What to ask your web person: 12 questions for an HVAC company's website

Why ask at all

Most HVAC owners hand the website to a nephew, a freelancer or an agency and never look under the hood. That's fine until something breaks quietly: the site blocks a crawler, the domain lapses, or the person who built it moves on and nobody has the password.

These things matter more now that homeowners ask AI tools for contractors. Google says that to appear as a link in AI Overviews or AI Mode, a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Search, and that the basics are allowing crawling and having important content in text. OpenAI says sites that block its search crawler won't be shown in ChatGPT search answers. A website that looks great but fails those basics is invisible to the tools your customers are using.

You can copy the questions below into an email. Each one has a note on what a good answer looks like.

Ownership and access

1. "Is the domain registered in my company's name, and when does it renew?"

The domain (yourcompany.ca) is the address of everything. If it's registered to the web person or their agency, you don't fully control it. A good answer names the registrar, confirms the registrant is your business, gives the renewal date and confirms auto-renew is on.

2. "Do I have my own login to the website, the hosting and the domain registrar?"

You should have owner-level access to all three, in your own name or a company email you control, not a shared password that lives in someone's head. If the relationship ends, you need to be able to hand the keys to someone else.

3. "Am I an owner in Google Search Console?"

Search Console is Google's free tool that shows how your site appears in Google. Google's help page on owners and permissions says owners have full control, can add and remove other users, and that a property must have at least one verified owner. It also warns that if the only verified owner leaves, you'll need to verify again to keep access. A good answer: "Yes, you're a verified owner on the domain property, and I'm added as a user."

Can the machines read it?

4. "Does our robots.txt allow Googlebot, Bingbot and OAI-SearchBot?"

The robots.txt file tells crawlers what they may visit. Google's robots.txt introduction explains how it works and notes that some website builders manage it for you through a settings page. OpenAI's crawler page says OAI-SearchBot is used for ChatGPT search and GPTBot for training, and that each setting is independent. You can block training and still allow search.

A good answer includes the actual lines of the file and confirms none of those three is blocked.

5. "Is there any firewall, security plugin or hosting setting that blocks AI crawlers?"

Some hosting and security tools can block whole groups of bots with one switch. Google's AI features page specifically mentions making sure crawling is allowed "by any CDN or hosting infrastructure", not just in robots.txt. A good answer names the tool and its setting.

6. "Are our services, cities, hours and phone number written in text, not only in images?"

Google says to make sure important content is "available in textual form". If your service list is a graphic, or your "24/7" badge is an image, crawlers and screen readers can't read it. A good answer: "Yes, all of it is in text on the page. The banner image has the same words underneath."

Is it working?

7. "Are our homepage and main service pages indexed by Google?"

If a page isn't in Google's index, it can't appear in Google's AI answers either. Google's help page for the Page indexing report says sites with fewer than 500 pages probably don't need the report, and can instead search Google for the exact address of key pages to see whether they're indexed. A good answer lists your homepage and each service page and confirms each one shows up.

8. "What did people search to find us in the last three months?"

Search Console's Performance report shows the queries that show your site and the clicks they bring. Ask for the top 20 queries and the top 10 pages. This is also the best source of customer questions for your service pages; see our guide to the questions service pages should answer.

9. "How does the site score on a phone?"

Most homeowners with a broken furnace are on their phone. Google's page on Core Web Vitals says they measure loading, interactivity and visual stability, and "highly" recommends site owners achieve good scores. A good answer gives the current scores for your homepage and main service pages on mobile, and the plan for any that are poor.

Facts and markup

10. "Does our structured data match our Google Business Profile exactly?"

Structured data is hidden code that labels your name, phone, hours and service area for search engines. Google's structured data guidelines say not to mark up content that isn't visible to readers, and that misleading markup can lose you eligibility for rich results. A good answer: "We use HVACBusiness markup on the homepage. The phone, hours and service area match the profile as of this week." Our structured data guide explains what to check.

11. "When I change my hours or phone number, who updates the site, and how fast?"

The same facts live in several places: the header, footer, contact page, service pages and markup. A good answer names one person and a turnaround time, and lists every place that changes.

The relationship

12. "What exactly did you change last month, and why?"

Google's advice on hiring an SEO says a good provider should "explain all the changes they are making to your site", and to be careful with anyone who is secretive about what they do. That applies to web people too. A good answer is a short list: what changed, on which page, and the reason.

What vague answers sound like

• "It's all optimized." (For what? Show me.)
• "Google handles that automatically." (Some of it, yes. Which parts?)
• "You don't need access, I take care of it." (You need access.)
• "We've added AI optimization." (Google says there's no special file or markup needed for its AI features. Ask what was actually changed.)

None of these mean your web person is doing a bad job. They do mean you should ask again, more specifically. If the answers stay vague, our guide on spotting AI snake oil has more red flags.

This week

1. Send questions 1 to 6 in one email. They're the ones that can quietly cost you the most.
2. Ask for a 20-minute screen share to go through Search Console together. Seeing it once is enough to know what to ask next time.
3. Save the logins for the domain, hosting, website and Search Console somewhere you control.