When’s the last time you evaluated how much real estate you own on the first page of Google results? If your marketing plan isn’t prioritizing getting your HVAC business on page one of Google above all other strategies, you’re losing booked jobs and revenue to your competitors, guaranteed.
Seriously, take a minute and pull up Google. Search “HVAC company + your service area” … what do you see? Is your company on the first page? Is it one of the top three companies listed? If not, you’ve got a problem: The majority of searchers won’t go past the first page of results.
What that means for you is that you need to completely dominate your HVAC digital marketing game so that your company is getting those clicks instead of the other guy.
Why Most HVAC Businesses Call Us
Most HVAC business owners come to us for the same reason: they want their HVAC company to show up on the first page of Google.
We’ve earned quite the reputation for helping HVAC, plumbing, and other home service companies get more leads and sales from the web, and are happy to help you out too.
There are several ways to get your HVAC website listed on the first page of Google—and at Blue Corona, we always recommend you try to get as many listings on the first page as possible. We call it “maximizing your online real estate.”
In order to get your HVAC company on the first page of Google and outrank your competitors, we recommend the following search engine marketing strategies:
- Google Local Services Ads (GLSAs)
- Pay per click advertising (PPC)
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Local search engine optimization (Local SEO)
There are many benefits to spreading your HVAC digital marketing efforts across different channels and platforms. It’s the same reason HVAC companies recommend dual hybrid heating systems—so you aren’t left in the cold (or off the first page).
First Things First: A Google Search Results Page Anatomy Lesson
Before we get into how to get your company on Google’s first page, you’ve got to understand the anatomy of a search results page. It’s made up of four main types of results:
- Local Services ads
- PPC ads
- Maps listings (aka the “local pack”)
- Organic rankings
If you fail to invest in Local Services ads, PPC ads, SEO, or local SEO, you’re cutting out 25% (or more) of your HVAC company’s potential to get on page one of Google.
Get Your HVAC Company on the First Page of Google with Local Services Ads
Local Services ads are the first feature shown to homeowners and other Google users when searching for heating and air conditioning services.
Most importantly, they’re the first kind of search result shown on both mobile devices and desktop devices. That means no matter what you’re searching on, or where you’re searching from, Local Services ads are the first result your customers see on Google.
Lead Volumes from Local Services Ads are On the Rise
Local Services are becoming more and more popular with homeowners, too.
Take a look at the chart below and pay extra attention to the green bars, which represent our clients’ call volume from Local Services ads over a 3-year period:
Today, Local Services ads represent more than 30% of HVAC lead calls from Google.
Get on the First Page of Google Tomorrow with Pay-Per-Click Ads
Local Services campaigns can take up to three months to launch after signing up for the program, due to Google’s rigorous application process. That’s why pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns are great for HVAC companies looking to get more leads, fast.
“But nobody clicks on the paid ads!” HVAC business owners will tell us all the time.
Know what I say back? Nothing—I just point them to a client of ours that bagged a $90k commercial job within their first three months of PPC.
So yes, PPC ads do work for HVAC companies, but only ads in the first three positions. Any lower than that and—as you can see in the image above—clicks drop off rapidly. If you’re not investing in PPC, you’re basically giving those clicks to your competitors. For HVAC contractors, this is a pretty big deal—we’re talking about a potential thousand or multi-thousand dollar HVAC replacement job!
SEO for HVAC Companies: Securing a Top Spot in Google Organic Search
Be First in Google Search for FREE
Now that you’ve got your paid listing, it’s time to work on getting your business a top organic listing (the ones below the PPC ads) in the search results. This requires HVAC SEO, or search engine optimization.
The best way to do this is by adding content to your website and making sure your website is technically optimized. High-quality content—like blog posts, guides, and built-out landing pages—can increase your rankings and also create a better user experience for your customers. In addition, the more quality information you have on your site, the more likely others are to reference it. When other people link and reference your website, the search engines interpret your site as more authoritative and display it more prominently in search engine results.
The great news about trusting Blue Corona with your HVAC company’s SEO and content creation? Since we specialize in marketing for HVAC contractors like you, our content marketers understand the HVAC industry better than any other SEO company you’ll find. I, along with our other staff writers, have written about air conditioning repairs so many times that we could probably diagnose and repair an air conditioner ourselves!
