A friend of my brother’s recommended a solar installer to him last year, a genuine, trusted referral from someone he’d known for years. He still Googled the company before he called them. That single detail tells you almost everything about how home improvement buying decisions actually work in 2026. Referrals still open the door, but search engines decide whether that door stays open or quietly closes.
I’ve spent years watching this exact behaviour play out at a boiler and solar installation business that scaled past £65 million in turnover, where every single lead, however it originally found us, ended up passing through a Google search at some point before converting into a booked job.
This post is about what actually happens inside that research phase, what homeowners are genuinely looking for when they search, and why getting your local search presence right influences a decision that often started somewhere else entirely.
Do Referrals Still Matter More Than Search?
Referrals remain genuinely powerful, and I wouldn’t want any business owner reading this to think otherwise. Research into contractor selection consistently shows referrals sitting at or near the top of how homeowners first hear about a business, with figures ranging from 38% to 47% depending on the study, well ahead of any single digital channel on its own.
So Why Does Search Still Decide The Outcome?
Because a referral is rarely the final step, it’s the trigger for research, not a replacement for it. Even among homeowners who found a contractor through a friend or family recommendation, the overwhelming majority still search online before making contact, with one detailed homeowner survey finding 76% research online for more than an hour even after receiving a personal referral.
Google a contractor before calling them is now standard behaviour regardless of how the name first reached them, with 84% of homeowners using Google specifically to validate a contractor before making contact. Referrals get you into consideration. Search determines whether you stay there.
What Are Homeowners Actually Looking For When They Search?
This is worth understanding properly, because the answer isn’t simply “good reviews,” it’s a genuinely layered process involving several distinct checks happening in sequence, often within the same short browsing session.
How Much Time Do Homeowners Actually Spend Researching?
Most homeowners spend one to two hours researching before requesting an estimate, though that climbs considerably for larger purchases, homeowners planning to spend over £10,000 on a project, which describes most heat pump and solar installations, typically spend three to five hours researching before making contact.
That’s a meaningful window during which your online presence either builds confidence or quietly loses the sale to a competitor with a stronger digital footprint.
What Specific Things Are They Checking During That Window?
Nearly seven in ten homeowners research contractors online specifically through reviews, references and local reputation, and 92% read online reviews before hiring, with 87% saying they won’t consider a business rated below four stars.
Beyond reviews, homeowners are checking whether the business has a genuine, professional website, with 30% automatically eliminating any contractor without one, and 66% saying they’re more likely to hire a contractor whose site lets them confirm licences, insurance and professional accreditations directly.
For this sector specifically, that means MCS certification, Gas Safe registration, or manufacturer accreditations need to be genuinely visible and easy to find, not buried on a page nobody clicks.
Is Review Trust Actually Declining?
This is a genuinely important, somewhat uncomfortable shift worth understanding properly, because it changes how much weight a simple star rating carries compared to a few years ago.
What’s Actually Happened To Consumer Trust In Reviews?
Back in 2020, around 79% of consumers said they trusted online reviews as much as a personal recommendation from someone they know. By 2025, that figure had fallen to around 42%, a genuinely significant collapse in blind trust, driven largely by growing awareness of fake and incentivised reviews across the internet.
Homeowners still read reviews overwhelmingly, 91% to 93% depending on the study, but they’re reading them more sceptically, looking for specific, detailed, verifiable detail rather than accepting a high star rating at face value.
What Does This Mean For How You Should Present Reviews?
Generic five-star reviews with no real detail carry considerably less weight than they used to. What’s replacing blind trust in aggregate ratings is verifiable proof, genuine project photos, specific reviews mentioning the actual job completed, visible licence and accreditation numbers a homeowner can independently check, and real before-and-after evidence of completed work.
A profile showing forty detailed, specific, recent reviews alongside real installation photos will outperform a profile with two hundred generic five-star ratings and no supporting detail, because homeowners are now actively looking for the kind of verifiable proof that can’t easily be faked.
What Happens After The First Search, Before They Actually Call?
This is the part that gets underappreciated, because the buying decision doesn’t end once someone finds you in search results, it continues through several more checks before they pick up the phone.
How Many Contractors Do Homeowners Typically Compare?
Most homeowners compare a relatively small number of options before deciding, with around 42% comparing exactly two quotes and a further 28% comparing three, meaning roughly seven in ten homeowners are choosing between just two or three contractors by the time they’re ready to commit.
That’s a genuinely tight shortlist, which makes it considerably more important that your business is one of the two or three options they end up seriously considering, rather than being visible generally but never quite making the final comparison.
What Tips The Balance Once Someone Is Comparing A Shortlist?
Pricing remains the most commonly cited “very important” factor, at roughly 66% of homeowners, but it’s rarely the sole deciding factor once someone has narrowed their options down. Warranty and guarantees, contractor expertise, availability, and clear communication all weigh heavily at this stage.
Something that consistently surprises business owners I speak to is how much a fast, professional response to that first phone call matters, with 64% of homeowners saying answering the initial call properly is important to their decision, and 35% saying it’s the single most important factor in the entire booking process. Your local search visibility gets someone to pick up the phone. What happens on that call decides whether the sale actually closes.
How Does This Buying Journey Change What Your SEO Strategy Should Prioritise?
Understanding this full journey, referral or search discovery, extended research, review scepticism, a tight final shortlist, changes where your local SEO effort should genuinely concentrate, rather than chasing rankings for their own sake.
What Should Your Local Search Presence Actually Emphasise?
Given how sceptically homeowners now read reviews, actively building a steady, genuine stream of detailed, recent reviews matters more than chasing raw volume. Given how many homeowners specifically check for licences and accreditations, these need to be prominently, clearly displayed rather than assumed.
And given that most homeowners narrow their choice down to two or three contractors before calling, your website needs to give them every reason to include you in that shortlist, genuine project photos, transparent information about your process, and visible proof of credentials, not just a page that technically ranks well but fails to build the confidence needed to make that final cut.
Why Does Understanding This Journey Properly Matter For This Sector Specifically?
Boiler, solar, heat pump, air conditioning and EV charger installations sit firmly in the higher-value, more considered purchase category, exactly the kind of decision where homeowners spend three to five hours researching rather than a quick, impulsive search.
Generic SEO advice built around simpler, lower-value purchases doesn’t fully account for how much scrutiny and comparison genuinely happens before someone in this sector picks up the phone.
Every senior person on our team at Essheo has spent eight or more years understanding exactly this buying journey in genuinely hard to rank sectors, including direct experience converting leads at a business that delivered up to 900 boiler installations and 100 solar systems a month nationwide.
The strategies we’ve designed and implemented within our SEO service for service based businesses have contributed to over £45 million in combined client revenue across the last two years alone, built around genuinely understanding what a homeowner needs to see and feel confident about before they make contact.
Ready To Build A Presence That Wins The Final Comparison?
If your business is showing up in search results but consistently losing out once a homeowner narrows their shortlist down to two or three options, that’s a genuine, fixable gap in how your online presence builds trust during the research phase, not a reflection of the quality of your actual work.
I set Essheo up to help boiler, solar, heat pump, air conditioning and EV charger installation businesses build exactly the kind of local search presence that survives genuine scrutiny, not just one that ranks, but one that actually wins the final comparison once a homeowner is deciding who to call.
Book a strategy call with me today and let’s make sure your business wins that final comparison, not just the search result.