Sample Heating & Air

1. 01

   Move into the top 3 where you’re already close

   Start hereGoogle Maps · About 2 hours to set up, then 15 minutes a week+$2,200⁠–⁠$3,900a month

   1. You’re #4 to #10 at 17 of 49 spots, just outside the top 3 that get most of the calls.

      Steps

      1. In your Google Business Profile (search your business name on Google while signed in, then Edit profile → Business information → Business category), add the categories the top 3 use and you don’t: “HVAC contractor”, “Furnace repair service”.
      2. Under Services, list every job you do with a one-line description (for example: AC repair, AC installation, furnace repair, heat pump service, duct cleaning).
      3. Post one update a week with 2⁠–⁠3 photos from real jobs, and name the neighborhood in the text.
      4. Upload at least 10 new photos a month: finished jobs, your team and your vans.

      The aim

      Top 3 at more of the 17 spots where you’re close today. Re-check your grade after 30 days to see which moved.

      How we estimated it

      People searching Google, a month	≈ 2,400
      Extra visitors to your listing	≈ 53
      once you’re in the top 3 across 17% of your area, as 13% of searchers open a top-3 listing
      Extra calls	≈ 13
      25% of the extra visitors call
      Extra jobs	≈ 6
      42% of calls booked
      Extra income	+$2,200⁠–⁠$3,900 a month
      at $400⁠–⁠$700 a repair
      For comparison: buying them on Google Ads	≈ $1,790 a month
      at $33.80 a click

      Rounded. The exact math is under How we worked out the gain.

      How we estimated it

      People searching Google, a month	≈ 2,400
      Extra visitors to your listing	≈ 53
      once you’re in the top 3 across 17% of your area, as 13% of searchers open a top-3 listing
      Extra calls	≈ 13
      25% of the extra visitors call
      Extra jobs	≈ 6
      42% of calls booked
      Extra income	+$2,200⁠–⁠$3,900 a month
      at $400⁠–⁠$700 a repair
      For comparison: buying them on Google Ads	≈ $1,790 a month
      at $33.80 a click

      Rounded. The exact math is under How we worked out the gain.

2. 02

   Get found where customers can’t see you today

   Google Maps · About 1 hour per town page+$1,700⁠–⁠$3,000a month

   1. You’re outside the top 10, where few people look, from about 4 to 6 miles out in most directions, worst to the northeast and southeast.

      Steps

      1. Add a page to your website for each town you serve in those directions: the jobs you’ve done there, photos, and your phone number.
      2. In WordPress, add each town page under Pages → Add New Page. In the Rank Math panel on the page, click Edit Snippet and put the service and the town in the title, like “AC repair in (town)”.
      3. Link each town page from a Business Profile post (Add update, then add a Learn more button with the page’s address).
      4. Ask your next 5 customers in each town to mention the town in their review.
      5. List the same towns in your Business Profile’s service area (Edit profile → Business information → Location → Service area). It doesn’t move rankings by itself, but it tells customers you cover them.

      The aim

      Start showing up for customers more than 4 miles from your shop, where competitors get those calls today. This builds over 2 to 3 months as the pages and reviews add up.

      How we estimated it

      People searching Google, a month	≈ 2,400
      Extra visitors to your listing	≈ 41
      once you’re in the top 3 across 13% of your area, as 13% of searchers open a top-3 listing
      Extra calls	≈ 10
      25% of the extra visitors call
      Extra jobs	≈ 4
      42% of calls booked
      Extra income	+$1,700⁠–⁠$3,000 a month
      at $400⁠–⁠$700 a repair
      For comparison: buying them on Google Ads	≈ $1,390 a month
      at $33.80 a click

      Rounded. The exact math is under How we worked out the gain.

