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Aug 30, 2021
As more and more people are becoming conscious about their power consumption, the shift towards renewable energy is steadily taking place. It won’t be long before every household and business, both big and small, in the US will be using solar energy.
As a smart solar company owner, you want to take advantage of the Internet to effectively promote your business to your ideal customers, so that when the time comes that they’re ready to go solar, you’re the first brand they have in mind.
Remember, there are more than 9,000 solar companies in each state. In other words, you’re not the only one who’s competing for customers.
If you want to get ahead of the competition, you need to take your digital marketing to the next level - and SEO for solar companies is the way to get started.
In this article, we will answer the following questions:
Without any more delays, let’s get started!
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SEO stands for search engine optimization. It involves a list of processes, strategies, and best practices that work together to improve the functionality, aesthetics, and quality of your website to help it rank higher in Google search results.
Examples of these strategies include using a mobile-friendly web design, doing keyword research, content creation, building backlinks, and more.
Without the right SEO strategy, your solar company won’t appear on the first page of search results and it will have difficulty competing with other solar companies in your area that have already established their SEO tactics.
Why does it matter, you ask? Well, here’s a fact: The average searcher will never go or check the second page of search engine results pages.
This means your ideal customers will never know about your company’s existence and your competitors get all the share in the market.
Conversely, if you did appear on the top results, you’ll likely get more clicks.
According to BackLinko, the top three Google search results get more than 75% of all clicks.
This increases your chances of getting more leads, closing more sales, and getting your share of the market.
There’s something we want you to keep in mind. When it comes to SEO, you have two audiences to please: Search Engine bots and human users.
You need to strike a balance between making sure that your website is search engine bot-friendly and at the same time, user-friendly.
SEO helps ensure that bots can easily comprehend your website and its content in relation to a query. The more relevant it is, the higher they’ll rank you.
SEO also helps you provide the best value and experience to human users by having a fast website, providing informational and highly relevant content, high-quality visuals, and more. This will allow you to demonstrate your expertise in your field and encourage your site visitors to convert into paying customers.
If you only optimize your site for the bots’ use, Google will penalize you. That can take away weeks’ worth of traffic and thousands of dollars' worth of sales.
SEO is a long-term strategy that can help your business continue to generate traffic and leads even long after you’ve established your tactics.
Overall, SEO is the most cost-effective and profitable approach to promoting your solar company online.
Without a doubt, ranking first on the search results offers so many perks. Here’s a list of benefits your company will enjoy with the right SEO strategy:
1. SEO can help you generate a steady flow of web traffic, which is crucial in raising brand awareness and allows you to generate leads. Remember, people tend to buy from brands they know or products that are most talked about.
2. SEO can get you quality leads consistently, allowing you to convert more prospects into paying customers and customers into brand loyalists.
3. SEO can build trust and establish your credibility in the solar power industry, helping you get ahead of your competitors. The more people trust you, the more they’ll likely do business with you and recommend you to others.
4. SEO can put you ahead of your competitors by making sure your target audience finds you first and end up choosing you over your competitors.
Starting an SEO campaign for your solar company doesn’t have to be complicated. Start with the basics, learn how to perfect them, and then slowly work your way to more advanced tactics.
Here’s how to begin:
Keyword research is the process of knowing which terms your target audience is using in their search, which keywords are easy to rank for, and the key terms your competitors are ranking for.
Conducting keyword research provides you the information you can use to bridge the gap between what your ideal customers are searching for and what you have to offer.
When you know the intent behind your target audience’s search query, rather than guessing what they are looking for, you can produce highly relevant content that resonates with their needs, wants, pain points, and more.
When you show up on the search results with a topic that you know they’ll be interested in, you’re more likely going to attract clicks.
Now, getting clicks is only the first step. Once they land on your site, you want to keep them engaged so they stay longer and keep them coming back for more. This is what your blog posts, infographics, video content, and visuals are for.
By using relevant terms in your content that searchers use when they look your business up on the internet, you also create a link or establish your relevance to those queries.
This serves as a signal to search engine bots telling them that you deserve to get indexed for such queries.
There are several tools on the internet that you can use to do keyword research, such as KeywordsFX, Google Search Console, Moz Keywords Explorer, and more.
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Once you know what keywords to use, what topics to discuss, the questions you need to answer, and the pain points you need to address, you can start creating blog posts, infographics, video content, and other types of content.
For example, if you choose the keyword “affordable solar panel”, create a page that gives them a list of different affordable solar panel options. You can also split it into two different blog posts - one discussing the different affordable solar panel options for residential use, and the other for business use.
This makes it easier for your audiences to find exactly what they’re looking for.
You should create content around your ideal customer’s interests and then apply best practices - such as the use of keywords, optimizing meta descriptions, and use of high-quality images - to help them rank high on Google.
Also, avoid stuffing your content with keywords. It may help your pages rank for relevant searches at first, but web visitors will find them useless and will bounce right after landing. Over time, Google will be able to pick up on these signals and penalize you.
It is also a missed opportunity to generate leads and make sales when web visitors land on your site but fail to interact with its content because they don’t provide any value.
A clean HTML code is vital in helping your website rank higher for relevant searches.
Why so?
It’s because search engine bots have limitations when crawling and indexing websites. They’re only able to read text, which means other elements, such as script files, audio, and video are completely foreign to them. This prevents them from completely crawling and properly indexing a site.
With a clean HTML code, bots will easily understand your website and its pages. It also makes your site more secure and stable, and there’s a lesser chance for downtime.
Three of the most important codes you need to optimize are:
These elements provide bots information about your pages, which allows them to better understand and rank them accordingly.
Backlinks serve as trust signals that tell Google you deserve to rank high, and that you’re legit and a trusted source in your industry.
When high-authority sites link to you, it means you’re worthy of getting cited. And, Google sees this as a vote of confidence.
More quality backlinks mean higher possibilities of Google seeing you as a person of authority, an industry leader, or an expert in your field.
Publishing high-quality, relevant content is the key to getting backlinks.
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Your web design plays an important role in your SEO campaign.
It’s the first place most people experience and interact with your solar company, which is why you should make a good impression.
Optimizing your website by choosing a mobile-friendly design and striking a balance between functionality and aesthetics enables you to build confidence among your web visitors.
A professionally designed website can give off the impression that your company is reliable and trustworthy, so they’re more likely to linger and explore its pages.
Feature customer testimonials, reviews, and feedback to further build trust and rapport.
Remember, the longer a visitor stays on your site, the more they’ll likely convert. So, don’t forget to keep your visitors scrolling by supplying them with highly engaging content!
To be honest, SEO for solar companies is more complex than just setting the right strategies and following best practices. It’s mostly because the algorithm changes from time to time, which means you’ll need to be on the constant lookout for the latest developments.
But, don’t worry because that’s what experts are for!
At Digital Resource, our team of SEO experts can build a solid SEO strategy that’s bespoke to your business goals. Together, we can help you achieve growth, faster than you ever imagined.
Don’t believe us? Check out our client testimonials to see how we’ve helped businesses across the US grow their business online.
Think you've got what it takes to hang with the pros at Digital Resource? Check out our Careers page to browse current job openings!
