Who are the best HVAC companies in Houston?

My name is Matthew Rupp, and my team and I have helped drive millions of dollars in new business to our HVAC clients that we love working with.

We are on a mission to work with just one HVAC company there in Houston.

Let me guess a few things about you. If this doesn’t resonate with you, just stop reading here.

• You have absolutely ZERO desire to learn about “digital” marketing, citations, links, or any of that mumbo jumbo.
• You are SICK of being bombarded by people trying to sell you their “magic beans” when it comes to the web.
• You have likely tried a couple companies and “experts,” and they were a complete waste of time.
• You know being at the top of Google is important.

There’s another way.

Instead of trying to “sell” you on who we are and what we do, our team decided to just show you (and your competitors) who is doing well on Google and who is shooting themselves in the foot.

We identified all the ‘”players” in Houston by strictly going off what we found on the first 2-3 pages Google. You will see that among those included, some are giant operations and some are very small.

We looked at over 200 metrics and assessed HVAC companies against each other using the following guidelines:

Before we get to the good stuff, let me explain one simple concept that will make understanding how to be #1 on Google much easier.
Dominating the first page of Google is about one word – “TRUST.”

“Trust” is the name of the game, and just like in real life, it must be EARNED. It’s not just passed out. We need to build trust in some areas, and often just as importantly, we need to get rid of things that are hurting that trust.

Why is trust so important?

If somebody searches for “my AC is blowing warm air,” do you think Google is going to trust the website that loads super slow, has cookie-cutter images, and doesn’t have content that actually addresses that problem?

Imagine if somebody searches for “my AC is frozen up” while in Houston (which Google knows) and finds your site which has a page that specifically addresses this topic. You also have a rich, complete Google profile, recent positive reviews, recent photos, and you show a connection to the community (like a link to a local event). That’s a good bet you are trustworthy.

When I look at a website from Google’s perspective, I am looking for four questions to be answered:

1. WHO ARE YOU?
     People don’t buy credentials. They buy what you can do for them.

2. WHY SHOULD I CARE?
     Tell your visitors about you so that they know you are qualified for the job. Then, put the bulk of your efforts into showing people that your company is comprised of real human beings who care about them, their problems, and will help them find a solution.

3. CAN I TRUST YOU?
     Everyone is skeptical. Your visitors are thinking, “Yeah, right. Why should I believe any of this?” Do you answer that question? Without trust, your website is worthless.

4. WHAT’S NEXT?
     If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. An effective call to action on your site is something you can measure to see how hard your website is working for your business.

It’s hard to overstate the importance of building trust when it comes to your website. That’s essentially the whole point. Without trust, your potential customers won’t pick up the phone and call you.

Some of the best (and worst) examples I came across are:

Both Superior and John Moore have a lot going for them:

• Personalized trucks show that each is an established company  
• Trust signals showing how you’re highly rated  
• Call to Action signals – giving customers a good reason to click

Nothing is going to communicate trust like real photos of actual technicians, just as seen done very well by Air Rey, Lee Thompson, and Davis.

Of course, any industry associations, safety, compliance, or service organizations that you can be a part of (cheaply) are worth their weight in gold when building trust, especially if they provide you with a badge to show off on your site!

Personally, I love seeing a local company giving back to their community. Showing you are invested in your community (right on your homepage) as well as giving people a great reason to hire you (with some getting donated to the Wounded Warrior Project) really makes Superior stand out from the competition.

On the other hand, a LOT of the HVAC companies in Houston have resorted to doing something that is a real turn-off for potential customers.  Few things will turn visitors away from your site faster than stock photos.

How can you possibly stand out from the crowd if your main image looks nearly identical to many of your competitors?!

The text at the top of your website is called the navigation. It shows visitors and Google where to go to find help. This part of your site must be useful and intuitive.

Unfortunately, many websites make it downright difficult for Google to understand what your business actually DOES. Remember, ranking well on Google is all about making it EASY for Google to see who you are, where you are, and why you deserve to be on top!

Great rankings and traffic won’t grow your business alone. You need a website that communicates who you are, what you do, and why you are good at it. A good website builds trust and leads visitors to take action.

EXAMPLES OF OUR WORK

Here’s Hanna’s website before they became a client. They’ve been a Wichita leader in HVAC service for THREE generations, but you’d never know it by their website.

Now, here is Hanna’s website AFTER.

