Heating & cooling contractors often wonder why their HVAC website doesn’t bring in enough leads. Most of the time, it is the result of low click volume, a product of poor web design, codebase, and search engine optimization. But what about advertising? For contractors running PPC campaigns, the low click volume could originate from a poorly managed advertising strategy on Google, Facebook, or elsewhere. Despite these everyday occurrences, there are instances when traffic comes in, but leads don’t. In cases like this, the problem is with conversion rate optimization. If your website is frequently visited but is not converting those visitors into leads, here are some of the reasons websites don’t convert:
Call To Action
Every high conversion website has a clear and convincing call to action. Unfortunately, there are too many websites that don’t have their basic information listed on the header and footer of their homepage. Every visitor should know who you are, where you are, and what you do. Those three things are non-negotiable. It is not enough, however, to list a phone number. A readable text size must appear so that users can easily see it. You want the phone number to read clearly for the prospective customer. You also want the phone number to be clickable on mobile devices by integrating click-to-call functionality. This way, mobile users can become leads with a simple click making it more convenient to generate new clients online.
Personalization
An underrated factor in website conversion rates is personalization. What do we mean by that? Have you ever been to an HVAC website that has stock photos or low-quality photos? These kinds of images may currently be on your website. What you may not have considered is how a lack of personalization can impact conversions. Visitors who see personable contractors are more likely to call than those who see stock photos or images of angry-looking HVAC employees. This concept is more rooted in traditional marketing than digital marketing but the two merge in this instance. Consumers who have a level of comfort with the business will be more likely to engage with them, which manifests itself in the form of online leads for HVAC.
Site Speed Optimization
Visitors who bounce off your page immediately will not convert. One of the most typical reasons for an incredibly high bounce rate is site speed. When sites fail to load within 3 seconds, most visitors will bounce—visitors who access the site through mobile accounts for more than half of all users. Speeding up your website can help conversions but achieving higher speeds takes some technical sensibilities. For one, your site can’t have too many large files on it, including images that may slow downloading speed. Furthermore, your HVAC site must have a clean codebase which means no obtrusive JavaScript or excess WordPress plugins from 3rd parties. Clean designs tend to load fast, increasing conversions.
How SEO & Website Conversions are Related
We mentioned earlier in this post that most failing websites don’t have a conversion problem as much as an SEO problem. But the reality is that these two things are inherently connected. Google ranks websites, at least partially, based on how users behave on them. You cannot convert visitors you don’t have. Conversely, higher conversions often lead to higher rankings because the same principles that foster conversions also send positive signals to Google. HVAC Webmasters provides digital marketing services for contractors across the United States. We optimize sites for search ranking and conversions while implementing your company photos and offering three logo revisions (if necessary) to improve presentation.
Buying a lead is not the worst idea for an HVAC contractor. After all, leads drive your business. Unfortunately, in our experience, when HVAC contractors do buy leads, the leads are expensive, and the contractor is unhappy. But the issue with purchasing HVAC leads expands even further beyond the negativity surrounding them. Buying leads can be a pitfall for your company and might discourage you from investing in marketing resources that increase your brand visibility and generate sales sustainably.
Finding a Lead Source for HVAC Companies
If you are a heating & cooling contractor, who struggles to find a solid lead source, you aren’t alone. Although buying leads as a concept is not foolish since every business’s goal is to profit, the practice presents challenges. Low-quality distributors who offer “shared” leads rather than exclusives are the most common problem. But even with so-called exclusive prospects, HVAC companies are climbing uphill to secure the sale.
Getting More Leads
Despite well-documented disgust with lead sources many contractors continue to buy them. Why? Because at the end of the day they still want more leads. Securing a sale brings money to their business and becomes a cyclical process. The profit is just enough to seem like it’s worth it for the heating & cooling business. Getting more leads can be a challenge especially with sources offering shared leads. Worse yet, it often distracts contractors from other forms of marketing, like SEO, that will actually end up producing more sales over the long run.
Investing in Your HVAC Company
When you purchase a lead from a 3rd party platform, their brand benefits most. Next time the customer needs HVAC services, they will probably go back to the source instead of your HVAC company. Your goal should shift towards investing in your brand and growing the allegiance of consumers. This way, you will generate sustainable business for your company and not shell out hard-earned funds to 3rd parties.
Custom Websites
The first thing you’ll need is a custom website with schema markup. A website can be the central hub of your HVAC company and create a foundation for sales. Unfortunately, today, most websites use templates, either from a WordPress theme market or from DIY website builders like Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace. While they have their advantages, of course, they don’t have the type of long-term potential that custom sites do. As a result, they limit ROI in terms of organic optimization and the long-term control of your brand, which we want to avoid.
Google My Business
Nobody will take your company seriously without a Google My Business listing. You might ask how GMB is different from a 3rd party lead platform. First, you are not investing money. Google My Business listings are free and allow you to rank in the Local Map 3-Pack. Second, you can link your website URL to your GMB listing so that your web property becomes associated with the Google listing as well as the Google Reviews. All of this is free of charge for companies.
Search Engine Optimization
The best leads come from organic clicks on Google. For example, ranking for terms like “ac repair” and similar phrases can drive searchers to your website or Google My Business Listing. In either case, with websites optimized for conversions, you can earn most of your profit organically. SEO is the best long-term strategy for online marketing since it is an investment in yourself and becomes a sustainable profit generator for years and decades to come.
A Full-Scale Approach
A single strategy may not always work out, but the combination of several techniques helps HVAC companies earn sales online. Investing your marketing dollars in leads only or ads only discourages long-term growth. You can still buy HVAC leads, but only if you optimize your brand at the same time. Using SEO, you can reap the long-term rewards of a complete and robust web presence. Try partnering with a full digital marketing agency like HVAC Webmasters, the top-rated agency in 2021.
Sometimes, contractors have a false perception of a quality website. What you see as a website that looks good to your eyes might not even rank in the top 20 for its target keyword. The best websites can be easily crawled by Google and rank on page one of SERPs for relevant terms. SEO for HVAC contractors is about many factors, and Google considers them all.
