Case study · HVAC, plumbing & electrical SEO
HVAC SEO recovery case study: Chicago HVAC & plumbing, 14K to 66.9K monthly organic visits
An HVAC SEO recovery case study in three acts — a fast build, a hard setback during Google’s core-update years, and a recovery to nearly double the low point, with page-one keyword rankings for high-value HVAC and plumbing searches.
Overview
Fifty years of trust, and a search presence to match it
The company has kept Chicago-area homes heated, cooled and running since 1971, with more than 27,600 Google reviews behind it. In 2019 its website drew around 14,000 organic visits a month — a small share of the demand for seven service lines across the city, its suburbs and Northwest Indiana.
The challenge
A huge reputation, mostly below the waterline
What people could see was a trusted fifty-year brand. What search couldn’t see was most of the demand it should have been winning.
Below the surface — the search demand not being captured
Heating, cooling, plumbing, sewer and drain, electrical, generators and air quality — each with its own searches and seasons.
Chicago, the North, West, South and Southwest suburbs and Northwest Indiana — every service needed to be findable in every community.
A failed furnace in January or a flooded basement in spring sends homeowners straight to search — and to whoever ranks.
Google’s repeated core updates meant rankings built one year could be lost the next — as 2022–23 would show.
The strategy
SEO recovery strategy: build, then rebuild
The first strategy grew traffic fast. When the algorithm shifted, the second rebuilt it on firmer ground — fewer, stronger pages and trust signals that hold.
Build breadth
2019 → 2021 · ~14K to a peak near 140K
- Cover every service linePages for heating, cooling, plumbing, sewer, electrical and more.
- Reach every communityService coverage across the city, suburbs and Northwest Indiana.
- Win seasonal demandContent timed to Chicago’s heating and cooling seasons.
Rebuild on quality
2024 → 2026 · from ~35K back to 66.9K
- Consolidate and strengthenFewer, better pages instead of thin ones competing with each other.
- Lead with trustReviews, credentials and real expertise made visible on every key page.
- Answer firstClear, helpful answers that search engines and AI assistants can quote.
The process
The recovery, one step at a time
How we worked after the setback — six steps, each one raising the floor the traffic could fall back to.
Implementation
Anatomy of a rebuilt service page
The standard every priority page was rebuilt to — six elements, each doing a specific job for search engines and for the homeowner.
- Service + place in the headline. One clear page per service and area, matching how Chicagoland searches.
- Answer first. The opening lines answer the homeowner’s question directly — the part search engines and AI assistants quote.
- Proof on the page. Ratings, review counts and credentials where a homeowner decides, not buried on another page.
- Real questions, real answers. FAQ blocks built from what customers actually ask.
- Structured data. Business, service and FAQ markup so search engines understand the page.
- One obvious next step. 24/7 service, online scheduling and financing, visible without scrolling.
Illustrative page — the pattern applied across the company’s priority service pages.
The journey
Build, setback, recovery: our HVAC SEO journey
Organic traffic climbed tenfold by late 2021, fell back sharply through 2022–23 as Google’s updates reshaped the results, then recovered to nearly double its low point.
Points are read from the Semrush all-time traffic chart (Worldwide, desktop) and are approximate. The one-month spike in 2023 is labelled rather than plotted.
The result
HVAC SEO results: 4.8× the organic traffic of 2019
The evidence
HVAC SEO recovery case study evidence: two screenshots
Two Semrush views of the same site: the domain overview behind the recovery, and the US keyword rankings that drive it.
Domain overview: 66.9K organic visits a month
- Organic traffic
- 66.9K−8.5% on period
- Ranking keywords
- 18.3K−1.7%
- Authority Score
- 401.7K referring domains
- Paid traffic
- 0Earned, not bought
What it tells usA peak near 140K in late 2021, a low near 35K in late 2023 after Google’s core updates, and 66.9K now — nearly double the low point.
