Category Archives: Reputation Management

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The (Elite) Google Reviews Guide for HVAC Contractors

Google Reviews for HVAC

What are Google Reviews for HVAC?

Google Reviews are testimonials or feedback left about your business on your Google Business Profile listing. The reviews appear beside your listing on Google Maps and Search and often influence the user’s perception of your HVAC company. Businesses can request reviews with the URL short link available in your Google Business Profile dashboard.

Google Reviews Count

Google Business Profile Reviews directly influence SEO because they increase your company’s chances of appearing in the Local Map 3-Pack for relevant queries.

Why HVAC Companies Need Google Reviews

Google reviews mean a lot to your business for many reasons. Perhaps the most straightforward explanation is that many people use Google. Google pulls in the lion’s share of all global customer reviews submitted with 57% of worldwide reviews

You have probably already heard about the importance of a Google Business Profile for your HVAC contracting business. Google reviews are another big reason why having a GMB is so essential. It provides your customers with an opportunity to find your business in local searches and provide feedback that is becoming more important by the day.

People trust online reviews as they’ve become a digital form of word of mouth. They have become something of an entity in and of themselves. In the following guide, we will take an updated look at what you need to know about Google reviews in 2022.

For all things having to do with HVAC digital marketing, including review and reputation management, make sure you pick our brains over here at HVAC Webmasters. In the meantime, let’s get started with the guide. 

The Reach of Google Reviews

As always, we want to impress upon our readers the impact that Google reviews have. Since launching in 2007, Google Business Profile reviews have dominated the aggregate online review market. Before Google Business Profile became a thing, Google would pull aggregate customer ratings from 3rd party review sites like Yelp. 

But times have certainly changed. Now, 56% of online consumers report that they read at least 4 Google Business Profile reviews before purchasing decisions.

Popularity isn’t the only reason Google reviews are so critical. Your online reviews will also have an impact on your SEO ranking. Reviews are now the second most important ranking factor for businesses. Besides having a Google Business Profile (the most critical ranking factor for Google), online reviews are the next more important ranking factor. 

The Google web crawler actively seeks out businesses with many reviews (predominantly positive) to display to users who perform a relevant search. 

To put it in lay terms: the amount of Google reviews you have for your HVAC business affects how many potential customers see your company website. As you can indeed surmise, this means that Google reviews also impact how many HVAC leads you to rake in every month – and how many sales you complete. 

Google Reviews Tips and Tricks

Having made our point about the importance of reviews on Google Business Profile, it’s time to tell you everything you need to know about them.

Online Branding Through Service Reviews

Perfect 5-star ratings can indicate fraudulent reviews depending on the consumer’s level of skepticism. As a result, aggregate ratings between 4.2 and 4.9 are ideal.

Frequency Matters 

We know that the Google algorithm also checks for how recent your reviews are in addition to the amount of overall Google reviews you have. In short, if most of your reviews are months or years old, Google will be less inclined to rank you high on search engine results pages.

While the exact number of new reviews you need per month to stay relevant is a matter of debate, in general, you should be trying to get at least 10 Google reviews every three months to remain competitive. 

Keep Ratings Realistic

It seems counter-intuitive, but you shouldn’t be trying to get a perfect aggregate review score on Google. That’s because people tend to distrust local businesses with excellent review ratings. They tend to think they manipulated the system somehow. The good news is that people don’t expect perfection. Consumers understand that it’s impossible to please everyone, no matter how hard you try.

So having a few bad reviews here and there isn’t the end of the world. However, you have to make sure you have the right balance. So what is the right balance? According to a recent study, most people trust businesses with aggregate review ratings between 4.2 and 4.9 stars

Replies Matter

The rate at which you are replying to your Google reviews also plays a part in how Google ranks your business on relevant searches. This will affect your rankings if you are not responding to any of your reviews or taking weeks to reply to them.

It will also affect how your customer base views your business. They see replies as a sign that you care about the customer experience, instilling more trust in your brand. 

How to Get More Google Reviews

Knowing all of the review facts we mentioned in the last section is good. But you can’t do much with them unless you get reviews for your HVAC business. Here are some surefire ways to increase your review volume:

Get a Short Link

People don’t want to go through a gauntlet to leave a review. Many would-be reviews drop out because of a complicated process. To make it easier for people to leave you a Google review, get a review link. Once you have it, you can use it on your site, social media posts, marketing emails, and even texts.