Here’s what you’ll learn in today’s podcast episode:
Visual Appeal Doesn’t Always Translate to SEO
SEO Myths vs. Reality
The Primary Function of a Website for HVAC Companies
Visual Appeal Doesn’t Guarantee Rankings on Google
The best-looking HVAC websites don’t consistently rank on page one of Google. Great-looking sites often fail to rank at all. Since many websites neglect SEO, they do not rank for keywords and rely 100% on direct traffic or branded search. In the worst cases, websites might not rank for their brand name after failing to optimize their homepage correctly. While good-looking sites might convert those who visit based on your business card, word of mouth, or a truck wrap, you still lose more customers than you gain by failing to optimize your website. So next time you see a competitor bragging about their websites’ design, ask them how much traffic they get from organic search results.
SEO Myths Vs. Reality
Some HVAC contractors mistakenly believe in SEO myths. For instance, one of our clients asked if they can insert more keywords on their homepage. Since the page already had several cases of the target word, adding more would hurt its ranking and disappoint readers. Antiquated SEO strategies that worked in 2007 no longer work now in 2021. Another myth some companies believe in is the branding myth. While it is crucial to brand your company for Google, it is not as important in a traditional sense. Google wants to see that your company is listed on reputable directories and has a consistent name, address, and phone number. They don’t care about the philosophical brand notions of your logo colors, etc.
The Primary Function of HVAC Websites
As a home service provider, you shouldn’t want to enter your website into an art contest. The function of your site is to generate HVAC leads and grow your company online. Inserting calls-to-action is a great way to achieve your goals, but some companies think it makes their site look bad. Some even believe it hurts their SEO efforts. The reality, however, is that CTAs are essential for online success and don’t hurt SEO when adequately implemented. The pros at HVAC Webmasters handled hundreds of client accounts and used our data to create the top-performing sites on the web. Ask about our web design services and contact us today.
The foundation of an HVAC company’s online presence is HVAC website design. A healthy website facilitates search engine optimization, brings legitimacy to your brand, and helps convert traffic into leads. Digital marketing concepts like SEO, PPC, and content marketing increase online visibility, but the website’s quality converts that exposure into sales.
Many factors dictate a website’s design quality. Still, as a heating & cooling contractor, the ultimate goal is to grow your business online and capture leads and sales within your local service area.
In 2023, anybody can build a website. With DIY website builders like Wix, Weebly, & Squarespace, and an abundance of templates for content management systems like WordPress, it’s never been easier to publish a functional webpage.
But design is not always about the front-end visual display of a website. The codebase is a significant consideration in air conditioning website design, especially regarding SEO and marketing. The back end of a website also requires creativity, and it is as important, if not more so, than the visual presentation.
Table of Contents
What is HVAC Website Design?
HVAC website design is the intentional configuration of a heating and cooling website, including layout, user interface, and aesthetic imagery. Experienced HVAC web designers focus on user experience and conversion rate optimization to maximize traffic impact from SEO, PPC, and other sources.
While other platforms can help promote your HVAC brand (Social Media, Google Business Profile, etc.), you can’t maximize them without a business website. Since HVAC contractors aim to increase sales, the direct correlation between web design and sales conversions should be enough to invest your resources.
Consumers trust companies that showcase professionalism with an official business website.
SEO is the most effective method to route consumers to your website. However, any internet marketing method is only as valuable as its final result. As a result, AC company web design is integral to a successful HVAC SEO campaign.
Aside from converting traffic, web design can also influence your larger web presence and brand recognition. For example, inbound links from Facebook, Google Business Profile, and even Yelp all lead to your official website. Digital footprints leading back to a primary domain increase your brand’s authority and legitimacy.
Website Presentation
Most users notice a website’s front end immediately. Since most consumers don’t have experience with HTML, CSS, or any other coding language, they only consider the end result. Factors like colors, white space, aesthetics, and overall user experience influence how they perceive your site and business.
Many of these factors work subconsciously, and the user may not pinpoint their reason for gravitating to a website. However, their on-site behavior is the ultimate measure, as users that submit their contact information found your site useful and convenient.
In 2023, presentation is more dynamic than ever before. Consumers visit websites on various mobile, tablet, and desktop devices, with thousands of iterations each. A website should appear optimally on each machine, which is attainable through responsive design principles.
When a website is responsive, it adapts to the user’s device without creating an entirely new website for each one. Google has gone as far as to recommend responsive design principles to professional heating and air web designers.
Color
Palettes are critical in modern design. They inform the visitor’s experience but create cohesion between brand and platform. The diversity of a palette stems mainly from an HVAC company’s logo. Creating or updating your company logo is of great importance.
A logo with lots of colors will distract the average user, but a logo with only one color will bore them. Having 2 or 3 colors, a primary and 1 or 2 secondary, is ideal in modern website design.
White Space
A funny anecdote about white space is that it is not always white. The phrase refers to empty spaces between images, text, and blocks of content. The modern consumer prefers digestible information since they can become overwhelmed by excess.
The function of white space is to foster a feeling of organization and conciseness. Both can improve the visitor’s experience and influence behavior metrics like bounce rate, pages per site, duration on site, etc.
Aesthetics
If you’ve ever heard a visitor discuss the “feel” of a website, aesthetics are at play. Defined as the “appreciation of beauty,” aesthetics might not be something HVAC contractors think about for their business.
But make no mistake; everyone considers aesthetics in website design. That includes your prospective customers who are reading about heating & cooling services.
Don’t assume that the subject matter disqualifies any website from aesthetic appeal. A visually appealing website can benefit any type of business, including HVAC.
Website Functionality
A website’s look and feel appeal greatly, but its functionality can make or break its effectiveness. Let’s say a user enters your HVAC website and likes what they see. Imagine now that as they are attempting to navigate to other sections of the site via a smartphone browser, they can’t seem to scroll down or click the desired page links properly.
Once something like this occurs, the visual appeal becomes mostly irrelevant. Users will leave a website for functional reasons instantly (literally) and never return, regardless of the site’s visual impression. Navigation is one element of usability but is not the only one. Consider site speed (loading time), URL structure, menu links, and user interface as some of the other most prominent factors.
