The world of search marketing shifts and sways all the time. Even seasoned professionals work hard to keep up to date on the latest Google algorithm updates and industry strategies. That’s why our team invests the time, money, and energy to attend key conferences around the country.

In our latest podcast, Nolen and Jason share some of the insights they accumulated from their latest conference adventures! If you’ve struggled to cultivate your online brand this year, be sure to listen in for some HVAC SEO tips.

Key Facts on SEO for HVAC Professionals

GMB plays a more active role now, allowing people to contact your business directly via messaging, phone, or Q&A entries.
SSL Certificates, custom code base, and mobile-ready design should be considered basics, but not every company provides these attributes.
Without a GMB account claimed and verified, it’s almost impossible to show up properly for local maps listings.

New Light on GMB

One of the most noticeable trends discussed these days is the rising prominence of GMB and the Knowledge Graph. Google My Business (GMB) is a free listing service that allows companies to show up in local searches. Businesses simply need to claim their free listing, provide their basic operational information, and verify their address with Google.

Once the account is active, Google generates a Knowledge Graph with contact information, hours of operation, and uploaded photos for your company.

Notice the buttons in the middle of the screenshot above. These enable streamlined communication with potential customers around the area. Not only can they easily call your business (even from the road), they can also request quotes via the messaging system. GMB creates high-value prospects without ever needing to send to your website.

Optimization for GMB

As the capabilities grow for your Google My Business account, so does the responsibility of ensuring your listing stays accurate and up to date. We’ve seen too many businesses lose valuable leads over the years because of discrepancies in their GMB listings. In fact, we witnessed one outside company (a roofing contractor) lose over $2 million revenue in a single year because of a suspended listing.

It’s more important than ever to keep your account optimized. How can your business accomplish this?

Initial Listing Setup

Make sure you’ve gone through the official verification process.
Use the same address (including abbreviations) for all other listings.
Update your GMB when you start offering new services.
Use your home address only if you don’t have an official office.
Answer as many GMB questions about your operations as possible.

Ongoing Activities Good for HVAC SEO

Answer prospect questions in the Q&A section.
Create a short GMB post every week with new content or promotions.
Add team photos, interior views, exteriors shots, and job site pics.
Continue asking for reviews!

Bad SEO for HVAC Professionals

Don’t try to mess with other HVAC company websites!
Do not create fake locations to try to expand your service area.
Do not offer any sort of incentives or discounts for client reviews.
Do not get rid of your website domain (barring legal reasons).
Do not leave your GMB vacant after verifying it.

Keyword Strategy & HVAC SEO

Back in the day keyword optimization simply involved using a particular phrase three times for every 100 words. Unfortunately, this strategy created gobbity-gook messes that no one enjoyed reading. Nowadays, the Google Search algorithm does a much better job comprehending the meaning behind everyday speech. This allows the search giant to reward high quality content with the best rankings.

Keyword strategy plays a foundational role in SEO for HVAC company websites, but it also continues to slowly shift every year.

SEO conferences continue to speak what we already instinctively know: keyword diversity and natural writing produce the strongest results. That means incorporating synonyms and other phrases related to your primary keywords as your produce new content. Whether you’re re-writing a service page for the fifth time, or you’re constructing the latest guide for maintaining a home AC unit, keyword diversity makes for better reading and ranking.

Potential New Keywords From a Term Search — These Related Search Terms Add More Keyword Listings for Your Website.

If you aren’t sure which phrases best match keyword, try searching it in Google and looking at the blue phrases at the very bottom of the page. You can also try out helpful keyword tools, such as Answer the Public.

Looking for Stronger Search Results?

At HVAC Webmasters, we specialize in creating search-optimized websites for higher rankings and better leads. If you’ve been stuck with expensive lead channels or simply aren’t seeing the local search results you want, our team is here to help! Call (800) 353-3409 and get a free consultation for your HVAC SEO.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

There are thousands of keyword variations in the service industry, but HVAC contractors generally only pursue a tiny fraction of them. It’s easy to think that the key to success is ranking high for “AC repair” and “compressor leak repair,” but there’s are other paths to ranking #1 on Google. Listen in as Nolen and Jason discuss how new entries and older companies alike can upgrade their keyword strategy.

