SEO or Search Engine Optimizing is a series of actions that make a website easy to find via a search engine. All HVAC dealers need to have a search engine strategy in place. Each year more and more current and potential customers will use Google as a starting point to contact you. Search engine optimization is how you make sure that your current and future clients call you instead of your competitor.
What is it?
SEO is a trade, and it is an art. Like any trade, it can be done by a hobbyist or an expert. It’s a trade because SEO requires technical skill and art. After all, the implementation of the tactics requires finesse. Search engine optimization changes your website to make google like it better.
Why do it?
The real answer is, you should do it because you will lose business if you don’t. But to get technical, you should do it to grow. Every day more people use search engines to find what they are looking for. Your most loyal customer likely does not have your number saved in their phone. Your competitors know this and are likely optimizing their website to show up on Google for your company name.
Where is SEO done?
Seo happens mostly on your website and on other websites that are willing to link to your domain. To perform SEO, site access is a must. Additionally, you will need access to google analytics. When the SEO is being performed, you may only see slight changes to the site’s outward appearance as most of the work is done on the site’s programming. This is not visible when you look at your website.
How is SEO done?
Using your site code, be it WordPress, PHP, etc., some data is added to images and the files that tell the website how it should look and act. This data tells the search engines special information that they need to decide what the purpose of your website is.
For example, if your site has an image of a UV light and the image is on a page about indoor air quality, google uses that pairing of image and text to decide that your site should be shown to people interested in IAQ. But Google can’t see images the way a human can. So we ad some code to the image that tells google what the image is of. This way, your website gets the credit it is due for being on-topic and relevant.
When optimizing a site, it is common to change the site’s text content to match up with the site’s keywords. Keywords are the words your site focuses on being about. They always match up with the words we think our potential customers might search when they use google.
Additionally, tactics like link building are used to show the search engines that your site is relevant. So relevant that other websites link their site to yours.
When will my SEO be done?
Bad news. SEO is never really “done.” The trade and art of ranking a site on google is a long-term strategy, and while some elements of that strategy get completed, new elements are always needed. It is like being done brushing your teeth. You are only done for the day, but good hygiene means you will have to stay on top of that task indefinitely.
A good SEO strategy will cause a significant change in search engine ranking in 6 to 8 months. But it is always a game of progress, not perfection.
