HOW WADDLE’S INC CAN GET
30% MORE INSTALLS
AND 30% LESS SERVICE CALLS
My name is Matthew Rupp.
My team and I work exclusively with HVAC companies and have a proven way for them to get 30% more new installs (and 30% fewer service calls) which means less payroll, less hassle, less work, low expenses for MORE money.
This report will give you an idea of how we could help you see the same results.
I am going to touch on a wide variety of areas in this case study, including:
- Your website
- Trust signals
- Google profile
- Site Speed
- Content
- Backlinks
- Online Directories
- Popular search terms
- Technical factors
- Social Media
- Optimized pages
- Competition
Some will be VERY impactful while others are minor, but all are geared toward building trust not just with Google but also with your potential customers and making your PHONE RING!
I will try my best to make it easy to understand, but I know some of this can sound like Chinese. If you have any questions or would like clarification, feel free to call me on my mobile is 316-312-8181 or email me at office@HVACMarketingSuccess.com.
Let's have a chat! You can call (or text) me on my mobile at 316-312-8181.
#1 – WEBSITE
Your homepage is the virtual storefront for your business. What visitors see first thing on your site sets the tone for whether they see enough reason to trust you to work on their home.
But your website needs some fixes – most of which are very easy – to really capitalize on all who visit it.
While your site is visually pleasing, it’s guilty of something way too many HVAC companies do – use stock photos. You are a local Salina company that’s been doing business for nearly 50 years! People want to see the actual people coming to their homes.
You need to show off your great reviews on your homepage.
Having a 4.7 star average on Google, which is pretty good! Showcasing this excellent rating average ON YOUR HOMEPAGE is a huge opportunity you’re missing out on.
Here is an example from one of our clients to make their great review one of the first things visitors see:
The navigation on your website is a big issue.
If you step back and look at it from Google's perspective, none of these words really ‘mean’ ANYTHING to Google. All these words in the main navigation could apply to a plumber, roofing company, or electrician.
And no, it doesn’t matter that there are drop-down selections that detail all your services. Google takes a primary look at your main navigation to know what sort of company you are.
When it comes to Google, TRUST is the name of the game. If Google thinks you are a generalist and ‘kind of’ good at a LOT of things, you won’t get a fraction of the clicks and calls you deserve vs. if it is CLEAR that you are very good at a handful of your most important services.
I threw this together to give you an idea of what navigation would look like on a STRONG HVAC website!
Google would have ZERO confusion about what this company does!
Missed opportunities with the bottom of your homepage:
You are missing some important (even essential) items in your footer and just above it. It should include an embedded Google map and some calls to action. Plus, your Yelp link shows people that your 5-star review came from just one person.
This bottom section should have something warm and inviting.
Here is an example of what we did on the bottom of a homepage (below the Google map) with one of our HVAC clients – Hanna Heating and Air Conditioning. It is inviting with the message and the image of their friendly front desk staff.
Let's have a chat! You can call (or text) me on my mobile at 316-312-8181.
#2 – TELL YOUR STORY
Waddles Heating & Cooling has the history, the people, the stories. You have achieved more than most HVAC companies there in Salina ever will. We just need to let people see who you are by telling that story.
You have a great start to telling your story, mentioning who opened it and when. But beyond that first paragraph, there is not much heart on this page. And the worst part, there are no photos.
The About page is almost always the MOST viewed page for every service business we work with.
Your About page should tell your story, shows off your team, puts a “face” on your business, and most of all, it helps to build trust. While yours has many of the necessary elements, it’s missing some “heart.”
Here is an excellent example from Drabek & Hill in Oklahoma City. They have been in business for 60 years. I love this image they show on their website.
I see that you collected a truckload of cans for the Kansas Honor Flight!
What an amazing and generous accomplishment. I am sure that any Salina resident visiting your site would be impressed and feel that you were a company that could be trusted with their business!
You should absolutely have this story told on your website.
You should also show off any local organizations you help, including Relay for Life, Project Salina, etc.
You’re doing good things in the community – that makes an impact on potential customers!
