The Ultimate Google My Business Guide for Solar Companies -10 Steps to Generate More Qualified Leads Through Google

The Ultimate
The Ultimate
SOLAR COMPANIES
SOLAR COMPANIES
Guide for
Guide for

A shocking 85% of traffic to a business’s website comes
from Discovery searches. This means the majority of
traffic reaching a company in a Google search gets there
from searches like “solar companies in Houston,” as
opposed to “Sunpro Solar.” So if you aren’t easily found in
a Google search, you’re majorly missing out on potential
customers.
expensive advertising campaigns...
waiting for those referrals to trickle in...
If you're tired of door knocking...
...It might be time to take a different approach.
Why Care
About GMB?

A fully- filled out Google My Business
profile can help you be more easily found
on Google. And we’re here to break it
down for you—from the very first steps to
the most elaborate details. If you follow
these 10 steps (and most of them are a
one-time action) you WILL get more
interest in your business and leads than if
you missed out on GMB, plus increase the
probability that customers will call you
over your competitors.

1
STEP
VERIFY
OR CLAIM
YOUR GMB
ACCOUNT

Why care about
claiming your
GMB listing?
Your GMB listing is how you appear on Google and when you claim your
GMB listing, you’re able to control all the information that consumers
see. If you haven’t claimed your listing, there is a chance that you aren’t
showing up at all (NO CHANCE of picking up free traffic) or that there is
false information out there about your business that you can’t change.
Once you are in charge of your own GMB listing you can control basic
info like:
Location
Open/closed for certain holidays
Hours
To see if you already have a Google My Business listing, go
https://business.google.com/ and try signing in with any Gmail
accounts potentially connected to your business.

Request a
Verification
Postcard
If you discover you
haven’t claimed your
listing, you’ll have to
request a verification
postcard from Google.
And to do this, you’ll
need a:
Gmail email address
physical address

Once You Get
Your Postcard
The postcard will have a six-digit code
that will allow you to verify your account.
Trust us, although this process might
seem tedious, it’s better than having
someone else claim your business!

*It generally takes 3-5 business days for
the card to come, and watch out! It
definitely looks like junk mail, so don’t
throw it out on accident!

Why care about
choosing your
category?
Selecting a category helps Google know where to
start showing your business in web searches—
essentially indexing your solar company along with
all the other solar companies out there.
Think about it like books in a library. If you don’t
have the right category, it’s possible your book
about solar panels could be filed in the cookbook
section and make it a lot harder for consumers to
find you.

Best GMB
Categories for
Solar Companies
We’ve done the legwork for you... and the best categories for solar
companies are...

Want to double-check? We suggest doing a
Google search for competitors in your area,
like “solar companies San Francisco.”
Check out the first three or four that pop up in
the Maps section and see what category they
chose. The category shows up as slightly
small print just under the stars/reviews and
above the address.
Solar Energy Equipment Supplier
Solar Energy Company

CHOOSE
THE
SERVICE
AREA
3
STEP

Why care about
choosing a service area?
The main reason you need to pick a service area
is that you want a potential customer to be able
to look at your Google listing and determine if
you will or won’t be able to install solar panels at
their home.
Another reason is that if you pick too wide of a
service area, it dilutes your visibility in the areas
you’ve chosen for local searches. In other
words, your listing is less powerful when you
choose too wide of a service area. It’s in your
best interest to choose an accurate area served.

Dos and
Don’ts of
Choosing a
Service Area
DO: Set your service
area to the area you
truly want to target.
The more specific
you can be, the
more business you’ll
get for that actual
location.
DON'T: Cast too
wide of a net. You
might end up with
some jobs that
aren’t as profitable
based on the drive-
time and gas costs.
Also, you’ll dilute
your listing and
make it less
powerful by
choosing a service
area that is too
large.

Why care about
updating basic
info?
Why should you spend your time
filling in the basic info on your GMB
profile? Easy. A completed profile is
absolutely critical in being found in
Google searches. And it gives you a
leg up on competitors that haven’t
completed their GMB profiles.
Companies with completed GMB
profiles are seen as more trustworthy
than companies that don’t.

Basic info has a lot of components so
we will break it down, piece by piece.

Basic
Info
BUSINESS NAME
BUSINESS CATEGORY
See Step 2
LOCATION
This information is for the benefit of
searchers on Google, so it can be hidden if
you don’t have a storefront where clients
visit.
SERVICE AREA
See Step 3

Basic
Info
HOURS
PHONE NUMBER
Make sure this is set as your office phone
number, consistent with the phone number
listed on your website, and a phone
number that is going to be answered
consistently.
WEBSITE
Your website URL
Set your hours as your true
hours—hours that you would
want the phone to ring and
someone would pick up.
PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
See Step 5

Basic
Info
ATTRIBUTES
This is where you are able to give
your business the attribute of being
women-led, black-owned, and
safety attributes (mostly related to
COVID for now)
THE DESCRIPTION
This piece is so important we’re
going to give it a few slides of its
own.

