HVAC
The first hot week of the year, and the air is blowing warm.
HVAC lives on two spikes a year and the maintenance that fills the months between. Search decides who catches both.
What you are up against
Franchises and lead platforms have the budget and the head start.
National franchise brands carry a name people already recognize, and the lead aggregators outrank almost everyone for the obvious searches. What neither has is a genuine local footprint: real reviews from named streets, real service-area coverage, and years of being the company people already tell each other about.
The arithmetic
What one more is worth.
$2,000
a typical customer over time
A replacement plus the maintenance that follows. At that value the arithmetic on a monthly retainer works on roughly one extra customer a month.
How search works here
Three things specific to HVAC companys.
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Two spikes, and everybody bids on them
The first hot week and the first cold snap are when demand and click costs peak together. Position earned in spring and autumn is what makes those weeks profitable rather than expensive.
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Maintenance plans are the searchable asset
The recurring revenue is the point of the business and almost nobody optimizes for it. It is lower competition, higher intent, and it turns one job into a relationship.
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Emergency and replacement are different customers
Somebody with no cooling today and somebody pricing a new system in three weeks want different pages. Most HVAC sites give them the same one.
Work it out
How many jobs would it have to bring in?
Set what one is worth to you, pick what you would actually buy, and it tells you the number the spend has to beat.
Where I would start
In this order, and for this reason.
- Profile and reviews, because peak weeks resolve in the map pack
- Separate pages for repair, replacement and maintenance
- Town pages across the service area, since travel time defines the business
- Ads through the two spikes, where the demand is compressed
Which rung that starts on depends on your market rather than your trade. Profile work runs $250/mo, and Local SEO starts at $500/mo. The full ladder is published.
Questions
The ones HVAC companys ask.
When should I start if I want to be ready for summer?
Three to six months ahead, because that is what organic rankings take. Starting in June means paying peak ad prices to cover a position you could have earned in March.
Is it worth doing anything in the shoulder season?
That is the season it is worth doing most. Maintenance plan searches happen year round, cost less to compete for, and produce the recurring revenue that carries the quiet months.
Free audit
Start with where you stand.
Your site's performance, your Google Business Profile, and whether AI can find you. It runs automatically and lands in your inbox in about three minutes.
You get the findings whether or not you hire me, and it is what decides which of the steps above is worth doing first.