HVAC SEO: 10 SEO Tips To Skyrocket Your Local Rankings

HVAC SEO is what drives your organic rankings in Google. And we all know that organic online visibility in the HVAC industry is paramount- the more website traffic from organic search, the more leads come flowing in.

Searching for HVAC contractors is considered an transactional search. Meaning customers are wanting to find a company in real time and initiate the business transaction- now.

This is why HVAC SEO services are so valuable. Customers search, find an HVAC company and 60% of the time they go on to hire them on the same day.

96% of consumers learn about local companies online more than anywhere else. With most not going past the second page of the search results.

This SEO tip tops the list because if your HVAC website is not up to par, you'll never reach the top spots, no matter matter how good your HVAC SEO is.

It is critically important when it comes to SEO for HVAC contractors that your HVAC website is designed and optimized for UX (User Experience). Not only does an optimized UX website create a great customer experience, but Google can also track how customers are experiencing your site.

If your HVAC website is providing a bad experience to Google users, guess what? Yep, Google will never allow you to grace their presence in the top spots. Even the best HVAC contractor SEO depends on great UX.

When a user searches in Google and then visits your site, they better not see that user heading back (hitting back button) to their search results looking for the same thing again. If they are, then that means they didn't find what they were looking for when Google suggested your site for their search query.

Here are a few ways to optimize your HVAC SEO for a great user experience.

• ‍Analytics. Dive deep into your visitors behaviors by analyzing analytics and heat maps. One HVAC company increased their HVAC generation by simply changing the color of a button. What color? Test and you'll find out what works best for your HVAC brand.  

• Mobile Friendly. Around 64% of users search from a mobile device. If your site doesn't display correctly for a mobile user, they are gone faster than cake in our lounge room. HVAC SEO depends on mobile optimization.

• ‍Speed. Get your site loading fast. Then, make it faster. Research shows that users that leave your site increase by 32% when your site increases load time from 1 to 3 seconds.                  

• Call to Action. Make sure your site has a great call-to-action when it first loads and is visible without having to scroll down. Our HVAC companies say having a nice headline with a 'Quick Quote' or 'Free Estimate' button has increased their HVAC leads. (Example > Headline: Your HVAC Specialists in 'Your Location' - Button: Get a Free AC Checkup)

• ‍Test. Test all of your links and buttons to make sure they are working. One HVAC company learned the hard way after launching a site without working links. It wasn't until after a full week of low HVAC lead generation that they realized nobody could get to the form.

Get started with these UX optimization tips and you'll be on your way with a great foundation of SEO for your HVAC business.

Keyword research when it comes to SEO for HVAC contractors is vital to the success of the campaign.

When it comes to targeting effective HVAC search terms, the focus should be on keywords that consumers are actually searching for, not what you think they are searching for.

We want to eliminate 'assuming' when it comes to keyword research for HVAC SEO and go straight to the hard facts. Using tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush can show you exactly what your customers are searching for.

Oftentimes, after doing keyword research with a trusted tool, you find that what you thought people were searching for, actually doesn't get searched at all.

"We wasted 6 months targeting the wrong keywords for our local area. Ranking #1 for keywords nobody is searching for doesn't make the phone ring." - Tim ~ Cooler Air Today

Could you imagine spending significant effort and resources on targeting keywords that nobody was searching for? Yes, you might get to #1, but you'll go crazy wondering why your phone isn't ringing.

When you're first starting out with HVAC SEO, going for longer tail keywords will be less competitive. Long-tail keywords are usually more specific compared to short-tail keywords that tend to be more general.

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Examples:

Short Tail: AC repair Scottsdale

Long Tail: residential AC repair Scottsdale

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Longer-tail HVAC keywords for SEO are more specific but get searched less, which is why they are not as competitive to their counterpart. In the early stages, targeting less competitive keywords is the way to go.

As you build up authority over time, you'll start ranking for the more competitive search terms naturally.