Do's and
Don’ts of the
Description
DO: Use as many of the
750 characters as
possible.
DO: Put the heart and
soul of your solar
business in this
description.
DO: Utilize as many
keywords as possible.
DON'T: Feel like this is
your only space to
share about your
offerings—you’ll get lots
more space under
Products and Services.
DON'T: Get lost in the
nitty-gritty details—
basically keep it to your
elevator pitch!
DON'T: Use up only 300
characters!
The description is the primary way to
let Google know what your business is
all about because if you don’t tell
them, how do they know?
We think it’s so important, we wanted
to provide you with a sample.

“Helpful Solar is a solar company in Albuquerque
that has been providing high-quality solar
equipment and services throughout New Mexico
since 2009. Founded by Adele Montoya, who’s
passion for clean energy drove her to start her own
company, Helpful Solar has installed solar panels on
thousands of homes and businesses over the last
10+ years.
With our values of customer service and high
quality, we guarantee your solar installation done
correctly and efficiently. And if there ever is a need
for solar panel repair, our experienced technicians
will be out right away. Start raking in the energy
savings and lessening your environmental footprint.
Plus, New Mexico residents get both a state and
federal tax credit! Contact us to learn more.”
And This is What
750 Characters
Looks Like

Your
Takeaways
Use your main keyword in the first sentence. In this case, ours was “solar company
Albuquerque.”
Use secondary keywords like “energy savings,” “solar panels,” or even use some of the primary
brands you install throughout.
Use as many as possible of the 750 characters!
Talking about the founder, the owner, or the values of the business can create trust.
Mentioning all available services like installation, repair, commercial, and residential helps
Google and your readers know what you offer.

Shoutout to
LA Solar Group
We also wanted to give a
shoutout to LA Solar Group! In
searching the internet for solar
businesses with great Google
My Business descriptions,
theirs stood out to us as one
with a lot of useful information,
heart, and legitimacy while
using up most of the allowed
character count.

UPDATE
SERVICES
AND
PRODUCTS
5
STEP

Why care about
services and products?
The services you offer and the products
you carry is very useful information for
your potential clients to know! It might
be the difference in them giving you a
call or not.
Services and products provide a great
opportunity to use your keywords which
help your Google ranking. This includes
using brand names that consumers
might be searching for.

Potential
Services Could
Include:
Solar Panel Installation
Solar Panel Repair
Commercial Solar Panels
Residential Solar Panels
Home Energy Audit
Each service allows for a 300 character description. Use all 300 characters if you can!
Remember—the more you fill out your GMB profile, the more effective it is.

Products
Some solar businesses choose to
include Products as well, and this is
certainly something we recommend.
The Products section provides an
excellent opportunity to include the
brand names of popular products you
carry. How does this help? When people
may do a web search for “Panasonic
solar panels,”if that’s one of the brands
you carry and have cataloged on your
GMB listing, you’re more likely to be
found.

Solar is a high-trust industry. When people get solar panels installed on their home or business,
they’re making a big investment and want to have confidence in the company they choose.
Photos are an important way to gain trust and prove your legitimacy as a quality business.
Images of staff make your company more
relatable.
Images of completed installs visibly
demonstrate the workmanship people can
expect from you.
Images of your office space let people know
they’re in the right place and that you’re a
real company that operates a legitimate
business.
Why care about adding photos?

1 2-5 6-10 11-25 26-50 51-100 101+
7,500
5,000
2,500
0
Direct Searches
Discovery Searches
Now for Some
Jaw-Dropping Data!
Businesses with 100 images get 713% more
Discovery Searches and 1038% more Branded
searches than the average business!
On the other hand, businesses with only one
image got 65% fewer Discovery searches and
71% fewer Branded searches than the average
business.
A recent article from Search Engine Land shared a
study showing that:
AVERAGE MONTHLY DIRECT & DISCOVERY
SEARCHES BY NUMBER OF IMAGES

Shoutout to
Pep Solar!
We wanted to give a shoutout
to Pep Solar for their use of
photos in their GMB listing.

As you can see, their photos
show team members at work,
completed installs, their office
space, various awards they’ve
received, and members of their
staff.

