SEO for HVAC contractors
A simple (but effective) step-by-step guide to build a targeted SEO HVAC contractor marketing strategy.
What is SEO for HVAC contractors?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving a website or web page to increase its visibility in search engines like Google and Bing.
For HVAC contractors, SEO is crucial to attracting more clients. The higher your website ranks on search engines, the greater the chance that potential customers will find and contact your business.
Think of it like maintaining the systems you install and repair.
Just as regular maintenance ensures your HVAC systems run smoothly, SEO ensures that your website is ‘healthy’—optimally structured and easily found by search engines so that more people can find your services online.
Did you know?
- 99% of people use the internet to search for local businesses. (Source: BrightLocal)
- Consumer use of Google to evaluate local businesses has leapt from 63% in 2020 to 81% in 2021. (Source: BrightLocal)
- Mobile devices are used for over 50% of all online searches. (Source: Statista)
A person searching for an HVAC contractor on Google may use a search query like “HVAC contractor near me” or “best HVAC company in [city name]”.
They may search for specific services such as “emergency AC repair” or “furnace installation”. Or they may even include their budget or specific needs in the search query, such as “affordable HVAC services in [city name]” or “energy-efficient heating system installation”.
In order to benefit from SEO, you want your website to rank for these kinds of searches.
Why is HVAC Contractor SEO important?
Here are some of the benefits of using SEO for your HVAC business:
- Increased visibility: SEO helps increase the visibility of your HVAC website on search engines, making it more likely that potential customers will find you when searching for HVAC services.
- Cost-effective: Compared to traditional advertising methods like print or TV ads, SEO is a cost-effective way for HVAC contractors to reach new clients and grow their business.
- Targeted audience: SEO allows you to target specific keywords related to your HVAC services, helping you attract the right customers who are actively searching for what you offer.
- Local SEO: Local SEO boosts your website’s visibility for people searching for HVAC services in a specific geographic area. This is particularly useful for HVAC contractors, as it helps you reach customers in your local community.
- Building trust: SEO can help your HVAC website establish trust and authority with search engines and potential customers by providing high-quality, relevant content. This can strengthen your reputation and attract more business.
Don’t forget!
HVAC contractors must comply with regulations such as the Clean Air Act, local licensing requirements, and consumer protection laws. Therefore, SEO strategies and marketing tactics should be carefully crafted to ensure compliance with these regulations while effectively reaching target customers.
How do search engines work?
Search engines work by crawling billions of webpages with their own web crawlers, known as search engine bots or spiders. These are then stored and saved in an index.
Google Search Essentials (formerly Webmaster Guidelines)
The Google Search Essentials define the actions that webmasters can take to make their websites better indexable or crawlable.
Read them here: Official Google Guidelines
The guidelines are based on three central aspects:
- Crawling – webmasters should support Google in finding websites.
- Indexing – webmasters should help Google to classify and “recognize” the content.
- Usability and user experience – webmasters should support the users of the websites in their use (usability and user experience).
Essentially, according to these Google guidelines, a website should support the search engine in crawling and indexing and ensure a good user experience.
Before you get started with SEO, there are a few prerequisites you want to check off first:
SEO Basics
At a bare minimum, you want to make sure you cover these basic standards before embarking on doing SEO:
- Website Speed – Have a fast loading site so potential customers don’t get tired of waiting for things to load.
- Mobile Friendliness – Make sure your site works on mobile as over 50% of users browse on mobile devices
- Analytics – Setup Google Analytics, Google Search Console & so you can understand what is and isn’t working.
- XML Sitemap – search engines use this to get your site’s URLs
- Robots.txt – tells search engine crawlers where they can (and where they can’t go) on your site.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO is the process of making website and server optimizations to help search engines to crawl and index your site more effectively (and therefore help to improve organic rankings).
Technical errors can hurt a website’s ability to rank. There are potentially a lot of errors, but here are some of the most common that will have the biggest impact when fixed:
- 404 errors
- Broken backlinks
- Poor URL structure
- Duplicate/thin content
- Poor internal linking
- Poor website architecture
- Missing metadata (page titles & meta descriptions)
- Missing H1 tags
Reach more clients with HVAC business SEO services
What is keyword research?
