It’s me, Nolen Walker, the founder and CEO of HVAC Webmasters, a digital marketing agency for heating and cooling professionals. During my 14+ years of first-hand experience working with HVACR businesses, link building is one of the most misunderstood components of a digital marketing campaign.
Business owners come to me confused about the link building process and how it impacts their search results. Unfortunately, there is a ton of misinformation on blogs and social media content regarding backlinks. In addition, Google’s algorithms and policies have evolved to combat link spam.
With so much to unpack, I’ve decided to write a link building guide for HVAC companies based on my 10+ years of first-hand experience launching and managing successful digital marketing campaigns for heating and cooling professionals throughout the United States.
What is Link Building for HVAC Companies?
Link building refers to processes designed to attract inbound links to your HVACR website through outreach, content marketing, and search engine visibility. The ultimate goal of link building is to rank higher on search results for topical keywords.
Impact of Links on HVAC Search Results
Backlinks influence search engine rankings because of website authority (sometimes called Domain Authority or Domain Rating). Of course, not all link building helps websites rank. In fact, black-hat link building tactics can penalize and ban your heating and cooling website from Google search results.
Understanding how to safely build white-hat links is key to succeeding online. Every link should provide helpful information to users.
Authority
Links build a website’s authority. If you’ve used link analysis tools like Moz, Majestic, or Ahrefs, you can observe metrics showcasing a website’s authority.
While each platform has its own metric (e.g., Domain Authority, Trust Flow, etc.), Google does not refer to any third-party metric. However, Google has its own private metrics that likely use similar calculation scores to determine a website’s authority.
Navigation
Links exist everywhere on the internet, including on your HVAC website. You will link out to external domains and interlink to internal pages on your website.
When users read through a page or article, they may need to refer to another page on the same website. Your job as the webmaster is to create seamless navigation that enhances user experience and validates your topical authority.
Rankings
Make no mistake: link building campaigns exist for ranking purposes. Without a significant end goal like search rankings, businesses would not focus their resources on link building.
While Google’s algorithm considers various other factors, inbound links remain one of the most pivotal ways to gauge a website’s relevance. Of course, white-hat link building requires an understanding of Google’s Quality Guidelines.
Traffic
While rankings are the top priority in a link-building campaign, referral traffic represents another important component. Links from major directory websites like Yelp, Angi’, and HomeAdvisor can lead users from that platform to your website.
Make sure you include your website URL in each directory listing. In addition to directory traffic, HVAC companies can also gain traffic from links on popular blogs.
Link Quality Factors for HVAC Websites
Though link quantity is a factor in building domain authority, generating random links will not help your website. In fact, Google reserves the right to penalize your website for such behavior.
As part of their algorithm updates through the years, Google has cracked down on link schemes, link spam, and any other variation of manipulative linking practices.
So, how does Google distinguish good links from spam links? Well, they use several indicators that help identify a link’s purpose. For example, a link from a gambling site to your HVAC company website clearly indicates manipulation.
While sketchy links may not get you banned (mostly because any competitor can maliciously build bad links to your website), they certainly won’t help you rank for industry keywords.
Anchor Text
Anchor text is the words or phrases within the linked part of the content. Search engines monitor anchor text for both relevance and possible spam.
Too many instances of the same anchor text indicate link manipulation and may cause a penalty. Conversely, a lack of relevant anchor text may prevent your website from ranking at all.
Referring Domain
Search engines can often gauge link quality based on the domain from which it comes. If you receive a backlink from a trusted local newspaper, you are far more likely to see tangible results than with a link from a low-level blog.
Link Relevance
Similarly, a link from a medical website will not transfer as much trust as that from an HVAC resource website. However, the domain itself is not the only relevant identifier.
Getting a link to a blog post about the best HVAC companies in your area is more relevant than getting a link from a blog post about a specific type of air conditioning unit.
Link Placement
Where the content editor places your link partially determines its quality. For example, a link placed in the footer or sidebar of the website holds less weight than one placed within the body content.
Links within body content indicate proper editorial placement and generally enhance user experience, while links in a sidebar or footer generally exist for less relevant purposes.
3rd Party Link Metrics for HVAC Websites
Since Google fails to publicize its link-grading metrics, we must rely on 3rd party platforms like Moz, Majestic, and Ahrefs to gauge a link’s quality. Although Google does not acknowledge such 3rd party metrics, they likely use a similar formula to determine their internal link metrics. Let’s take a look below:
Domain Authority
Moz’s Domain Authority is one of the most widely used link metrics in the SEO industry. It’s easy to measure since Moz offers the MozBar Chrome Extension to all Google Chrome users.