Responsive design is equally essential since usability should translate to all kinds of devices, from mobile to desktop to tablet, including the endless variations of each device category (iPhone, Android, MacBook Pro, HP, etc.). The user must be able to use your website at their convenience because they will move on to the next search result, which does it better.
Navigation
Nine times out of 10, the most frustrating part of a poorly designed website is its navigation. If the user cannot scroll properly and easily get to other website sections, they will become discouraged and exit the site. Mobile websites are typically the most complicated to navigate, so designers should pay closer attention to mobile design.
Since the screen is smaller than a tablet or desktop monitor, it should be incredibly convenient for users to find their way around the site and all of its elements, scrolling primarily with their thumb and index finger.
Site Speed
Over half of internet users will exit a website that does not load within 3 seconds. That puts HVAC websites on the clock immediately after users click on their results. If we’re honest with ourselves, that 3-second number will likely have lowered even more in recent months.
In 2023, that number is more than likely closer to 1 second. The attention spans of users have shortened, and designers must take notice.
You can check your existing website speed using Google PageSpeed Insights, giving suggestions for correcting errors.
URL Structure
A website URL hierarchy is integral to a site’s functionality for users. If you have pages for each service, the URLs should be both logical and hierarchical. Let’s say you provide both residential and commercial HVAC services. If so, a page for residential ac repair should be categorized as a child page underneath the parent page, residential HVAC services.
A sound hierarchy closely relates to your HVAC SEO efforts and helps the user navigate your site.
Menu Links
Useful HVAC websites link every critical page from the homepage menu. When converting traffic into customers, you want them to see all the services you offer and easily access the one that intrigues them. In alignment with URL structure, menu links should have main categories (parent pages) and subcategories (child pages).
You should also have a Contact Us page and an About Us page to help connect with the visitors.
User Interface (UI)
User interface, often shortened as UI, hones in on the user’s projected need from your website from a functionality standpoint. According to Usability.gov, UI combines interaction design, visual design, and information architecture.
They break down UI elements into four sections: input controls, navigational components, informational components, and containers. They stress simplicity, consistency, and purpose as the driving principles of an effective user interface design.
Website Coding
Most visitors judge a website based on its front-end presentation, not realizing that back-end coding is often a necessary factor, not only in why the site appears as it does but in how the user accessed it initially. Coding is complicated and foreign to most, making the source code of a webpage unreadable to the average visitor.
Still, the designers’ heavy lifting takes place in that same code and ultimately determines its success or failure. Codebase is a primary factor with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Schema Markup, and more. Code is not used only for website design but for any web or software development.
Each of these has a codebase that informs its presentation, functionality, or usability. Coders are often the most technically sound webmasters in the room and can implement the average person’s elements.
Although website builders have turned everyone into amateur designers, they have not familiarized everyone with coding, which still separates them from legitimate professionals.
HTML
HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is the actual code used to write every website. HTML annotates text with tags, suggesting a browser display it as the designer intends. The language uses a series of tags that range from very basic to very complex.
For example, text surrounded by a <strong> tag on the back end is bolded on the front end.
HTML is closely associated with SEO since header, title, and meta tags are all part of the HTML language. A CMS like WordPress makes HTML alterations simpler from an SEO perspective, but the design itself still requires in-depth knowledge of the coding language.
CSS
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is code that instructs a browser on how to display HTML. While HTML tags suggest things like bolded text, the CSS code instructs the browser on what that will look like on the website’s front end. CSS references what designers call rules. A CSS rule contains three parts; a selector, a property, and a value.
More advanced CSS mechanisms like inline link CSS and internal CSS always play a role aside from CSS rules. The simplest way to describe the codebase is the stylization of HTML tags. CSS is very much related to the display presentation of a website, a concept outlined earlier.
JavaScript
JavaScript is a code language that provides interactivity to websites. When combined, HTML and CSS can formulate a custom webpage, but without JavaScript, it will remain static (it won’t move).
The code of JavaScript makes a webpage respond to user events like hovering, clicks, or commands. Much like CSS, JavaScript has inline, internal, and also external protocols.
JavaScript can be an asset to website design and hinder it if misused. Bloated JavaScript is known to slow down websites and negatively influence site speed. For this reason, an expert coder should perform the implementation.
Schema Markup
Schema.org or Schema Markup is a vocabulary of semantically related tags inserted into HTML to help Google interpret the page. Microdata tags from Schema.org help search engines like Google better categorize pages andpromote them on search results. Schema is fundamental to SEO and is perhaps the most critical optimization element of a website’s codebase.
Since schema comes from search engines’ instructions, we know that Google considers it when pages are crawled, indexed, and ranked.
Mobile Design
The increased mobile usage of the average American has made mobile design more critical than ever before. Researchers estimate that over half of all HVAC website visitors will access the site through a smartphone. Because phones are accessible 24 hours per day, seven days per week, there is an infinite window of opportunity for contractors to reach their most extensive consumer base.
SEO can drive traffic to your website and other web entities (Google Maps, Facebook, etc.), but a sales conversion remains unlikely without a simple website to use on mobile. Several design elements will be embellished or adapted to narrow the target in promoting services to mobile users.
One such example of this is a call to action. A CTA on a website for desktops might list an HVAC contractor’s phone number. On mobile design, it should have a clickable number to connect to your phone line directly. Because conversions are the goal of websites, CTA’s are crucial. Strategic CTA placement has never been more pertinent than in 2023 when mobile usage increases daily.
Mobile Layout
Screen size matters and smartphones have less space for users to operate. Pair that with low-attention users, and you have yourselves one of the primary challenges of modern design. How can you, as a web developer, intrigue the mobile user through your website? You have limited time and space and must make the most of it.
A layout should be instructive and straightforward while creating urgency for the visitor. A clear call to action with a clickable phone number is ideal. Other layout factors to consider include height, width, image and logo placement, and space.
Mobile Speed
Websites should load quickly regardless of device, but it is even more crucial on mobile. Sites that don’t load within 3 seconds will lose more than half of their visitors, a timeframe that has likely already decreased and will continue to with each passing day.
