You’re an HVAC technician and one of the best in the city. Then why aren’t you snagging as many customers as you should? It may have nothing to do with your service or prices but your website.
Page Authority in SEO is an often overlooked but incredibly important metric for HVAC contractors. In this guide from a leading HVAC SEO services company, you’ll learn what Page Authority is, why it’s important, and how to improve Page Authority for your HVAC website.
What Is Page Authority in SEO, and How Is Page Authority Scored?
Search engines like Google need some kind of metric to “know” whether to show a specific page to users. To determine whether a page is a good fit, Google peeks at content quality, the backlink profile, and optimization, all of which are ranking factors in your Page Authority (PA) score.
Page Authority is a metric developed by the popular SEO analytics company Moz that ranks an individual page on a scale of zero to 100, with 100 being the best. A good Page Authority score ranges from 50 to 70, while a score of 30 or lower indicates that a page needs help.
The higher your Page Authority score is, the more likely a single web page will rank well in the search engine results. That means more website traffic, more customers for your HVAC business, and more cash in your pocket.
Page Authority vs. Domain Authority: How Do They Differ?
Many HVAC service providers get the terms “Page Authority” and “Domain Authority” mixed up, but they’re not quite the same. While Page Authority measures the quality and likelihood of a page ranking well, Domain Authority measures the quality of your entire domain. In short, Domain Authority focuses on the overall quality of your entire website, whereas Page Authority metrics are more granular.
It’s possible to have both a sky-high Domain Authority score and lower scores for other pages. Pay attention to both of these if you’re aiming to perform better in the organic search results.
How Can You Check Your Page Authority Score?
You’ll find plenty of free Page Authority checkers out there that’ll tell you whether you have a good Page Authority score in seconds. One of the best of these is the Link Explorer from Moz, the creator of the Page Authority metric.
To use the Link Explorer tool, simply create an account, log in, and enter the URL of the page you want to check. You can also check out Moz’s Domain Overview tool, which will tell you the Domain Authority and Brand Authority of internal and external links.
Why Page Authority Is Important to Your HVAC Business
Are your Page Authority scores looking a bit dismal? It’s definitely worth your time to shoot for higher scores.
One of the biggest reasons Page Authority matters is that it gives you a picture of how well your page is doing in search engine results. Page Authority isn’t the only factor that influences the performance of your pages, but it’s a big one nonetheless.
When your pages have good Page Authority, they’ll be less likely to languish at the bottom of the search engine results pages and more likely to shoot to the top. That means more visibility and, in turn, more traffic.
You may spend less on paid ads if your page’s authority is high. Because you’re more likely to attract organic traffic, you won’t have to rely so heavily on paid advertisements to draw would-be customers to your page.
Page Authority in SEO also matters for the external pages you choose to link to. Inbound links, also called backlinks, play a big part in Page Authority scores. The higher the link authority of your backlink profile, the more likely your pages will enjoy high PA scores.
How Can You Improve Page Authority?
If your SEO efforts aren’t yielding fruit and your pages aren’t ranking well in the search results, it’s time to make a Page Authority change. Here’s how to achieve a high Page Authority score for your HVAC website’s pages.
Rely on Your HVAC Expertise To Craft Authoritative Content
Do you know about the E-E-A-T principle? This acronym stands for “expertise, experience, authority, and trust” and is one of the biggest metrics Google looks at when deciding how to rank a web page. That’s why your on-page content game has to be on point if you want higher Page Authority.
Content quality isn’t about writing for search engines but for real people. Generally, the more useful, engaging, and trustworthy your content is, the higher your page will rank.
Not sure whether your content is robust enough to make the cut? Check out these signs of content optimization that hits the mark for Page Authority:
- Your content clearly shows first-hand expertise and knowledge. For example, if you were to write a blog post on how to diagnose air conditioner problems, that post would demonstrate your expertise as an HVAC service provider.
- After reading your content, users will have learned enough to feel satisfied or accomplish their goals in seeking out the information you’ve provided.
- You’ve presented the content in a way that makes users feel that they can trust it.
- If your content draws from other sources, you didn’t summarize those sources but added substantial additional value.
- The content is free from factual and grammatical errors.
Here are some signs of bad content that Google frowns upon:
- Your site contains a lot of content on many different topics in hopes you’ll attract more traffic. For example, although you’re an HVAC service provider, your blog has articles on landscaping and other irrelevant topics.
- Your content is thin, requiring users to leave your website and look for richer information from other pages.
- You’re using a machine learning model (AI) to mass-produce fluffy, non-authoritative content.
- Your content promises an answer to a question but never provides the answer as promised.
- You’re writing to a specific word count because you think you’ll get a better ranking if you do (you won’t).
Build High-Quality Backlinks
The quality of your backlinks (inbound links) is one of the biggest Page Authority metrics when it comes to ranking well in search engine results. But what exactly are backlinks? As opposed to internal links, which are links between your own pages, backlinks are external links to other high-authority pages.
Your backlink profile is important because it signals to Google that your site is trustworthy. By sprinkling quality links from reputable websites throughout your pages, you’ll boost your on-page SEO and see a nice increase in your Page Authority scores.
So, how do you get high-quality backlinks? It starts with your content. If your content is authoritative and trustworthy, other sites will want to link to yours. But if your content is spammy or unhelpful, quality sites won’t want to touch yours with a 10-foot pole.