Keyword research is the process of identifying the words and phrases that people use when searching for specific products or services:
Once you understand the keywords your target audience is using, you can optimize your website to appear for these in search results.
Think of keyword research as a diagnostic test for your HVAC business website. Just as a diagnostic test helps a technician understand what’s wrong with an HVAC system, keyword research helps you understand what potential customers are searching for online when they need HVAC services.
For example, if people are frequently searching for “AC repair near me” or “emergency HVAC services,” this insight allows you to optimize your website with these keywords, helping you rank higher in search results and attract more customers looking for the services you provide.
Why is keyword research important?
Keyword research is important for HVAC contractor because it helps to:
- understand what people are searching for when they are looking for HVAC services, and to optimize their website accordingly.
- identify the specific needs and pain points of their target audience, which can inform the content they create and services they offer, ultimately leading to more conversion and better client experience.
- identify the competition in the local area and understand what they are doing, so they can create a more effective SEO strategy.
What keywords are best to target?
Understand that there’s no “best” keywords, just those that are highly searched by your audience. With this in mind, it’s up to you to craft a strategy that will help you rank pages and drive traffic.
The best keywords for your SEO strategy will take into account relevance, authority, and volume. You want to find highly searched keywords that you can reasonably compete for based on:
- The level of competition you’re up against.
- Your ability to produce content that exceeds in quality what’s currently ranking.
Short tail keywords are broad, general keywords that are made up of one or two words:
- HVAC
- Air conditioning
- Heating repair
- Furnace installation
- AC service
Whereas long tail keywords are more specific and longer phrases that are made up of multiple words:
- Affordable HVAC repair services near me
- Best air conditioning installation in [city]
- Emergency furnace repair in [local area]
- Reliable HVAC contractors for home heating installation
- Air conditioning maintenance for commercial buildings
How to do keyword research for your HVAC business
To start keyword research: put yourself in your customers shoes.
What words, phrases and terms might they use in order to find solutions to these problems? These are the keywords you want to find and target.
Here is a simple process to follow:
Step 1) Make a list of broad topics
Create a list of general topics related to your business. These might correspond to product categories, services or anything you believe your target audience would be interested in.
For example, broad topics like:
- Air Conditioning Installation
- Furnace Repair and Maintenance
- Indoor Air Quality Solutions
- Heating System Upgrades
- Energy-Efficient HVAC Systems
Step 2) Expand topics into a list of phrases
Now you want to take those topics and expand them into a list of related phrases to target.
Imagine yourself as a buyer looking for your product or service and ask yourself: what would I type into Google?
Whilst keyword research tools are useful here, you can do this for free by Googling your keyword.
For example, Google “HVAC installation” or “air conditioner repair”, and you’ll get a list of related questions people ask (which you can answer with blog content).
As well as related searches which may uncover other keywords to target:
Step 3) Analyze your keywords
Once you have a list of potential keywords, you need to gauge which terms are worth targeting.
You’ll need to use a keyword research tool here to pay attention to the following keyword metrics:
- Search volume
- Trends
- Search value over time
- Difficulty
- CPC
- SERP features
But most importantly, you want to consider relevancy and search intent:
Relevant keywords:
For relevancy, you want to ask yourself:
- Are these keywords relevant to my business?
- Do I have a chance of ranking for these terms based on the competition?
- Is ranking for these keywords going to have a positive ROI?
If you can answer YES to the above questions, chances are you have picked a relevant keyword
Search intent:
Search intent is the goal and purpose of a search query in Google. When someone searches for something, they are typically looking for more information before performing an action.
Search intent falls in four buckets:
- Informational – Searchers looking for information, they’ll use words like: how, what, why, when etc.
- Navigational – Searchers trying to find a specific site, they’ll use words relating to the service/product/brand
- Transactional – Searchers looking to purchase, they’ll use words like: buy, cost, pricing, cheap etc.
- Commercial investigation – Searchers researching prior to making a purchase, they’ll use words like: best, review, comparison etc
Not only is it important to select good keywords, but also to pick keywords you have a chance of ranking for.
