Step 7: SEO Audit – HVAC, Plumbing and Electrical

In the past, HVAC companies could rely on print advertising and referrals as successful ways of gaining clients. However, today, with mounting competition and massive change in consumer behavior, it’s necessary to provide an extra edge to gain attention. Your potential customers are searching for HVAC businesses online, and if you want to reach them, your business needs to be one of the first things they see in Google search results. With SEO, you can make sure that they find you first, before even considering your competitors. SEO stands for search engine optimization. At its base, SEO refers to all of the steps you take to improve your site’s ranking for specific industry-related terms. Internet users use search engines every day to find information about heating and cooling, and many of them are looking for an HVAC specialist in their area. If your website isn’t properly optimized, it won’t show up as a result for those searches, which prevents your customers from finding you. If you don’t want to lose potential customers, a solid SEO strategy is definitely necessary. As an HVAC professional, your time is best spent repairing and installing heating and cooling systems—not conducting keyword research and writing blog posts. So if you don’t have time to plan, launch, and nurture an SEO campaign, we’d love to hear from you.

Initial Baseline Assessment – Today’s Date: ________________

# of SEO Service/Location Pages: ___________________________________________

# of SEO Location/Service Pages: ___________________________________________

Namechk.com Profiles owned: ___________________________________________

Last Date of Blog Content Added: ___________________________________________

Last Date of Website Changes (new Content): _______________________________________

Internal Linking % (part of SEO plan): ___________________________________________

Internal Broken Links: ___________________________________________

External Broken Links: ___________________________________________

Missing Page Titles: ___________________________________________

Missing Meta Descriptions: ___________________________________________

Duplicate Meta Descriptions: ___________________________________________

Slow Load Time Pages: ___________________________________________

Slow Load Time Images: ___________________________________________

AMP Errors: ___________________________________________

Schema Errors: ___________________________________________

Sitemap Issues: ___________________________________________

Page Indexing Issues: ___________________________________________

Duplicate Content Issues: ___________________________________________

Broken Link Errors: ___________________________________________b

Sitemap Errors: ___________________________________________

 

Check all that apply to your business today – meaning, these exist or are valid today.

On Page SEO: Agency Provided Optimization

  • SEO Monthly Maintenance Plan
    • Ensure SSL Certificate is Installed and Updated Annually
    • Ensure Site is set to Index and Follow – Robots.txt crawable
    • Competitor Research Annually
    • Compliance Audits and Revisions Regularly
    • Google Search Console
    • Google Analytics Account
      • You are administrator on your Google Analytics Account
      • You receive monthly Analytics Reporting
    • Google Webmaster Account Management
    • Bing Webmaster Management
    • Crawl Error Reports Reviewed and Fixed Monthly/Quarterly (Fetch as Google)
    • Broken Links Reports Reviewed and Fixed Monthly/Quarterly
    • Admin Plan – Delete Deadweight Pages
    • ID and Fix Duplicate Meta Tags Reports Reviewed and Fixed Monthly/Quarterly
    • Focused on Improving Site Dwell Time through Use of Video
    • Focused on Improving Site Dwell Time through Use of a Job Board
    • Focused on Improving Site Dwell Time through Use of Engaging or Authority Content
  • SEO Website Technical Management
    • Utilize a CDN – Content Distribution Network to improve performance and security (see Step 1 – Hosting and Maintenance Plans)
    • Installation and Testing of Breadcrumbs
    • Schematic Markup
    • AMP – Accelerated Mobile Pages
    • Mobile First Design and Developed Website
    • SEO Yoast Installed (WordPress CMS)
    • Primary Keyword in URL/Domain Name
    • Site and Page Load Reports Reviewed and Site Speed Improvements Made Monthly/Quarterly
    • Excellent Hosting, Security and Maintenance Plan to Limit Downtime and Security Issues (see Step 1 – Hosting and Maintenance Plans)
  • Annual SEO Strategy Review
    • Google Keyword Planner
    • Identified Low Competition Search Phrases
    • Identified Long Tail Search Phrases in Plan
    • Identified Local Search Phrases in Plan
  • SEO Reporting Systems
    • Keyword Ranking Tracking System (i.e. SEMRush, Advanced Web Rankings)
    • Site Health and Error Reporting
    • Site Health Management and Corrections
      • Monthly
      • Quarterly
      • Annually
    • Google Analytics
    • Google Webmaster
    • Bing Webmaster
  • SEO Content
    • Basic SEO Content by Primary Service (see Step 2 Content)
    • Basic Content by Product
    • Content Checklist Created and Used for New Content Creation
    • Content Revised Annually for Current Year Standards and Best Performance
    • Used Multi-Media on all pages
  • New SEO Service/Location Pages Added
    • Daily
    • Weekly
    • Monthly
    • Quarterly
    • Annually
  • New SEO Location/Service/Reviews Pages Added
    • Daily
    • Weekly
    • Monthly
    • Quarterly
    • Annually
    • Random (on receipt of New Reviews/Cities)
  • Blog Content Posted
    • Daily
    • Weekly
    • Monthly
    • Quarterly
    • Annually
  • On Page SEO Complete by Page
    • Keyword and Location in Permalink / URLs
    • Meta Titles with Front Loaded Keyword
    • Meta Descriptions
    • 1 H1 Per Page
    • Key Phrase in H1
    • Key Phrase in H2
    • Key Phrase in H3
    • Keyword Density Within Content – within First 100 words
    • Minimum of 300 Words Per Page
    • Minimum of 1000 Words Per Page
    • Minimum of 1500 Words Per Page
    • Internal Links on Service Pages
    • Internal Links on Blog Pages
    • Images Optimized with Alt Text
    • Used Synonyms and LSI Keywords within SEO Content (variants)
    • Used External Links to Authority (industry) sites
    • Update and Relaunch Old or Outdated Content on a Schedule

