The Bulletin Trade guides

No. 009

What an HVAC website should include

HVAC gets two very different visitors: someone whose system just quit and someone planning a replacement. The site has to work for both, in every season.

An HVAC website has to serve two very different visitors. One has a system that just quit and wants a phone number now. The other is planning a replacement and wants proof and prices. Design for both, and adjust for the season.

Two visitors, two needs

The emergency visitor searches "AC not working" or "no heat" and calls the first business that looks real. What they need: a tappable phone number in the header, your hours, and a plain statement of whether you take after-hours calls. Only promise a response time you can keep.

The planner is weighing a repair against a replacement, or looking for a maintenance plan. What they need: detail, financing options, and reasons to trust you with a large purchase.

The pages that do the work

Trust signals that matter here

Follow the season

Demand swings. Lead the homepage with cooling in summer and heating in winter, and keep both easy to reach all year. A simple banner is enough, and it's easy to change.

Mark it up

Use the HVACBusiness type in your schema, with your name, address, phone, hours and service area. See schema markup for small business for what that does.

What a maintenance plan page should say

Customers can't buy a plan they don't understand. A good plan page states, in plain words:

  1. How many visits a year are included
  2. What each visit covers, as a specific checklist
  3. Any priority scheduling or discount on repairs
  4. The price, and whether it's monthly or yearly
  5. How to cancel

Keep it to one page and one clear button. Most of this can be a simple table.

The "repair or replace?" page

This may be the most useful page you can publish, because it matches a real decision people are making. Cover the factors that matter:

End with an offer to inspect and give an honest recommendation. Homeowners are more likely to call a business that tells them when repair is enough.

A homepage for each season

In summer, the first screen leads with cooling: "AC not working? Same-day service." In winter it leads with heating. In the shoulder seasons, lead with maintenance plans and tune-ups. Keep both services linked in the navigation all year, and change the headline and button only.

Mistakes to avoid

Your reviews are your homepage

HVAC customers lean on reviews heavily. In a September 2024 survey of 400 homeowners by Clear Seas Research for ACHR News, 91% said online reviews were important when choosing an HVAC contractor, 56% look for them on Google and 51% check the contractor's own website. Yet contractors with 1 to 10 employees were the least likely to show reviews on their sites. Put your Google rating and review count near the top, add a few full reviews with the type of job (repair, replacement, maintenance), and answer them.

Questions

Should I put prices on an HVAC website?

Where you can, give ranges or "starting at" figures, and explain what affects the price. Maintenance plans in particular should have a listed price.

Do I need a page for each brand I install?

Only for brands you're authorized to install and can say something specific about. A page for every brand with copied text does more harm than good.

Should I show an emergency phone line separately?

If you take after-hours calls, yes. Put it in the header and on the contact page, and label the hours clearly.

Do I need pages for indoor air quality and ductwork?

Only if they're real parts of your business. If they are, they deserve their own pages, because customers search for them separately.

Sources

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