For example, if you want to rank for the keyword “Best HVAC Systems for Cold Climates” but your page doesn’t provide recommendations, comparisons, or relevant information about HVAC systems designed for cold weather, you’re not meeting the searcher’s intent. As a result, your page may struggle to rank well in search results.
Find profitable HVAC contractor keywords
What is on-page SEO?
On-page SEO describes specific elements of the pages on your website that you control, such as:
- Title tags
- Meta descriptions
- Header tags
- Internal linking
- Images
- Content
Why is on-page SEO important?
On-page SEO is important for HVAC contractors because it ensures that your website is easily found and understood by search engines, which can increase visibility and drive more traffic to your site. This can ultimately lead to more clients for your HVAC business.
For example, if your HVAC business offers a service like “24/7 emergency HVAC repair” and that service is not mentioned or not clearly highlighted on your website, it will be less likely for the website to appear in search results when someone searches for “emergency HVAC repair” or related terms. On the other hand, if you optimize your website with keywords like “24/7 emergency HVAC repair” and highlight that service, it will be more likely to appear in search results when someone searches for that term, increasing the chances of attracting clients in need of urgent services.
Additionally, on-page optimization can improve the overall user experience of your website, which can lead to higher engagement and conversion rates. For example, having a well-organized website with clear calls to action like “Request a Quote” or “Schedule a Service” will make it easier for visitors to book your services, increasing the likelihood of conversion.
On-Page SEO Checklist
- Use short & descriptive URLs – this helps people searching to understand what your page is about in Google.
- Write a good title tag & meta description – these show up in Google and help searchers understand what your page is about.
- Linking to relevant resources – this helps users to navigate your website.
- Optimize your images – give them a descriptive filename and alt text.
- Add schema markup – this helps search engines to understand your content
- Add internal links – these help Google understand what your page is about and to navigate your website.
Get actionable insights into your HVAC business SEO
What is off-page SEO?
Off-page SEO refers to specific actions done outside of your website, such as getting backlinks from other websites or social media.
What is link building?
Link building is the practice of building one-way hyperlinks (also known as “backlinks”) to a website with the goal of improving SEO. Common link building strategies include content marketing, building useful tools, email outreach, broken link building and guest posts.
Why is link building important?
Link building is important for HVAC contractors because it helps to increase the visibility of a website on search engines. Google, for example, use links to a website as a way to determine the authority and trustworthiness of a website.
The more high-quality links that point to a website, the more likely it is to be considered an authority in its field and be given higher rankings in the SERPs (search engine results page).
This increased visibility can drive more traffic to a website, which can lead to more clients for the HVAC business.
Link Building Tactics:
- Guest posts (either DIY it or use a done-for-you guest post service)
- Buying backlinks (like authority links)
- Content marketing (like linkable assets or editorial links)
- Tried and tested SEO methods (like blogger outreach, broken link building
- Using what you’ve got (link reclamation and brand mentions)
Additionally, link building can help establish an HVAC business as a reputable and trustworthy provider of heating and cooling services, which can be a key factor in attracting new clients. High-quality links from reputable websites in the home services or construction industry can signal to potential customers that your HVAC business is respected and reliable.
Link building can also increase referral traffic to your website, where visitors are directed through a link on another website. This can help boost brand awareness and expand your reach to new audiences who may not have found your site otherwise.
In summary, link building is important for HVAC contractors because it helps increase visibility, establish reputation and trust, and drive more referral traffic to your website, ultimately leading to more clients for your business.
Get high quality backlinks
HVAC business SEO Best Practices (+ 4 Tips)
- Use HTTPs (SSL certificates)
- Make sure your web site pages load fast
- Target a relevant topic that has traffic potential
- Meet search intent
- Target a topic you can compete for
- Use your target keyword in your page title, H1 tag and URL
- Use a short (but descriptive) URL
- Write a good title tag and meta description
- Optimize your images
- Write good content
- Add internal links
- Get more quality backlinks
4 Actionable HVAC contractor SEO Tips
Here are some things your HVAC business can do to begin the process of developing a good HVAC contractor marketing strategy.