Local HVAC SEO optimization is vital for HVAC businesses. It is a subset of SEO focused on local search and can make an HVAC company stand out organically for searches in a specific geographical market.

Local SEO for HVAC companies involves many variables, but we'll focus on the critical ones that your HVAC company needs to get right:

• NAP Information: NAP information consists of your HVAC company name, address and phone number. Your NAP needs to be consistent with every property or local listing that you show up on. If Google sees any inconsistencies with your NAP, then they'll be confused and that isn't good at all.

• Local Business Listings: List your HVAC business on local business listing websites to obtain citations. This usually requires adding your NAP (see above) to the sites and also include an website link back to your site. Keep in mind that you NAP needs to be contestant on each website profile. Business listings sites include, Yellowpages, Foursquare, Hotfrog, CitySearch, Angie's List, Yelp, CityVoter and hundreds more.

• Google My Business Listing: This is similar to the local business listings but we singled it out as it's far more important because it's a Google owned property. Having a full Google optimized business listing is critical for local HVAC SEO. Having an active company presence, combined with positive HVAC reviews is a big advantage over your competitors when it comes to local SEO.

• Positive Reviews: Cultivate positive reviews on as many business listings as you can. Positive reviews give your business credibility and play a huge role when converting the visitor to a customer when they search for your "Company Name" + reviews.

Servgrow includes managed Local business listings on their PRO plan and higher.

See for yourself >> Try Servgrow free for 14 days‍

Ok, so you're asking what are HVAC featured snippets, how are they related to SEO for HVAC companies and how the heck do you 'win' them ?

Featured snippets for the HVAC industry are what you see at the top of the search results that are relevant topics related to the HVAC industry, often known as position 0.

They usually appear when a question that is relevant to the HVAC industry is searched for by a Google user. Google will show an answer box with a snippet of the high quality article that answers the question.

Google loves showing them and users love seeing them.

Quality content that targets featured snippet topics is what Google wants. When you rank for featured snippets, you're giving Google what the want and they'll reward you with higher rankings overall.

A few of Servgrow users reported that that when they ranked for more featured snippets, they ranks better for their service pages too.

So what we're saying here is, win the featured snippets and you will with Google for your HVAC service pages.

Here is one...

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This topic 'outside ac not working but inside is", is searched a lot by Google users and Cooler Air Today currently has the featured snippet won.

They are 'winning' this featured snippet, and that means Google is giving them the proverbial thumbs up. Thumbs up from Google is always good for your website.

How did they 'win' the featured snippet?

This featured snippet 'win' came from a combination of Servgrow's foundational SEO for HVAC contractors that comes when you sign up to Servgrow, and the work of this HVAC SEO company.

To 'win', you need to focus on two things:

1. High quality article related to a featured snippet topic.

This is the 'easy' part. Take a look at the article that currently has the featured snippet and simply write a better one. More detail about the issue, images with alt text, proper headings, meta dat, longer, etc.

2. Authority (Backlinks)

This is the not so easy part. According to a study, backlinks were the No. 1 contributing factor to high rankings. That goes for HVAC SEO and 'winning' featured snippets as well.

With all things being equal, for Google to differentiate between two pieces of information, evaluating backlinks from other websites is the main way. Authority is built from backlinks.

So, how do you get backlinks?

According to Soderman SEO, two tactics can generate quite a bit of authority to outrank the competition.

One, explore competitors' backlinks by leveraging tools like Ahrefs.com. These tools will allow you to see who is linking to your competitors and not you. Export that list, and reach out to those sites to try to gain a link from them.

Second, outreach and build relationships with site owners in the HVAC industry. Building relationships over time can generate high-quality backlinks that last forever and are given t

HVAC SEO and building backlinks can be done by anyone, it just takes time- a lot of time. Which is why a lot of HVAC businesses turn to SEO companies to handle their HVAC SEO and backlink building.

Creating city pages for your HVAC company is an important step for successful HVAC SEO strategies, especially if you operate in multiple locations.

