During these unprecedented times, many industries have fallen behind for the sheer lack of economic activity. This includes the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning sector. The pandemic, which compelled a lot of people to take measures and minimize risks of exposure, has brought forth another round of recession for the United States. Companies that were thriving before the public health matter struggled, while those that were struggling performed worse.
Because of this, more and more businesses have taken the necessary steps in order to compete during this unpredictable economic climate. This includes adapting to the call of the times, from allowing work from home to imposing health protocols. For some, adjusting to the pandemic and its effects means ramping up marketing activities to attract more clients.
For HVAC companies, work from home arrangements may not be possible as services such as installation, repairs, and maintenance require a personal appearance. Business could slow down as clients opt to minimize interactions with people outside of their household by postponing regular servicing or worse, doing a DIY job.
As an HVAC company owner, what you can do is to find more clients and convince existing ones to continue doing business with you. An effective way to do this is to market your services on the most accessible platform nowadays: the internet.
HVAC SEO can help ensure the success of your digital marketing campaign. It involves the use of content peppered with keywords to rank high in search engine results pages (SERPs). Keep in mind that with such campaigns, the quality of your keyword is one of the most important factors that could influence your success. Read on to know more about this technique.
Why Run an HVAC SEO Campaign?
Before we talk about the best way to select the correct keywords, you may be wondering why this type of digital marketing campaign is a great option for businesses that are affected by the pandemic. The first thing you need to know is that this technique is completely web-based, which means that you can run it without leaving the safety of your office (or home) and without your potential customers going out, as well.
Search engine optimization is the use of your website and its content to get a spot on the first page of search engine results. Keep in mind that many people stick to the belief that those in the first page are the most relevant and high-quality, while things will get more irrelevant and lower-quality as you browse through pages 2, 3, and so on.
In fact, studies show that around 95% of all web traffic comes from the first SERP. If your site or pages end up in the second, third, fourth, and so forth, you only have 5% of the web traffic. That is if these users click on your link.
While the fact that results in the first page are more valuable than the rest may be debatable, there is no denying that customers subscribe to this idea. So, you need to make sure that your pages and site ends up on the first page whenever users do searches related to your products and services.
So, how does SEO work? As mentioned, this digital marketing technique works using your website and its content, with the help of keywords. Say your potential customers look for ‘heater repair near me.’ The search engine, the most popular one being Google, uses its crawlers to look for, index, and return pages that are related to this KW.
The algorithm looks for the keyword in various parts of your website including the URL, copies, file names, meta descriptions, meta-data, and page titles. It then places the most high-quality ones in the SERPs, based on ranking. This is where the idea that links that appear on page one are the most relevant.
An HVAC SEO campaign wants to make sure that the sample KW appears in your site and page, so that the crawler and pick it up and display it in SERPs. You just need to use high-quality keywords.
Picking the High-Quality Keywords for Your HVAC Business
High-quality KWs are considered so because they have the potential to increase traffic to your website and boost your conversion rate. Generally, these are words or phrases often used by your target market when making queries. But, how do you ensure that you use the correct keywords? Here’s what you need to do:
-
Know Your Market
As mentioned, KWs that can make your SEO campaign successful are those that your target market use. As with any marketing activity, it is only smart to study your target market before launching a campaign. Look at the demographics you want to cater to. Are you geared toward commercial establishments and buildings? Do you cater more to residential clients?
Having a clear idea of your market will give you an idea about KWs. The main goal is to answer questions by your potential customers. In the sample KW given above, users who search for ‘heater repair near me’ are looking for, well, HVAC service providers who can repair their heater. Plus, they need such service providers to be within their vicinity. So, you might want to use KWs such as ‘heater repair in DC’ or wherever you are.
-
Take Advantage of Google
How would you know what users are keying in when they are making queries? As an owner of an HVAC system yourself, you are bound to have an idea of what you would look for. The thing is, as an HVAC firm owner, you know the ins and outs of the industry.
Meanwhile, the regular customer may not even know the basics of HVAC systems. What they do know is that they need so and so services. This can include system installation, repair, maintenance, and troubleshooting. So, you need to put yourself in your customers’ shoes.
As an expert, it may be difficult to separate yourself from your expertise. The best thing you can do is to use available tools such as Google itself. You can simply go to Google and type in an initial phrase like ‘heater repair,’ then press spacebar to see predictions by Google. These predictions are the most searched queries and you can incorporate them into your site and pages.
You can also use Google Trends, which is a data analysis feature that gives you an idea of how many searches a term has been searched over a given duration, category and location. When you enter the sample KW, you will see that related queries such as ‘water heater repair.’ ‘who to call for water heater repair’ and ‘tankless water heater.’ You can widen or narrow down your research depending on your needs. Then, create content around these words and phrases.
-
Use Keyword Research Tools
Aside from Google, you can also take advantage of free keyword research tools. These are services that let you enter an initial KW and then return with a list of related ones complete with search volumes. These services work similar to Google Trends and can work to supplement one another.
One great thing about these services is that you have the option to pay. Paid keyword research tools offer more details about the KW, which you can use to improve your strategy. If you think that this additional cost is not worth it, keep in mind that you will need to invest in tools that can make your campaign successful, thus, increasing your company’s chances of gaining new customers and more revenue.
-
Mix General and Targeted KWs
Now, during your research, you may encounter suggestions that may be too technical or specialized for regular consumers to know. For example, keying in ‘heater repair’ in Google Trends will give you a ‘relief valve’ as a related topic. While you very well know what a relief valve is, your average client may not.
So, if your target market is residential customers, you want to use general keywords instead of using specialized terms such as jargons and specific parts.
However, you need to remember that some customers take their time to research about their systems. Some may even have experience with HVAC or have some form of knowledge about it. So, they may search the web using specialized or targeted terms. If you only use broad words or phrases, they might not easily find your website.
What you need to do is to use a mix of broad and targeted terms. This way, you can tap on both average customers and those with a bit of knowledge about what they are looking for. Balancing your use of general and special terms is a great strategy.
The Bottom Line
Your HVAC business may take a hit due to the economic impact of the pandemic. However, deploying a well-thought-out HVAC SEO campaign will give you an advantage over your competitors. If you are not sure where to start, you might want to get in touch with a digital marketing agency specializing in your industry.