Once you’ve nailed down your content, it’s time to start hunting for sites to link to. Follow these link-building tips to boost your link counts in no time:
- Write guest blog posts for quality websites in exchange for backlinks. Writing guest blog posts can take a lot of time, so you may want to hire a writer from an SEO agency to handle the job for you.
- Look for unlinked mentions of your business and ask the website owner to drop your link on the page.
- Create content that site owners will want to link to. Content that addresses “why” and “what” topics tend to receive the most backlinks. For instance, you could write blog posts on topics like “What to know when buying a new furnace” and “Why does my AC make weird noises when it runs?”
- Write “ultimate guides” packed with everything a reader might want to know about a topic. For example, you could write “The Ultimate Guide to DIY AC Repair” or “The Definitive Guide to Choosing a New Heating System for Your Home.”
- Check Google Search Console regularly for broken backlinks. If you find any, contact the site owner using the updated link.
- Get your business mentioned in a “best” article — for example, “Best HVAC Service Providers in [Your City].”
You should also pay attention to link equity, or “link juice,” a ranking factor based on the idea that links can pass authority from one page to another. To build equity and contribute to Page Authority in SEO, a link must:
- Not be marked as “no follow,” which tells Google’s bots to ignore the link
- Be relevant to the content
- Be crawlable (if your robots.txt file is blocking page crawlers, the link won’t build value)
Avoid Bad Links That Drag Your Page Authority Down
Link building is important for both Page Authority and Domain Authority, but where those links come from matters a great deal. You want quality links from reputable sites, not websites loaded with thin content and spam. One excellent backlink is worth far more than dozens of poor-quality links from multiple websites.
Whatever you do, don’t be drawn in by the siren song of black-hat link-building practices. Google frowns on these shady techniques and will penalize your site if it catches you (and it will). When that happens, Google will effectively cancel out the effect of your backlinks, causing your site to plummet in the search results.
If you’re purchasing links from a farm for Page Authority instead of building a natural link profile, you could be engaging in black-hat tactics without knowing it. Link farms are essentially a chain of websites that all link to each other to improve their rankings. Here’s how to recognize a link farm:
- Look for poorly written or AI-generated content. If the content is thin and generic sounding, the site may be a link farm.
- Search the page for “about” and “author” information. Most link farms use stock photos and made-up names for their content “authors.”
- Check the number of sites a page links to using a tool like Mozscape Web Index. If a page has dozens of outbound links that don’t make sense for the content, it could be a farm.
- Look for unusual anchor text in the content. If the anchor text is keyword-rich, the site owner is likely manipulating their link profile.
Other black-hat techniques to avoid include:
- Adding your links to user-generated spam, which in SEO refers to junk content that’s low-quality or irrelevant. If you’ve ever read the user comments on a blog post, you’ve probably encountered user-generated spam. For example, on a blog post about cooking, a user might post a comment that says, “Want to make money from home? Click here!”
- Using private blog networks (PBNs). This technique involves buying an expired domain with high authority, recreating the content, and using redirects to another domain to ensure the links don’t lose equity.
- Hacking vulnerable websites and flooding them with your links.
Optimize Your Pages for Search Engines
Content and backlinks aren’t the only things that can affect your PA score. Other factors, like your title tags, meta descriptions, and page load speed, can also impact PA scores.
If you’re unsure what these technical-sounding terms mean, here’s an easy-to-understand breakdown. The title tag, as the name implies, is the title of a web page. It shows up in the search engine results. Ensure your title is both accurate and engaging so it’ll compel users to click.
The meta description appears underneath the title tag. It’s a short description telling users what they’ll find when they click on the page. Again, make it engaging but not misleading. Meta descriptions should be between 140 and 160 characters.
Page load speed can significantly impact your PA score. If search engines discover that your page loads slowly, they won’t recommend it to users. To increase your page’s speed and Page Authority score:
- Use SEO tools to discover what’s bogging your site down and fix the problem.
- Compress large images and videos.
- Minimize the use of plugins, some of which can cause your site to crawl.
- Remove line breaks and white space to reduce the size of CSS, HTML, and JavaScript files, which allows browsers to read the code faster.
- Use a content delivery network (CDN) to speed up load times for users. CDNs are networks of proxy servers situated at different exchange points.
Keep Tabs on Your Pages’ Performance
Just because you’ve gotten your Page Authority score where you want it doesn’t mean you can rest on your laurels. Page Authority and Domain Authority are dynamic, not static. Your Page Authority score will go up and down as you create content, add or remove links, and make changes to the optimization of your website.
Keep an eye on your PA scores using tools like Link Explorer, and monitor the overall performance of your site with Google’s Search Console. If your Page Authority starts to drop, fix it using the same methodology outlined above.
We’ll Help You Rank Higher in the Search Engine Results
If you’re hoping to outshine the competition as an HVAC business owner, it behooves you to pay attention to Page Authority in SEO. Are you looking for a helping hand with your Page Authority or Domain Authority score? Relentless Digital is here to save the day!
Relentless Digital is your one-stop shop for SEO services catering to HVAC contractors. Whether you need help raising Page Authority (PA) for a specific page or are struggling to wrap your head around redirects, our team has you covered.
Ready to get higher scores for your HVAC website? Contact Relentless Digital today!