Web developers must tailor calls to action to the mobile user. The best example of this is a clickable phone number that can be a stylized button or text. The goal is to create urgency for the mobile user, so accompanying the phone number with a statement like a call now for a free consultation, is something every contractor should consider.
There’s a fine line between creating urgency and becoming overly sales-driven, and the most successful websites can navigate that terrain to generate high-quality leads.
Custom Design
Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace help the average person create nice-looking websites. If they have a disadvantage, it is their lack of customization. Certain limitations come with using website builders that don’t exist when investing in a professional designer.
While not every Wix site will look identical in presentation, the back-end codebase will be similar and less customizable. Site builders can hinder SEO efforts needed for a website to get traffic. As we’ve stated, website design cannot exist exclusively from SEO if increasing sales is the goal.
Besides custom codebase being a superior SEO protocol, customization is part of every design aspect. From the placement of a logo on the page’s layout to the palette color scheme on the CSS style sheet, customization can go a long way toward increasing conversion rates and satisfying users’ needs and attention spans.
It’s not to say that website creators cannot work under any circumstances, but to highlight why custom design is so useful. It becomes the HVAC company’s choice based on its digital marketing goals.
Custom Codebase
Tools like Wix provide options for display. Website makers can choose their layout, buttons, and even color schemes. While this might differentiate one website from another, the code will remain similar. You see, even with a change in the color scheme, which alters the existing CSS code, the skeleton of the style sheet stays identical.
Google can identify Wix websites based on their internal codebase. It doesn’t make it a wrong choice, but it can make SEO a more complicated process to execute and ultimately discourage your coveted sales growth.
Complete Control
Tired of your website’s footer saying something like “designed with Weebly?” If so, custom design may be for you. With custom design, you control what appears on your website and where it appears. There are no mandatory insertions of code. Instead, you can add your logos, awards, and badges of honor to your header and footer. Customization = control for HVAC contractors.
Consider something as simple as your logo width, which could be limited in Wix.
Company Branding
With genuinely custom web design, you can brand your HVAC company in a manner not replicable through website builders. A unique codebase, layout, and color scheme can differentiate your website from others in the same industry and service area. You may find the differences between a template website and a custom one to be minimal at first glance, but Google sees it differently.
Perhaps most importantly, users growing accustomed to your brand through website design can only help expand awareness and foster a long-term, sustainable online presence.
Responsive Design
We’ve noted that most visitors will access HVAC websites through mobile smartphones, but the highest conversion websites cannot ignore any of their users. That includes those who access the website on a desktop, tablet or another 3rd party device that is not a smartphone.
Since designing a site for each device, brand, and model is not plausible, the best solution is a responsive web design, sometimes shortened as RWD.
RWD’s primary advantage is optimizing display and functionality for a website on any device efficiently and reaching all possible customers.
Mashable named 2013 the year of responsive design; six years later, it is now considered the norm for websites that perform well on Google. The search engine has gone as far as to recommend its usage to web developers and has even offered RWD tutorials on its Web Fundamentals platform.
RWD fixes would-be problems that designers would once dread. For example, an image displayed on a mobile site might appear too small on a desktop, but responsive design incorporates flexibility and resizes the image to its optimal display.
Viewport
The area immediately visible to users is known as the viewport. As you might imagine, viewports vary by device, so an iPhone 11 viewport won’t compare to a Dell PC monitor. Before mobile’s emergence, designs often focused on desktop viewing, which created viewport distortion on mobile.
If you remember older mobile phones, you also remember some of the worst-looking websites of all time. Imagine booking a phone call with your local HVAC contractor using that display.
Breakpoint
Breakpoints are browser measurements that change the display based on a specified range. In responsive design, breakpoints usually adjust to the width of the screen. Sometimes, a breakpoint might shift the viewport from displaying two to four.
Designers should focus on breakpoints by device rather than the model. In other words, smartphones should be a category, but Apple iPhone 11 should not be. Breakpoints’ significance also varies. Some of them can be quite obvious, while others are more subtle. Use tactfully.
Properly implemented breakpoints will enhance user experience on all devices.
Breakpoints will alter the view of the mobile user compared to the desktop or tablet user in a way that enhances their visual experience.
Graphic Design (UX)
A website’s graphics are part of its visual presentation but can be considered an entirely different skill altogether from a designer’s standpoint. Graphics can be everything from logos to interactive buttons and everything in between.
Graphics are often tied into a site’s color scheme but are not the color scheme itself. Most color palettes work from the starting point of the logo. If your HVAC company has an existing logo with brand recognition, you should maintain or enhance it.
Brand new contractors might be looking for an original logo from a professional designer.
Logos are likely an essential graphic for a company but certainly not the only one needed on your website. As we said, graphic design is a skill that transcends air conditioning web design. While websites use code and tags, visual artists use digital art studios such as Adobe Suite.
Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop can all help create graphics for your website and other marketing materials. Graphics can also be published in print materials, such as business cards and newsletters. Contractors can also print graphics on t-shirts, truck wraps, and other marketing materials.
Logo Design
An effective heating & cooling logo is both simple and memorable. Striking that balance isn’t the easiest thing to accomplish. Still, the companies that thrive are the ones that find a balance. Focus on solid colors that are easy on the eyes.
99 Designs outlines what each color evokes from the perspective of the typical consumer. For instance, blue is one color that people often associate with trust and professionalism, making sense when you understand why it’s on at least half of all logos.
Think about your logo for a moment; what characteristics does it evoke?
Buttons
Its graphical outline often enhances a call to action. In other words, a phone number button might appeal more to the user than merely the number itself. Why? Because consumers love to be visually inspired. Since the goal of every CTA is to create urgency and prompt action, enhancing its graphical nature can help reach that destination.
Enhancement assumes the graphic is skillfully designed, of course. Keep in mind that poorly designed graphics can harm a user’s behavior. CTA buttons are important when merging illustration and web design.
Infographics
What is the information distributed on infographics? It can be anything and everything as long it stays within the context of your web pages and the content published on them. If CTA buttons merge graphic and web design, infographics unify content marketing, graphic, and web design. It’s a way of threading everything the user consumes together in one cohesive construct.
Like logos and buttons, an infographic can range from extremely helpful to discouraging. Some infographics have become so popular; that they earn inbound links to the image address, which helps SEO.