Of course, there’s much more to SEO than just adding content to your website, which means you also need to work in technical SEO.
Here’s how Google works: it uses robots to crawl web pages and look for clues as to what it’s about. By adding in certain technical aspects, you help the robots understand your page a bit better.
Think of it this way: Search engine robots speak a different language than we do—HTML. It’s like having someone who speaks Chinese determine what a web page in English is about. The bits we add with technical SEO are written in a language Google’s search engines understand. It’s like adding subtitles.
Speaking of technical SEO, you also need to make sure your website is secure and optimized for mobile. Alongside that is the necessity for additional code so that the search engines can easily crawl, understand, and index your website (read more here). This involves things like improving your site speed, using a search-engine friendly site navigation menu, creating a well-structured XML sitemap, building a responsive site for mobile and tablet users, and more.
How HVAC Contractors Get More Local Leads: Local SEO
While Local SEO is the last on our list, it’s certainly not the least—in fact, it just may be the most important one of all. When we talked about the anatomy of a Google results page, we mentioned the local pack.
When you Google something like “HVAC contractor,” “ac repair,” “furnace replacement,” or even “liquor store” (hey, everyone has their moments), you’ve probably noticed that Google uses your location data to display nearby businesses. The top three businesses in a local service area are displayed in what’s known as the “local pack.” Since most HVAC companies service a local area, you’ll want to get in that local pack.
In order to show up in the local listings on the first page of Google, you need to optimize your NAP (name, address, phone number) citations across the Web. The more local citations you can build with consistent NAP information, the better.
In addition, recent Google algorithm updates mean that sites like Yelp, Angie’s List, and the BBB are showing up before the local pack and other organic listings. Having complete profiles on these sites with a healthy amount of good reviews will give your HVAC company an edge.
Other Strategies for Getting More First Page Listings on Google
While the paid listings, organic listings, and local listings are the main three SEM strategies for getting your HVAC company on the first page of Google, I have a few other (arguably) under-utilized tactics for getting even more listings on the first page (especially following Google’s decision to limit domain crowding—which means one domain can only have one organic listing on the first page of search results):
Microsites
A lot of companies—especially those with multiple business lines—opt to have more than one website. These companies tend to have a main or primary domain complemented by one or more microsites.
A microsite (sometimes called a minisite) is a website used to supplement a company or organization’s primary domain. More often than not, the microsite will have a URL distinct of the primary domain and its own unique design and navigation. Microsites can help you target different buyer personas, appear more relevant and authoritative, and get multiple listings in organic search results.
So if you own an HVAC company but you also do plumbing work or electrical work, it might be helpful for you to have microsites that concentrate on your other lines of business. You can read more about the benefits of microsites in one of my older posts, “Should I Build Multiple Websites?”.
Videos
In order to improve its own customers’ user experience, Google likes to display a wide variety of media in its search results—including videos. Take a look at the organic listings below—a video holds the second spot. A video is 60 percent more likely to get ranked in a search result than a landing page on the same topic.
So while having a blog post on your site about how to program your programmable thermostat is great, having a video on the same topic might represent an easier way to get ranked on the first page of search results.
Social Sites
Think your HVAC company doesn’t need to be on social media? Four Seasons—the world’s largest HVAC contractor, begs to differ. We spent an entire blog post analyzing what HVAC companies can learn about social media from Four Seasons and came to a very important conclusion: social media represents a low-cost way of maintaining top-of-mind-awareness with your customers and you’d be a fool not to take advantage of it.
Outrank Your Competitors with Blue Corona’s Internet Marketing Services for HVAC Companies
At Blue Corona, we service all industries, but we specialize in SEO and PPC for contractors like HVAC companies. We have a proven pay-per-click setup and management system specifically designed for the heating and cooling industry, and our SEO specialists have extensive experience helping HVAC contractors like you get more qualified traffic and convert more visitors into leads and sales. But don’t take our word for it! Check out what our customers have to say about us!
When you’re ready to get started, give us a call or enter your website into the box below to find out whether your contractor website could benefit from SEO and PPC services.
