GETTING BACK TO HVAC SEO BASICS – DON’T SKIP THESE STEPS

Search engine optimization successes almost always come down to incremental steps that contribute to the whole. The algorithm of today’s Google (as well as Bing and Yahoo) are too smart to fall for tricks and maneuvers that game the system. Instead, it’s the foundational work, technical best practices and straightforward campaigns that will help you shred your HVAC SEO goals. In the effort to accomplish your HVAC marketing goals, however, it may be tempting to publish a web page or a piece of content without paying attention to some HVAC SEO basics that can help contribute to your holistic success in this channel. The good news is, while they are often forgotten or overlooked, these basic search engine optimization elements are easy to implement and to retrofit for your existing pages where they are missing. Let’s outline what these basics are and then some steps you can take to make sure your HVAC SEO foundation is strong and solid.

DON’T MISS THESE COMMONLY FORGOTTEN HVAC SEO BASICS

EVERY PAGE NEEDS A META TITLE AND META DESCRIPTION.

Many HVAC marketing teams who are not wholly focused on search engine optimization, place up amazing HVAC websites that overlook this seemingly behind-the-scenes best practice. If you’ve forgotten the meta title and description, don’t despair! All is not lost – but do get a unique title and description up as soon as you can for every page on your site. Here’s what you need to know:

What are the meta title and description? Technically, it’s a “tag” place into the HTML code that adds a title and description of the page. It has many purposes:

• It signals the search engine as to what your page is about.
• It renders in the search engine so the searcher can quickly see in the SERP, search engine results page, what your page is about (which can improve your click-through rates).
• It renders in social media when you share a blog or web page on your social networks, letting the social media user what your page is about.

Got it! Now how do I create the title and description? Of course, there are SEO best practices to keep in mind as a rule of thumb.

The Meta Title – Typically this is around 60 characters. Any longer will get cut off, i.e., the user won’t be able to read it in the SERP. It is typically close to the title of your blog or a quick summary of your page contents with a reference to your brand that is separated by a pipe.

For example “HVAC SEO Meta Title Tips | HVACMatt.com.”

The Meta Description – The meta description is in the range of 200 characters, should contain a few keywords (not stuffed) and a call to action.

For example “Grab these tips to ensure you don’t miss any SEO basics, from the team at Hvacmatt.com. Need more assistance with your search engine optimization? Contact us at hvacmatt.com.”

OPTIMIZE YOUR IMAGES.

Optimizing images is one of the most overlooked SEO basics that your HVAC marketing team may encounter. Here’s why: your web designers and front-end team are likely not considering search engine optimization when they are developing your shiny, new HVAC website that will attract millions of customers (or however many you desire)!

Optimizing your images matters for many reasons such as:

• Allowing the visually impaired to understand what the images on your site are.
• Keeping file size for optimal loading times.
• Signaling the search engines what your images are and how they are relevant to your web page.

Here’s what you need to know about optimizing your images:

• Name them correctly. If your image is of an air conditioner, name it air-conditioner.jpg – not image 453.jpg. It’s that simple!
• Size them correctly. Images that are too big will slow down your HVAC website which is a bad user experience and hurts your SEO.
• Add Alt text and captions. Alt titles and descriptions are similar to your page titles and descriptions in that they work behind the scenes to highlight why the image is on your page and what your purpose is. Captions are in the foreground and act to reinforce what your image is and possibly provide a call to action to users that are simply skimming your page.

MAP OUT YOUR SITEMAPS.

Creating a sitemap is another crucial step in your HVAC marketing SEO foundation. Sitemaps are the tool that outlines your entire website for the search engines, in addition to providing information about how often each page is updated, when the last change happened and how important your pages are in relation to one another. While your sitemap, or lack thereof, is not a ranking factor, it does act as a signal to the search engines, allow your pages to get indexed quicker and allow you to analyze your pages easier.

Search engine optimization takes attention to detail and a widespread dedication in your HVAC marketing department (and beyond). Creating checklists and instituting simple best practices can help to ensure these foundational efforts aren’t missed. The result will likely be an enormous difference in your HVAC SEO success. And, these easy-to-implement steps will also improve your customer’s online experience – that’s the real win!

This post originally appeared on HVACMatt.com.