AI search breakdown
Where AI answers mention the brand
Total: 218 mentions · 357 unique cited pages · AI visibility score 22. Pages can be cited on more than one platform.
HVAC SEO keyword rankings: 84% non-branded
- US traffic
- 67Kfrom 17.3K keywords
- Non-branded
- 56Kvs 11.1K branded
- Traffic value
- $798.9Kmonthly ad-cost equivalent
- Commercial intent
- 37.9Kvisits, the largest share
What it tells usMost US visits come from service searches, not the brand: position 4 for “furnace repair near me” (165K searches), position 7 for “water heater repair near me” (165K), position 6 for “hvac contractor” and position 8 for “heating and cooling” (90.5K). US traffic is down 5.4% on Semrush’s period comparison.
Proof & limits
What this proves — and what it doesn’t yet
✓What it shows
- Estimated organic visits up 4.8× since 2019
- A recovery to nearly double the late-2023 low
- Most US traffic is non-branded (56K vs 11.1K branded)
- Page-one rankings for “furnace repair near me” and “water heater repair near me”
- All of it earned — no paid traffic or paid keywords
–What it doesn’t show yet
- That traffic is back to its 2021 peak — it isn’t; today is about half of it
- Exactly what caused the 2022–23 decline or the one-month 2023 spike
- Calls, bookings or revenue from organic search
- The effect of a fifty-year brand and 27,600+ reviews on demand
That’s why we show the whole curve — the peak, the fall and the climb back — rather than two convenient points.
FAQ
Your questions, answered
Straight answers on the peak, the setback, the spike — and what the numbers don’t mean.
01Is 66.9K real measured traffic?
No — it is a third-party estimate. Semrush models estimated monthly organic visits from ranking positions and keyword volumes. It is a reliable way to compare visibility over time, but it is not the same as sessions in Google Analytics or clicks in Search Console, which is why we label it an estimate throughout.
02What did SDM do for this client?
Two phases of work. First, breadth: service pages across seven trades, coverage for Chicago, the suburbs and Northwest Indiana, and seasonal content. Then, after the 2022–23 setback, a rebuild: separating trends from noise, auditing what was lost, consolidating thin pages, rebuilding priority service pages, re-earning authority and monitoring every Google update.
03Why is traffic lower than in 2021?
Traffic peaked near 140K in late 2021 and fell back through 2022–23, a period of repeated Google core updates. A traffic snapshot can’t prove the cause. Since the late-2023 low near 35K it has recovered to 66.9K — still about half the peak, and we say so.
04What was the huge spike in 2023?
A single month where estimated traffic jumped to around 308K before falling straight back. The snapshot doesn’t explain it, so we don’t count it as a result — it’s labelled on the chart rather than plotted.
05How much of the traffic is branded?
Not most of it. Semrush’s US estimate puts branded traffic at 11.1K against 56K non-branded — about 84% of US organic visits come from people searching for a service, such as “furnace repair near me”, rather than for the company by name.
06How do you recover from a Google algorithm update?
Start by separating real trends from noise, then find which pages and rankings were actually lost. Consolidate thin or overlapping pages, rebuild the most valuable ones around genuine expertise, strengthen trust and authority signals, and watch every update. Recovery is usually gradual — here, traffic nearly doubled from its late-2023 low.
07Which searches does the site rank for?
High-value HVAC and plumbing service searches across Chicagoland: position 4 for “furnace repair near me” (165K monthly searches), position 6 for “hvac contractor”, position 7 for “water heater repair near me” and position 8 for “heating and cooling”, plus the local pack for its own brand name.
08Can you do the same for my home-services business?
It depends on where you start — your current rankings, service lines, market and competition. We set a measurable baseline in a free audit before any work begins, so you can hold us to the movement from it.
Work with SDM
Want this kind of visibility in your service area?
A free audit of your visibility, the pages worth fixing first, and a baseline to judge us against.