The cheapest lead source you own, and the one most installers set up once in 2019 and never touched again.
When a homeowner searches for a solar installer near them, Google shows a map with three businesses above everything else. Those three get most of the clicks. Which three appear is decided largely by distance, relevance and prominence, and prominence is the part you control.
This is the single most useful thing on this page. A business with 40 reviews and three new ones this month generally outperforms a business with 400 reviews and none this year. Recency signals that you are trading now. A dormant pile of 2021 reviews signals the opposite.
The practical target is modest. Two to four new reviews a month, every month, forever. That is one review from roughly every third or fourth job for most installers, and it is achievable without nagging anybody.
The moment to ask is when the system is commissioned, the app is open on the customer's phone and they have just watched their own meter run backwards. That is the peak of goodwill and it never comes back. An email a week later arrives when the novelty has gone and the invoice has landed.
Ask on their phone, with them, while you are still standing there. Not a QR code on a card they will lose. Not a text you will send later.
"Before I head off, can I ask a favour? Reviews are pretty much how people find us. Have you got your phone there? If you search our name, there's a review button right at the top."
"If you can mention the suburb and what we put in, that helps us more than anything. Takes about a minute."
Short, because a long script does not get used. The suburb and the equipment matter because reviews mentioning both give Google specific text to match against specific searches. You cannot instruct a customer to write that, and you can mention that it helps.
Respond to all of them, briefly. Two sentences on a good one. The bad ones are the ones prospective customers actually read, so those are worth thinking about.
The reader of a bad review is not the person who wrote it. It is a homeowner deciding whether to call you, watching how you behave when something goes wrong. Argue and you lose them, whatever the facts.
Review
"Panels are fine but the install got pushed back twice and we found out both times by ringing them. Not what you expect after paying a deposit."
Reply
"You're right, and that one's on us. Your install moved because of the inverter backorder in June, but you should have heard that from us rather than having to chase it. We've since changed how we handle date changes, so the customer gets a call the same day we know. Sorry for the run-around, and thanks for the panels comment. If there's anything outstanding, ring me directly on [number]. Dave, owner."
That reply concedes the point, gives the real reason without hiding behind it, names the fix, and puts an owner's name and number on it. A homeowner reading that comes away more likely to call you, not less.
What not to do: dispute the timeline, mention the deposit terms, say "we tried to contact you", or reply with the same paragraph you use on every review. All four are visible from orbit.
This one quietly costs multi-suburb installers a great deal of work.
If customers do not come to your premises, Google expects you to hide your address and set service areas instead. Plenty of installers list a home address or a warehouse, leave it visible, and end up ranked as though they only serve the handful of suburbs around a shed in an industrial estate.
Set your service areas to the regions you actually work in, and keep the list honest. Listing all of Sydney when you work the north shore does not gain you the south west, it dilutes the whole profile. Twenty suburbs you genuinely cover beats two hundred you do not.
The playbook has the full version: lead prices by channel with sources named, the one-page quote follow-up, the 2026 rebate picture, and what our own readers research before they buy. Twenty pages, free.
Upload real job photos, monthly, taken on a phone. Completed arrays, switchboards, the crew, the truck. Not manufacturer stock images of panels on an American roof.
On geotagging: adding location data to photos before you upload them is a piece of folklore that circulates in every trade. Google strips most of it and has said location metadata in photos does not affect local ranking. Uploading regularly does matter, which is the part people skip because it is work.
Your profile has a questions and answers area that anyone can post to, including your competitors. Most installers have never looked at theirs.
Seed it yourself. Post the eight questions you answer on every single quote, and answer them from the business account. Do it once and it works for years.
Google lets you publish short posts to your profile. The claimed benefit is ranking. The honest position is that we have seen no credible evidence that posting moves local rankings, and Google has never said it does.
What posts do is occupy space on your profile when a homeowner is already looking at it, comparing you with two others. A recent post about a job you finished in their suburb is a small, cheap piece of reassurance at the moment of choosing. Treat it as conversion furniture rather than a ranking tactic, spend five minutes a fortnight on it, and do not let anyone sell you a content package for it.
The whole page compresses to this. Half an hour a month, done by the same person every month.
| Task | How often | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Ask for reviews at handover | Every job | Velocity is the strongest lever you control. Target two to four a month. |
| Reply to every review | Weekly | The bad ones are what prospects read. Reply as an owner, with a name. |
| Upload job photos | Monthly | Signals an active business. Real photos, taken on a phone. |
| Check service areas | Quarterly | A visible address on a non-visited premises buries you outside its suburb. |
| Seed and answer questions | Once, then review | Answers the objections before they reach the phone call. |
| Check hours and phone number | Quarterly | Wrong public holiday hours send a ready customer to a competitor. |
Put the review ask into the handover checklist, so it happens on every job without anyone deciding to do it. Everything else here is worth points. That one is worth the page.
Five guides. Written once, reviewed every six months.
Lead prices by channel with the sources named, the Google Business Profile playbook, a follow-up cadence that stops instead of nagging, the 2026 rebate picture, and what our own readers research before they buy. Useful whether or not you ever advertise with us.