The reasons why you should have videos on your website are staggering:

• Selling is about storytelling, and videos are an excellent way to share a story.
• Videos keep visitors on your site longer, build trust, and increase the chances they reach out.
• Video is the most engaging medium. Our eyes are attracted to movement, so videos naturally draw attention (and keep it).
• Videos make it easier for visitors to know, like, and trust you.
• Videos can convey a great deal of information in a short amount of time.
• More video content is uploaded in 30 days than what the major TV networks created in 30 years!
• Having videos on your website can give you a big boost in organic (free) website traffic.
• Studies show that viewers retain 95% of a videos message compared to 10% when reading text.
• One third of all time spent online is watching videos.

Video is powerful, and it works!

Here is a look at how well each company does when it comes to video on their website. As you can see, this important factor is all but forgotten by most companies.

The biggest mistake we see when it comes to videos on a website is how far down the page they are, often not even on the homepage!  

Of the thirteen HVAC companies I looked at in Houston, I could only find a few that had any videos at all.  

The top 2 are Superior and John Moore. Both had personable videos right there on their home pages.

However, the best example of a video that shows trust was P&M. The only problem with their video is that it’s not on their homepage. You have to find it in a Cool Videos page under their About Us category. It’s getting missed by virtually anyone who comes to their site.

Listen, people are coming to your site looking for help with a problem, not to watch videos. But there is a good chance that if they run across a video on your homepage, they’ll watch it. There just isn’t much of a chance they’ll actually search your site to watch videos.

EXAMPLES OF OUR WORK

We create impactful videos for our clients that showcase expertise, community involvement, and other important areas that show customers this is a local company they can trust.

Making videos is time-consuming and a lot of work. Nope. Not true. They don’t have to be. In fact, we often create videos for our clients as a surprise. It took ZERO effort from them for us to make videos on such things as an amazing testimonial, telling their unique point of difference, or even turning an existing blog post into a video discussing their installation process.

I am sure you have heard the saying that people do business with people they know, like, and trust.

Here is a little-known fact you might find interesting: Without exception, the highest viewed page for EVERY client we have ever worked with (from pest control companies, dentists, plumbers, body shops to HVAC companies), is the ABOUT page. Hands down. Think about it – if somebody is coming into your home, working on your car, or fixing your teeth, you want them to be GOOD at what they do, have real experience in that field, give you a fair price, treat you right, and stand behind their work if something does go wrong. I am sure you would agree. What better way to see that than by photos of actual people and telling your story!

If I had just ONE piece of advice for any service business interested in seeing more results from their online presence, better rankings, and increased website traffic, it would be to TELL YOUR STORY.

• Who started the business?
• When did they start it?
• What was the motivation for getting into the industry?
• How has the business grown over the years?
• What sets you apart from the shop down the street?
• What kind of guarantee do you offer that builds trust?
• What associations or industry groups are you a part of?
• Are you or your business involved in the community?
• How long have some of your team been with you?

This is the “good stuff” – the personality, the culture, and the values you believe in and stand behind.

Which companies are doing well at telling their story for website visitors to see? Not many, it turns out.

Who’s doing it well?

John Moore has a clean and clear-cut website, and what they also have is plenty of history. You can see that with the wealth of information about their founder and their company’s history on their About Us page.

And look how much they give back to their community!

AirCon is doing a stellar job letting you see the real people who customers will actually be working with. Photos and bios (and even a dog!) give you a good feeling that this is a team you can trust.

When “telling your story,” something I see all the time are companies making it HARD to find the “good stuff” on their website!
Take a look at the below website navigation that includes a drop down menu.

The “ABOUT US” isn’t just something to hover over to reveal 6 pages in that category, it is ALSO a page that you can click on to visit, which I’m sure a lot of visitors don’t realize. This situation makes it really easy to miss what could be the BEST page on an entire website! We see this ALL the time.

EXAMPLES OF OUR WORK

A picture is worth a thousand words. We are rock stars in this area.

What does the image below tell you?

• Company truck
• Company shirt
• Professional
• Not some guy on a cell phone

Images are powerful. If you have company trucks, or your techs wear company shirts, or you have awesome ladies running the office who really care and enjoy what they do – show them to the people.

Kansas Controls – a family-owned company with friendly faces to serve you

Content can be anything that helps your website visitors (or Google) see who you are, what you do, where you are, and why you deserve to be #1. It could be text, video, images, a guide, helpful resources, a checklist visitors can download, frequently asked questions, team bios, etc.

Most business owners don’t realize this, but Google doesn’t rank websites – it ranks PAGES!