Photo
Categories
Overview—All of your photos and videos show up under overview.
Video—Fairly self-explanatory, but any promotional videos or
informational videos you want to include.
At work—Can include office staff as well as work in the field. People
want to see your team doing what they do best.
Team—A great place for headshots and group photos of the team.
Identity— Includes the “Cover Photo” and logo.
Interior—If your business has a physical location, this is where you can
upload interior shots of your workplace.
Exterior—If your business has a physical location, exterior photos create
legitimacy and trust so people know what to look for when they come in.

Do's and Don’ts
of
Adding Photos
DO: Use professional
photos if you have
them.
DO: Use smartphone
photos if you need to.
DO: Read the guidelines
about photo
specifications from
Google here.
DON'T: Use stock
photos (Google is able
to tell if the same
photos are showing up
on the internet over and
over).
DON'T: Use images that
have a lot of words
superimposed on them
or they might be
removed. The rule is
any text needs to cover
less than 10% of the
image. Read all the
regulations from
Google here.

More reviews means more customers, less
friction in the sales process, and a higher
sales price.
And, Rocket Digital shared one study that
found 88% of consumers consult reviews
before making a purchase. When a customer
sees a business with a lot of Google reviews,
they’re more likely to reach out to you over
competitors that have fewer or no reviews.
Why care about
getting reviews?

The Old School Way: It used to be the only way to get
Google reviews was to hope that your customers would
just leave them out of the kindness of their hearts. Of
course, lots of businesses find creative ways to ask
customers for Google reviews as well.
The New Way: Lots of great reviews fall through the cracks when you leave it up to chance. Our
review management software connects to your CRM to send customers an email request for a
review right after their invoice has been paid and the job is completed. It even sends a few
follow up emails in case they forget! These emails are customized to your brand voice.
How to Get
Google Reviews

How to Manage Google Reviews
Manage your Google reviews from your GMB profile. In fact, the GMB mobile app (see Step 9)
makes responding to reviews so simple—but more on that later.

A 5-star Google review is like gold on Google, and the more of them you can accrue, the better.
Digital Harvest offers a review management service that connects to your CRM system to
automatically pursue reviews from clients. And, some plans even included responding to your
Google reviews so you don’t have to think about it!

Or, if you want to take care of the responses yourself, use the web or mobile app to read reviews
and RESPOND to every one of them.

Shoutout to
NM Solar Group
for this Incredible
Review and
Response!

Shoutout to
Solar Works Energy
for Their Incredible
Response to a
Negative Review

How to Deal with
the Dreaded
Negative Review
A negative review actually doesn’t have
to be the kiss of death. In fact, In fact,
Rocket Digital shared that one study
showed a negative review can even
increase conversions by 67% if it’s
responded to well.

The response is more for the benefit of
future readers, less for the benefit of
the dissatisfied customer (of course
you want to take care of them too!)

Dos and Don’ts
of Responding to a
Negative Review
DO: Respond to
negative reviews.
DO: Try to contact the
customer directly with
information you have on
file (if they are, in fact, a
real customer and not
just an internet troll).
DO: Whatever you can in
your power to make it
right.
DON'T: Get emotional
or take it personally.
DON'T: Show anger or
frustration in your
response.
DON'T: Be afraid of a
negative review.

Why care
about creating
GMB posts?
Solar companies that use Google posts get
found online more frequently that those that
don’t. Plus, since it’s a new feature from
Google, it’s underutilized by your
competitors, making it an easy leg up!
Additionally, Google prefers businesses that
use more of their products. And as the
social media scheduler, Hootsuite says it,
“One of the reasons GMB posts are so
important is because Google prioritizes
quality data in its search results, so
making sure you’re giving your
customers what they want may well
improve your search ranking.”

Thinking This is
a Lot of Work?
We include GMB post creation and
management in some of our SEO packages,
but if you’re not ready for all that, it’s fairly
simple to create GMB posts yourself from
your Google My Business profile on desktop
or the GMB app.
Here’s how...

There you’ll get to choose from
several categories of posts: COVID-19
Update, Add Offer, Add Update, Add
Event, or Add Product. Each of these
categories are fairly straightforward
and give prompts of what information
to enter
Go to the desktop app or
mobile app and choose
“Posts.”
How to Create a GMB Post
Post

Add a photo or video to your post. If
you have access to a graphic designer
or simply someone who’s good with
Canva, these images can include text
overlays with even more information.
If not—don’t sweat it. Any original
photo (not a stock photo or
screenshot) will do!
Add a button and button link. All of the
post types the option to add a button
to your post, linking back to your
website. Adding a button is one step
you should not neglect since it allows
you the chance to build more links
back to each page of your website.

