We never start a permanent repair without a written estimate you have signed.]
• [We never tell you what your insurer will pay or what your policy covers.]
• [We never leave a temporary repair without telling you, in writing, that it is temporary.]
• [We do not knock on doors after a storm. If someone says they are from us, call (number) to check.]

Leave out any line you could not keep in the busiest week of the year, and add none about other contractors. The list describes your company, not the trade.

One set of storm hours on the page, the profile and the markup

If the phone is answered for longer while a storm schedule runs, the page, the Business Profile and the markup should start saying so on the same day and stop on the same day. Google's Business Profile guidelines ask for regular customer-facing hours and allow special hours for particular days, their examples being holidays and special events, and they ask for a phone number under your direct control.

For the LocalBusiness schema, check where the type sits first: schema.org places RoofingContractor under HomeAndConstructionBusiness, one of the LocalBusiness types, so a RoofingContractor node carries its own hours. The regular ones stay in openingHoursSpecification. A storm schedule is a dated override, which schema.org provides as specialOpeningHoursSpecification: an OpeningHoursSpecification bounded by validFrom and validThrough, the two date properties Google's local business documentation uses to define seasonal hours.

"specialOpeningHoursSpecification": [{
  "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification",
  "dayOfWeek": ["Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday", "Saturday", "Sunday"],
  "opens": "[07:00]",
  "closes": "[21:00]",
  "validFrom": "[first day of the storm schedule]",
  "validThrough": "[last day of the storm schedule]"
}]

Take the override out on the day the schedule ends, when the status block goes back to its quiet-month line. Google's local business page does not list specialOpeningHoursSpecification among the properties it reads, and its general structured data guidelines say even correct markup is no guarantee that a feature appears, so the override is a statement for any reader of the JSON-LD, not a switch. Google's page on AI features lists up-to-date Business Profile information among its practices; the two dates keep all three in step.