Key Points to Listen For:

SEO results may not take as long as you think.
Secondary keywords make a big difference for new HVAC contractors.
Google considers user intent with brand-optimized keywords.

Keyword Strategy & Optimization

With all the HVAC contractors that we’ve talked with over the years, it’s clear that most professionals have at least some familiarity with keywords. “I need keywords in my website. Popular keywords.” High-volume keywords earn a higher amount of exposure, but there’s a crucial caveat that people forget.

It’s extremely tough to rank for High-volume keywords.

New entries into SEO rarely rank highly for HVAC keywords like “AC repair” or “furnace replacement.” Why? Because there are hundreds of other businesses already attempting it. That doesn’t mean that your business can’t develop a keyword strategy to capture those phrases eventually.

Primary Vs. Secondary Keywords

In SEO, keywords fall under two categories: primary keywords and secondary keywords. All companies eagerly attempt to rank for the first category. These might include:

“HVAC contractor”
“AC replacement”
“Furnace tuneup”
“Emergency air conditioning”

On the other hand, secondary keywords include terms and phrases related to the primaries (sometimes called LSI keywords). What is their purpose?

One: They prevent content writers from stuffing primary keywords dozens of times throughout a page.
Two: They draw Google’s attention to the article and produce more vital recognition for the primary keywords.
Three: Secondaries allow your business to rank for a high quantity of low-volume keywords.

Where Do HVAC Brands Fit In?

HVAC brands, especially high-quality ones, make fantastic secondary keywords. When potential customers lose their Trane AC Unit (for instance), most perform a generic search for “AC repair” or a similar primary keyword. However, people who want a professional with related brand experience might search “Trane AC repair.” Fewer HVAC professionals optimize for these brand-specific keywords.

But won’t Google direct them towards Trane’s website? Google recognizes that the user intent behind these searches is to find a local repair company. As a result, your business can rank highly for the secondary keyword and maybe even score a position in a local pack.

Some heating and cooling companies understand this idea, but they get the execution wrong. Have you ever seen an HVAC website that showcases dozens of popular industry brands? Most resort to either low-content pages or spun pages to make up the content requirements, and Google penalizes this sort of behavior. Instead of following this rank-dropping behavior, take ten of the most popular HVAC brands in your area and develop a secondary keyword strategy around those! Even if you only get a few hits a week, ten pages with three calls a month each quickly adds up.

The Effects of HVAC Brand Keyword Strategy

Remember those primary keywords that you thought you had no chance of ranking for? As those secondary keywords draw Google’s attention towards your website, the search engine re-evaluates your content. While Google closely guards the secrets of its core algorithm, SEO professionals know that the search engine spiders (researches) websites every few weeks to perform these evaluations. Therefore, if your website contains content oriented towards both primary and secondary keywords, Google may start to list your business higher up in primary keyword rankings.

Getting Started on Your Keyword Strategy

Is it time to re-optimize your site’s content to pursue a new keyword strategy? First, make sure you do plenty of research before writing up your service pages and blog posts. Thankfully, there are plenty of free tools out there to help guide your search.

Great Keyword Research Tools

Remember those secondary keywords! They may not earn the highest traffic volume, but secondaries increase the number of phrases Google recognizes from your website. So that traffic quickly builds up.

Team Up With the HVAC Webmasters

Are you looking for an experienced team of HVAC SEO professionals? Come to the seasoned experts at HVAC Webmasters. We empower heating and cooling companies across the country with a broad spectrum of digital marketing services, including custom web design, content development, and social media advertising. As a result, our clients enjoy premium front page ranking for local search, more robust user engagement, and remarkable lead generation.