What do homeowners search for before they request a solar quote?
Short answer
Questions first, companies later. Homeowners start with whether solar suits their house and their bill, then batteries, ways to pay and the condition of the roof. After that they search installer names with the word reviews, and last of all a quote. Exact phrases vary, so check your own figures in Google Search Console.
Before requesting a solar quote, homeowners mostly search questions, not companies: whether solar suits their house and their bill, whether they need a battery, how to pay for it, and whether their roof is ready. Company searches come later, and the search for a quote comes last. The phrases below are illustrative. Nobody outside Google has the full record of what people type, so treat any list, including this one, as a starting point to check against your own data.
The searches, in rough order
The research tends to move from the decision to the details, and then to the companies. Not every homeowner takes every step, and many loop back.
| Stage | What the homeowner is settling | Searches of this kind |
|---|---|---|
| Deciding | Does solar make sense for my house? | “is solar worth it in San Diego”, “how does SDG&E bill solar customers” |
| Details | What exactly would I be buying? | “do I need a battery with solar”, “solar lease vs loan”, “how many panels do I need” |
| The roof | Is my roof ready? | “solar on a tile roof”, “replace roof before solar” |
| Companies | Who can I trust? | “solar installers Chula Vista”, a company name with “reviews” or “complaints” |
| Quote | Who do I contact? | “solar quote Escondido”, “solar companies near me” |
Why the early questions matter most to an installer
No installer has been chosen when the early questions are asked. By the time someone searches “solar companies near me”, they have often read enough to hold opinions and a short list. A company that answered one of the earlier questions is already a familiar name at that point.
The early searches are also where a local installer meets large national sites, so I’d aim at the specific ones: a question tied to San Diego County, a particular roof type, or adding a battery to panels someone already owns.
The checking searches near the end
Once a homeowner has a company name, they search the name itself, usually with “reviews” or “complaints” attached. It happens after a quote arrives or a salesperson visits, and after a neighbor’s recommendation too. An installer can prepare for that search with recent solar reviews that describe life after installation and a site that says who does the work. The same search is where a referral ends up when solar companies get leads without buying them.
Questions that go to an AI assistant
Many of these questions are now also put to AI assistants such as ChatGPT and Gemini, because they are long and conditional. “Should I add a battery if I’m home during the day and charge an electric car at night” is awkward to type into a search box and natural to ask in a chat.
The assistant composes one answer from several sources and may name companies in it. Which ones it names varies by assistant and by day. For AI visibility for solar companies, I test this with the prompts a real buyer would use.
How to find out what your own buyers searched
Your own data is a better guide than any published list, and every installer can get at it:
- Google Search Console, which reports the searches your site appeared for and the pages that showed.
- The search terms report in Google Ads, if you run ads, which lists what people typed before they clicked.
- Your sales team. The questions asked at a first appointment were usually searched in the days before it.
From there the work is one page per question on the solar website. Pages that depend on the utility’s current billing rules need a named owner at your company and a review date, because those rules change.