The Internet has brought about many changes in businesses. Before the Internet, companies could only reach potential customers by advertising through the Yellow Pages, newspapers, radio, and TV. Nowadays, businesses can reach customers with those media sources and through social media, online directories, and search engines. The Internet has changed the playing field and opened a broader customer base for businesses. However, this also means an increase in competition.
Search engine optimization or SEO for HVAC providers should be a part of every provider’s marketing strategy to stay ahead of the competition. SEO is the process of optimizing a website or web page to increase the site’s visibility and ranking in search engine results pages or SERPs. When users enter keywords or phrases into search engines, the top results are displayed according to their relevancy.
If you do not have a website or your website is not ranking high enough in the search engines, you are losing potential customers to your competitors.
Thus, to help you out, the following are eight SEO tactics that HVAC providers can use to improve website visibility and ranking:
1. Get High-Quality Backlinks
A backlink is a link from another website that points to yours. The higher the backlink quality, the more weight it will carry with the search engines. This, in turn, will help improve your website’s ranking.
How can you get high-quality backlinks? One way is to submit your website to online directories and business listings. For example, you can submit your website to the yellow pages and find a company’s closest category to your business. You can also exchange links with other businesses with websites relevant to yours.
2. Optimize Your Website For Search Engines
This means ensuring that your website’s title, description, keywords, and content are relevant to your business and the services you offer. How? Keep an inventory of your keywords, words, and phrases that people use to search for online content.
Your website should be optimized or written around these keywords so that your site will appear on the search engine results pages when people search for those terms. For example, for an HVAC provider, some of your keywords may be ‘HVAC service,’ ‘HVAC repair,’ ‘HVAC installation,’ and ‘HVAC replacement.’
In addition, make sure that your website is easy to navigate and has a fast-loading time. Studies have shown that website visitors are likely to leave a website that takes more than three seconds to load.
3. Claim And Optimize Your Business Listing
A Business listing is a free online business directory that allows businesses to create a profile with business name, address, phone number, website URL, and hours of operation. This listing also appears on Maps which can be optimized to show up in the search engine results pages when people search for your business’ services.
To make it easier for customers to find you in search engines, create a customer account on Google My Business, claim your listing, and ensure your contact information is accurate and up-to-date. You can also add photos of your business, products, or services and write a brief description of the company.
4. Optimize Your Images And Videos
When you upload images to your website, be sure to optimize them for the web by using the correct file name and dimensions. Also, provide a way for your customers to link to the image. Then you can tell search engines this is an image file with an alternative text or make the image title the same as your targeted keyword.
Just as you should optimize your images, you should also optimize your videos. For video optimization, you should upload your video to one of the free video-sharing sites. When uploading it to a free video-sharing site, click on the site’s advanced settings and then insert your targeted keyword in the description of your video. You can also add links back to your website in the video description.
5. Optimize Your Website For Mobile Devices
With an increasing number of people using their smartphones and tablets to search for and browse information, your website must be mobile-friendly. If the search engines detect that your website is not optimized for mobile devices, then it will rank you lower in the search results. There are several ways that you can make your website mobile-friendly. One way is to add a responsive website design if users end up on your desktop version of the page.
6. Publish High-Quality Content On Your Website
Quality content is the key. This means that the information on your website is written for readers, not search engines or potential customers. When you write an article that is easy to read and offers valuable information, your website has a greater chance to receive high rankings from the search engines.
Final Words
To improve your website’s ranking, you must first understand how the search engines work and what they are looking for. Once you have a clear understanding of what is required, you can start implementing some of the tactics listed in this article. Keep in mind that SEO is an ongoing process that requires regular attention. As the search engines change their algorithms, you must adapt your strategies to maintain your website’s ranking.