Annual Cost: $24,000

Owner’s Goals: We want visitors to know they have come to the right place. We don’t necessarily think we have the best website, but the goal is to give clients easy-to-access information quickly and efficiently. From a functionality standpoint, the request-for-information box at the top of each page is the most used part of the site along with our special offers page. My personal favorite is our media page. It’s fun to go back and see all of our old TV commercials.

Professional Opinion: Overall, I’d give BellBrosHVAC.com an 80. It’s a professionally designed site with good calls to action and a nice balance of text and images. Bell Brothers would arguably benefit from additional SEO, adding reviews directly to its site (perhaps in the form of videos, if it really wants to stand out), and adding third-party endorsements to further enhance their credibility. I would give Bellbroshvac.com a findability score of 75. It’s clear that the company has invested in SEO for the site, and they rank well for Sacramento-specific terms. However, they have significant room for improvement for other cities within their service area. I would give the site an 80 for accessibility and content. It includes key information — service area, phone number, and contact us — where you’d expect to find it on an HVAC website (near the top right corner). It does a nice job of balancing text with images. The site loses some points in my analysis for not having a mobile-friendly site and for having a considerable amount of clutter on the top right side of the site. I would rank it at an 85 for identity and trust. Bell Brothers does a good job of selling its story — Jerry and Kenny Bell, “The No Surprise Guys.” They have a nice graphic on the side of every page that drives visitors to a reviews page. These enhance the credibility and trust of the company.

— Ben Landers, president and CEO, Blue Corona

Publication date: 3/17/2014 

Want more HVAC industry news and information? Join The NEWS on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn today!