Three options. Only one actually works for your business.
Customers don't know they need you. CEC installers won't refer. Awareness is the whole game.
Solar panel cleaning is a post-install service category fighting an awareness problem most trades don't have. Most solar owners genuinely don't know panels need cleaning (they remember the 25-year panel warranty and assume that means 25 years of set-and-forget), don't know that dust, pollen and bird droppings cut generation by 10-25% in a year, and don't know that some manufacturer warranties are voided by failure to maintain. The CEC-accredited installers who put the panels on rarely do cleaning themselves (it's a different ticket, working-at-heights, EWP and harness, often a different insurance class), so they don't refer the work, and the customer never finds out who to ring. Worse, the work splits across three different customer types: residential rooftop (the 6.6kW or 10kW system on a Sydney inner-suburb house, where the customer might pay $250-400 for a clean), commercial PV array (warehouse roofs, factory rooftops, supermarket arrays, where the contract value is $2,000-15,000 per visit and the cycle is 6-monthly or quarterly), and large-scale solar farm cleaning (specialist robotic or manual work on multi-megawatt installations, totally different ticket). One generic 'we clean solar panels' homepage loses every one of them. The customer who actually does know they need a clean (often because generation dropped sharply after a dust storm or summer pollen) Googles 'solar panel cleaning near me' and rings whoever pops up. Without you sitting on the working-at-heights compliance, the soft-brush-and-deionised-water method, and the post-clean inspection report, you lose to the bloke with a ladder and a garden hose.
Good solar-panel-cleaning marketing is three things, in this order: awareness content that explains the generation-drop problem (so the customer who doesn't know they need a clean actually finds out via search, then rings), a clear three-pillar site structure (residential rooftop cleaning / commercial PV array cleaning / post-storm inspection) so each customer type lands on relevant content, and a heavy push on the trust spine the work actually requires (working-at-heights ticket, EWP cherry-picker capability, harness and anchor compliance, soft-bristle brush and deionised water method, manufacturer warranty compliance because some warranties void if not cleaned). Add a 6-monthly recurring-contract structure to convert the one-off residential clean into a $400-a-year customer, and a commercial pitch deck for facility managers running warehouse and supermarket PV arrays. The post-storm inspection and clean is also a big seasonal funnel: after hail, dust storms or a long pollen season, customers Google specifically for storm-damage inspection plus clean. Get this right and you turn an unknown service into a recurring-revenue trade.
Six agents, working in your accounts.
Account Lead, Web, SEO, Advertising, Social Media, and Content. One platform, one bill, you approve the work.
Builds your annual plan around the realistic customer mix: residential rooftop one-off cleans (volume but lower margin), 6-monthly residential recurring contracts (much higher LTV), commercial PV array contracts (warehouse, supermarket, factory, the real revenue), post-storm inspection bursts (seasonal after hail and dust storms), and large-scale solar farm work if you have the capability. Briefs the other agents so the awareness content, the three-pillar site, the commercial pitch and the social cadence all push toward the recurring and commercial work that pays.
Imports your existing site so you stop paying for hosting plus a CMS subscription, and ships a three-pillar structure (residential rooftop / commercial PV array / post-storm inspection) instead of one generic homepage. Dedicated commercial page for facility managers with the working-at-heights and EWP capability above the fold. A 6-monthly recurring contract page that converts one-off residential customers into annual revenue. A post-storm inspection page that captures the seasonal spike after hail or dust events. Two taps to push live.
Goes through your live site for what actually moves rankings in a low-awareness category: awareness-keyword H1s ('why is my solar generation dropping', 'do solar panels need cleaning'), intent-keyword H1s on the service pages, schema for the closest relevant category (no 'solar cleaning' category exists, so solar-energy-equipment-supplier is the right one), internal links from awareness content into the service pages so the customer who lands on 'why generation drops' moves to 'book a clean', and a Google Business Profile rebuilt with working-at-heights and EWP capability called out. Auto-applies the low-risk fixes.
Runs two parallel Google Ads campaigns. Campaign one is awareness-led ('why is my solar generation dropping', 'solar panel maintenance', 'do solar panels need cleaning') at a low CPC because almost nobody bids on these awareness queries. Campaign two is direct intent ('solar panel cleaning [suburb]', 'commercial solar cleaning [city]') at a higher CPC. Drops broad 'solar' bids that feed installer aggregators. Commercial ad group targets facility managers and building managers with a separate landing page. Post-storm campaign turns on automatically after hail or major weather events in your service area.
Turns every clean into a post: a Smithfield warehouse 250kW array, a residential 10kW Penrith clean with generation-before-and-after, a post-hail inspection in the Hawkesbury, a supermarket roof in Western Sydney with a string-level performance report. The content does double duty as portfolio and as awareness-building (the customer scrolling past who has never thought about cleaning their panels sees the generation drop numbers). You take one EWP or rooftop photo per job, the agent drafts the caption in your voice, you approve.
Drafts the long-form awareness pieces that build the consideration set: 'why is my solar generation dropping: dirt, dust, bird poo and what to do', 'do solar panels need cleaning: the 10-25% generation question', 'manufacturer warranty and panel cleaning: which warranties require maintenance', 'commercial PV array cleaning: how often, by what method, at what cost', 'post-storm solar inspection: what to check after hail'. Two drafts a month, in your voice, that pull the customer who didn't know they needed a clean onto your site.
Your first 30 days.
- Site imported, hosting bill cancelled
- Annual plan against your customer mix delivered by Sam
- Google Business Profile rebuilt with working-at-heights, EWP, and brand attributes
- Three service pillars live: residential, commercial PV, post-storm inspection
- 6-monthly recurring contract page drafted to convert one-off customers
- Awareness and intent Google Ads campaigns live
- Manufacturer warranty and cleaning explainer drafted for approval
- First fortnight of EWP and rooftop captions queued in your voice
Solar panel cleaning is the trade fighting the hardest awareness battle in the whole post-installer market. The customer doesn't know they need you, the installer who put the panels on won't refer you, and the commercial facility manager Googles a specific term most operators haven't built a page for. The work itself is real (working at heights, EWP capability, soft-brush deionised water, manufacturer warranty compliance), but if the customer doesn't find you, the work goes to a bloke with a ladder and a hose who voids the warranty. Owning the awareness content, the three-pillar service split and the commercial pitch is the marketing that turns this from a one-off into a recurring-revenue trade.
Agencies are too dear to actually build the awareness content, the commercial pitch and the recurring-contract funnel for $3.5k a month. DIY tools are cheap but you tune the bids in the ute at 8pm and the 'why your generation is dropping' explainer (which is the one piece of content that builds the whole market) never gets written. In-House is the third option: for $299 a month the agents ship the awareness content, launch the two-track ad campaigns, post the EWP jobs, and rebuild your Google Business Profile around working-at-heights and commercial capability. You stay in the driver's seat, two taps to approve, minutes a day. Stop watching the commercial contracts go to whoever the facility manager's mate knows.