Checklist: Write An HVAC Blog With Proper SEO

You know more than most people about heating, cooling and indoor air quality. Now, it’s time to make sure people can find it when you put it on your website. 

Use this checklist to ensure you’ve got your SEO basics covered. It will help your blog post be easier to read, and easy for Google to know when your article should be delivered as a search result. 

But, the checklist really begins before you start writing.

The first step is scheduling your articles out in a Content Calendar.

A website page doesn’t make the first page of Google right away. It can take one to three months to earn that kind of rank in search.

So, you want to plan your articles and videos well ahead of time. Publish seasonal articles a month or two before they’re relevant, so they have time to take hold.

What do you mean "take hold"?

Google measures the behavior of people when they visit your website. Google looks at the words somebody searched and the person's reaction to your website page.

If the person reads your whole article and clicks to the "Contact Us" page, Google takes that as a positive signal, earning your article higher rankings for those same kinds of searches.

You can post them on your social networks or send out an email during the time of the year when the subject matter is relevant. You might appeal to early birds on topics such as tune-ups or upgrading their air conditioner before the summer. 

Now that you have a schedule ready for the season, you can run down this list for each blog you create. 

SEO Checklist for HVAC Blogs

• Keywords
• Outline
• Title
• Meta Description
• Title and Header Tags
• Internal and External Links
• Calls to Action

Keywords Find the best phrase that describes your topic and is also the wording people most often use when they search for it. Learn more about how to find your keywords here. 

Outline Decide ahead of time what structure your blog will take. Break up the information into subsections, each with a title. 

This strategy does more than focus your thoughts. It also helps you optimize your content for searchability. 

We’ll use this again a little later.

Title This is your first and biggest chance to convince people to click. So, it has to be good — and less than 65 characters, so it fits on the search results page. Place your keyword at the beginning of the title. 

Meta Description Imagine your title as the headline in a magazine. The meta description is the summary beneath it, explaining the topic a little more and enticing you to read it. Make your meta description less than 155 characters and spell out precisely what people will learn when they click. 

Header tags Header tags are HTML markup. On the page, they look like subtitles to break up the text. But, in the page’s code, it’s structuring your content, so Google’s crawlers can understand it easily and index it correctly. These are important, so let’s drill down further. 

<title> tag This is your title, optimized for the search results page. When you use the “title” tag, that text shows up in the search results, but not on the actual page. 

• <h1> tags The content in your <h1> tag shows up as the headline on your page. Keep it at 75 characters. The <h1> can be the same as the title since you won’t see both, but you can also use those ten extra characters to add a little more to it. 
  
  
• <h2> tags Refer back to your outline and use the <h2> tags as subheads throughout the article. There should be one for each sub-section. Keep each of these sections under 300 words. 
  
  
• <h3> tags Consider these sub-sub sections. You can use them to break apart more information within an <h2> heading. If your subsection is very long, use <h3> tags to break them up. 

Lists Lists organize your content both for the reader and for Google. In terms of HTML, there are two types: “Ordered,” which are numbered lists, and “Unordered,” which are bullet points. 

• List tags Use HTML for your lists. Wrap the list with <ol> for ordered (numbered) lists, and <ul> for unordered lists. Then use <li> for each list item. 

Most blog platforms, including Hubspot and Wordpress, can add the HTML coding automatically. All you need to do is use the text editor to select various headings instead of paragraphs, or bullet or numbered lists. 

Keyword Placement When revising your first draft, make sure you place your keyword five times throughout the article. Include it in the <h1> and <h2> tags, and then again in the paragraph underneath it. 

Internal Links Link to five other related blog posts in your article. The older the post, the better. Try to keep the links close to the header tags. 

External Links Add two to five links to other sites related to your topic. Don’t link to manufacturers or sites with too many ads. Those may lead readers to a competitor. 

Calls to Action Add clear calls to action throughout the article. Use buttons to direct readers to downloads, other articles, or a form to contact you. 

Good luck getting started with your blogs! The more you write, the easier it gets. Meanwhile, if you have more questions or need some help putting it all together, contact us here at Comfort Media Group.