      How we estimated it

      People searching Google, a month	≈ 2,400
      Extra visitors to your listing	≈ 41
      once you’re in the top 3 across 13% of your area, as 13% of searchers open a top-3 listing
      Extra calls	≈ 10
      25% of the extra visitors call
      Extra jobs	≈ 4
      42% of calls booked
      Extra income	+$1,700⁠–⁠$3,000 a month
      at $400⁠–⁠$700 a repair
      For comparison: buying them on Google Ads	≈ $1,390 a month
      at $33.80 a click

      Rounded. The exact math is under How we worked out the gain.

3. 03

   Answer the 2-star review from Sep 9, then the rest

   Reviews · About 15 minutes

   1. 21 of your 30 most recent reviews have no reply. The newest: Sep 9 (2★), Aug 28 (5★), Aug 14 (5★), Jul 30 (4★), Jul 11 (5★).

      Here’s the reply to your Sep 9 review, ready to paste.

      “Thank you for telling us, and we're sorry the visit fell short of what you should expect from us. We've gone over what happened with the technician who came out. If you'll give us a chance to put it right, please call the office and ask for the owner.”

      Copy

      The Care plan sends you one of these within hours of every new review, ready to paste. $29.99 a month.

      Steps

      1. Reply to the 2-star review first: thank them, say what you’ve done about it, and give a direct number to call. Three sentences at most.
      2. Then work through the rest, newest first.
      3. From now on, reply within 48 hours. Turn on review notifications in the Google Business Profile app.

      The aim

      Reply rate from 30% to 100% of your recent reviews. People reading them see an owner who answers.

4. 04

   Win the customers Northside Cooling Co. lets down

   Reviews · About 20 minutes

   1. Their recent low-star reviews keep mentioning “surprise charges”.

      Steps

      1. If you do better, say so plainly on your Business Profile and homepage, for example “Upfront flat-rate price before we start”.
      2. Ask happy customers to mention it in their reviews.

      The aim

      A concrete reason to choose you when someone compares you with Northside Cooling Co.

5. 05

   Close the gap of 103 reviews with the top 3

   Reviews · About 1 hour to set up, then a minute per job

   1. The top 3 have about 187 reviews; you have 84 and get about 1.5 a month.

      Steps

      1. Text every customer your review link the day the job is done:https://search.google.com/local/writereview?placeid=ChIJsampleHeatingAir01 (opens in a new tab)Copy link
      2. Put the same link on your invoices, receipts and email signature.
      3. Aim for 9 new reviews a month (about 2 a week), and have the technician ask in person at the end of each job.

      The aim

      At 9 a month you’d reach about 187 reviews in about 12 months. Review count and recency rank among the top map factors in Whitespark’s Local Search Ranking Factors survey.

6. 06

   Let customers book online, even after hours

   Website · About 1 hour

   1. We found no way to book or request a visit online on your site.

      Steps

      1. Add a “Book online” button at the top of your homepage, visible on phones without scrolling.
      2. Use the booking tool you already have (Housecall Pro, Jobber, ServiceTitan) or a simple request form that texts you.
      3. Add the same booking link to your Business Profile (Edit profile → Bookings).

      The aim

      People who search at night or on weekends can book you instead of calling the next company in the morning.

7. 07

   Make your homepage load faster on phones

   Website · About 2 hours, or a quick job for your web person

   1. Your homepage downloads 3.6 MB; the audit recommends 3 MB or less. It takes 4.8 seconds to load on a phone.

      Steps

      1. Install an image optimizer: in WordPress, go to Plugins → Add New Plugin, search for Imagify or ShortPixel, install and activate one, then run its bulk optimization with WebP turned on.
      2. Turn on lazy loading, so images further down load only when someone scrolls to them (your theme or image plugin has the setting).
      3. Remove plugins you don’t use: Plugins → Installed Plugins, then Deactivate and Delete each one. Every active plugin can add scripts to your pages.
      4. Check the result at pagespeed.web.dev (opens in a new tab).

      The aim

      Your page appears sooner on a phone signal, so fewer people give up before they call. Google found that when a phone page takes 5 seconds instead of 1, visitors are 90% more likely to leave.