Having About pages that tell our clients story and captures the ‘heart’ behind their business is an area where we shine!
Here are a few examples of this work that we have done for a couple of our HVAC clients.
Let's have a chat! You can call (or text) me on my mobile at 316-312-8181.
#3 – TRUST SIGNALS
It’s hard to overstate the importance of building trust when it comes to your website. That’s essentially the whole point. Without trust, they don’t pick up the phone and call you.
There are “trust signals” that every website for a local service business should be taking advantage of.
Of course, any industry associations, safety, compliance, service organizations that you can be a part of (cheaply) are worth their weight in gold when it comes to trust, especially if they provide you with a badge to show off on your site!
The only trust signals on your site are the “Since 1973” graphic and the Family Owned & Operated image.
In addition to adding your great review rating (as mentioned earlier), you should also include such things as:
- Your BBB A+ rating
- Testimonials
- Images of your team and branded vehicles
- The Salina Chamber of Commerce logo to show membership
Let's have a chat! You can call (or text) me on my mobile at 316-312-8181.
#4 – GOOGLE MY BUSINESS
It is hard to overstate the importance of your Google My Business profile. This is your chance to tell Google who you are, where you are, what you do, and why you deserve to be #1 for thousands of search terms!
Google is constantly adding more features and options to this platform. This makes sense (for them) because the more they can keep visitors on THEIR site and not on individual websites, the more they ‘win.’
It is incredible how much you can find out about local businesses without ever clicking to their website!
- Wait times
- Photos
- video
- Products and services
- Specials / promotions
- Service areas
- Business category
- Recent posts
- Specials
- Hours
- Holiday hours
- Busy times of day
- Phone number
- Click to driving directions
- Reviews
- COVID updates
- Video Text messaging
Some high impact items to address with Waddle’s Google My Business profile:
- You need to add photos – a lot of photos. You should have pictures of your shop, your team, workers on the job, staff in the office, technicians wearing booties, etc. Essentially, you need to treat your Google business page almost like a social media page. (Our average HVAC client has close to 100 photos on their Google profile).
- Add a business description. You need to write a long paragraph about who you are, what you do, and use good keywords for HVAC.
- Set up a chat / text feature so customers can message you right from Google.
- Add a GET A QUOTE box
- You are also missing out on the FREE and easy way to help you rank better! Google My Business allows you to make regular posts to promote your services, get people to your website, and give customers a reason to call you today!
Most of our clients were also not taking advantage of all the great opportunities you can do with Google My Business. So we get to create some HUGE results for them!
Take a look at this client that signed on with us one year ago. This shows the year-to-year comparison of how much their growth on Google increased once we started handling their online marketing needs.
Their website traffic is TEN TIMES more than last year, too.
Let's have a chat! You can call (or text) me on my mobile at 316-312-8181.
#5 – WEBSITE CONTENT
Google doesn’t rank websites. They rank website PAGES.
While Waddle’s is right on track with having individual pages focusing on each specific service, they are insufficient. They do not contain enough words (especially the words and phrases people search on Google) and hardly any images.
The better you ‘help’ Google understand who Waddle is - what you do, why you are the best possible choice - the better you will rank for more search terms. Having generic text and no connection to the city or your team is making it VERY hard for Google to return your site as the best possible choice.
I noticed your contact page is essentially empty. This is another big opportunity to show some personality, build trust, show a connection to your city or a good cause. Family photos, your showroom. The last thing you want is to get them this far and then leave at the last couple seconds!
If you aren’t getting dozens of leads from your website then you are losing money!
There is no bigger opportunity to edge out the competition than content.
Excellent content isn’t just for your visitors. It is essential for Google rankings. Great content will tell Google that you have what customers are looking for, and that will cause you to rise to the top.
We dove into your site’s content. While you have individual service pages for each of your services, those pages have some big problems.
Using a software program to analyze how Google sees a particular page, we looked at how well your AC Installation page rates for people searching for “air conditioning installation.”
