Julian Hofmann owns Litsey Heating and Air, a residential and commercial HVAC company in Louisville, KY that has served the city since 1975. He inherited a stellar reputation and nearly 200 five-star reviews — but this Litsey Heating & Air SEO audit found the website ranks for only 11 keywords, almost all branded. Here is the gap, and the order to fix it for more quality calls.
11
keywords ranked — off 50 backlinks, mostly branded terms
~200
5-star Google reviews — real proof Google is not seeing fully
4
images on the Google Business Profile — should be dozens
Julian asked for help getting Litsey’s digital marketing back on track and generating more quality calls around Louisville. The reputation is already there. This Litsey Heating & Air SEO audit pulled the public signals apart to find why that reputation is not yet translating into organic search traffic.
Read The SEO Metrics First
The site has 50 backlinks but ranks for only 11 keywords — far less traffic than that link count should produce. The reason is link quality: outside local citations, almost nothing authoritative or relevant points to the site, so there is no real link juice flowing in.
Most current traffic comes from branded searches, which means people who already know the Litsey name are finding it. The goal is to rank on the first page for terms like “Louisville HVAC” and “commercial hvac louisville ky” — the searches that bring new business, not just repeat customers.
| Signal | Observed | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Backlinks | 50, mostly local citations | Few authoritative or relevant links |
| Keywords ranked | 11, mostly branded | Little non-branded organic reach |
| Google reviews | ~200 5-star | Strong trust signal, under-leveraged |
| GBP images | 4 | Too thin to prove the work |
RUN THIS YOURSELF
Pull the client’s backlinks and keywords in Ahrefs side by side. When the link count is healthy but the keyword count is tiny and branded, the links are local citations with no authority behind them. That mismatch is the exact gap to walk the owner through.
Build Relevant Local And Authoritative Links
Google looks for local and authoritative signals that prove Litsey does great HVAC work in Louisville. Relevant links from other Louisville businesses carry that signal, because no local business links to another it does not trust.
Litsey already works with Louisville businesses like EternaTurf, an artificial-turf installer, for real mutually beneficial links — not a “10 best businesses” list. Pair that with the occasional authoritative feature from a high-DR site, and the domain starts punching above its weight. This is the MAA framework in motion — measure the gap, analyze the cause, then act.
Refresh Reviews And Fill The GBP
Nearly 200 five-star reviews is real proof, but recency matters more than the total. The last review came over a week ago and the one before it over a month ago, so the target is at least one fresh five-star review every week to hold impression share.
The profile also has only four images and needs dozens — technicians on real Louisville jobs, not stock. One snag: the original GBP owner has left Litsey, so adding images may require reaching out to Google to recover access, which is critical for growing the organic presence.
RUN THIS YOURSELF
Open the client’s Google Business Profile and read the date of the most recent review, then count the photos. A months-old last review and a single-digit photo count are two fixes you can start this week — a standing weekly review ask and a tech-photo habit. Showing an owner those two dates is how a young agency owner makes the problem concrete.
Fix The Website Proof And Structure
The site already makes it easy to book calls, shows the phone number up top, has a real About page, individual service pages, and a great founder video from Julian on the company history. The home page should state what Litsey does and where immediately — something like “Serving HVAC In Louisville Since 1975” — so customers and Google read the local service area at a glance.
Replace clipart, like the stock family image on residential services, with real contractors in the field — clipart undercuts the EEAT signal Google uses to trust local businesses. Add local service pages for Prospect, Jeffersontown, and St. Matthews so the site ranks when someone searches “Prospect HVAC,” answer People Also Ask questions directly, and move the site off Squarespace to WordPress for the plugins and ranking edge.
Pull The Short-Term Call Levers
Website and GBP work is a long game — even a perfect fix today takes a few weeks to show. The fastest lever now is Local Service Ads, which are pay-per-call: if the calls are not quality, Litsey is not charged, so the risk of wasted spend is near zero, and LSA piggybacks on the strong Google reviews.
The next lever is Google PPC, which takes iteration to dial in but can return strong ROI at a cost per quality call under $100. The whole job is to show Google undeniable proof — images, videos, reviews — that Litsey does excellent work in Louisville. The same diagnostic runs on any local business; see it end to end in the Quick Audit process.
THE DELIVERABLE
Turn Your Reputation Into Calls
We will pull your backlinks, reviews, and local presence apart the same way — and tell you what to fix first to get more quality calls.
Get Your Own Quick Audit →Power Hour with Dennis →The founder behind the business. Litsey Heating & Air is led by Julian Hofmann. We audited Julian Hofmann’s personal brand — how their own name shows up in Google and AI search — as a separate entity. Read the Julian Hofmann personal brand audit.
Dennis Yu
Dennis Yu is the CEO of Local Service Spotlight, a platform that amplifies the reputations of contractors and local service businesses using the Content Factory process. He is a former search engine engineer who has spent a billion dollars on Google and Facebook ads for Nike, Quiznos, Ashley Furniture, Red Bull, State Farm, and other brands.
Dennis has achieved 25% of his goal of creating a million digital marketing jobs by partnering with universities, professional organizations, and agencies. Through Local Service Spotlight, he teaches the Dollar a Day strategy and Content Factory training to help local service businesses enhance their existing local reputation and make the phone ring.
Dennis coaches young adult agency owners serving plumbers, AC technicians, landscapers, roofers, electricians, and believes there should be a standard in measuring local marketing efforts, much like doctors and plumbers must be certified.