It’s nice to be recognized…by Google’s search engine. How so?
Recently, if you do a search on Google for “solar water heating for apartment buildings” or “solar hot water for apartment buildings,” or “solar thermal apartment buildings,” Free Hot Water comes up in the first page of search results.
How? Why? Does it work for anyone? Let’s take those questions one by one:
How did Free Hot Water Get on the first page of search results?
Excellent question. The short answer is because we dedicate a great deal of this blog and a lot of other information to helping apartment building owners and their solar installers to go solar.
For example, in past blog posts, we’ve given several economic case studies about apartment buildings going solar, and that organically tells Google that one of our specialties is providing solar thermal equipment and design services for installing solar for ….wait for it…apartment buildings. Very simple. But that’s only part of the story.
We also provide our registered solar partner installers with apartment building resources, such as a down-loadable, apartment building solar thermal site assessment form, not to mention our online slate of solar thermal calculators.
Finally, Google sees that we’re in the solar news. Most recently, for starting California’s largest multi-residential solar water heating project under the new CSI rebate program. So, press releases and getting press also helps boost rankings too.
Bottom line: Google search engines reward solar businesses for telling people what you do and sharing specific, useful information.
Why did Free Hot Water get on the first page of search results?
Short answer: Obviously, to grow our business, but also to grow yours. Let me explain:
There are essentially two ways to get attention for your solar water heating business. Advertising or social media efforts.
Advertising, the old way, requires the least amount of effort, but it’s also costly, since it involves a lot of repetitive advertising dollars spent on Google, news papers, magazines, etc. Plus, despite this increased cost, ads provides little or no service to you, our customers. It’s a one-way, “Hey, look at our solar products!” conversation. Actually, it’s not even a conversation. It’s just telling you information.
The second way to market solar is through the new world of “social media.” That is, writing this blog , interacting on Twitter, being on Facebook and other sites. Sure, we still talk about our products here, but it’s not a one-way street. Instead, we can have a two-way dialog through your comments, reaching out to both our professional installer customers and to apartment building consumers who are searching the internet for more information about going solar.
Bottom line: Instead of focusing on advertising, we use social media to provide customers with useful solar information—like this solar marketing related post or last month’s solar thermal state incentives update. We also enable people to interact with us here or on Facebook or Twitter and respond as quickly as possible. So, this is more than just “marketing.” It’s a new form of customer service.
Does it work for anyone?
Absolutely. We’re not Heliodyne or Schuco … but we are on the first page of Google for certain search results—and you can be too.
Want more useful info? Sign up for our monthly e-newsletter, and if you’re not already, become a Free Hot Water solar partner installer. (Also, don’t forget to drop by and say hello at Intersolar! Booth 8111.)
