HVAC SEO: 5 Essential Tips For HVAC Contractors To Generate Leads

HVAC contractors do not need marketing!

You need qualified leads for new installations and maintenance. SEO for HVAC contractors targets your audience and optimizes your conversion rate. 

Conventional marketing tactics including TV, radio, billboards and newspapers do not measure results. With internet marketing, you gain clear insights into the source of your leads and most importantly customers.

Search Engine Optimization, better known as SEO, helps you attract clients organically through Google and other search engines. Understanding how to optimize your website and Google Business Profile listing with a solid SEO strategy helps you attract the customers you want.

Search engine optimization or SEO can, and should, be one of the best ways for your HVAC company to maintain business in your local community. When a homeowner or local business needs HVAC services, the vast majority of people use search engines to discover home services providers. SEO strategy helps your web pages perform in search engine rankings.

Valve+Meter is a leading HVAC SEO agency because we understand how your home services businesses work. The search engine optimization strategies for other industries are not always effective for your HVAC website.

Most importantly, your HVAC company must establish a strong local SEO presence. You don’t need leads to your web pages who live outside of your service area. That’s where local SEO for HVAC contractors becomes so valuable.

Valve+Meter’s SEO Services helps HVAC companies create strategies to expand your online presence and capture new clients from your local geographic area. There’s five steps to build your HVAC SEO strategy including building your brand, executing SEO, building social media presence, optimizing your site for mobile, and managing your online reputation.

What do you want your users to experience when they find your website from a search engine? Do you want them to purchase services? Are you looking to educate them about different aspects of HVAC installation?

It is important that users have a positive experience when browsing your site. How can you create a solid user experience (UX)? You can’t begin using HVAC SEO correctly without knowing what it is you want to achieve. Make sure you have solid content and calls to action for customers to sink their teeth into once they’re on your site from search engines.

What Would Customers Want?

Any HVAC SEO strategy should begin with putting yourself in the shoes of a customer looking for the services you offer. Think about the mindset of a web visitor who searched and found you on Google, and why they might be looking for HVAC contractors like you. Are they in need of a central air conditioning system? Make it easy for them to find out what they wish to know about the process.

Do they need ideas on types of air conditioner or furnace replacements? Make sure your pages are search engine optimized and contain helpful information guiding them on what might be best suited for their home.

What’s most important is providing valuable information useful to site visitors. The most stylized web page in the world can’t make up for poor-quality content that fails to give users what they need.

Don’t get carried away and cram too much information onto one page. Landing page content should be easy for your target audience to read. Too much text bunched together makes your page look cluttered and boring.

Keep It Simple

Getting around your site should not be a struggle. Visitors to an HVAC company website should be able to easily navigate around your site from any page. Slow responsiveness and hard-to-find content frustrate visitors and make it unlikely they’ll remain on your page long enough to become paying customers.

You actually have two key target audiences: your local homeowners who need HVAC services and Google who guides users to your website. The better your HVAC website is designed, the more likely you are to rank and the more likely leads are to convert to customers.

Now it’s time to start optimizing your pages for internet searches. You need to make it simple for people searching Google for HVAC contractors to find your pages when they do an internet search. There are two types of SEO strategies to keep in mind when getting your pages ready for user queries: on-page and off-page.

On-Page SEO Optimization

Making use of these on-page SEO techniques helps bots from search engines find your page and bring it back to users as a search result. The HVAC industry is a competitive one that involves multiple companies fighting for a share of the pie.

Performing on-page optimization will add relevant HVAC keywords to your website that can boost your site’ search engine ranking. Adding HVAC SEO keywords can tell Google that your content is relevant to what the searcher is looking for.

Start With A Relevant Page Title

Your page title should include the keyword you’re looking to rank for in the search engine results pages, or SERPs. For example, if you’re looking to rank for the term “furnace repair”, that must be included in your title both for SEO value and to improve the user experience.

Include A Meta Description

You see this description when search engines bring back query results. The more accurate your meta description is, the better chance the user will click on your link. Sometimes, Google will choose the meta description for you, even if you’ve added your own, based on what it deems as the most relevant to the user’s search query. However, it’s always best practice to write a concise and compelling meta description that accurately summarizes the content of the page and includes relevant keywords.

Use Schema Markup To Your Advantage

Believe it or not, your HTML tags can also be used to attract visitors. Your page markup can be used to create rich snippets for your HVAC business on Google search results pages.

Rich snippets contain more information than regular results. Use it to let users know how recently your content was updated along with other important details you want to be immediately visible to people searching for HVAC contractors.

Perform HVAC Keyword Research

Keywords are phrases matching the queries provided by users. You might think you have a good idea of what your target audience is searching for, but many HVAC companies are surprised to learn that there are often variations of keywords and search phrases that are more commonly used by their target audience. Paying attention to each keyword’s search volume can help you determine which are higher priority.

Your target keywords should be included throughout your content. There are several different ways to conduct research on the most common phrases users enter when users search for HVAC contractors:

• Google AdWords Keyword Tool: Test out your phrases here to find out the level of competitiveness for the phrase and how much it’s used over the course of a month. You want heavily-searched local keywords that your competitors might be neglecting.
• Neil Patel’s Ubersuggest: It’s another free tool from SEO Guru Neil Patel. Conduct as many free searches as you want to find out how well a particular keyword might do to help potential customers find your pages.

Off-Page SEO Optimization

Users share information from sites they find useful. They do this by adding links back to specific web pages on your site or by putting the information out on other digital media platforms.

