How a solar installer gets recommended by AI assistants

Solar installers get recommended on the numbers a homeowner or a business is actually trying to work out: what a system of a given size costs installed, how much it will realistically generate where they live, what subsidy applies and whether you are empanelled to claim it, and what the warranty covers. Claims about clean energy leadership do nothing at all.

The companion page on what buyers ask AI before choosing a solar installer is the question list in the buyer's own words. This page is what to change on your site.

What buyers of a solar installer actually ask an assistant

Three buyers who barely overlap. A homeowner with a roof. A housing society secretary acting for a whole building. A factory or commercial owner looking at a captive plant or an open access arrangement.

• "Cost of a rooftop system of this size, fitted, in my city"
• "How many units will it actually generate per day here"
• "Am I eligible for the rooftop subsidy and how is it paid"
• "Do I have to use an empanelled vendor to get the subsidy"
• "How long does net metering take with my electricity distribution company"
• "Are these panels on the approved list, and does that matter"
• "Who services it after five years if the company shuts down"
• "For a factory, is buying the plant better than a power purchase arrangement"

Four of those eight are about money and paperwork rather than technology. That is where the answer is decided.

Why honest generation figures matter most

The question behind almost every solar enquiry is whether the payback is real. If your page quotes a best case output, a careful answer will not repeat it, and if a reader checks it against their own bill you lose everything else on the page.

An installer who publishes realistic generation for their own districts, with the range across seasons and the factors that reduce it, is publishing the one thing buyers cannot get anywhere reliable. That is a very strong position, and it is not available to a national brand writing one page for the whole country.

Which sources the assistants read for this trade

The national rooftop scheme portal and the ministry's own pages, which carry the eligibility rules, the application sequence and the current subsidy position. These are the primary source and you should link rather than restate.

Your electricity distribution company's pages, which publish the net metering application process, the technical feasibility step, the meter installation stage and often the list of empanelled or registered vendors. Appearing on that vendor list is the single strongest third party credential in this trade.

The approved models and manufacturers lists, which decide whether a module or a cell can be used in a scheme supported installation. An assistant asked whether a panel qualifies will look there.

Standards certification records for modules and inverters, which a careful buyer checks before a large purchase.

Map and local listings for each district you serve, because almost every question carries a place and local questions are answered from local sources first.

Housing society, homeowner and small business communities, where actual bills, generation readings, subsidy delays and installer experiences are shared with numbers attached.

What to publish

Installed cost by system size, as a range, dated, stating what is included: modules, inverter, mounting structure, cabling, earthing and lightning protection, the net meter application and liaison, and commissioning. Then state what is extra: a longer cable run, a raised structure over a water tank, civil work, a change of service connection, and any charge the distribution company levies.

Realistic generation for the districts you serve, season by season, with the conditions that reduce it named: shading from a tank or a neighbouring wall, an east or west facing roof, dust in the dry months, and the monsoon weeks. Say where your figures come from, which should be meter readings from systems you installed, with the months and the year written down.

Your empanelment status, stated plainly: which distribution companies you are registered with, under what vendor identifier, and whether a buyer can claim the subsidy through you. This decides eligibility for many buyers and almost no installer states it.

The subsidy and net metering process as a sequence, with the official links and the date you checked. Registration on the national portal, vendor selection, application to the distribution company, technical feasibility approval, installation, inspection, meter installation, commissioning and the subsidy credit to the bank account. Say which step usually takes longest in your area, and never state a subsidy amount as your own figure.

Equipment, named. Which module and inverter makes and models you actually install, the technology, and whether the modules are on the approved list. State the tiers you offer and what the price difference buys.

Warranty terms, separated into three. The module performance warranty from the manufacturer, the inverter warranty, and your own workmanship warranty on the structure, the cabling and the waterproofing. The third is the one buyers discover is missing after the first monsoon, and publishing it is the strongest differentiator available to a local installer.

Service and maintenance. What a maintenance contract covers, what the response time is for a fault, what is chargeable, and who to call. Say what happens to the warranty if the buyer cleans the panels themselves.

Where you actually work. The districts or cities you serve and can reach with an engineer within a working day.

