Search architecture for North America's largest roofing manufacturer
GAF manufactures residential and commercial roofing and waterproofing across thirty US sites, with roughly 4,800 employees and the continent's best-selling shingle line. Work at this scale is less about adding pages and more about stopping thousands of existing ones from competing.
- Client
- GAF
- Industry
- Building Products & Construction
- Timeline
- Ongoing engagement
- Year
- 2026
Where they started
An enterprise manufacturer's site serves at least three audiences who share vocabulary but not intent: homeowners researching a roof replacement, contractors specifying materials, and architects checking technical data. A single query like 'architectural shingles' means something different to each. Add a product catalogue spanning shingles, metal roofing, membranes and coating systems, plus a contractor locator covering thirty locations, and the result is enormous keyword surface where internal competition — not competitors — is the main thing suppressing rankings.
What we did
We separated the audience paths at the architecture level so homeowner, contractor and specifier journeys own distinct URL patterns and distinct intent, then rebuilt internal linking to reinforce those boundaries rather than blur them. Product data was structured so technical specifications are machine-readable and eligible for rich results, and the locator was restructured for local search — a manufacturer with thirty locations has substantial local surface that generic templates leave unclaimed. Interface work concentrated on the homeowner path, where the decision is infrequent, expensive and anxiety-driven, and where clarity converts better than persuasion.
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