I would like to challenge you. Think about your ideal customer and an HVAC-related issue they might have.

• air conditioning repair
• ac blowing hot air
• broken furnace
• clean dirty vents

Now look at your website. Can you see even ONE page that is at least halfway shows that’s what your company does? Don’t feel bad. The answer is almost always no. This gives you an idea of how LOW the bar is set (and great news for the one company we work with).

What do you think people search for more often? Is it “heating and air” or phrases like “ac unit not running” or “ac unit not turning on”?

That’s the road to riches when it comes to local SEO.

• Who is your customer?
• What is their pain point?
• How can you help them with that?

There isn’t a single heating and air website in Houston that has as much rich and genuinely helpful content as is needed. By taking the time to do that well, you’re HANDING Google what it’s looking for.

Of the 13 companies we researched for this case study, 2 did stand out among the group. Both John Moore and AirCon are providing great content throughout their sites.

The content on their services pages are filled with quality content and important keywords. And, also important to note, it’s recent. It is visually laid out with headings and bullet points which is incredibly helpful for both readability and, therefore, keeping visitors on site.

On the service pages, John Moore is really knocking it out of the park. The pages are rich with information, clear and visually appealing.

In addition, John Moore also provides some great resources including guides like this one.

One of the companies lacking good content is Courtesy. Their biggest issue is that they have not enough service pages.

There is only one page for all the work they do with air conditioning – installing, repairing and maintenance. Each of those services deserve to be its own page. Google is looking to find the best ONE page to send searchers to. So pages that try to be all things to all people aren’t the pages Google will rank high for a person searching one specific thing such as “ac repair” or “new air conditioner”.

Northwind is in the middle of the pack. They are doing some things very right (such as a FAQ page and an interactive Troubleshooting section), but they have a blog page that’s been ignored for nearly 3 years! Google knows when sites upload new content and reward them accordingly with higher rankings. Simply getting regular blog posts started again would go a long way for a lot of HVAC websites.

The companies with the largest problems here simply don’t have enough content. YourAir is a site that doesn’t have any blogs, guides or FAQ content. In fact, at least a few of their service pages are missing.

If a customer clicks for information on YourAir’s duct cleaning service and they see this, they’re going to immediately go to another company’s site.

EXAMPLES OF OUR WORK

Here are just a few pieces of content that we regularly produce for our clients.

We did a lot of work for Cambridge Family Dentistry here in Wichita. When it came to producing content, my research showed a lot of people were searching for “pros and cons of dental implants.” So, we catered content to that.

The results speak for itself. We got Cambridge to show up not only as the top result, but the TOP THREE RESULTS!

Imagine if everyone in a wealthy part of town saw your company first when they were searching for a heating and air conditioning installation. That’s exactly what we aimed for with this content targeted for a specific location. 

Imagine if the people in your town who were wondering whether they should repair or replace their furnace saw your company pop up first with a way to find out.

Imagine if the people in your area who heard about this year’s R22 phase out did a Google search and immediately saw a local company with the information they need.

Reviews are invaluable for today’s service-oriented businesses, so it’s hard to overstate just how important this section is! Customers are becoming increasingly reliant upon reviews before making a buying decision.

Often when somebody visits a restaurant or local business, Facebook and Google know and ask these people to share how their experience was. This trend is only growing!

Reviews are a ranking factor to Google, which means they can impact the amount of traffic a website receives and, ultimately, how many phone calls you receive.

Reviews are incredibly important!

While there is one HVAC company in Houston really hitting it out of the ballpark, many others are falling way behind, and there’s an amazing opportunity there for them.

John Moore is, by far, is exceeding here. Among these 13 companies, they are the only ones to have thousands of reviews. They have 2,514 reviews with an average of 4.5 stars.

Davis is slightly edging out the rest of the pack –  not because of quantity, but because of quality. Despite having much less reviews than John Moore, with 358 reviews, their average rating is 4.9.

YourAir is suffering with averaging the lowest rating of this group – 4.3 stars. Ironically, what is good news for them is that they only have a total of 71 reviews. That means it will be much easier to raise their average than a company with hundreds (or thousands) of reviews.

Google provides a free platform for you to tell them your address, industry, hours, fax, holiday hours, description, logo, tagline, and a wealth of other details. They will display all this right in the search results when somebody looks for your business. 

Just search for your business name and you will see the box on the right. Notice the number of reviews right out front which hopefully helps potential clients feel confident enough to reach out to your office.

This is one of the FIRST steps to take when trying to improve your rankings and website traffic. 

