HVAC marketing for the ten months that have to be worked for.
Your year has two busy months and ten that have to be worked for. HVAC marketing, for us, is built around that shape rather than against it: the listing, the site, HVAC SEO and the ads, run for heating and cooling companies around Rockford and across northern Illinois.
Ask us where to start Get a free SEO auditProof, from the search box
Two peaks, five months apart.
What people in Rockford typed into Google each month for the last year, furnace repair in Ember and AC repair in Sky, from Google's own numbers. Drag across the year and read what we run for each part of it.
Google Ads search volume for Rockford, IL, the last twelve months. Furnace repair in Ember, AC repair in Sky.
January
The furnace searches are at their peak and every one is somebody cold. The listing says Open with the after-hours line on, the ads run on furnace repair and nothing else, and the site puts the emergency page first.
Ads, on for the coldThe searches drop and so does everybody else's attention. This is when the maintenance offer goes out, the reviews from the winter get asked for, and the site's tune-up and installation pages get written.
Reviews, asked for in the quietThe second peak, and a shorter one. The ads switch to AC repair, the listing's hours hold, and the phone has to be answered on the hot Saturday, because that is the whole month.
The listing, in JulyThe searches turn back to heat before the cold does. The tune-up offer, the installation pages for the furnaces that will not make another winter, and the reviews asked before the rush.
Search, ahead of the seasonWhich one of these is you?
Six lines we hear on first calls, and one of them is usually yours. Pick it and we will tell you what is actually going on underneath, in two sentences rather than twenty.
Two busy seasons and two dead ones, and what worked in a cold snap does nothing in a mild spring. The shoulder months need different work: maintenance plans, tune-up demand, and the replacement conversations people only have when nobody is in a hurry.
Get a plan for the whole yearTheir categories are right and their listing gets fed every week, and yours has not been touched since the day it was verified. The map is winnable in a way the paid results are not, and it is the cheapest ground you own.
How we run the listingWhat moves the map is recency and replies as much as the raw count, which is why the number on its own is a bad thing to panic about. We build the asking into the job so it happens without anybody remembering, and every review gets an answer in your voice.
How reviews move the mapTune-up shoppers, tenants who cannot approve anything, people three counties away. That is nearly always the wrong words in the wrong radius, and it is an afternoon of work once somebody actually reads the search terms report.
How we run the adsA bought lead is somebody else's customer rented to you for one call, and it is gone the day you stop paying. HVAC lead generation that belongs to you is slower to build and it keeps working after the spending stops.
The work that stays yoursNine seconds to load on a phone, a service area that is wrong, and no way to ask for an appointment at eleven at night. That is not a redesign on its own, it is a short list in order, and the first item usually costs a morning.
How we build sitesAll of it, for an HVAC company.
HVAC SEO and HVAC lead generation are where most heating and cooling companies start with us, and search is one of six things we run. Here is the whole shop, in your situation.
The first ninety days, for an HVAC company.
Timed to the year. What we do first depends on what month it is when we start; this is the shape of it.
Categories, the service area drawn town by town, hours with the after-hours line, every review answered in your voice, and call tracking on from day one, so every call has a source before the first peak.
How we run the listingFast on a phone, the emergency page first, a page for every service and every town in the words people type, and a visit booked in a minute. If the site is sound we fix it; if it is not, we say so and build it.
What we buildThe ad accounts built for both peaks and paused until their month, a review ask built into every completed job, the maintenance offer ready for the shoulder, and the first monthly report on your desk.
Ads, timed to the seasonTell us where the business is.
Three lines and we come back to you, usually within a working day, with what we would look at first. No pitch deck, no quote until there is a plan.
Or the free look first: a free SEO audit of your site and your listing, sent over with nothing to sit through. Or call (815) 880-8676.
Questions HVAC owners ask before they call us.
The ones that come up on nearly every first call, answered here so you do not have to spend a call getting to them.
Cleanup on the Google Business Profile can move the map inside a few weeks, because categories, service area and hours are fixed rather than earned. Organic rankings for terms like furnace repair or AC installation in a given town take a few months to move and then keep building. If you need the phone ringing this week, that is paid, and we will say so rather than sell you search and hope.
For a heating and cooling company, mostly three things. It keeps the Google Business Profile fed every week, because for an emergency trade that listing is most of the phone calls. It writes and fixes the pages that answer what people search before the emergency happens. And it runs the paid side for the weeks the phone has to ring now rather than next quarter. Anybody charging you for more than that on a shop your size should be able to say what the extra is and what it buys.
There is no percentage that means anything without knowing what a job is worth to you and how many trucks you can fill. What we do on a first call is work out what a booked replacement is worth, what a tune-up is worth, and how many of each you need, and the budget comes out of that. We will not quote a number before we have that conversation.
Yes, and for an urgent trade it is often the first paid thing worth doing, because Google Guaranteed sits above the map and charges per lead rather than per click. It needs the license and insurance verification done properly and the lead disputes actually filed, which is the part most shops skip and then wonder why the cost per lead looks bad.
In most cases it is one of four things: the primary category is wrong, the service area is drawn wrong, the listing is a duplicate or has been suspended, or you are simply further from the searcher than the businesses above you. The first three are fixable. The fourth is not, and we will tell you which one you have before you pay us anything.
No. It would be taking money from two people to compete with each other. One heating and cooling company per service area, and if we are already working with somebody where you are we will tell you on the first call rather than after you have sent a deposit.
Possibly nothing, and if that is the answer we will say it. The honest way to find out is the free audit: it looks at what is public about your business, where you rank, what the listing is doing and who is above you, and you can hold it next to what you are being told now. It costs nothing and there is nothing to sit through.
What we won't promise you.
Heating and cooling is one of the easiest trades to oversell to, because the swings are big and everybody selling marketing knows it. Here is the honest version: the same three things we say on a first call.
The map ranks on where you are as much as on how good your listing is, so there are streets you will not win from your current address whatever anybody does to it. We will tell you which ones, and put the money where you can actually win instead.
The searches change, the value of a job changes, and a plan built for July is the wrong plan in January. So the work moves with the season: tune-ups and maintenance plans through the quiet months, everything pointed at the emergency when it turns.
We can ask for them properly, make it take one tap, and answer every one in your voice within a day. We cannot leave them for you, and we will not write them. If your techs do not ask at the end of a job, you stay behind the shop whose techs do.
Nobody buys a plan they haven't seen.
The free audit is a look at what you already have and what it is costing you, sent over with nothing to sit through. The plan is a conversation about where the business is and where you want it to get to, and it ends with a path written down rather than a quote. Or you call, and somebody who works on accounts picks up.