Solar installers with zero Google reviews: the number, and this week's fix
A real share of solar installers have no Google reviews at all. Here is what that number means, why it hurts more in solar, and a plan to get your first ten.
A homeowner who just got a solar quote does one thing before signing a 20-year decision: they look you up. If your Google profile shows no reviews at all, the conversation is over before your proposal gets a second read.
That is not a rare situation. Here is the number from our benchmark data, why it matters more in solar than almost any other home service, and what to do about it this week.
The number
Across the 32,440 solar installer listings we track, 17% have zero Google reviews. Counting those, 40.7% have fewer than ten.
Meanwhile the median installer has 18 reviews and the top tenth have 287 or more. So the field splits. A large group has almost nothing. A small group has a lot.
Some of the zero-review listings are new companies. Some are installers who rely on door-to-door sales or a dealer network and never thought about their profile. Some are national brands with a local listing nobody manages. Whatever the reason, the effect on a homeowner is the same.
You can see your own state in the benchmark report.
Why zero reviews hurts more in solar
Solar has a trust problem the rest of home services does not have to the same degree. Homeowners have heard about high-pressure sales, bad financing terms and installers who disappeared after the install. They come to the decision expecting to be sold.
Reviews are how they check. They are looking for specific things: Did the crew show up when promised? Did the permit and interconnection go smoothly? Did the savings match the proposal? Did the company answer the phone a year later?
An installer with zero reviews cannot answer any of those questions. An installer with a dozen recent, detailed reviews can.
Reviews also feed AI answers. When someone asks ChatGPT or Google for "the best solar installers near me," those tools lean on what customers have written about you. The AI search guide covers that in more detail.
This week's fix: your first ten reviews
If you are in the zero group, or under ten, here is a plan for the next seven days.
Day 1: build the list. Pull every customer whose system has been on and producing for at least two months. Those people have seen a real bill. Sort by install date, newest first.
Day 2: get your link. In your Google Business Profile, find the "Ask for reviews" button and copy the short link. Test it on your own phone.
Day 3: text the ten most recent customers. Not email. Text gets read. A hypothetical example:
"Hi Carlos, it is Dana from SunPath. Your system has been running about three months now. How does the bill look? If you are happy with how things went, a quick Google review would mean a lot to our small team: [link]."
The question about the bill matters. It starts a conversation, and if something is wrong, you hear about it before it turns into a public complaint.
Day 4: call anyone who replied with a problem. Fix it. A customer whose issue you solved fast often becomes your best reviewer.
Day 5: text the next ten. Same message.
Day 6: reply to every review that came in. Thank them by first name and mention one detail from their job. "Thanks, Carlos. Glad the panel layout on the garage roof worked out."
Day 7: add the ask to your process. From now on, every customer gets the text about 30 days after permission to operate, when the first bill arrives.
The reviews guide has more scripts, including what to say in person at the final inspection.
What not to do
- Do not buy reviews or swap them with other businesses. Google removes them and can suspend the profile.
- Do not offer a gift card for a five-star review. Google's rules prohibit incentives for reviews.
- Do not send all past customers on the same day. A sudden spike from a profile with zero history can look odd. Ten a day for a week or two looks like a real company catching up.
While the reviews come in
Ten reviews will not happen overnight. In the meantime, make the rest of your profile look like a business people trust:
- Fill in your hours. 24.8% of solar listings show none.
- Upload photos of real installs in your area, with the town in the caption.
- Add your services: residential solar, battery storage, panel upgrades, roof work if you do it.
The Google Business Profile guide walks through each field.
Why this is worth an hour
Every proposal you send right now is being checked against your profile. If you send ten proposals a month and your profile has zero reviews, all ten homeowners see an empty page. Fixing that is cheaper than any ad.
If you want help setting up review requests or your Google profile, there is a free 14-day trial of any service, no card needed. Text or call (801) 751-4071.
Steven has spent the last several years running growth campaigns for local service businesses, solar installers among them, and builds the benchmark datasets on this site from public Google listings. About the editor