In 2019, I was working for Apollo Energy, a solar company focused on residential solar panel installations in the greater Denver area. The company was pretty new, about 3 years in, and obtained their customers primarily through referrals, door-to-door canvassing, trade shows, and purchasing leads online. In my spare time, I sought to help Apollo cut down on their cost per acquisition by increasing the amount of inbound leads to their website.
Local Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
I began implementing SEO techniques to their idle website in June of 2019. I eliminated duplicate content, added keywords to the title, image, and meta tags, implemented codes, and compressed images to help rank the website higher in Google’s search results.
Around the web, I built links with consistent information across over 100 local listings, blogs, and directories.
Content Development
While restructuring the website and optimizing its online presence, I began writing several blogs each month. The content was based on consumer questions and keyword research.
With high quality, steady content being posted to a well-optimized site, www.harnessoursun.com, as well as several of its blog posts, began ranking for relevant keywords within a few months.
Results: Online Traffic
As the company’s website began ranking higher on search results, more and more visitors searching for “solar companies in Denver” were able to find Apollo Energy. Below, is a graph taken from Google Search Console, showing website impressions increasing from an average of 100 per day to roughly 500 per day in a six month period.
The website impressions increased due to a higher ranking in Google’s search results. Below you can see that in June of 2019, the website ranked in the 90th position for the keyword “solar company”, meaning it was usually displayed on the fourth or fifth page of search results. By the end of the year, it was ranking closer to positions 7 & 8, displaying as one of the first three solar companies listed in the search results after websites like “Yelp” & “Homeadvisor”.
More importantly, however, Apollo Energy began displaying in Google Maps results. In the screenshot below, you will see how Google displays it’s maps results for local businesses first, after a few paid advertisement listings. Apollo Energy was able to rank third, behind the much larger “Namasté Solar” and national competitor “Blue Raven Solar” in the organic maps listings.
Additionally, below is a breakdown of Apollo’s appearance in Google Maps listings in the final quarter of 2019. The screenshot shows that 3,773 unique users used the search engine to find information related to the company and its services such as “solar companies”, “solar installers”, & “solar panels”. This was reflective of over a 300% increase year over year.
Results: Leads & Sales
Most importantly, the website began to receive many leads, through a contact form designed for potential customers seeking a free solar estimate. The highly qualified leads peaked during the industry’s busiest season with ten inquires in one week of late October. With a high performing phone and sales team, Apollo was able to close several sales in 2019 as a result of local SEO and content marketing.
So, at the end of 2019, I set off to create Local Mountain LLC in order to help more renewable energy and sustainability-minded businesses increase their online presence through high quality content marketing.
-Brian Church, founder. Find me on LinkedIn.
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