For your Google profile, you really want to give them a wealth of information, including:

• Industry
• Date business opened
• Holiday hours
• Photos and videos
• Products
• Opportunity to chat
• A way to book an appointment

Remember, all of this is meant to help Google see who you are, where you are, what you do, and why you are the best at it. Your profile is a golden opportunity to help Google see that without spending a penny!

It was quite a surprise to see such a variation among Houston companies regarding their Google My Business profiles.

A lot of you are already hitting on the important opportunities you have with this Google platform for businesses. From including photos of real people, your vehicles, and being out in the community, most of these 13 companies are taking advantage of everything they can here. Many are creating regular posts as well.

Adding photos to your Google My Business profile is a great way to show some personality, real people having fun at work with people they enjoy working with!

It appears Courtesy and Air Rey haven’t caught on to the great opportunities available with Google My Business.

A few other companies, however, are using their Google account in ways that can also greatly benefit their website!

Take a look at this. When you’re a company that stands out as YourAir does with its bold pink colors, you’re going to get noticed. And here are some great images of your team and vehicles. But we aren’t seeing anything like these images on their actual website! It’s a big missed opportunity.

A citation is simply any mention of your business name, address, and phone number anywhere across the web (with or without a link back to your site). The most common sources of citations are the thousands of directories and social media sites like Facebook, TripAdvisor, HomeAdvisor, Angie List, Yelp, and YellowBook.   

Citations are important to your rankings, traffic, and ultimately how many phone calls you receive because Google is looking for CONSISTENCY among the hundreds (sometimes thousands) of references to your business. 

Does your company have a citation problem?

Well, answer these questions:

• Has your business ever changed location?
• Did another business previously occupy the building you’re in now?
• Has your phone number ever changed?
• Did you buy the business from someone else?
• Have you used tracking phone numbers at any point?

If you answered yes to any one of these questions, then yeah, you’ve probably got a mess to clean up.

We analyzed the total number of citations for each of the companies, how many of them have conflicting details, and how many are missing a presence on 85 of the most popular platforms.

The 3 strongest companies in this areas are:

• AirCon
• Northwind
• Ideal Air

Your Air and Richmond’s are dealing with a lot of errors and issues.

Courtesy is having a lot of trouble with directory sites showing a different address than the one listed on their website.

An effective call to action is something you can measure to see how hard your website is working for your business.

If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.

Visitors to your website aren’t looking for a reason to STAY. They are looking for any excuse to LEAVE. They have a problem. They are looking for a solution, and if we have them on your site, and they have clicked on a page or two, it’s time to take them by the hand and tell them what to DO.

Is there anything they’re willing to do that’s easier than picking up the heavy phone to call you? In this texting age, I am amazed at how seldom I see chat boxes on service websites.

In an ideal situation, within a couple of SECONDS of visiting your website, they feel comfortable that your team is good at what they do and can help them solve their problem. From there, they are led to a clear, simple, direct CALL TO ACTION.  

Some of the ones that stood out on the HVAC websites in Houston were:  

• The FREE coupons and an easy way to request service online at Your Air’s website is sure to get people to take action.

• John Moore gets your attention with ways to make affording their service easy.

• Lee Thompson provides a Chat Box that pops up on their home page.

An effective call to action must be compelling, unique, and really stand out if you expect visitors to take action!

Just asking potential customers to “call today” or “sign up now” only turns them away.

WE LOVE CHAT

Having a chat box makes so much sense. Who doesn’t text nowadays? It’s not as “scary” as calling somebody who could be a pushy salesperson. Visitors don’t find text boxes threatening – they are in control. Sure, they may have called you anyway, but they may have just as easily moved on to another site that does have a chat-box.

I can speak from experience. This is the one on my site:

Just today, I received a chat on my phone from my website.

Unfortunately, “optimize” has been used as a bit of a code word for “take client’s money and do nothing.” 

If you recall, Google ranks pages, not websites.  So, what does that mean for optimization?

Let’s take this scenario as an example: You have a page on your website that targets “AC repair.” You add a couple subheadings, some useful text, maybe a short video about the importance of turning on your AC before the hot days of summer hit to make sure it’s working, or possibly a customer testimonial raving about how great of a job your team did at fixing their AC. All those items help to “optimize” that page for ranking for search terms related to “ac repair.”  

A majority of HVAC companies in Houston are having some problems keeping their site’s pages from being well optimized. A few are having entirely way too many problems here, with Ideal Air having so many that they are off the chart!