We spoke about UI or user interface, but the most crucial part of a website is UX or user experience. Although it is less quantifiable, UX encompasses the overall experience of the website visitor. A visitor’s experience relates to everything previously discussed on this page, from aesthetics and visual presentation to navigation and website functionality.
Of course, codebase remains the foundation of UX since it ultimately dictates it, even if the users themselves don’t realize it on a fundamental level. While a single metric cannot measure UX, groups of data can paint a general picture of its performance, such as bounce rate, pages per session, etc.
Google understands website visitors’ behavior better than ever before and uses that information to inform its rankings. The highest sites keep users actively engaged, which is reflected in behavioral metrics. Whether it’s visiting multiple pages on a website or engaging with content elements on the homepage, users make their feelings apparent to Google in more ways than one.
The goal of every HVAC website is to generate HVAC leads, and there’s no safer way to accomplish this than through enhancing the user’s experience and inspiring them to complete a call to action.
Behavioral Metrics
We can best understand UX through user metrics like bounce rate and pages per session. Although we can all subjectively visit an HVAC website and form an opinion on it, actions demonstrate our most accurate conclusions. Any local service website that can keep users engaged and encourage participation in sales funnels and calls to action will benefit through metrics.
The best way to track user behavior is through Google Analytics, a free tracking tool.
Website Feedback
Aside from measuring user behavior, asking them outright for feedback can also be helpful. While it doesn’t provide the raw data that Google values, it informs heating & cooling businesses about their site’s strengths and weaknesses, explained from a visitor’s perspective. You might even get criticism so harsh that you wonder if they’re intentionally combative in hopes of weakening your will as a contractor.
Sometimes people will hold back on criticisms, but if you include an anonymous survey directly on your website, there’s little for them to hold back.
Separate from the user’s behavior when first visiting your website, a telling piece of information can be the ratio by which visitors return. Sometimes brand notoriety can influence visitors to return to a site repeatedly, something that should make itself apparent by the percentage of traffic reaching the site through a branded search or a direct visit.
Other times more than brand recognition, it is about the site’s design and its UX quality. All the design elements discussed in this post can influence repeat visitations.
HVAC Website Design Company
For an HVAC SEO company, you can trust to design a high-quality website, choose HVAC Webmasters. Each website constructed by expert webmasters is custom-made and tailored to the client’s needs and brand. With a team of designers on staff (website & graphics), we can produce a high-conversion online marketing channel for your heating & cooling business.
A website serves as the foundation for your digital marketing strategy. It influences SEO, Google Maps, and conversion rate optimization. As a company focusing on online marketing for HVAC companies, we are uniquely qualified to construct a website that checks all your boxes in 2023.
Affordability is always a marketing consideration, but ROI or return on investment is the most important. A website template might cost less upfront, but how much money will it bring in? If you don’t know the answer to that question, you should opt for a free SEO audit that quantifies your rank position based on call volume.
A lack of calls on your site means you’re not ranking on either Google organic or Google Maps. If that’s the case, even the nominal investment you’ve made in a website template is a negative ROI. Remember that our services are incredibly affordable for agency-level website design, so we are happy to discuss the details further with you at your convenience.
Custom Websites for HVAC Contractors
Are you tired of template websites that hinder your SEO efforts? Invest in a custom website from HVAC Webmasters. Our design team implements your logo and color scheme within a custom codebase, creating a conversion machine. Every design technique incorporates SEO and lead generation.
You’ll no longer worry whether blocks of code get crawled by Google. We have the data and protocol to ensure that Google indexes your site and prefers it.
Branded Websites for HVAC Companies
We don’t just build a website; we help create a brand for HVAC companies. Because the internet is more significant than any single website, it is vital to integrate your brand onto other web entries like social media networks and local business directories.
Brand synergy is incredibly useful when these properties link back to your website and vice versa. That’s why we include social media icons on your homepage so that visitors can find you on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
We believe that digital marketing ventures should target a complete web presence.
Website Lead Generation for Heating & Cooling Contractors
A custom-branded website can generate leads with the right calls to action. Each website designed by HVAC Webmasters aims to connect relevant consumers to your office line. By integrating your contact information into our codebase, we can input clickable phone numbers in multiple areas throughout your site.
Click-to-call functionality encourages users to take an additional step in the sales conversion process. We facilitate a connection between users who need HVAC services in your local area and yourself as contractors or companies in their general radius.
Today’s HVAC Marketing Plan podcast from HVAC Webmasters explores the primary reason why most HVAC companies fail to succeed online. In 2021, almost every contractor has a website, and many even believe they are doing SEO in some capacity. However, if you’re not working on your SEO, your SEO won’t work for you. It’s not enough to put up a website and write up some titles and meta descriptions. Effective SEO requires an investment of either time or money, and sometimes both.
In this podcast episode, you will learn:
SEO is ongoing
Everyone wants to rank #1
Branding is key
Organic search provides the best ROI
SEO is Ongoing
SEO is not a noun; it’s a verb. To succeed online, SEO is an ongoing process that requires regular adjustments and refinements. Google consistently updates its algorithm to best suit user needs and to combat spam. For example, Google Places is now Google My Business, and HVAC companies that have failed to optimize their GMB listing have been unable to rank in the Local Map 3-Pack. As a result, these companies get fewer calls, fewer reviews, and less business. Conversely, HVAC websites regularly add content, generate reviews, push their brand, and get the most customers.
Everyone Wants to Rank #1
HVAC companies often complain that a competitor outranks them on Google. The reality is that that company works harder on its online presence than yours does in 2021. They consistently get reviews, add content, and optimize their pages so that more users click through their digital assets. They want to rank #1 even more than you do because they put in the necessary work to achieve their goals. Sure, you’d like to rank #1 on Google, but so would every other company in your region. The defining factor is who puts the most into their SEO efforts.
Branding is Key
In rare cases, a superior website fails to outrank one with a more popular brand. In the SEO landscape, branding is a prominent signal. HVAC companies who have established their brand by doing great work and building a reputation get an advantage online. One way to strengthen your brand is to generate as many reviews as possible. You can use a tool like DataPins to send automated review requests through text and email. As more people review your HVAC company, your brand name becomes more recognizable. Then, as you gain more customers, they begin to search for your company name online, further building authority.
