What actually converts above the fold for residential solar

▶ 0:00Welcome back. Happy Boxing Day. Today I'm going to take you through my recommendations for the above the fold section of a residential solar website. So above the fold is essentially just the area that you see before you scroll down the page. And you may not think so, but scrolling in itself is an action that someone is taking to consume or to find more information.

▶ 0:22So many people, when they land on a page, actually won't scroll at all. And therefore the area that is above the fold, above that part where they have to scroll down, is essentially the most critical part of the page in its entirety. So we need to make sure that we pack as much delicately considered areas and items and features into that area as possible so that we can maximize the likelihood that someone takes the action that we actually want them to take from landing on that page.

▶ 0:49So I have obscured some of the information on this page because this is yet to launch. This is a client that we're currently building this site out for. But the elements are still exactly the same. So you can see I've hidden the logo and the phone and email, but I will take you through as if it was a live page. So first things first, headline.

▶ 1:07Make this just utterly clear and concise. Solar panels for your home. It doesn't get more simple than that, really. I mean, so with this page, we've got an element of trying to rank locally for search terms and solar panels consistently has more volume than solar installation, for example. So that is why we've kind of gone that route, solar panels for your home, rather than solar installation for your home.

▶ 1:33There could be an element to it where if you're not as concerned about ranking for certain keywords, then you would actually use the headline to hammer down the core benefit. So you could say save 70% on your energy bills. Right. And that would be just as relevant to the visitor having landed on this page. Another thing to consider is if you're running paid traffic to this page, the headline needs to match as closely as possible the copy that was used within the advertisement itself, whether that's on Meta or Google or anywhere else.

▶ 2:05On Google, it's obviously very simple because it's just text. So it needs to basically just 100% match that text on Meta. It's a little bit different. It could match the call to action. It could match the title and various different bits, but it needs to be very, very consistent throughout the whole process. Otherwise, people will think that they've landed on the wrong page.

▶ 2:22The next thing I want to break down is the cell copy. Simplify your home's energy transition with and then that would be the company name. Just basically elevating the initial headline. Or you could use this to bring in some social proof. So you could say join thousands of homeowners that have used X company name to make their transition to renewable energy.

▶ 2:42And then we like to do four call outs, benefit call outs. So we've got based in Canterbury, fully accredited local installer, installer 100% five star rated and experts in energy generation and consumption, which is this company's specific kind of USP. They don't just install solar, they will actually do a full assessment on your home's energy usage and energy loss profile.

▶ 3:03And then they can recommend you the most high impact or high leverage solution for your home in particular. Then we've got some logos coming across here. If you're a commercial installer, this should be your clients. But as a residential installer, quite often you can kind of lean on the brand association of the hardware that you install.

▶ 3:25So if you install GiveEnergy, SolarEdge, Tesla, then you want to be putting those logos on this page because people are going to associate you with the associations they hold for those brands, which are obviously much bigger than yourself in the vast majority of cases. Then we've got the call to actions, so two really clear call to actions, one that's primary, which in this case is your contact us, and then one that's secondary, which is the instant solar quote here.

▶ 3:50And below that, immediately below that, you want to put social proof in the form of reviews and a summary of your overall profile. Now for this client, obviously a huge part of what we're working with them on is increasing this number of reviews. The quality of the reviews is great, but we've got to get a much, much higher volume, at least 50, very quickly to be able to compete in that area.

▶ 4:12So that's going to be a priority, but that doesn't mean that you don't reference it anyway, even with this low figure. We'll also be looking to get reviews that actually have the customer avatars, because what you want is for someone to be able to relate to this person. I can't relate to AA, to HT, to BS, and this is just a Volkswagen Golf, unless I've got a Golf, it's going to be hard to relate to that, right?

▶ 4:34Which I do actually have a Golf, but that's besides the point. So you want to have the customer avatars, there's people's faces, so people can actually kind of put into perspective the real people that are behind those reviews, rather than it just feeling like a very impersonal number, right? Next thing is you want to basically tease what is next on the page, because if someone isn't going to click these call to actions and hasn't been served already by the top part of this page, you want to encourage them to scroll down further so that they can start to see more of the content that is available on the page.

▶ 5:11So what you do is show part of an element that, for most screen sizes, will be slightly cut off. So in this case, you can see that these boxes are slightly cut off, and even better would be if I kind of positioned it like there, where you can see like half of the text, but you can't see what's next, because that is psychologically just going to encourage you to scroll and start to consume more of the content on the page, which, if done correctly, will increase your likelihood of converting.

▶ 5:38What would be much better on the right here, and we'll definitely replace this in time, would be an image of an installation actually taking place with people, ideally looking at the camera and smiling, because people work with people, people relate with people, people don't relate with panels on a roof in this format.

▶ 5:57While this is a very pretty image, we'll definitely swap this out once we have pictures of the actual install team up on the roof serving a customer, okay? You can also use the left side to have some sort of call-out advertisement, book a February home energy assessment for 10% off. You could also link out to a valuable news item, maybe it's a comprehensive guide to everything you should consider before you install solar, and that's a really valuable resource that you think will aid the customer journey.

▶ 6:28So if you want to give that priority, you could feature that across the top there, and that would be visible on every page. So that is a pretty comprehensive breakdown of everything that I would personally include. And of course, it goes without saying you've got your instant quote and contact us buttons at the top of the page as well, fixed in place there.

▶ 6:44So if your service landing page looks completely different to this and doesn't feature any of the elements that I've mentioned, it would definitely be worth thinking about a rework on it or even a new website entirely. In which case, you should definitely reach out to us and we can guide you through that process. Even if we don't end up working together, we can put together a sitemap or a plan for the structure of the website that you can then take away and you can use to get that done either by another provider or do it yourself if you feel comfortable doing so.

▶ 7:11So hopefully that was useful. If you try this format and you measure conversion rates and heat maps of user behavior and things, definitely do let me know how that goes because we're constantly optimizing this and improving it into the future for our clients. Appreciate your time. I will catch you in the next one.