A DA between 20 and 30 is typically great for an HVAC company website. Of course, universally respected brands like Google and Facebook have DAs near or at 100.
Domain Rating
Like Moz’s Domain Authority, Ahrefs uses a Domain Rating metric. Domain Rating is often the most prestigious link metric for hardcore SEO agencies.
Like Moz, Ahrefs offers a free DR checker tool so that any website manager can check their score without paying.
Trust Flow
Majestic uses a Trust Flow metric (TF) to determine a domain’s trust. You can measure TF with a Majestic subscription or use their Free Backlink Checker to get a quick score.
Trust Flows are typically lower than Domain Authority and may be harder to increase using basic link-building tactics.
Types of HVAC Backlinks
Sometimes, website managers lose sight of distinctions between link types. For example, nofollow links transfer less equity than those referred to as dofollow links.
In contrast, internal links transfer more intersite authority than any external backlink. Understanding the different types of links can help you fully optimize your HVAC website
NoFollow Links
Nofollow links come from directory sites like Yelp or social media profiles like Facebook. Any link a user can build manually is considered nofollow.
The tag indicates that search engines should pass less equity from the link since they likely manually built it. While Google does not hold these links in the highest regard, they count as hints for ranking purposes.
DoFollow Links
In contrast, dofollow links pass the most equity from one site to another. Dofollow links refer to links built with editorial control.
For example, a popular HVAC blogger doesn’t have to link to a specific HVAC website within their blog post but instead chooses websites based on their content quality and authority. The best links you can receive are dofollow links with relevant anchor text.
Internal Links
Internal links are links built within your HVAC website. For example, your blog post about the best air conditioners may link to your air conditioner installation page. You’ll notice that pages that topically relate to one another should also naturally link to one another.
Internal links should primarily focus on user experience and help them navigate your website. Anchor text is equally as important on internal links since search engines regularly crawl your pages.
Earning Quality HVAC Links
HVAC companies may ask, how do you earn quality backlinks? The answer comes in the form of strategies that generate white-hat links. Remember the difference between acquiring and earning links since there is a clear distinction.
Companies that earn links have a decided advantage over businesses that rely strictly on relationships or even black hat tactics to obtain their links.
Create Linkable Assets
The best way to earn links is to create content worth linking. When bloggers or reporters write content online, they like to cite authoritative content that supports their premise.
One way to achieve such authority is to rank on search engines for data-driven keywords. For example, ranking for a phrase like How much do HVAC services cost will get you lots of natural white-hat links.
Share Content on Social Media
One of the best ways to earn links is to share your content on social media. You never know who may see your article on Facebook or LinkedIn or who may share it on their own account.
While the chances of going viral with HVAC content remain thin, getting your content in front of the right eye is how you earn quality backlinks.
Establish Your HVAC Company Brand
External websites feel most comfortable linking to established brands for several reasons. First, they don’t have to worry about your credibility since they recognize your brand from afar. Second, they can trust that users who leave their website to yours will have a favorable user experience.
With so many websites published daily, bloggers and other online writers want the convenience of a trusted brand when creating links.
Backlink Monitoring for HVAC Websites
Although backlinks help websites rank, they can also have the opposite effect. We discussed how black-hat link-building tactics can ban your HVAC website from Google.
Similarly, malicious negative SEO attacks are designed to accomplish the same result. For this reason, many websites monitor their backlink profile so they can submit a disavow file if and when they get spam links from external domains.
Excessive Anchor Text
One thing to monitor is your link’s anchor text. If you start seeing dozens of instances of the same anchor text, your links might harm your website.
It’s important to note that weird links will sometimes pick up your title tag and use that as the anchor text. You don’t need to worry about disavowing in these cases since those links have no malicious intent.
Shady Domains
Look for links from shady gambling, medical, or drug industry domains. These kinds of links can cause immediate red flags and are often used by spammers in negative SEO attacks.
You can also check each site’s spam score using Moz’s MozBar Chrome Extension. Spam scores above 50 typically indicate a problem, although Google does not acknowledge Moz’s spam score internally.
Moving Forward With Link Building
Most SEO agencies will lure HVAC companies into buying links or creating “link bait” to attract backlinks from various websites. Based on my 14+ years working with HVAC companies, I advise them to focus on relevant, local partnerships, like the Chamber of Commerce or their nearby Little League baseball team.
These links, which I sometimes call “Community Links,” are the most powerful for small businesses. Google can use these types of backlinks to assess your authority within the context of your city and your industry.
While I wish I could give everything away for free, rest assured that my agency, HVAC Webmasters, has mastered the link earning process for heating and cooling professionals. If you want to discuss my services in detail, please contact me by filling out a form.