Your content – on this page and others across your site – has significant problems keeping your website from ranking well in Google searches.
Simply put, the writing is not very easy to read, and there is not enough content, especially content with important keywords and phrases related to this service.
Beyond improving your service page, your website should have fresh content regularly posted to your site.
What makes great content?
It’s the questions you hear every day as an HVAC technician.
Ask anyone who answers the phones every day and schedules the service calls what they hear from customers. That’s great content that will drive results and make your phone ring! ANSWER those questions in a helpful way and put THAT on your website.
Having RECENT content on your site that is RELATED to what Waddle’s does for its customers is super important.
We add fresh content EVERY MONTH to all our HVAC client’s websites!
Below are some year-to-year comparisons of a couple of our newer clients.
Last February, they saw 4 or 5 times more website sessions and clicks! We can show you more examples of how content directly drives new website visitors and phone calls!
The more PAGES of quality, relevant content we add to your site, the more search terms you will rank for!
#6 – CALL TO ACTION
I am sure you have heard the line, “You can’t manage what you can’t measure.”
One of the biggest items missing from your website, social media, and online presence is a Call to Action.
A Call to Action is something of significant value you can give, tell, or show your ideal clients that is GOOD ENOUGH for them to exchange their email address for it or to actually pick up the phone to call you.
One of the BEST parts about having (a couple) great Call to Action items on your website is it allows you to see what is working and what isn’t. Sure, you get traffic from Facebook (for example), but are any of them clicking on the contact page, filling out a form, or picking up the phone?
An effective call to action allows us to see that PLUS can foster that ‘lead’ and potentially turn them into a customer!
Some examples you might like:
Is there anything “lighter” they might be willing to do besides pick up the heavy phone to call you? I am amazed at how seldomly I see chat boxes on service websites in this texting age.
Having a text chat makes 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.
I can speak from experience. This is the one on my site
Just recently, I received a chat on my phone from my website.
Let's have a chat! You can call (or text) me on my mobile at 316-312-8181.
#7 – REVIEWS
Reviews are a critical factor and are only becoming more and more important to your potential customers! There is no excuse for being apathetic about collecting reviews anymore. It’s important.
Having a 4.7 star average on Google is pretty good! But it would be much more impressive if you had that high rating with more than 38 reviews. Compared to Callabresi, with an average of 4.8 stars among 59 reviews, which do you think customers would choose?
You are easily within reach of surpassing Callabresi and other local companies in reviews.
On other review sites, you average 5 stars!
But that’s only among 3 total reviews.
You should be responding to all the reviews you receive, both good and bad.
This is very important as it shows Google you are ‘active and engaged with a potent (and free) tool that drives a LOT of your business from the web! Plus, a simple ‘thank you’ can go a long way when somebody leaves a review!
I was surprised that there were NOT reviews for Waddle’s on many of the popular sites we typically see, including Local.com, Citysearch, BBB, and DexKnows.
We would love to show you how to start getting a LOT more reviews!
We have found several different ways to go about it. We’ve been able to double the number of reviews our clients have received (sometimes within a few months) as well as raise their average rating.
One of our best examples is a client of ours in Texas. They started with us just a year ago, having only 32 reviews. Now they have 151 reviews with a 4.9 average rating! We not only got their average star rating up, but they now have five times as many reviews.
Let's have a chat! You can call (or text) me on my mobile at 316-312-8181.
#8 – VIDEO
People watch videos all the time online. Having at least one video on your website is incredibly powerful.
- Videos tell your story and build trust
- Videos keep visitors on your site longer
- Videos turn random visitors into PHONE CALLS!
I can’t find videos on any of your competitors’ websites. That is a wonderful opportunity for you to stand out with a high-quality video that helps visitors see why you are the company to trust and hire.
We make videos for our clients. This doesn’t require an additional budget, a film crew, or even taking up hours and hours of a client’s time with a video shoot. We make effective, compelling videos for our clients, often with just a handful of great photos.
For example, we made a video highlighting a client’s generous donation of a new furnace to a local vet in need. For another client, it was a year in review video of all the work they accomplished.