For commercial buyers, the ownership options, explained as structures: buying the plant outright, a power purchase arrangement where a developer owns it and sells the units, and open access where power is bought from elsewhere. State what each one does to the balance sheet, who maintains the plant, and what the exit terms usually look like. Do not publish a tariff or a payback period as a promise.

A worked example: the generation page for one district

This is the hardest page to write honestly and the most valuable one you will own.

Name the district. State the conditions you are describing: an unshaded roof, a stated orientation, a standard mounting structure, and modules cleaned at a stated frequency. Give the monthly generation range you have actually seen from systems of that size in that district, taken from the meter, with the months and the year written down. Give the best month and the worst month separately, because an annual average hides the question the buyer is really asking.

Then list the four things that reduce it and what each one costs in output as a direction rather than a fabricated percentage: shading from a water tank or a parapet, an east or west facing roof, dust accumulation in the dry months, and extended cloud cover in the monsoon. For each, say what you do about it at the survey stage, such as raising the structure, changing the string layout or recommending a smaller system.

Finish with the sentence that makes it useful: how the buyer can check your figure against their own electricity bill after three months, and what to do if it does not match.

That page can be quoted in a sentence, it can be verified by the buyer, and it is the page that stops you selling a system to a roof that should not have one.

What hurts

Guaranteed payback periods. Generation figures with no conditions attached. Subsidy amounts with no date or source. Implying a manufacturer relationship you do not have. Claiming empanelment you do not hold, which is checkable in one click. In a category where buyers have been disappointed often, checkable modesty is the advantage.

How to measure it

Ask the questions above with your district and a system size attached, on more than one assistant, without naming your company. Score whether any installer is named, whether a marketplace or a national brand is named instead, and whether you appear.

Read the citations. If they are the national portal and the distribution company's pages, your job is to link them and own the practical sequence. If they are local listings, your job is presence and accuracy there first.

Disclosure: we sell AI Knows Us, which runs this measurement on a schedule. No tool, ours included, can promise you a position in an assistant's answer.

What this does not cover and cannot do

It does not cover plant design. Panel layout, string sizing, structure loading and earthing are engineering decisions and no buyer searches for them.

It cannot give a subsidy figure, because the amount and the rules change and the only correct source is the official portal on the day the buyer reads it. Link there rather than restating.

It cannot get you empanelled. That is an application to the distribution company with its own requirements, and it is worth doing for the business reasons before the visibility reasons.

It also cannot help with a district you do not serve. If you cannot send an engineer within a working day, being named in an answer about that place only produces an enquiry you will disappoint.

And it does not replace the approvals the installation itself needs, including the distribution company's technical approval, the electrical inspector's clearance for larger plants, and any society or building permission. Those are obligations, and the page exists because buyers ask about them.

Common questions

Our prices change every quarter. Should we publish them?

Yes, as a band with the month written next to it, and change it when it moves. A dated band slightly out of date is still quotable. A page with no number cannot be used at all, and buyers already know solar prices move.

Will honest generation figures lose us sales to installers who exaggerate?

You will lose some enquiries from buyers chasing the best case number, and you will lose them at the enquiry stage rather than after the site survey. You also become the page a careful buyer and a careful assistant will repeat. Exaggerated figures produce the complaint threads that later decide the answer about your company.

We are not empanelled with the distribution company. What do we write?

State it plainly, and state what you can still do: a system without the subsidy, or the work under another empanelled vendor where that arrangement is permitted. A buyer who discovers the gap after paying is a complaint. A buyer who reads it on your page either accepts it or is not your customer.

Do reviews matter more than website pages for an installer?

For a question that carries a locality, listings and reviews usually carry more weight, because that is where assistants find local businesses at all. For a question about cost, generation, subsidy or warranty, your own pages matter more, because nobody writes that detail in a review. You need both and most installers have neither.

We do residential and industrial work. One page or several?

At least three: homeowner, housing society and commercial or industrial. A society decision needs a resolution, a common area metering answer and a billing split. An industrial buyer asks about ownership structure, maintenance and the effect on their existing sanctioned load. A single page serving all three answers none of them well enough to be quoted.

What to do first

Publish the installed cost band with a date, the generation page for your main district, and your empanelment status. Then the warranty page with the three warranties separated. Those four answer most of what is being asked, and none of them needs anything you do not already know.