Ask your Customers

In-person review requests are still influential. People who have been pleased with your service are more receptive to requests for reviews. Please make sure you let your customers know how much their reviews can help your business. And again, make it easy for them. Have a link ready to send them or a QR code that takes them directly to the review page to scan. 

Use DataPins

DataPins is a local SEO and reputation management tool for HVAC companies. The software allows contractors to perform jobsite check-ins, which are published automatically on the corresponding web page. The tool also handles your reputation management by sending automated review requests through SMS (text) and email so that customers can respond at their convenience. 

Ask Suppliers

 Customers aren’t the only source for reviews. You probably work with material suppliers, manufacturers, and other contractors as HVAC contractors. You can also reach out to these people for reviews. 

Update your GBP Page

Keeping up-to-date information on your GBP is another way to rank it higher and garner more reviews. Ensure all your contact info is current, post new pictures regularly, update services and service areas, and provide FAQ answers.

Reply to Reviews

Replying to most of your reviews is essential for garnering new ones. It shows new and existing customers that you care about their experience and aren’t hesitant to engage with them. It is imperative to respond to negative reviews. Avoid being confrontational. Express your regret and ask how you might do better in the future. 

Reputation Management for HVAC Contractors

Managing your reviews is a full-time job. Between drumming up a streamlined system for garnering reviews in the first place, you must maintain the perfect ratio between positive and negative feedback. And if you get a bunch of reviews a week, responding to them can be a real chore.

But here at HVAC Webmasters, we offer complete reputation management services. We will help turn your existing reviews into lead-generating machines and generate a steady stream of new reviews for your business. Ask us how to get started today!

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3 Essential Online Review Sites For HVAC Companies

The HVAC industry is fiercely competitive. However, there’s no silver bullet to make your company succeed online. However, after decades of experience as HVAC SEO specialists, HVAC Webmasters knows that it takes many little things done well to help improve Google rankings and get your phone ringing daily. One of those “little things” is online review sites.

We’ll talk about how to get HVAC reviews another time, but in the following post, let’s focus on which sites will drive leads to your company and how you should manage the content on those listings to stand out from the crowd.

1) Google My Business (AKA Google My Business Profile)

Hands down, the most critical citation listing for your HVAC company is Google My Business. GMB is a rich listing that you can claim and manage, allowing you to create a strong profile directly tied to Google. Because Google is still the search engine king, it’s only logical that you would do anything you can to appeal to this resource, with top rankings as the goal of a well-played organic SEO strategy. 

One of the pleasant aspects of Google My Business is managing your company listing from a user-friendly dashboard. The information you enter updates instantly across Search and Google Maps. Because local searches for heating and cooling repairs are vital when service areas are fixed, this is the absolute best way to keep your NAP accurate in the most visible listing you’ll have.

Optimizing Your GMB Listing

Putting myself in the customer’s shoes, one of my favorite things about using Google to search for HVAC repairs near me is how much information I have at my fingertips when those results come back. I can click on a business name from the map results- a familiar spot to launch research when proximity matters, especially true for emergent repairs- and see an excellent overview of data about that company.

I may go ahead and place a call for service from this view alone without ever having visited the HVAC company website. (And that’s not to say that your primary website isn’t essential. It’s a vital tool for ranking well on Google and ensuring that your company is toward the top of the Map results to get that click!)

But here’s the thing, even if you do everything right, if you haven’t claimed and updated your GMB listing, you may never get that call due to incorrect information. A simple typo could cost you tons of calls, and a poor user experience could result in your business tanking in the rankings.

However, with a substantial listing that incorporates keywords throughout the quality content and a linked listing that connects viewers to your website for more info (like service pages with excellent on-page SEO), you’re far more likely to earn their business.

Google Business Tools for HVAC Pros

A new Google Ad feature worth mentioning here is the Google Guarantee badge. These are paid listings (versus organic results, which are still typically seen as most valuable), but they add an extra layer of comfort for customers who want the backing of a third party.