Don’t forget hashtags. You can
and should use hashtags in GMB
posts. Just a handful are fine, no
need to get crazy. Think of your
main keywords and go off of that.
For example, use:
#solarpanelsmiami
#solarcompanymiami
#cleanenergymiami

It might seems as if Google is constantly changing
where the GMB posts are actually seen. Currently,
GMB posts are showing up in web search in the
GMB profile for a business on the right hand side of
the page.
But that isn’t always the case. Sometimes they
show up in Maps. Sometimes they aren’t customer
facing at all. So our customers often ask, “why
bother with something that consumers might not
ever see?”
We understand that frustration. But, we promise
even if customers aren’t seeing your GMB posts,
they are working hard for you behind the scenes.
Google really pays attention to, and prioritizes,
companies that are actively using their GMB profile,
and this includes GMB posts.
Where Do GMB
Posts Even
Show Up?

Why use the GMB
mobile app?
In the solar industry, and certainly in most
industries, we constantly use our phones for work.
If a task requires us to sit down at our desktop in
the office, it’s less likely to happen, or at least
happen as quickly, than if we can do it right from
our smartphones. The GMB app makes accessing
all of your GMB profile, posts, and reviews so
simple.

Just look for the “Google My
Business” app in the App store
or the Play store. The icon
might be familiar to you, and it
looks like a little blue storefront
with an awning.
Download the app.
Log in using the same Gmail
address you used to set up your
GMB profile.
Start controlling your GMB
account right from your phone
or tablet!
How to
Install
the
GMB
App

Why care about GMB insights?
“What you measure grows” so if you’re
looking at Insights, you’ll notice growth,
and can easily pivot if you don’t.

Insights are where you’ll really be able
to see how effective your GMB profile is
—where you see all the behind-the-
scenes details of how effective your
GMB profile is.

Next, we will show you the different
sections of insights and explain what
they mean.

How customers search
for your business
The first thing you’ll see in Insights is a chart that shows the total number of consumers that found
your business. This is broken down into:
Direct searches—People who find your
Business Profile by searching your business
name or address
Discovery searches—People who find your
Business Profile by searching for a category,
product, or service related to your business
like, “solar panels Las Vegas,”
Branded searches—Customers that find your
listing searching for a brand related to your
business

Where customers view
your business on Google
This graph (which can also change to
show data from one week, one month,
or one quarter) shows the number of
views you’re getting on Google Maps,
versus the number of views you’re
getting on Google Search. This is
valuable information to track over time
because if these numbers aren’t
steadily growing, you know you need to
try some more marketing tactics.

Customer actions
This section shows you how many
actions were made directly from views
of your Google My Business profile and
posts. Actions tracked are website
visits, direction requests, and phone
calls made.

Phone calls
Phone calls show which days of the
week you’re receiving calls on. This can
be helpful information for staffing and
you can see if any specific marketing
campaigns may have had a greater
effect.

Photo views and
Photo quantity
These two sections compare your
photo views and quantity to businesses
like yours. So you can see how you
compare to other solar companies in
your region, which might inspire you to
add more photos or let you know you’re
doing well in that area, and keep up the
good work.

Want an even deeper
dive on insights?
Check out this article from Google.

You’ve
Come
This
Far...
What’s
Next?
Whether you started at Step 1, or Step 8, now
you have the information you need to take
your Google My Business profile to the next
level.
Remember, all of these GMB offerings are free
for businesses to use, so you might as well
take advantage of them!

This is Just the Beginning
You will see results from
setting up a fully fleshed out
GMB profile. But, depending
on your region and your
competitors, those actions
alone can’t compete with a
solar company that’s spending
$5,000+ a month on SEO
services—and some of them
certainly are.
That’s where we can help.
Setting up a great GMB profile
is really just the first step to an
ongoing SEO campaign.

Whether you’re just getting started and need help
with the basics, or want to compete with the big
dogs in your area and show up #1 on Google in a
competitive market, we have packages that can
take you to the next level.
Branded weekly Google My Business posts in our Google My Business Management package
Review management services (automating collecting reviews and even responding to them for
you depending on the package)
The Whole Farm—Our full service SEO package with lots of custom content, review
management, link building, press releases, and more.
Options for Solar Companies
Some of our offerings include:

We’d love to chat with you about what
your goals are and see how we can help!
Give us a call at (505) 365-1545 or
CONTACT US via our website.
Let's Chat!
Like. Follow. Share.
CONNECT WITH US!
Digital Harvest Solar

The Ultimate Google My Business Guide for Solar Companies -10 Steps to Generate More Qualified Leads Through Google

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