Organic Search Provides The Best ROI
If SEO requires effort and expense, then is it worth the time for HVAC companies? The answer is yes. Even companies that invest significant portions of their budget in SEO generate a higher ROI from organic clicks than any other marketing tactic. For instance, a PPC campaign will cost you quadruple what an SEO campaign will cost and produce lower-quality leads. Traditional advertising methods like billboards and print ads also generate a lower ROI than organic SEO. The bottom line doesn’t lie, and SEO is the best investment for profit.
Sign Up With HVAC Webmasters
Do you like what you’ve heard from this podcast? HVAC Webmasters can help take your SEO to the next level so you can get those rankings you covet from your competitors. Furthermore, you can start closing more sales and building your brand. With consistent SEO, you will outperform competitors in every aspect of their online presence. We are happy to offer a free consultation to discuss your SEO plan for 2021.
HVAC SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is currently the best way to acquire local HVAC customers and build company awareness. Effective SEO ensures your business appears above your competition on platforms like Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
SEO applies to both Google Search and Google Maps, along with your company website and business listing, respectively. The following comprehensive guide outlines tips, tricks, and recommendations based on 10+ years of professional SEO services for HVAC companies.
Expert Analysis
As the most tenured HVAC SEO agency in the United States, we can confidently say that SEO remains the most effective marketing strategy for heating and cooling professionals in 2023.
How SEO Changed in 2023
Google’s AI Chatbot, Bard, changed SEO in 2023. Recent algorithm updates like the Helpful Content Update and Link Spam Update also altered the SEO landscape. HVAC companies must now put more effort into EEAT: experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness.
Google’s upcoming Search Generative Experience (SGE) will change the landscape of search for HVAC companies. While the algorithm will still value factors like content quality, link authority, and on-page optimization, the standards for legitimizing your website and its content will rise considerably.
Today, HVAC sites must be well-written, provide a good user experience, and offer unique information to rank on SERPs. It must also include schema markup, precise metadata, images, videos, and media that match the discussed topic.
While good HVAC SEO isn’t difficult to achieve, it can take time, skill, and knowledge of correct and effective practices.
Why HVAC SEO is Important
When someone in your area needs a service or product, chances are, they go to Google. If a consumer searches for “A/C repair in Dallas, TX,” a list of sites that present relevant terms, content, and information will appear.
The more relevant and useful the content, the higher on the results page it will be. Rankings set the order of the search results listed on search platforms. Since most customers don’t scroll down far, it’s essential to appear at the top of this list to generate leads for your business.
Applying effective SEO tactics will help your site rank higher in search results and list pertinent information, such as the phone number, location, and services listed. Prominent search visibility could lead to more inquiries, appointments, and business awareness for your HVAC company.
Effective HVAC SEO could mean the difference between a fruitful customer base and closing the doors for good in today’s digital landscape.
SEO Strategy: The Planning Stage
Your SEO strategy should not be done on the fly or without thought. Effective SEO is well-planned according to what consumers seek. Your SEO plan should include well-researched keywords, clear URL structures, and captivating images and videos, all of which lend to how well your site will rank with search engines.
Keyword planning is crucial for ranking well on search engine platforms and is the foundation of a good SEO plan. The goal of keyword selection is to identify words that will attract the most relevant searchers. Identify each word’s search volume, difficulty level, and competition level using programs such as MOZ, SEMRush, and Ubersuggest.
The search volume metric suggests how often users search the term during a search query. The difficulty level is a metric that identifies the level of difficulty of the word itself. The competition level demonstrates how often the word or phrase appears on other sites, developing a unique keyword set.
Evulate various metrics to identify the most viable keywords for your business. For instance, if a keyword applies to commercial HVAC repair and your company provides only residential repair, that keyword may not be the best option.
National Keywords
High-volume keywords like HVAC Repair, Air Conditioners, and Heaters are indexed according to the searchers’ location, so local businesses aren’t competing nationally for these terms. When creating your SEO plan, you should be aware of the top 100 national keywords in the HVAC field. This will help when creating URL hierarchy, content, and on-page SEO.
Identifying these top terms will also help when thinking of more specific longtail and service-related terms that pinpoint even more relevant searchers. Top keywords like these should be used throughout the site with a concentration on top-level pages to be indexed effectively and help SERP ranking.
Local Keywords
HVAC companies should use top keywords with a location reference for local optimization. For instance, if you’re an HVAC company in Wilmington, DE, a useful keyword may be heating in Dallas, TX, or Dallas, TX heating. Keyword research programs can help you discover which location tags are the most beneficial for your area.
For instance, “air conditioning in Dallas, TX” has a search volume of 210, while “Dallas Air Conditioning” has a search volume of 110. While using both keyword phrases in your content is good practice, the first option should focus on the best results.
Service Keywords
The most successful HVAC sites have subsequent pages describing their specific services in detail. These sites use more specific service keywords that focus on one category or service.
For example, if your HVAC company provides gas furnace repair and installation, then a realistic service keyword would be gas furnace services. Be sure to include location tags on these keywords as well for proper optimization.
URL Structure & Page Hierarchy
Once you have your list of keywords, you can begin to set up your URL structure and page hierarchy. Typically, sites have multiple pages that present information from a general to a more specific level. The organization of those pages is called the site or page structure.
Most HVAC websites have a top-level Home page, an About Us page, and a Location page. Besides, they may also have a few general service top-level pages such as “Heating” or “Air Conditioning.” From there, HVAC sites lead into secondary pages that may include categories like “Central A/C Service,” “Furnace Service,” or “Central Heating.”
The third level of pages branches out from that point, which addresses specific services like “Natural Gas Furnace Repair” and “Ductless A/C System Installation.” Your site structure helps Google index your pages for search rankings and be straightforward and easy to follow. The pages should flow nicely into each other and create a natural flow process for reaching them.
Along with your HVAC site’s page hierarchy, you should carefully consider the URL structure. It is critical to map out each URL, followed by Google and searchers. They should be short and concise and present the exact topic displayed along with a clear path to the information.
