Solar is a good fit for AEO because buyers have a lot of questions before they ever contact an installer, and the purchase is high-value, local, and trust-driven. Here’s how I’d set it up.
1. Start with a client discovery session
Get answers to these before you write anything:
- Service area: which cities, regions, or pin codes/zip codes they install in. Solar is a local business, so geography shapes almost every prompt.
- Offerings: residential rooftop, commercial and industrial, solar plus battery, battery-only retrofits, EV charger integration, maintenance, and financing.
- Brands and equipment: panels, inverters, and batteries they install or are certified for.
- Best customers: which past projects were the most profitable, the easiest to close, and the happiest after installation.
- Differentiators: warranty terms, installation speed, after-sales service, financing options, and certifications.
- Common objections: from sales calls, such as cost, payback period, roof suitability, or battery lifespan.
- Competitors: the three to five installers they most often lose deals to.
2. Define two or three ICPs
Don’t treat “everyone who wants solar” as one audience. A solar company typically serves segments like these:
ICP 1: Homeowner adding solar plus battery
Owns a home, has high electricity bills or frequent outages, wants backup power, and cares about payback and reliability.
ICP 2: Homeowner with solar already, adding a battery
Wants to store excess generation or cope with changing tariffs or net-metering rules.
ICP 3: Small or mid-size business
Owns or leases a facility, wants to cut operating costs, and cares about ROI, depreciation or tax benefits, and downtime protection.
For each one, document the trigger (a bill spike, an outage, a new home), the decision-makers, the budget range, the financing needs, and the criteria they compare.
3. Build a prompt set from the ICPs
Write the prompts real buyers would type, mapped to the journey. Examples:
- Awareness: “Why is my electricity bill so high and can solar fix it?” / “Is solar worth it for a 3-bedroom house?”
- Education: “How many solar panels do I need for a 1,500 sq ft home?” / “How long do solar batteries last?” / “On-grid vs hybrid vs off-grid solar”
- Consideration: “Best solar installers in [city]” / “Best solar battery for home backup during power cuts”
- Comparison: “[Battery brand A] vs [Battery brand B]” / “[Client] vs [competitor] solar installation”
- Decision: “How much does a 5 kW solar system with battery cost in [city]?” / “Are there subsidies or incentives for home solar in [region]?” / “What warranty should I expect from a solar installer?”
- Post-install: “How do I monitor my solar system performance?” / “How often do solar panels need cleaning or servicing?”
Add the modifiers that matter in this industry, such as roof type, system size, budget, financing, and how many outages the buyer experiences. Aim for 40 to 80 prompts, grouped by stage and by service.
4. Create content that answers those prompts
Answer engines favor clear, specific, factual pages. For this client, prioritize:
- Pricing pages: realistic cost ranges by system size, what’s included, and what affects the price. Pricing transparency is one of the biggest gaps in the solar industry, and AI engines tend to cite sources that give straight answers.
- City and region pages: one per service area, covering local installation details, rules, and completed projects there.
- Comparison pages: battery brands, inverter types, and on-grid vs hybrid vs off-grid.
- Calculators and guides: system size, savings, and payback estimators, plus guides like “how to size a battery for backup.”
- Project case studies: include system size, equipment used, location, cost, and measured results such as bill savings or backup hours.
- Incentive and policy explainers: subsidies, tax credits, and net-metering rules change often, so keep these updated and dated.
- FAQ and objection pages: answer the honest concerns, like “Is solar worth it if I rent?” or “What happens during a power cut?”
- Warranty and service pages: state exactly what’s covered, for how long, and how claims work.
Write each page so the first paragraph answers the question directly, then add detail underneath with clear headings.
5. Strengthen trust signals and off-site presence
AI engines lean on third-party sources to decide who to recommend, and solar buyers worry about trust:
- Google Business Profile: complete it fully, with services, areas, photos, and regular posts.
- Reviews: build a steady flow of detailed reviews on Google and relevant platforms, and ask customers to mention system type, location, and experience.
- Directories and marketplaces: listings on solar installer directories, government or utility installer lists, and manufacturer partner or certified-installer pages.
- Certifications: display licenses, accreditations, and brand partnerships clearly on the site and everywhere else they can be listed.
- Communities and press: helpful, non-promotional participation in forums and Reddit threads where people discuss solar, plus local news and industry publications.
- Consistent details: keep the business name, address, phone number, and service descriptions identical across the web.
6. Handle the technical basics
- Use LocalBusiness (or HomeAndConstructionBusiness) schema, plus FAQ, Review, and Product/Service schema where it fits.
- Make sure the site is crawlable and loads quickly, and that important content isn’t hidden behind forms or scripts.
- Allow AI crawlers in robots.txt unless the client has a reason to block them.
- Put dates on pricing and incentive content, and refresh it on a schedule.
7. Track and report
- Run the prompt set monthly across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Claude.
- Record for each prompt whether the client is mentioned, cited, or recommended, what’s said about them, and which competitors and sources appear.
- Track a few headline numbers: share of prompts where the client appears, citation count, and sentiment of the description.
- Connect it to business results by adding “how did you hear about us?” to the lead form, with an AI option, and watch branded search and direct traffic.
8. A simple 90-day plan
Days 1 to 30: foundation. Discovery, ICPs, prompt set, baseline visibility audit, Google Business Profile cleanup, and schema and technical fixes.
Days 31 to 60: content. Publish the pricing page, two or three city pages, the top comparison pages, and the main FAQ and incentive explainers. Start a review-request process.
Days 61 to 90: expand and measure. Add case studies, calculators, and remaining city pages, pursue directory and community presence, re-run the audit, and report on the changes.
Two caveats: subsidies, tariffs, and net-metering rules vary by country and change often, so verify them for the client’s region before publishing, and AI results fluctuate, so judge progress over several runs rather than a single test.