      Source: Think with Google, “Mobile page speed benchmarks” (opens in a new tab)

8. 08

   Make your phone and address match everywhere

   Listings · About 15 minutes

   1. Yelp shows (512) 555-0187, where Google has (512) 555-0142. Google’s is what most customers see first; if Google’s is the old one, change it there instead.

      Steps

      1. On Yelp (yelp.com/biz/sample-heating-and-air-austin (opens in a new tab)): sign in at biz.yelp.com (opens in a new tab) (free) and, in your business information, set the phone to (512) 555-0142, as on Google. If (512) 555-0187 is a number Yelp gave you to track calls, leave it.
      2. Bing Places (bingplaces.com (opens in a new tab)) can copy your Google profile for free, so Bing and the apps that use it show the same details.
      3. This is free: nobody needs to be paid to fix a listing.

      The aim

      Customers see the same phone and address on Yelp as on Google

Also worth a look

1. Stop others from sending email as @sampleheatingair.example

   Website · About 20 minutes now, and 5 minutes in 2 to 4 weeks

   1. The DMARC record for sampleheatingair.example is “v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:dmarc@sampleheatingair.example”: “p=none” only monitors, so email that fakes your address still gets delivered. An email security check graded the domain C (68 out of 100).

      Steps

      1. First make sure everything that sends email as @sampleheatingair.example is set up to pass: Google Workspace, which your SPF record lists, and any invoicing, booking or newsletter tool (in its settings this is usually called “authenticate your domain”). The DMARC reports going to dmarc@sampleheatingair.example list any sender that fails.
      2. Your website runs through Cloudflare, so your DNS is most likely there: in the Cloudflare dashboard (dash.cloudflare.com (opens in a new tab)), open sampleheatingair.example → DNS → Records, find the TXT record named “_dmarc”, click Edit, and replace its content with “v=DMARC1; p=quarantine; rua=mailto:dmarc@sampleheatingair.example”. If sampleheatingair.example isn’t in your Cloudflare account, make the same change wherever its DNS is managed.
      3. After 2 to 4 weeks, if none of your real email has gone to spam, change p=quarantine to p=reject the same way.
      4. Check the result for sampleheatingair.example with MXToolbox’s free DMARC and SPF lookups (mxtoolbox.com (opens in a new tab)).

      The aim

      Mail servers turn away email that fakes your address, so no one can send your customers a fake invoice or payment request in your name, and your real email is more likely to reach the inbox. There’s no dollar figure on this one: it protects your name and your email, it doesn’t bring in new calls by itself.

2. Get onto the pages AI search recommends from

   AI search · About 2 hours

   1. AI search named you for 1 of 10 buyer questions. It named Northside Cooling Co. for 6 of 10. It cited expertise.com, bestpickreports.com, consumeraffairs.com.

      Steps

      1. Get onto expertise.com’s “Best AC Repair Services in Austin (opens in a new tab)”: open the page, find its link for businesses (often “Get listed” or “For businesses”), and apply. Have your license number and review count ready.
      2. Get onto bestpickreports.com’s “Best Air Conditioning & Heating Companies in Austin (opens in a new tab)”: open the page, find its link for businesses (often “Get listed” or “For businesses”), and apply. Have your license number and review count ready.
      3. Get onto consumeraffairs.com’s “Best HVAC Companies in Austin (opens in a new tab)”: open the page, find its link for businesses (often “Get listed” or “For businesses”), and apply. Have your license number and review count ready.
      4. Add an FAQ page that answers what buyers ask: prices, service area around Austin, emergency hours and warranties.
      5. In WordPress, build the FAQ page with the “FAQ by Rank Math” block, which marks the questions up for search engines too.
      6. Keep your name, address and phone identical on every directory.

      The aim

      Be one of the businesses AI assistants find and name when customers ask for a recommendation.

We only estimate the map fixes, where we can show the math.