A well-planned HVAC URL may resemble something like https://yourhvaccompany.com/heating/furnace-repair. This URL has a clear path, includes top keywords, and presents a well-communicated subject.
Images & Videos
The most successful HVAC websites use images and videos representing the content and are clear and correctly sized. HVAC websites should choose photos and videos during the planning stage to ensure proper emphasis on the content and prevent duplicate usage.
Google Business Profile Images should be unique and provide a look into your business, staff, and services.
Search Engine Optimization: The Implementation Stage
Once you have finished your SEO plan, you should have a clear layout of your site’s page structure along with keywords, images, videos, and URLs for each. However, more SEO tasks remain urgent. Your HVAC site’s design and usability also contribute to your SEO and should be constructed with the customer in mind.
Custom Design
While multiple usable templates are available for your HVAC site, a custom website design is always best regarding SEO and searchability. Templates lack the coding that Google uses to index information and keywords. A customized site design is needed to implement fundamental structure and coding details like schema, headers, and title tags.
Contact Information
A lack of easy-to-use contact information is one of the most significant contributors to high bounce rates and poor SEO ranking. Your HVAC site should have listed contact information on every site page, including a location address and map, phone number, and email address.
Your company’s phone number should also appear throughout the content for maximum usability. Not only does this lend to a boost in trust that can contribute to higher search rankings, but it also presents a better user experience that can help attract and retain visitors.
Call To Action
Any marketer worth his salt will tell you that a call to action is crucial. Your page’s call to action leads, instructs, and inspires your site’s visitor to complete the desired action, whether it be to schedule an appointment or call for more information.
For optimal SEO, every page on your HVAC site should have at least one call to action. It should be easy to find and conveniently located within your page to maximize usability and task completion.
Website Personalization
Your company website is a reflection of the business itself. Your design should represent your HVAC company’s personality. If your HVAC business focuses on commercial service, you want a professionally presented site with a lot of structure and uniformity. However, if your company has a laid-back approach, you may want to use a broader color scheme or more vibrant design elements.
Badges, Accolades, and Testimonials
You work to get certifications and certificates that set you apart from your competition. Ensure that your site visitors know how skilled you are by displaying badges and accolades prominently with links back to the original site. Social proof communicates your abilities to prospective customers and provides outward-lining opportunities to reputable sites within your industry.
Testimonials also help promote your company by providing positive real-life experiences to your visitors and potential customers. You can display testimonials on your HVAC website and your Google Homepage to encourage searchers to choose your company.
Multimedia Content
The best way to hold user attention in today’s online landscape is with multimedia content, including videos, PDFs, or other interactive options. Along with providing backlink and sharing options that boost online trust and reputability, these additions create a better user experience, leading to lower bounce rates and higher conversion rates.
Multimedia content is also perfect for sharing on secondary platforms such as YouTube or social media, providing backlink and distribution opportunities. A company video, for example, can be added to YouTube and your site, then linked to Facebook, Instagram, and other platforms for maximum reach to potential clients.
Mobile Optimization
You must optimize your site for mobile use to rank on search engines. Mobile-optimized sites provide the viewer with the most critical information while hiding graphics, animations, and other secondary elements that could create longer load times.
Like mobile optimization, responsive design adjusts your content for the screen used to view it. Responsive sites manipulate information and graphics for the best view possible on smartphones, tablets, laptops, or desktops.
Local SEO for HVAC
The key to website success is local optimization. When your local HVAC SEO is in good shape, your business appears in “near me” and map searches, which are crucial for generating new business in today’s world. Local optimization is achieved through multiple tasks and techniques and can offer the boost you want to outdo your competition.
Local Business Citations
Citations are listings or mentions in other locations throughout the web that help build trust and recognition. When using Google to locate a service or product, we have all seen the search options that boast the “10 best professionals” in your field.
These are citation sites and can help boost your site’s ranking when appropriately used. Local directories such as Angie’s List, Yelp, and HomeAdvisor are all noteworthy directories that provide useful citations to boost your SEO.
NAP Consistency
One way to boost your local SEO efforts is by ensuring your NAP, or Name, Address, and Phone are consistent throughout the web. Your company name and contact information should be the same on each site where your business is listed.
NAP consistency helps Google and other search engines easily pair your location with your other business listings, which improves your credibility and online clout.
Google My Business Optimization
When searchers perform a branded search or a search of your company name, Google typically shows your knowledge graph. You find details like contact information, reviews, ratings, hours, and location within the knowledge graph.
You will also find links to company social media pages, directory listings, and other secondary business mentions.
Your Google Business Page is crucial for top rankings. The information entered into your Business Page will allow Google to index your company according to services, location correctly, and other details to ensure productive searchability.
City Pages
In the past, a static list of your service area was enough to let searchers know where you provide services. Today, however, optimal SEO is achieved by adding city pages focused on each city that your company serves.
These pages are optimized for the services and location and are typically brought together by a linked list on a top-level ‘Areas Served’ page. Correctly optimized city pages allow Google to index every area your HVAC company serves readily.
Your HVAC site should ideally include a city page for every large city your business services. They should have unique content, images, and SEO elements and provide a clear overview of your company’s offerings.
Title tags should be used within the content and include a top keyword and a location tag to give optimal indexing to the specified area. This way, when users perform a location-based search, such as “heater repair in Palmdale, CA,” your Palmdale city page is displayed in the search results.
On-Page SEO for HVAC Companies
When a searcher enters a query, they are not usually taken to a website’s homepage but instead to a page within the site that presents the searched information. But how do search engines know which pages have the right content?
On-page SEO provides Google with clues about each page’s data, displayed through images, bullet points, headers, and other styling and formatting techniques. Google uses these details to determine what type of content is available on your site and where you’ll rank on SERPs.
Keyword Placement
Within your content, your keywords should be strategically placed and naturally flowing. They should be present in the general content, headers, image captions, and lists for optimal referencing during search queries.
Remember, the more relevant and more frequent your keywords are, the more likely Google is to display your content when users include the word in a search.