HVAC Website structure should look like this:

• Home Page: General HVAC terms that are do not target a specific city or local area. Usually this is targeted for the State or country (if multiple states). but can target the entire state.

Home page title example: Arizona's Premier HVAC Company

Home page should talk about the state in general as well and overall state landmarks, population, sports teams, etc. This will provide more relevancy to the page.

• Inner City Page: HVAC terms targeting a specific city or community.

Inner city page example: Premier HVAC Company in Scottsdale

Inner city pages should talk about the city as well and mentioned city specific landmarks, population, sports teams, etc. This will provide more relevancy to the page.

You'll want to create as many inner city pages you are able to service and link to them all from the home page. In addition, add a 'locations' page to your site and add all the inner city pages to that main locations page.

High level Off-Page HVAC SEO consists of actions taken to build authority (backlinks) from relevant, quality and trusted 3rd party websites. This stage is similar to how we build authority in the 'featured snippet' section.

Think of links from other websites as votes for a popularity contest. The more quality votes you get, the higher you rank in the search engines.

If fact, it doesn't matter how good or high quality your website is, without votes or backlinks from other sites, it's impossible for Google to tell how good your HVAC site is and where it should be ranked.

Other websites need to vouch for your site, and backlinks are the #1 way to do this.

Here are a couple ways of acquiring backlinks:

• Natural and earned links: These votes consist of websites naturally linking to your HVAC website without any effort on your part.

• Built Links: Built backlinks require a quite a bit of effort on your end, such as reaching out or getting in touch with website owners to see if they would link back to your site in attribution or a mention.

It's extremely important that you use white hat strategies to gain backlinks. Over the years, Google has gotten stricter in what backlinks they reward and which ones they penalize.

The last thing you want for you HVAC website is be penalized and buried in the search results. Below are a few things to consider when going after those votes of confidence:

• The amount of referring domains: Each domain that is linking to your site is a vote. The more domains you have, the more votes of confidence you have.

• Link Authority: Not all votes are created equal. Just because a website links to you, doesn't mean it's worth anything. You want votes from high authority websites.

• HVAC relevance: Acquiring a backlink from a high authority HVAC blog will be worth much more than a backlink from a pet food website.

• Anchor text (HVAC relevant): Anchor text is the text that is hyperlinked and points to your website. This text needs to be relevant and descriptive to the HVAC industry.

Off-site SEO for HVAC contractors is the most powerful stage in the SEO process. Get started ASAP.

Mastering the EAT principle for the HVAC industry can help you with long term SEO success.

So what is EAT?

EAT stands for expertise, authority and trustworthiness.

EAT has impacted HVAC SEO noticeably following a major 2018 algorithm update, known as the Medic Algorithm Update.

It was initially rolled out to medical and health related websites but has since moved on to encompass just about any business website. We'll break down EAT for the HVAC industry.

Expertise in HVAC

HVAC expertise is defined as having a high level of knowledge and skill in the HVAC industry. When it comes to demonstrating expertise on your HVAC website, make sure an expert is creating the content.

HVAC Authoritativeness

Your reputation in the HVAC industry is what represents authoritativeness. Is your website a go to source for information about HVAC? Expertise is the foundation to building authoritativeness.

Trustworthiness in HVAC

The third piece EAT is determined if Google and their users perceive your HVAC website as a trustworthy source. And you guessed it, reviews play a major role in this department. Online reviews can help or hurt your positioning on Google.

Prioritizing for EAT will set your website up for HVAC SEO success. Get started today to make improvements and you'll be rewarded.

Next to Google, YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine with more than 1 billion unique users each month.

Optimizing your HVAC brand's YouTube channel and videos to improve your visibility and rankings on the platform is the foundation of Video SEO.

Whether it's creating HVAC videos to help your customers with particular problems or advertising videos, take time this year to focus a bit on video SEO for your HVAC business.