Off Page SEO Activities: Separate Services/Joint Efforts

Depending on your geographic location and competition, some companies can rank on page one of Google, position number 1 – 3 with limited formal link building efforts. They can leverage basic link building strategies Social Marketing and Local Listings to create enough high power links to perform extremely well.  However, sometimes the phrase and target location is so competitive it is going to require additional labor, investments, creativity and collaboration between the Marketing SEO Agency and the business owner.   The most important things to consider with link building:

  1. Basic link building occurs from subscribing to other services such as local listings marketing, social media marketing, blogging, reviews remarketing and advertising.
  2. Don’t spend the money on formal link building if you don’t have to – test first (that money should be used for other things if it’s not needed in your area to rank)
  3. Don’t “buy backlinks”  – you earn them.
  4. If you are a small business, it’s going to require collaboration and a joint effort, in addition to time and money, to accomplish this.

Natural Link Building (only counts if you have a link back to your website – interior pages are weighted heavier than your home page). No, we don’t buy backlinks or do anything against Google’s recommendations.  Backlinks must be earned through marketing, advertising, network directories, high quality content creation and PR. This is a combined effort between the business owner and agency (depending on services subscribed to and available content to work with).

    • Internal Links
    • Related Post Internal Links From/Within Active Blog
    • Listings on Top 55 + Local Directories (see Step 4 Local Listings)
    • Own Handel on Top 300 Directory Sites (namechk.com) (see Step 4 Local Listings and Step 6 Social Media)
    • Listings on Social Media Sites (see Step 6 Social Media)
      • Facebook
      • Instagram
      • Twitter
      • LinkedIn
      • Snapchat
      • Goodreads
      • Reddit
      • Tumblr
      • Pinterest
      • Flickr
      • Quora
      • Periscope
      • YouTube
    • Social Media Posting Links
    • Links from LinkedIn Company Directory
    • Listings on Review Sites (see Step 5 Reviews)
    • Listing on Manufacturer Dealer Directory
    • Listings on Distributor Directories
    • Listings on HVAC Directories (like cihvac.com)
    • Guest Blog Posting Service
    • Press Release Writing and Distribution
    • Job Postings on Job Sites
    • Job Postings on .edu sites
    • Postings on .gov sites
    • Postings on .org sites
    • Editorial Given Links from Extremely High Quality Content
    • Listings on Industry Websites
    • Write Ups in National/Traditional News / Media Sites
    • Links from Local News Sites
    • Links from Competitors in Your Industry
    • Niche Forum Links
    • Links from Ebooks
    • How To Guide Links
    • Resource Guide Links
    • InfoGraphics Links
    • Links from Q&A Sites like Quora
    • Linked Advertisement Graphics
    • Embedded Video Links (YouTube Videos)
    • Blogger Industry Review Links
    • Links from Wiki Sites
    • DOFOLLOW Linking
    • NOFOLLOW Linking
    • Podcast Industry Guest Post Links
    • Webinar or Slideshare Backlinks
    • Mention Influencers in Your Blog Posts to Get Backlinks