And we can make more in-depth, high-graphic videos to help highlight the company and its services.
Let's have a chat! You can call (or text) me on my mobile at 316-312-8181.
#9 – LONG TAIL OF SEARCH
The long tail of search is very simple and applies to every industry.
What is long tail of search?
In a nutshell, it is ranking for the longer search phrases that are commonly searched for AND are most certainly being ignored by the competition.
The term “hvac” or “air conditioning” likely gets searched thousands of times a month in northcentral Kansas, but this is actually the OPPOSITE of a long tail search. These short search terms are very general and get a LOT of searches.
The trouble is this search term shows zero intent and not where most people will start their search on Google. Most people will start their search with trying to solve THEIR problem, “My furnace is clicking”, “my AC is frozen up”, “my furnace is blowing cool air” – this is where we want to find them – while they are still trying to solve their problem!
Ranking for high-volume keywords like ‘hvac’ is difficult, costs a lot of money, time and expertise. Plus, you are competing with tons of paid ads, directories, and competitors with deep pockets.
Not to mention you are competing with Houzz, Yelp, Yellow Pages, Angie’s List, Yahoo Local, Expertise.com, local directories, three best-rated, Porch.com, Thumbtack – all trying to rank for that search term ‘HVAC companies’ there in Salina.
So, where is the big opportunity? The answer is in the image below.
70% OF ALL SEARCHES ARE IN LONG TAIL KEYWORDS.
When you think about your ideal customers - the challenges they are running into and the questions they commonly have - therein lies the opportunity.
To be honest, few people get that the key to succeeding online doesn’t lie in being #1 for ‘HVAC’ or ‘heating and air.’ These terms have massive search volumes, but it’s foolish to try and rank for them.
The real money is in ranking for search terms like
- Why is my AC blowing hot air?
- Furnace not igniting
- AC making weird sounds
- Why is one room is too hot?
When you think about your ideal customers - the challenges they are running into and the questions they commonly have - therein lies the opportunity.
I bet you would like about 50 more calls a day from folks who search for things like this?
THESE are potential customers with a problem (right now) they are trying to figure out how to solve.
I could show you a couple THOUSAND more search terms just like these!
There is a lot less search volume, they are easier to rank for and they are from actual customers with a problem you can solve!
Let's have a chat! You can call (or text) me on my mobile at 316-312-8181.
#10 – SITE SPEED
I used two different tools to grade the speed of your website. For many years this has been a crucial ranking factor to Google.
The first one was this site - https://tools.pingdom.com/
The 2nd one is provided by Google - https://developers.google.com/
This 66 (out of 100) score is for your speed on mobile devices. Considering that most online searches happen on a mobile device, you want to make sure your site is fast on both desktops AND mobile.
Let's have a chat! You can call (or text) me on my mobile at 316-312-8181.
#11 – NAME, ADDRESS, PHONE
An important factor in building trust with Google is a consistent name, address, and phone number for your business across different platforms (your website, social media profiles, directories, and associations related to your industry and general business directories).
The more consistency there is, the easier it is for Google to trust you are who you say.
With some clients, this is a BIG issue just because of how companies often grow. They might start in the owner’s home and then move to a small shop, and some years later maybe a bigger shop. You throw in a partner change, a name change, or more than two moves (not to mention a variety of employees or agencies ‘helping’), and you can end up with quite a mess.
We did some research and found a handful of issues for Waddle’s Heating & Cooling:
The biggest issue for Waddle’s is an inconsistency with how your company name is displayed.
Believe it or not, that is a problem for Google.
Google does not know that this is a minor issue. It only sees that there is no consensus on various trusted websites that your name is what you say it is. That can be enough for Google to decide that Waddle’s is not the best search result for anything your potential customers are searching for.
One of our tools shows the citations of the top 5 ranking HVAC companies in Salina. This gives you a powerful look into what is helping your competitors rank as well as they are!
If you would like to see this report, give us a shout, and I will be happy to send it over.