HVAC Google Guaranteed Results

This feature ties to your GMB account and lets you manage communication via Local Services booking. Because Google is recognized as an authority and trusted by billions of users, this paid listing could help a newly launched domain see some action before it has put in the years to rank organically.

2) Yelp

Millions of users continue to favor the Yelp app and website for finding everything from restaurants to air conditioning specialists in their area. (In fact, there is even a quick-select icon for Heating & Air Conditioning on the app’s landing page!) Because the app is closely tied to mobile use, the local search aspect is clutch and provides a good user experience.

The other benefit to users is review-rich pages tied to an identified reviewer (versus anonymous posts). Sure, you’ll still find some absurd nonsense, but it’s not nearly as rampant as sites that allow unidentified reviews.

HVAC Company Yelp Listing

Yelp reviews tend to be more detailed than other online review sources, so having an excellent listing for your HVAC business on Yelp is a fantastic offering for potential customers to find you…and be impressed.

Pro Tip: Respond To Yelp Reviews From HVAC Customers

While this might not seem like the SEO tips you’d expect from us, it’s essential to realize that engaging with customers is vital for the life of your company. Of course, this is true of almost any industry, but because you have a tremendous opportunity to earn business from personal referrals, thinking about how you engage with the customer is an excellent investment of time and energy.

Social media marketing, for example, hinges on good engagement to get your posts seen and allow your business to thrive online.

Replying to reviews on sites such as Google and Yelp is a great way to show that you appreciate your customers and tune in to what they need. Even if a review was mediocre, when a business owner responds respectfully and professionally, that still leaves me with a positive impression of the company. The response can be more valuable than the review or star rating itself.

3) Facebook

You may not think of this as a review site, but it’s not uncommon for Facebook reviews to appear on a Google homepage for a company listing. As we covered earlier when discussing the power of Google rankings, a potential customer may not even make it to your website, but they will likely check out a few ratings before clicking the phone number from the SERP.

So while a user would have to be logged in to leave a comment or dive deep into Facebook content, reviews are visible to everyone (with or without an account) and should be considered necessary for your online reputation.

When potential customers vet your company for their HVAC repair business, they may start with a Google search of your company name and then check out serval online review sites to get a sense of the service you offer. Because of the incredible traffic that Facebook receives, this listing usually shows up fairly high in the rankings and should therefore be given plenty of love.

Screenshot of Facebook Business Page for Local HVAC Company

If you’re all reviews and no content, the viewer may be less inclined to pull the trigger. So don’t forsake developing a great secondary website with your social media business pages, starting with Facebook for Business.

Getting Good Reviews For HVAC Services

While we’ve spent most of this article talking about how to best claim and manage these various online review sites for your HVAC company, they won’t do you (or your customers) much good if there are no reviews to view.

While there are some tools for making review requests more streamlined, the fact remains that you have to ask for them. It’s assumed that only a tiny percentage of customers are likely to follow through to leave a review — good or bad — after their heating and cooling repairs, so you’ve got to be diligent about asking everyone to improve the odds of getting a decent turn-out.

We know that consumer behavior shows that folks are likelier to call a service provider with lots of reviews, but a mid-to-high star rating, versus a company with just a handful of reviews, even if they’re all five stars. So the quantity weighs Google rankings, too, whether the reviews are made on your GMB listing or elsewhere.

For Facebook specifically, you have the benefit of a more engaged user than you’d find on Google, for example. The billions of Facebook users spend a lot of time on the social network every day, so don’t hesitate to post every so often a request for existing customers to post a review.

And if you’re trying to build up reviews on Yelp versus Facebook, tell them! It’s perfectly acceptable to make it known that you’re trying to bolster your brand reputation on a given site, but the key is to provide a link to make it as easy as possible for an existing customer to help you out. Please don’t make them search, or you’ll likely lose that willing participant.

Other Citation Sites for Heating and Cooling Repairs

Here are a few other online review sites/directories that help connect HVAC pros to new customers:

  • Angi
  • HomeAdvisor
  • Porch
  • Thumbtack

While quantity helps search engines recognize your business as reputable, it’s also worth investing some time into each listing. You can ensure a vital entry point for new HVAC customers to find your business and get those online review sites; working for you.

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