- Add relevant keywords
- Optimize for local searches
- Start blogging
- Earn links
1. Add relevant keywords to your website
People looking for HVAC services often search for specific needs like furnace repair or air conditioning installation. Long-tail searches typically have fewer searches, but the traffic from these queries is often highly targeted and ready to convert into real customers.
For example, instead of just focusing on optimizing your website for general terms like “HVAC services” or “air conditioning,” you could target more specific keywords like “HVAC contractor in [your city],” “emergency furnace repair in [your area],” or “affordable AC installation in [your city], [state].” These long-tail keywords help you reach customers with specific needs in your local area, increasing the likelihood of converting them into clients.
2. Optimize your site for local searches
If your SEO plan doesn’t use local SEO to target specific areas, you’ll likely miss out on some great leads. Adding the name of your town and nearby towns to your website copy is the easiest way to get better results.
But don’t forget about things on your site besides writing copy. You should also add places to the titles and URLs of your pages.
Also, make sure that your business is listed on Google Maps and local directory sites. This will help your business show up more in local searches.
3. Start writing useful content
The main goal of HVAC contractor SEO is to get more clients by making your website more visible in Google.
One way to do this is to write a blog. If you write a blog with tips on how to maintain your HVAC system, you’ll start attracting interested readers and potential clients. As your traffic grows, so will your search rankings, and people looking for HVAC services in your area will turn to you as a reliable source of information and expertise.
4. Earn quality links
How high your site ranks in search results for keywords and phrases related to your business depends on how many and how good the links are to it. This means that you need to get good links if you want to keep your rankings.
You can do this by making good content and reaching out to bloggers and leaders in your field to ask them to share it. This will not only help you move up in search results, but it will also make your HVAC contractor business look like a leader in the field.
Backlinks are a very important part of SEO for HVAC contractors. They are like a vote of confidence for the content your business puts out. Because of this, links are one of the most important ways that search engines like Google decide how to rank pages.
- Not doing enough keyword research
- Not matching user/search intent
- Targeting keywords that are far too difficult
- Not building enough quality backlinks
- Breaking Google’s Terms of Service when building backlinks
- Missing out on internal link opportunities
- Not allowing Google crawl your content
- Not allowing Google index your content
- Having a very slow site
- Treating SEO as a one-time thing
How does HVAC contractor SEO work?
SEO for HVAC businesses means making sure that your website is optimized for both search engines and users. This makes your website more visible in relevant and organic search results.
Optimizations include:
- on-page SEO
- link building
- technical SEO review
- content audit
- local citation audit
Why do HVAC contractors need marketing?
It helps set your business apart.
Your clients are your customers. A marketing plan not only helps you identify your target market but also helps potential clients understand why they should choose your HVAC services.
A strong HVAC marketing strategy should attract new clients, retain existing ones, and increase awareness of your services. The main goal is to encourage potential clients to call or schedule an appointment online for their heating and cooling needs.
How long does HVAC contractor SEO take?
Typically, HVAC business SEO takes at least six months to deliver results.
In some cases, businesses may start to see results like increased traffic, phone calls, and appointments, in faster time frame than this.
Although typically 6 months is a good benchmark as SEO is a long-term strategy vs. a short-term strategy like PPC.
How much does SEO for HVAC contractors cost?
Prices for HVAC website SEO depend on multiple factors, but the average cost for HVAC contractor SEO is $1500 – $5000 per month.
If you’re looking to partner with a consultant or HVAC business SEO expert, the average rate is $100 – $300 per hour.
What’s Next?
Guest Posts
We do guest posts better than anyone else with complete transparency. You get to approve all placements before they’re made and even the exact anchor text that’s going to be used. Site owners themselves will produce your content to guarantee its a perfect match.
Content
Crafting the right message isn’t just a matter of choosing the right words. We develop site content and blogs using the latest tools to determine the right keywords and balance of terms to build high-performing content.
Managed SEO
Sometimes, it takes more than just one service to make a difference. Multiple services working in concert can amplify the effect and create the growth that’s evaded you in the past. Talk to us about managed SEO campaigns built around any of your goals.
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