Let's have a chat! You can call (or text) me on my mobile at 316-312-8181.
#12 – OPTIMIZED PAGES
An ‘optimized’ website page simply means it is CLEAR what the page is trying to rank on Google for.
If there is very little text on a page, it’s hard for Google to know what that page is about. Likewise, if there are images with no descriptions, Google doesn’t know what those images are! If the explanation for that page is ‘Waddles and Salina’ that doesn’t help them understand that page is about AC repair!
This is an example of a well-optimized website page (one of our HVAC clients)
https://www.hannainc.com/air-conditioning-installation/
We will touch on just 4-5 areas real quick to try and explain:
Page title (this is what shows up in the little tab on your web browser)
“Air Conditioning Installation | Wichita, KS” (PERFECT)
URL (website address): air-conditioning-installation (CRYSTAL CLEAR WHAT THE PAGE IS ABOUT)
Page description: Hanna Heating & Air Conditioning. Fast, reliable heating and air service for Wichita families since 1983. 24/7 Emergency Service. (EXCELLENT)
There are links to driving directions (which helps Google know where Hanna is located), FAQ, and recent posts.
It’s rare to find website pages for local HVAC companies that are optimized very well. This is a HUGE opportunity just waiting to be capitalized on and a cheap, easy fix! Remember, when it comes to Google, the name of the game is TRUST, and you only have to be better than the other guy!
Here's a breakdown of the issues of your website:
Your site has several technical errors and warning to address. Fortunately, the worst of these could be literally fixed in a matter of minutes.
Let's have a chat! You can call (or text) me on my mobile at 316-312-8181.
#13 – BACKLINKS
One of the most important and powerful ranking factors when it comes to Google is something called ‘backlinks.’
A backlink is anything you can click on website A and be taken to website B.
For example, if I click the Facebook icon at the bottom of the ACCA website, it will take me to Facebook. This is an example of Facebook having a ‘backlink’ from the ACCA website.
To Google, how many and how strong backlinks are pointing to a website is a massive indication of trust.
Waddle’s is just about par for the course with backlinks. You have 102 backlinks coming from 38 different domains, which is about the average among your competitors.
Let's have a chat! You can call (or text) me on my mobile at 316-312-8181.
#14 – SOCIAL MEDIA
It appears Waddle’s was doing quite a few things right with Facebook but then stopped posting more than a year ago. Your most recent post is a letter from the owner regarding the COVID outbreak from March 2020.
Before that, Waddle’s had great posts, especially those related to your community involvement!
Keeping up with social media is not a huge priority for many HVAC companies. This is understandable. They simply don’t have the time to post good content regularly. But it’s a big missed opportunity.
You need to be posting on Facebook regularly and with posts that are interesting to your customers.
The more personality you bring to most of your posts on social media, the more visibility and traction you will get when you occasionally share a special or sale! This literally can be the difference of hundreds and hundreds of people seeing your post about an upcoming special or 5 or 6 people!
You do have a branding issue. Not only is the Facebook cover image not local to your company, but your profile image is also of a different logo than your yellow duck logo on your site.
Waddle’s Twitter account also uses different images and has been neglected since 2018.
With a very talented graphic designer as part of the team, we are constantly surprising and delighting our clients with fantastic images and design work, all geared to making them look great!
Social media is more than Facebook. While there are a lot of new social sites that are just simply not worth the time for an HVAC company to be on, there is one that is HUGE for service businesses just like yours.
NEXTDOOR.
The site is filled with neighbors talking to neighbors about barking dogs, strange people walking around, but most importantly, local businesses they recommend!
Over the past year, we’ve expanded our HVAC clients’ presence on Nextdoor.
Waddle’s already has a local advantage here.
Did you know the company was recommended by someone in Salina just last month on Nextdoor?
Let's have a chat! You can call (or text) me on my mobile at 316-312-8181.
#15 – MULTIPLE SERVICE AREAS
You want to rank well for more cities than just Salina. That is important to do. However, what you have on your website is not doing it.