While using main keywords such as HVAC repair and HVAC installation is essential, you should also use more specialized secondary keywords in your content. These keywords provide more description and are more likely to provide high search rankings when users perform specific service or product searches.
Title Tags
Title tags are crucial for proper on-page SEO and provide Google with an overall description of your page. Tags are found in search results as the query title and at the top of the page when clicked.
Keep in mind that your title tags should be short and concise, having a max of 60 characters to display as they should. It should be descriptive and include the primary keyword and a location or brand tag.
Meta Descriptions
When users perform a Google search, the displayed results include a short snippet of information that paraphrases the content. The snippet is called the meta description, and Google uses it to index your content topic correctly.
When creating your meta description, you want to include a primary and secondary keyword, if possible, and contact and brand information. The full spectrum will help Google connect your content with your site, helping boost your rankings.
However, make sure to keep your meta description under 160 characters to prevent being cut off.
Header Tags
Header tags are used in content to separate different thoughts. Multiple header styles and sizes can be used when laying out your content and provide title breaks and content dimensions. When arranging your content, using header tags can help Google correctly index each paragraph’s topic on your page.
Strategically place header tags within the content to emphasize independent ideas and new thoughts. They should have between 20 and 70 characters for optimal viewing and indexing.
Your HVAC web page should combine H2 and H3 header tags to distinguish between main ideas and supporting thoughts. Headings help Google and other search engines accurately index your content and focus on search rankings.
URL Slugs
Your URL is your exact web address. Because Google uses your page URL to index your site and as a displayed object on SERPs, it’s vital to create it correctly. A useful URL will state the content clearly and use a top keyword related to the topic.
Many sites have not optimized their URL slugs and end up with slugs that make no sense or are hard to understand. An air conditioning repair page might have a URL slug of /air-conditioning-repair for a useful URL slug.
Google uses bots to crawl every site when users perform a search query. These bots use URLs to correctly and quickly index your HVAC site’s content.
Image Alt Text
Images can significantly improve your SEO efforts, but only if used correctly. While captions and image titles are important, Image Alt text is crucial for Google to index your image content correctly.
As search bots crawl your site, they index image subjects and content. When your image has appropriate tags and descriptions, Google can quickly tell what it’s about, leading to possible better rankings.
Other SERP Ranking Factors
Google and other search engines use various information and details to provide helpful search results for their users. While on-page and site-wide SEO is crucial, other factors also affect your business’ ranking. A collection of elements influence SERP position instead of a singular tipping point.
Domain Age
Your site and domain age are also factors that Google considers when presenting search results. A site that is ten years old is more established than a site that is six months old and will hold more clout on SERPs.
It’s essential to keep your domain once you have one. A well-established domain displays a reputable web address and not a “fly-by-night” site that helps with ranking.
Reviews
Reviews are also a deciding factor with SERPs. As your clients leave reviews of your company on different platforms, Google indexes them as reputability. Reviews also display on your Google knowledge graph, showing prospective clients what level of quality they can expect from your company.
The knowledge graph displays many more review types than Google alone, so it’s vital to encourage your clients to complete reviews on multiple platforms such as Facebook, Angi’, and HomeAdvisor for comprehensive coverage for your HVAC business.
Location
Your business location is a crucial deciding factor in your SEO development. New or less well-known sites will have trouble competing with larger companies and sites for top keywords in large cities and metro areas. In this case, utilizing secondary keywords can give your site the boost it needs.
Analyzing SEO Success
As with any business plan, your HVAC SEO should have a set analytics method to ensure its effectiveness. Luckily, Google and many other programs offer helpful tools for measuring your SEO success.
Google delivers first-class analytics that is easy to read and transfer so you can create useful and productive progress reports.
Google Analytics
With your Google My Business account, you can access Google Analytics to help track your site’s performance on Google. These metrics clearly show how your site is doing and what can be improved.
Each metric delivers valuable information on keywords, customer conversions, and even image reactions.
Along with Google Analytics, platforms like SEMRush, Moz, and CoreMetrics provide helpful metrics and analytics that judge your marketing plan’s effectiveness. No matter what platform you use to measure your SEO plan’s success, it’s essential to keep track of benchmarks, shortcomings, and other details to make effective adjustments.
Each component of effective SEO plays a part in the indexing and tracking of your site by Google and other search engines and will decide where, if at all, your site shows on search results. Therefore, an efficient plan, implementation schedule, and analytics method are crucial for business success in the online world.
Next Level HVAC SEO Tips for 2023
Google’s recent algorithm updates, including the Helpful Content Update, have increased the power of E-E-A-T or expertise, experience, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. Heating and cooling websites that best demonstrate these qualities through branded signals will rank.
SEO remains the most affordable method to generate HVAC leads online. However, some of the tactics that previously led to consistent rankings on search engines are no longer viable. As a result, HVAC companies must adapt in order to maintain or increase Google visibility.
Tip 1: Digital + Branded Signaling
An HVAC company website should not aim to trick search engines but rather aim to establish a brand that search engines can trust enough to present to its users. The most effective way to achieve this is through E-E-A-T, which can be automated through the use of DataPins.
Another way to foster branded signaling is by creating content for users rather than search engines. As a result, those hundreds of thin blog posts your marketing company published on your HVAC website are counterproductive to search engine optimization in 2023.
Tip 2: Cross-Platform Brand Synergy
While a robust website is the most integral part of an HVAC SEO strategy, it’s not enough to establish a viable brand for your services. It’s important for your other digital entities, like your Google Business Profile (aka GMB listing) and social profiles, to link back to your website.
Think about Google Maps and YouTube, for example, as both platforms are now integrated within Google search results. Ensuring your HVAC company can rank on Google’s Local Map 3-Pack, video carousel, and traditional organic results is the epitome of SEO synergy in 2023.
Tip 3: Focus on User Intent
Content’s value is based on the accuracy with which it satisfies the user’s search intent. For example, if a local HVAC prospect searches for gas furnace repair services, the content that clearly outlines its gas furnace services and expertise is the most valuable to the searcher.
Google’s priority is its users (those searching for HVAC services). As a result, you must view your website as Google’s partner and something that can help satisfy their users’ search experience. When you view SEO through this lens, the required tasks become clear.
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