This increases your brand’s reach to other areas of the internet without needing to use paid ads. These types of organic backlinks from other sites also help improve your search engine rankings against other HVAC contractors in the organic search results. Make use of analysis tools to track how often your site gets linked back.

Another great way to attract visitors to your site is by using engaging videos showcasing the knowledge of different company employees or demonstrating the services of HVAC contractors in your employ. Encourage users to link back to these videos from their own sites or share them with others in need of HVAC services.

Link building can be a tedious technical SEO task, but one that can be very rewarding when done correctly.

Join High-Value Directories

Joining high-authority online directories, like Yelp, Google Business Profile, or HomeAdvisor, can help increase your HVAC business’s online visibility and improve its search engine rankings. By creating detailed and accurate listings on these directories, you can showcase your services, service areas, and contact information to potential customers who are searching for HVAC services in your area.

It’s important to note that joining less credible directories that may have high spam scores can end up hurting your SEO efforts, as Google may penalize websites that are receiving backlinks from questionable websites.

Too many HVAC contractors overlook the impact a strong social media presence can have on building their brand. Facebook and Instagram both provide a number of tools making it easy for HVAC contractors to distinguish themselves from their competitors.

Facebook Marketing

Over a billion people use Facebook every single day. Your job is targeting the segment of users potentially interested in using the services of HVAC contractors like you. A great way to do this is with Facebook Pages. It’s easy to target these toward local users in your area.

Using Facebook Pages To Your Benefit

Facebook’s pages allow HVAC contractors to align their business with the proper marketplace category. Take as much care with your pages here as you would with a regular website landing page.

You want it to appear professional and appealing to potential customers. Make sure your business’s contact information is prominently displayed.

Add category tags displaying your status as an HVAC contractor as well as your location. This draws the interest of users near your business in need of your services.

The Insights feature gathers data on the visitors your page attracts and what they’re doing with the information found there. Be sure to include pictures in your post updates to make them more eye-catching.

Instagram Marketing

Instagram allows you to reach over 95 million users sharing pictures and other content on the platform. Take a more personal approach to the way you market here. Try creating stories about your business and the impact you have on your local community.

Think about showcasing your team and any philanthropic or community involvement. Personalizing your business makes you more than a logo and allows users to relate to your company in a new way.

Quora Marketing

People have questions, and many of them turn to Quora for answers. One great way to make more person-to-person connections with potential customers is by answering HVAC-related questions they post.

You build up a profile and gradually attract a following. It’s especially useful when you’re able to reach people in your own area.

It’s important you focus on the users instead of promoting your own business. Simply posting a link to your HVAC website will likely be perceived as lazy and “salesy.” The quality of the advice you give to users is the best marketing tool you can wield.

Live Streaming

Think about scheduling live demos of different services HVAC contractors offer. Take users with you on a house visit and let them follow you through the process of replacing a customer’s heating system.

You get the chance to show off your knowledge and competence. This builds trust with customers and makes them feel confident about giving you a call.

Many people use their phones and other mobile devices to make mobile searches on Google and other search engines. In fact, more website traffic takes place over mobile devices than ever before, with over 52% of web traffic taking place on mobile devices. This makes mobile optimization a crucial factor that your business must perform in order to compete in your market.

The layout of your pages needs to adapt to small-screen devices. Can users navigate your HVAC website from their phones just as easily as they can on a laptop? Are they able to press a button to initiate a call or are they still required to punch in the numbers? Questions like these are important to consider when creating an HVAC SEO marketing strategy.

Different Search Approaches

You also must account for emerging voice search technology. Your keyword research needs to account for queries entered in a text box along with questions users might put to an AI-powered device.

Most voice queries are posed as natural-sounding questions. It’s best to include longer-tailed keywords matching the phrasing they might use in your landing pages.

Remember users doing a voice search already know what they’re looking for. Those entering text searches are more often prepared for more research on a topic. Make sure you’re creating content accommodating both kinds of users.

One of the most powerful local SEO tactics an HVAC company can lean on is reputation management. Most consumers today go to Google and check out what others have to say about HVAC contractors before making a decision about using their services. There are a number of places you can encourage customers to post reviews about your company through reviews on Yelp or Google Business Profile formerly known as Google My Business.

Some local businesses hesitate to go after reviews for fear of negative blowback hurting their business. Here’s why it’s beneficial to pursue customer feedback:

Something’s Better Than Nothing

Having no reviews at all can be just as harmful as having negative reviews. You might give customers the impression you lack the experience they need.

You Establish a Reputation

Gaining positive reviews for your services goes a long way toward encouraging new visitors to give your company a try. It also leads to positive word of mouth in your area, driving more business your way.

Find Out How You’re Really Doing

Reviews are a good way to track the service your HVAC contractor employees provide and publicly respond to any issues. If there’s a legitimate issue you’d like to handle it before it drives business away, right?

Link back to positive reviews from your own business pages and make sure they’re prominently displayed to visitors. You can even add your own comments section to get more direct feedback. This also allows you to directly engage with customers in your own space. If you don’t have the time or capacity to monitor it, however, either engage a marketing agency to assist you or keep comments closed.

It takes skill and patience to design HVAC SEO strategies placing your business ahead of the competition. Working with an HVAC digital marketing company and local SEO specialists can help you develop a comprehensive SEO strategy. At Valve+Meter your plan is tailored to your specific business needs and goals.

When you work with Valve+Meter, we’ll make sure your business and marketing goals align with each other. We’re an SEO agency you can count on to deliver repeatable, profitable, and scalable results. We can help you focus on tried and true strategies that actually work in order to improve online visibility and fill your sales funnel with qualified leads.