What you have on pages all across your website may actually be causing you to rank worse in those towns. It appears you are trying to fit different towns into your title tags. This is a big red flag for Google.
Cramming a whole bunch of town names in title tags and into pages was a tactic used years by websites wanting to rank in lots of towns, but then Google put a stop to that.
Your ability to rank well on Google is likely being hurt by doing this very thing.
We work with various HVAC companies. Some have multiple shop/office locations. Many others have one location but provide service to all surrounding towns, just like Waddle’s does.
There is a right way (and a wrong way) to have your website be optimized for people in specific towns and communities.
Let's have a chat! You can call (or text) me on my mobile at 316-312-8181.
#16 – COMPETITION
Who is the one company that drives you crazy?
The one that you always see at the top of Google or who you feel like you’re losing business to. I will take a look and tell you exactly WHAT is helping them rank so well!
My email address is office@HVACMarketingSuccess.com.
Hi, I’m Matthew Rupp.
If you would like ALL of these items (and a great deal more) addressed by a team of smart people who genuinely CARE about our clients, who constantly seek out new ways to look out for our clients to grow and treat them like family (the ones we really like), then give us a shout at 316-312-8181 and let’s have a chat.
No salespeople, no pressure, no obligation.
I am so confident my team and I can help you that I am willing to provide the names and phone numbers of some of the HVAC clients we are serving today!
JOHN – Standard Plumbing, Heating, Air Conditioning – (785) 776-5012
CORY & LUKE – Fenix Heating & Cooling – (316) 945-4842
CODY & TREVOR – Hanna Heating & Air – (316) 945-3481
MARC – DALCO Heating & Air Conditioning – (303) 979-7541
THOMAS – Tiger Heating & Air – (361) 852-4450
“Matthew and his team are very knowledgeable and have provided excellent customer service. They have managed to an agreed upon timeline and have been accommodating to our busy business environment. If the short time we have been working with Matthew is an indicator, the engagement will be very successful.”
Mike Corwin – R-Mech Heating, Cooling & Plumbing
“Since we have been working with Matthew and his team, our new website is functioning much better and our website traffic has really taken off. Matthew is full of new ideas!
We are ranking higher on Google, thanks to his guidance.”
Pam Hanna – Hanna Heating & Air Conditioning Inc.
“We first met Matthew Rupp after he created a huge case study analyzing all the HVAC companies in Wichita. It was very eye opening for somebody to translate digital marketing into something our team could understand. It was great to how we compared and to start working with a clear set of priorities we felt confident would move us forward.
The team at Matthew Rupp Consulting has been invaluable to work with. They are creative, responsive, and focused on driving our bottom line!“
Cody Hanna - Hanna Heating & Air Conditioning Inc.
“Matthew and his team genuinely care about the success of Jon Wayne Heating & Air. They are creative, take initiative and are constantly pushing the envelope. They don’t just talk a good game, they put the time in, take photos, create the content, do graphic design, social media you name it.“
Stephen Jabro - Jon Wayne Heating & Air
“Matthew and his team aren’t your typical, cookie-cutter marketing firm. They are authentic, responsive, creative, and genuinely care about our success. We have seen a significant impact on our bottom line working with Matthew and his team.”
Luke Parthemer - Fenix Heating & Cooling
“I thoroughly enjoy working with Matthew and his team. Anything I ask of them gets done immediately. They always provide excellent feedback on how our money is being well spent.
It has definitely increased our business by teaming up with Rupp Consulting.
A+ on everything!”
John Shortsleeves – Standard Plumbing, Heating, Air Conditioning
Which Company Can We Help Grow?
How will your competitors react to their custom case study to grow sales with the internet?
I will work with the first Salina HVAC company to contact me. If you want to learn more about how I can help you grow your online leads AND sales, call me.
(316) 312-8181
We are committed to working with only 1 HVAC company that serves the Salina area. We are looking for a local leader committed to quality and understands (and desperately wants) to win on Google.
We are so sure of our ability to help grow your company with our work we promise a money-back guarantee.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Matthew
(316) 312-8181